[B.S. #3] Claiming Laura by Dale Cadeau

“Dude, what were you thinking?”
    Clay just raised his head from the table where he had laid it at the start of their laughter.
    “I wasn’t thinking, OK? And why are Angel and Grant with you? I just called you to meet me.”
    Brad, with still a wide grin on his face and holding back another laugh, said, “I was out grabbing a sandwich down the street, and came in the front doors of the building on my way back. As I walked in the front door, people were lining up to fill me in. At first I didn’t believe them. This was Clay they were talking about, after all. Our calm straight shooter. But when the guard at the front desk confirmedtheir story, I just had to call Angel and Grant and tell them. It was too good to keep to myself. So being the great guy that I am, I called and filled them in.”
    Angel who had righted his chair after his near fall, took over, adding, “Didn’t you notice the stares people were giving you? How could you walk through the front entrance to the elevators, wait for one, then ride up here with other people and not realize that you didn’t have a shirt on. You must have been quite a sight walking around all the people dressed in business attire, with your muscles on display and tattoo-covered arms. They probably thought you were here to rob the place. James will be sorry he missed the chance to take you to task, after all the remarks you made to him.”
    Before Clay could respond to Angel, Grant piped up. “James doesn’t have to miss out. I will just break into the feed of the cameras at the front door, and James can see it all in full color.”
    Clay just gave a beady look at his so-called friends. “Give me a break. James doesn’t have to see the pictures, the story will be enough. You know he will go ballistic when he hears about it. He is so caught up in keeping up appearances that this will have him exploding. So for my sake, can we just jot it down to bad judgment?”
    “But was there any judgment involved at all on your part? Dude, you look like a hard-core biker, even dressed in a suit, but to put it all on display in the middle of the afternoon when the office is full. I don’t know where your head was.”
    Clay rose from his chair and flexed his tattoo-colored arms, and tried to stare down the men surrounding him. “Give me a break. I just had it out with Laura and the last thing I was thinking about is what I was wearing. I don’t completely remember my drive here either. And if you tell that to James, I will deny it.”
    “Well, that was a given,” Brad added with a snicker in his voice. “Did you get kicked out of bed and only have time to grab your pants? Tell me it’s not so. I don’t think we could live that down. We are known to be the best of the best, and I always though it meant everywhere. So please tell us your performance didn’t get you kicked out of bed?”
    Angel and Grant were back to laughing with the fierce look on Clay’s face as he listened to Brad spout on and on.
    “Stop it right now. That’s enough. It had nothing to do with any performance of mine. I’ve never had any complaints and that includes Laura. I just told her some hard facts about how dangerous she was being and she took offense to it. So I got kicked to the curb. But I was right, and that’s why I called Brad so he could help me guard her place. That’s all.”
    Clay sat back down at the table. As he calmed down, he found himself grinning also. He must have been quite a sight walking through the first floor entrance with only black jeans, boots, and his hairy body covered in ink. He had noticed a few strange looks people were giving him, but thought nothing of it. As Brad had pointed out, even when he was decked out in a suit, he always had a hard biker look about him. That’s why he was surprised that a nice lady like Laura would give him the time of day. They looked like Mutt and Jeff cartoon characters together, with her stiff, button-down attire and he decked out in his