come out of his foul mood. The team couldn’t afford for him to take too long though.
“Listen, bro, we have a job to do, and I need the old you back,” Eyes finally said. “Whatever it takes for you to find your Zen needs to happen. We can’t be a team when one of us isn’t fully engaged.”
“I know,” Brackish said with a sigh.
“Do you need to talk about it?” Eyes asked.
“Not at the moment,” Brackish said.
Eyes stopped talking, and they continued to drive. After about twenty minutes they turned into a huge complex that held a driving range with multiple levels.
“I’m not in the mood for this,” Brackish said as Eyes parked.
“I’m not in the mood for you to be an asswipe either, but here we are,” Eyes told him.
Brackish rolled his eyes, but he climbed from the car when Eyes did. They walked inside the place, paid for a couple of bays, and went to their respective spots to start hammering some golf balls.
“I suck at golf, Eyes,” Brackish fired over at him. “I didn’t play sports growing up and can’t swing a club worth shit.”
“It’s a stupid driving range, not the PGA Tour, so why don’t you try to stop bitching, and let off some steam,” Eyes said, remaining calm. “It’s a beautiful afternoon, and we can either live in self-pity, or let our crap go for a few hours. Your choice.” While Brackish was trying to decide if he was going to pull out of his mood, Eyes noticed a group of women a few bays down, dressed in some nice short, tight skirts who’d definitely noticed him and Brackish. He sent them a wink.
Brackish looked at the women Eyes was flirting with and rolled his eyes. Then he let out a breath. “Fine, let’s do this,” he said, obviously not interested in the women. He moved over to the monitor, read the onscreen instructions in a flash, then finally smiled. “I could hack into this system in the same amount of time it takes most people to put on a pair of slip-on shoes,” he said smugly.
“Why don’t we try playing instead of hacking?” Eyes suggested with a laugh.
“Fine, but it’s more fun to hack,” Brackish muttered. Then he put in a fake name for him and asshat for Eyes. Eyes rolled his eyes as he looked at the overhead monitors with his bay listed as asshat.
“You’re a two-year-old,” Eyes told him.
“I’m feeling better. I thought that’s what you wanted,” Brackish replied.
“Well, asshat is about to crush your soul. You’ll owe me a beer for every fifty points I beat you by,” Eyes told him.
The driving range had huge circles covered with netting around the flags set at different yardages. Based on the game, or how the user set up the system, a player needed to land their ball in the set zones. For both of the men who didn’t have time to play much golf, it would probably be better to just chuck the little white balls than try to hit them. But there was something about smashing a ball with a metal stick that seemed satisfying.
A waitress brought them a menu, then attempted to chat with them, giving up after a couple of seconds. They were competitive and now that the game had begun, it was on. Neither of them could easily accept a loss. She moved on.
Eyes sent his ball soaring out about forty yards, and then it took a hard right about eighty yards. It was the worst shot of the day so far. He turned to Brackish. “Your turn.”
“I can beat that,” Brackish said with a smug smile.
“Have at it, I’m going to order some appetizers and beer. Do you have any requests?” Eyes asked.
Though Brackish wasn’t much of a drinker anymore after his wild younger days, it was obvious his mood had improved. A couple of beers couldn’t hurt in this environment where they both felt they didn’t have to have eyes in the back of their heads.
“Yeah, I noticed a few different lagers and IPAs on tap. Any of those will be fine,” he said, not looking at Eyes while he concentrated on the ball at his feet. It was tiny sitting there next to his huge feet.
Eyes waived to the waitress who quickly approached. He placed their order, then watched her sweet ass as she walked away. “Dang, she has some great curves,” he said to Brackish, who wasn’t paying the least bit of attention.
“She has curves