Marius Rabineaux lives with his daughter Sherie in an apartment complex. Across the hall is computer tech Xavier McDay, whose niece, Tonya, is best friends with Sherie. Taciturn, clueless nerds have never been Marius's thing, so no matter how hot he may find ‘Uncle Cranky,’ Marius leaves well enough alone. One evening when Marius picks up Sherie from her playdate with Tonya, Xavier insults his parenting skills. Later, Xavier turns up at Marius’ workplace and, instead of apologizing, further offends him by disparaging his work ethic. Xavier finally gets it and apologizes to Marius, who decides to give his clueless neighbor another chance. He accepts Xavier’s offer inviting him and Sherie to dinner. The evening is a fun affair, and while the girls have dessert in Tonya's room, both men get to know each other better. Then Marius challenges Xavier to a night away from computers by going out to a night club. One thing leads to another, and they wind up back at Xavier’s apartment. As things crank up between them, will they get more than they bargain for ... and perhaps a chance at something more?

Crank Me Up

It was a madhouse in there. We looked at each other and probably wondered what on earth we had gotten ourselves into. With the bar as our goal, we pushed our way through the crowd, and once there I ordered the same beer we’d had over at Xavier’s apartment the week before.


I leaned close and shouted in his ear, “Is it like you remember? The people and the music?”


He turned his head to yell back in my ear, “Yes, it is. But I forgot how loud it could be.”


I yelled back at him, “Must be gettin’ old, man.” He punched me in the shoulder. I rubbed the spot, pretending to be hurt. Before I could respond, a cute little twink, couldn’t be more than twenty-one years old, came up to him, and asked for a dance. I could tell my cohort wasn’t really that impressed, but he went anyway and left his beer for me to keep an eye on.


Chapter 12