Damn Good Friends

Chapter 1 – Martini Conversations

Chapter Rating T

*I do not own these characters, but I own the original story.

I am working on multiple fics right now, but, I have a good amount of chapters for this so far, so I can post it, and still work on my other fics. This is a non-dark fic. I said I'd post some lighter stuff, for the "lighter readers". This is a light, flirty BAMON fic! Hope you like. This chapter sets up the premise of the story!

*Happy Reading

"Come on Forbes, I need a drink and I know you do too." Bonnie Bennett and her best friend were partners in business. They owned their own catering company in Los Angeles and were very successful heading into their fifth year of business. Year one they spent more money than they made. Year two they wanted to give up. Year three, they hit a wall. Year four they landed a contract with The LA Arts and Music festival. Now going into year five, they have the contract of more than ten large festivals, and a short list of several large businesses year round contracted events.

So when their best friend Elena did not call them to cater her wedding, they had reason not to have hard feelings. Because they were simply too busy to allow it to affect them.

"I can go for a martini. I am exhausted. This week has been killer. Tyler hasn't made it any better with his demands."

Tyler wanted Caroline to move in with him. He was ready to push their relationship forward at record speed and Caroline knew if she moved in, the next thing he would want is marriage and kids. Two things that weren't on her radar.

"Care, he's a good guy. Tyler loves and cares about you, and you love and care about him. What is the hold up?"

Caroline was a hard girl to tie down. She loved her freedom to come and go as she pleased. Tyler having her move in with him will ruin the very thing she craves the most, freedom.

"Bonnie, don't start with me. Ms. I keep going back to my ex to avoid being hurt by the next guy!"

Bonnie and Enzo were complicated. They were together for a few years. In and out of love. Enzo was not the man to settle down, and since Bonnie didn't want to deal with heart ache, she and Enzo used one another for the time being. They agreed that they would keep it light, until one of them had met someone else.

They actually had a good thing going, on paper. Bonnie spent one night a week with Enzo, he spent one night a week with her, and the other nights they did their own thing. They had space to live happy lives, freely. They didn't pressure one another. This allowed Bonnie to put all of her effort into the catering business.

"Okay, okay. So I suck at love, but that is not something we didn't know. I have always sucked at love. Jeremy? God I'm going to see him at the wedding."

"Speaking of wedding, can you believe Elena is tying the knot?"

"Absolutely. I knew she'd be the first. Since the days of us playing pretend, and we were somehow always her bridesmaids." Bonnie mentions.

"Yeah, except there are two big flaws there. One she is cheating on Liam, and two, we are not her bridesmaids." Caroline says in disgust.

Bonnie quiets down as the girl's finish locking up shop. The smell of the facility at the end of the night is always that of disinfectant, degreaser, and somehow, brown sugar. The brown sugar managed to make it through the aroma of cleansers and disinfectants.

The girls walk a block away to a little after hours bar at the bottom of the Four Seasons Hotel, and sit at the bar where they are regulars.

"The usual Rocco." Bonnie said, for both she and Caroline. Noting to one of the bartenders that knew them well, as regulars.

Bonnie liked a Vesper Martini with a splash of cranberry, stirred. Caroline liked a Dry, dirty Martini, Stirred also. Both women preferred Gin to Vodka. Everyday.

"Here Rocco, your favorite." Caroline hands Rocco a box of whole grain, zucchini and bran muffins, with banana. He was a health freak, and he loved ordering those muffins from the girl's company.

"Thank you, sweetie. Now I don't have to place an order this week." He kisses both girl's hands and his eyes sparkle in the dimly lit room lined with mirrors and alcohol bottles, with soft colored lights over the bar.

After handing them their drinks he walks to the back and stores his muffins in the fridge. The girls think about the upcoming weekend and what they might be in for.

"Well, all I know is the Bachelorette party better be good. I have had a long week, or month actually, and I need a good change of pace and mind erasing." Caroline really wants a break from Tyler.

"Bachelorette party, thrown by Hailey and Rebekah, I am sure it'll be filled with raunch and debauchery."

"Perfection."

