The Hangover: Part III

The double doors to the Royal Plaza Suite opened up, revealing the foursome stepping inside and marveling at every detail they set their eyes upon. They had just come off their private elevator which exited to an elevator foyer and through the double doors to a rectangular foyer, which led to a third, an oval foyer.

"Fuck me sideways, this is the shit!" Phil exclaimed joyfully. He dropped his suitcase in the center of the floor and immediately turned to his left where a hallway was. To the left of the hallway was the personal gym and to the right a small bathroom. "I haven't even seen everything in here yet and this is already better than the villa in Vegas."

Doug looked beyond impressed. He carried his suitcase past Phil into a second rectangular foyer, turning right into the dining room. "Oh, wow. This place is amazing."

Stu and Alan brought up the rear.

"Alan, everything bad I ever said about you I take back. You outdid yourself here," Stu commented, just as enthralled as the other two as he joined Doug in the dining room. "I feel like a king or president standing in here."

Doug nodded and met Stu's amazed look with a smile. "I know, right?"

Phil came walking by the dining room and headed into the living room, pointing to the grand piano in one corner. "Hey Stu, you can serenade us again at some point if you want," he teased. He went right up to the window to the left of the piano and looked out at the view below, which looked down at 5th Avenue. "Breathtaking," he mumbled. Turning around he pointed at Alan as if he was the winner in some game show. "You, my man, I cannot thank you enough. This is...beyond words."

"Anything for you Phil," Alan beamed, not registering the look from Phil that said he thought Alan's comment sounded gay.

Stu looked at his watch. "We should probably take a quick look around for now and pick our rooms so we can shower and change. I'm so hungry I could eat a moose."

"Alright, quick run around the place. I claim the master bedroom, wherever it is," Phil announced, heading back toward the oval foyer to get his bag.

"There's only three bedrooms. Can I bunk with you, Phil?" Alan asked with the innocence of a child.

Doug, who was heading toward the direction of the kitchen, stopped in his tracks and looked at his brother-in-law. "Alan, you can bunk with me. I don't think Phil wants to―"

"Sure, buddy. What the hell," came Phil's reply.

"Really, I can?" Alan appeared as if he had just won a million dollars. Or met a Jonas brother.

Stu doubled back from the direction of the foyer leading toward the other two bedrooms. He looked over at Phil with disbelief. "Are you serious?"

Phil shrugged. "Yeah, why not?"

"Wow," Doug laughed. "You really must be in a good mood then."

"I gotta sleep on the left side of the bed because the right side interferes with my inner feng shui." Alan walked with a skip in his step, following behind Phil, who turned around and slapped the portly man on the shoulders.

"As long as you keep your pants on and stay on whatever side you choose, I don't give a shit, Al."



Less than an hour later it was eight-thirty in the evening. Stu was sitting by the phone in the living room talking to the front desk asking if a car service was available and that they would need dinner reservations after all; if they could find a place to squeeze them in this late. He was too hungry and tired to be walking around Manhattan at this time of night looking for a place to eat.

"Lookin' dapper, Dr. Price," Doug complimented as he came from the direction of the two extra bedrooms. He was dressed in a pair of black dress slacks, a dark blue dress shirt and a black blazer. His leather dress shoes shined as they clacked along the marble floor.

"Thank you, Mr. Billings," Stu replied, looking briefly down at his own pair of black dress slacks, but with a white dress shirt, along with a black and gray striped tie. His face no longer contained the Tyson tattoo he'd gotten in Bangkok two years ago as he'd had it removed. Originally he considered keeping it but when Tyson, himself, demanded Stu get rid of it, that was the only reason he needed. One didn't mess with Mike Tyson.

Phil entered the living room next, looking like the tall drink of water he always was, dressed more similarly to Stu, except for his dress shirt being a the palest shade of blue. His hair was still a bit wet from his shower and curled at the ends, and he hadn't bothered to shave so he had a few days' worth of stubble on his face. Clapping his hands together, he walked toward the center of the room. "I'm thinking that agreeing to share a room with Alan might not have been the best idea."

"Gee, ya think?" Stu asked rhetorically.

