Austin and his childhood friend, Dez Wade, at the strip club bar where his brother, Anthony Moon, Sweet but Drunk, works as the manager there. Pouring them each a shot of tequila and lime juice, Dez is about half-drunk. He says,
"Damn, check out the strippers here! Hola, mamacitas!"
Austin asks him,
"How would Carrie feel about you checking out strippers?"
"Oh, that's right. I'm with Carrie. None of these girls hold a candle to her."
Anthony tells him,
"Emmy told us you picked a girl home the other day from your cop academy."
"Did she now?"
"Yes, she did."
Dez asks,
"Who's Emmy? Is she here right now?"
Anthony says,
"Dez, Emmy is my daughter. She's a four-year-old child. I wouldn't bring my four-year-old to a stripper bar. You might wanna keep your drinks to a minimum."
Austin pipes in.
"It's cool, bro. I got him. Don't worry, I'm driving."
"OK, good. Anyway, Emmy told me this girl was with you while you were babysitting her the other day, you needed stuff from the store and bought her ice cream. She also compared you to Anna and Kristoff from Frozen."
"Typical of Emmy,"
Austin chuckles. He hears a man asking a girl,
"Hey, sunshine. You wanna touch my dick?"
The girl is in a see-through sleeveless top and looks intoxicated. She says,
"I don't know. I might be busy,"
while slurring her words.
The man comes closer to her as Austin comes over and says to him,
"Move away from the girl, and don't do anything stupid."
The girl says,
"I'm not stupid. I'm about to get my doctorate and I have a 4.0."
"You're not stupid, I told him not to do anything."
The man says,
"I was just gonna seduce her, probably have sex with her."
"She's drunk, asshole. She can't consent to sex if she's drunk. Leave her alone or I'll beat the shit out of you."
"Alright, fine. She wanted it, though."
Austin flips him off and then flips him off back, saying to the girl,
"I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. Are you OK?"
She says,
"I'm fine."
He asks her,
"Are you here with anyone?"
A blonde girl and a Hispanic girl walk over toward them. The Hispanic girl asks,
"I knew going to a bar was a bad idea. Sarah, we're going to go home now. You need to rest it off."
Austin asks her,
"Ma'am, what do you mean? I'm a police officer in training, maybe I can help."
"I'm Maya Estrada, my friend Sarah here was raped about a year ago, and she didn't want to go to a bar out of fear of being raped again."
"That's terrible."
The blonde girl adds,
"Her rapist is in jail now after he was caught doing it to another girl."
"You guys are good friends to protect her. If you want, I'll get you girls an Uber home."
The blonde girl says,
"Thank you, but that's not necessary. We have my car."
"Alright. Get home safe, ladies."
Austin goes over to the bar and finds Dez drinking a bottle of Heineken and lets out a loud belch. His blue eyes are red and dilated. He pants and says,
"Austin, I just want you to know I'll always be your friend. Even though I'm now a famous prostitute on OnlyFans."
"Dez, are you drunk?"
Dez responds with,
"I don't know. But it's so hot my penis is sweating."
He throws off his T-shirt and jeans, runs over to the stage, and proceeds to gyrate on the stripper pole.
Anthony says to Austin,
"You're my little brother, and I love you, Austin, I hate to do this to you, but I think you should take Dez home. He's too drunk."
Austin replies,
"No, I understand. I think we should go home too before he ends up knocking up one of the strippers."
Austin says,
"Dez, we need to go. You're too drunk!"
Dez says,
"Five more minutes, Daddy?"
"Dez, we need to go, now. You're drunk."
"OK, fine, Dad. We can go."
He puts on his friend's shirt and pants and carries him out the door to his car, driving him back to the apartment he shares with his fiancée, Carrie.
Carrie is sitting on the sofa and eating a container of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in Victoria's Secret loungewear while watching Keeping up with the Kardashians.
Dez looks at Carrie and says,
"Hey, beautiful. You got a boyfriend?"
Carrie says,
"Yes, I do. He's right in front of me."
"Where? Where is he?"
"He's you."
Austin says,
"Dez had a little too much to drink tonight at the bar. He's gonna have to sleep it off."
In the morning, Austin calls Dez on Facetime and asks him,
"Are you OK?"