"I just don't need stripper penis in my face."

"Yeah, that would not be the biz. However, three nights in Vegas, I can do that."

"Agreed. But…Why did she decide against the separate bachelorette party idea in Mexico?"

"That is where they met, doing their residencies, in Vegas. Plus it is her way of keeping an eye on him."

"So, why is she still sleeping with Damon?" Caroline gets irritated.

"I have no idea. I didn't like him though. He was always an ass. The first time I met him he told me I looked like a good time. Then he bought me several drinks and tried to have sex with me."

"You know you liked it."

"Care, I was with Jeremy. Literally, standing next to Jeremy. He knew that."

"Right. And he is Elena's Boss?"

"He is on the board of Directors of the hospital she works at. I will say, I do feel bad for him, in a none-compassionate way."

"Why do you say that?"

"Initially they started seeing each other when she and Liam were on a break. She didn't even tell him when they decided to work things out, she just kept making broken promises to him."

"How do you know?" Care was inquisitive, because she knew Elena didn't always divulge every detail of her wrong doings.

"Well, between you and I, he found me on Facebook, and asked for my email so he could ask me a question. Eventually after much debate, we exchanged emails, and he was explaining to me all of the plans she had made for them, and I didn't have it in me to tell him she and Liam got back together. He was basically reaching out to see if I could figure out how to help him fix them."

"That is really sad."

"Yeah. So, we have kept in touch since."

"Bon, that was like three or four years ago. You have maintained a friendship with him for four years?"

"I never looked at it like that. I guess so. He finally figured it all out, and I have just been a comforting ear for him. They had a pregnancy scare. They broke it off for about five months, and he and I continued to communicate still. He even started seeing someone else, some News Anchor, she's famous… Andie Star? Maybe you have heard of her…"

"Uhh, no. Not that I can think of."

"Well, they were doing good and I thought it was going to last. But then she turned out to be psychotic, and clingy. So his efforts to move on failed. I have no idea how he and Elena got in touch again. One day he just emailed me and the header said. You are not going to believe what happened. Please don't hate me Bonbon. At that point I already knew. That was about a month ago. I haven't read it or emailed him since."

"Sounds like you got attached Bonbon? He has a nickname for you already?"

"What? Yes, it's stupid. I don't know why he feels he can nickname me. And am I attached? No. Enzo, remember?"

"Yes, Enzo and empty promises sound the same as Damon with Elena and her empty promises."

"Anyways, Care." Bonnie rolls her eyes.

"Bonnie, I think you like him. I think you started developing feelings for him through the emails. I can totally tell. You know why, because you never told me about it. Which means you were feeling guilty."

"Caroline. Stop. I can't stand the guy. He is an idiot. Going back to her after she treated him the way she did. I can't deal right now."

Caroline laughs. "Wow, you are in deep. So tell me this, Miss Bonnie Bennett, is he going to be there?"

"I doubt it, I haven't read an email, since that night."

"Has he emailed you?"

"Several attempts."

"Wow. He will be there Bonnie. I guarantee it."

"Who cares, he is sleeping with Elena."

"Or maybe not."

"Anyway. We need to get some rest; we leave first thing in the morning."

"Hell no. I'm pulling an all-nighter. I can show up to Vegas Hung-over, can't you?"

"Ugh! Here goes nothing. Cheers!" Not girls toast to their indecencies.

"Salute."

Seven short hours after that conversation, both girls are at LAX with sun shades on and messy buns. Each one moaning and groaning that the Starbucks is barely opening and they need 15 minutes to get set up before they can take an order, and the plane takes off in thirty.

"Really? I thought you guys open at like 4am." Caroline asked

"Sorry ma'am our opener called off, we got called in at the last minute, which is why we aren't opened yet. Just for your wait consider both of your coffees on the house. Just don't tell anyone, please."

"No worries, you have our word." A happy Bonnie smiled.

"So this is going to be interesting. Especially since I didn't bring any Motrin."

"Buy some at the store."

"They aren't opened yet. Apparently only Starbucks opens at 4 am, everything else is closed til 6, and our flight leaves at 5:30 I am S.O.L."

