"Right, Connor!" Danny Quinn clapped the younger man on the shoulder as he came to greet those who had just arrived at Becker's flat. "Stag Night! Time to celebrate your last night as a free man, innit?"
"The only thing he ought to celebrate is his luck in getting a hot blonde like that to agree to put up with him!" Connor's friend Duncan chuckled. The stories Duncan could tell of Connor's awkwardness and rotten luck with women.
"Oi, Becker." Abby's brother Jack Maitland called to their host, shucking his jacket and tossing it in a corner. "Where's your stereo, mate?"
Becker's eyebrows fell as he glowered at Jack, ready to reprimand the careless youth for his lack of respect. Before he could start however, the door buzzer sounded once more.
"After you hang your jacket, you'll find it in the cupboard by the lamp." He called over his shoulder as he left the room.
Young Jack rolled his eyes as he complied, then turned to the electronics. "Honestly mate, you make me think of my old aunt, always fussing about." When the thumping bass of hip-hop started, the other men pulled a face until Jack tuned to a rock station instead. "This is supposed to be a stag night, Becker, not a tea party."
"Is that right?" All eyes turned at Becker's droll comment. In his hands were two bottles whiskey, behind him stood Matt Anderson bearing a box of cigars.
"That's a bit more like it." Jack's smile made the other men laugh.
"Courtesy of James Lester." Matt announced as he passed the excellent cigars around. Connor's eyebrows were high as he took one. "He sends his congratulations and good wishes with them but he wont be making it tonight."
"Not really Lester's scene, is it?" Connor accepted a glass of whiskey from Becker with an easy smile. Fishing a lighter out of his pocket he lit his cigar and puffed appreciatively, settling back into a chair and propping his feet on the table before it.
"Good of him to send these along though to start the evening off right." He took another puff and blew a cloud of the fragrant tobacco smoke, feeling very posh. The effect was slightly spoiled by the short cough that followed it, and his grimace of distaste when he took a sip of whiskey to wet his throat.