Dez says,
"I hope so. I've just been stressed at the gang unit, and you know my partner Trish?"
"I know of her."
"She's been stressed, too. She had to get a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend because he did so many things to traumatize her. He would threaten her at her front door, call her racist terms for Mexicans and Latinos, slut-shame her, and one time, he even endangered the baby. I've been the one helping her. She's been having panic attacks a lot, and our boss has her on desk duty for the time being."
"Wow. I knew you were an empath, but never to that extent."
"Not to mention, she told me after they broke up, he cased her home and her neighborhood, threatened to beat her, threatened to rape her, and even threatened to send her to the Klan."
"That's horrible. I'm glad you're being a solid friend to her throughout all this."
"Me too. God, my head hurts. I had too much to drink last night."
"At least you realize that. I've talked to my doctor about rehab for my drinking."
"I think you should do that. It might help you."
Dez has had childhood trauma since he was nine years old and he was touched inappropriately by his babysitter. It had happened multiple times, and he never came forward to his parents or his brother or his twin sister about it until the seventh time she did it, she was intoxicated on beer and high on MDMA and marijuana. Last Dez had heard, she was supposed to be incarcerated for sexual abuse, reckless endangerment, and a couple of DUIs, but she had committed suicide by overdosing.
Dez was bullied in school for being a bisexual nerd, had rumors spread about him that he was a hermaphrodite, that he had AIDS, was called a "hermaphrodite", "faggot," "fairy", "homo," "tranny," and so many other hateful, homophobic and transphobic words. He had attempted suicide by hanging when his brother found him stealing aspirin pills. He was placed in a psychiatric facility on a 5250 hold and was released after six days.
He was pulled out of school by his parents out of concern for his safety. Dez has been haunted by his pre-teenhood and adolescent trauma so bad, that he has been drinking. There have been times when he's struggled to focus on his job or anything else that are important because all he can think about is drinking.
"Dez, we've been friends for over twenty years. We've been through hell and back with each other, and I want you to know, I support you. You're so much bigger than your drinking. It's not your fault."
"Thanks, Austin. You're like my brother from another mother."
"Right back at you, buddy."
Dez decides to FaceTime Trish to check in on her. She has Magnol
"Hey, Trish."
"What up, Dez?"
"I'm hungover. I had too much to drink again at a strip club."
"Are you OK?"
"Yeah. I just doordashed some Fruit salad and an Egg McMuffin from McDonald's. My head is pounding."
"I'm still listening, Dez. I just have to get Magnolia. She's awake and fussy and she's cutting teeth."
"Poor baby."
"Yeah."
She reaches into the crib and holds Magnolia on her hip.
"She's getting so big."
"Understatement."
Magnolia smiles at Dez when she sees him and he says to her,
"Hi, Maggie. Hi. Hi. Hi."
Trish decided to make Dez and Carrie Magnolia's godparents when she first separated from Chuck a few weeks after Magnolia was born, and he and Trish got coffee after Trish had taken Magnolia and stayed with him and Carrie, and on one surprisingly murky and chilly morning for Miami, and Magnolia started fussing and Dez consoled her while she was crying.
Unlike Chuck, Dez was very gentle and compassionate with her baby and it melted her heart.
"Trish, I might be the one with a hangover, but I just want to call to check in on you. I know you're going through some traumas regarding your ex-boyfriend."
"Yeah. Some days are harder than others, but I feel really empowered. I feel safer and I'm surrounded by my parents and my loving grandmother, Magnolia is safe and is surrounded by family who love her. She's crawling and standing, she eats tiny chunks of food, and she's healthy. She still loves her bathtime, her lovies, her pacifier, she loves Disney, she loves Sesame Street, and she's still a playful, sweet girl. I'm healing day by day."
"I'm glad to hear that, Trish. Carrie and I are always here if you need to talk."
"Thank you, Dez. I appreciate that, more than you know."
"You know we're here for you."
"I'm not ready to find another guy just yet. I wanna heal first."
"As you should. I'm glad you're healing before you're finding someone else. That being said, if you meet a new guy, let me know, and I'll help you do your hair and makeup."
Trish chortles.
"I definitely will."
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