"Well, it's only a 45-minute flight. Once we land, the smell of sin and tequila with a lime twist should fill your nostrils and make you hopeful." Bonnie says to her hungover friend who over did it by, one or two too many drinks last night. "I told you last night was a bad idea."

"Nah, it wasn't, I needed it, with all of the stress from Tyler."

"Care, you have five days and four nights to be free. Take this time to enjoy yourself. Come Monday, start making decisions. If you don't want to be tied down, I think it is only right you allow Tyler the chance to move on and find that with someone else who is ready."

"Bon. I can hear it in your tone. You are disappointed in me. I can tell, but I can't make myself be okay with just, taking things to the next level if I am not even sure Tyler is the one."

"I am not disappointed. Honestly, I commend you for being brave about it. I mean, look at me cozying up with Enzo twice a week, knowing he doesn't want to settle down. I just can understand where Tyler is coming from. I think you owe it to him and yourself to just be honest."

"You are right. So for now, let's just enjoy an Enzo free Tyler free few days. You know the cliché saying. What happens in Vegas…"

"…Stays in Vegas." Bonnie smiled reluctantly, and in her mind, she was realizing that she needed to take her own advice and walk away from Enzo before she got in deeper and deeper in to her feelings for him. He was an amazing boyfriend. But that was it, it didn't go past that. He was a boyfriend, and he, like Caroline, wasn't in the head space to be tied down. Bonnie smacked together and rubbed her moistened lips after applying some carmex, and receiving her iced green tea frap. "Thank you Sweet Barista."

"You are welcome ma'am. Happy flying."

"Ahh, thank you."

The girls walked off to wait on roll call. Both in Sunglasses still, even though the sun wasn't out. Heavy eye bags and zero hours of sleep wasn't ideal, but they were leaving early enough to get to Vegas, and go to their room and sleep. They got their room for the day before, so it was already waiting on them to check in.

~ xOx ~

Once they landed, they went straight to their rooms at the Rio, and slept. Why the Rio? It was older and had been around a while. It wasn't one of the newer Hotel and Casinos, but back in the 80's Bonnie's mom worked at the Rio, she was a showgirl. She worked there for over ten years. There were still pictures of her hanging in the showroom hall. Pictures she didn't have. So whenever she went to Las Vegas, she stayed at the Rio, and watched a show, and looked at the pictures of her mom. When Bonnie was younger her mother died in a hit and run. She was walking across the street with Bonnie leaving the park, and a driver swerved out of control and Abby threw Bonnie out of the way and was hit. Instantly killed, saving Bonnie's life. She had her mom for seven glorious years of life. Then her lucky number was seven. Her favorite number was seven. Her life was amazing for seven years. The seven years she had her mom.

"Just knock again."

KNOCK KNOCK! They knocked louder.

"Are you sure this is the room Elena told us to meet her in?"

"Yes, she said it wasn't her room, it was a friend's room, but that she wasn't going to be here for long."

"Why have us meet her at someone else's room?"

"Caroline, do I look like Elena to you?" She asked with Bonnie-tude.

Bonnie I swear I need to get your grumpy ass a drink. Maybe you'll see Mr. I Facebook you for my problems. Oh wait I mean Mr. I'm emailing you for your approval."

"Shut up Caroline."

"What? The guy totally has it bad for you and you just can't see it."

We haven't seen each other face to face in about three years, and all we know of one another is social media. So there is nothing there."

"You telling me he isn't attractive?"

"I mean, he is gorgeous, and his blue eyes are… You know what stop right there because I can see what you are doing?"

Caroline, laughs, "What? Just pointing out that if he is here, you only live once." Bonnie knocks on the door one last time.

"God, you are the little devil on my shoulder." They laugh and then the door finally opens to a man in a towel, with a torso that would make any woman swoon, and the happiest trail leading to the happiest place on Earth. Bonnie's eyes hadn't even met his as she trailed his abdominals.

"Like what you see Bonbon?" Blue eyes gape and guzzle her up.

Posting Chapter 2 tonight also...