"It means sharing the same bathroom and I just got to see everything south of the border again while I was brushing my teeth." Phil inadvertantly shivered as Doug laughed at him. Phil shook it off just as Alan entered the living room, dressed in khaki-coloured dress pants, a dark blue blazer, similar to Doug's in style, but added his personal touch to his outfit by wearing an army green-colored T-shirt that had a cartoon chicken on it with a conversation bubble above it saying, "moo."

"Hey guys, there's a water fountain in the bathroom next to the toilet. How cool is that?"

Stu instantly made a face of nausea. "Alan, that's not a water fountain. That's a bidet."

Off Alan's confused look, Phil added, "It squirts water up your ass to clean it after taking a shit."

"Oh." Alan suddenly looked perplexed and a little unsure of himself.

"Alan, did you drink from the bidet?" Doug asked.

"No," Alan replied defensively, which meant he clearly did drink from the bidet.

"Alright," Phil straightened out the collar of his dress shirt and looked at Stu. "Was the front desk able to get us reservations somewhere?"

"Yup," Stu nodded. "Apparently a lot of restaurants have tables held on behalf of hotels for VIP guests and we're VIPs this weekend."

"Awesome."

"They're having a car pulled around for us, too."

"Also awesome." Phil grinned. "Okay, boys. Let's hit this town."



Fifteen minutes later the guys were being ushered to their seats at some posh restaurant not all that far from the hotel. They took their seats and were handed wine lists before giving the waiter their orders. They began talking happily about this and that; where they would go after dinner, what they would do and see on Saturday and Sunday. After their drink and meal orders were placed, Stu had to set down the rules again for Alan, to make sure he didn't slip them anything that would end up causing another blackout and ruin the weekend. Alan promised he had no plans like that, that he wanted to remember the fun as much as the others.

Their meals had arrived not too long after their drinks. They were halfway through eating and on their second glasses of their alcoholic drinks of choice when a group of ladies from a nearby table got a little louder with a sudden burst of laughter. Stu turned his attention toward them and narrowed his eyes through his glasses. His eyes widening in disbelief, a small smirk crept onto his face.

"What's the matter, Stu?" Phil asked, rinsing down a bit of food with his glass of red wine.

"It's Sam."

"Sam?" Phil's brow creased, turning in his seat to look in the direction Stu was looking. "Sam, as in your hygienist?"

"Yeah." Without another word, Stu got up and placed his napkin on the table. "I'll be right back. I'm just going to say hi." He then walked over to the table Sam was sitting at. The other girls looked up at him as he approached and when he tapped Sam on the shoulder, she turned to look up at him.

At first she didn't register who it was, but a second later, her eyes went wide and she smiled, standing up as well to give him a half hug. "Oh my god, Stu. What the hell are you doing here?"

Stu smirked, gesturing back toward his table. "Last minute getaway for Phil. We're having a divorce party for him. Our friend Doug's brother-in-law treated us all."

"That's awesome. But what about the practice?"

"I told Susan I had to go away for a few days for a funeral, so, uh...when we get back on Tuesday, don't mention seeing me here," he laughed a little nervously.

"Samantha, who is this?" a blonde, who looked a little like Sam, though younger, asked.

"This is my boss, Dr. Stuart Price. Stu, this is my sister Amanda, the bride-to-be, and her bridesmaids."

Stu leaned forward to shake Amanda's hand. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Amanda replied, turning her attention back to her friends.

Sam looked at Stu and discreetly rolled her eyes. "This has been pure torture for me," she quietly spoke to her boss with a strained smile. "I have nothing in common with any of them, including my own sister and to top it off I am the only single one here and the conversation keeps swinging back to that fact. Help me?" she pleaded jokingly.

Stu felt bad. She'd mentioned before about how she loved her family but just wasn't close to them at all because she had never lived up to her parents' expectations of becoming a doctor and lived on the other side of the country. "You wanna come join us? I mean, I don't wanna take you away from the bachelorette party." After a beat, "This is a bachelorette party, right?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, dinner first and then we're all supposed to go to a strip club and some dancing or something. I don't know. Amanda's best friend planned it all."

Gesturing toward his table. "Can you skate away from your table for a bit? The guys won't mind if you joined us."

"That would be great. But only as long as the guys don't mind."

"Nah, they'll be cool with it."

Sam touched Amanda's shoulder briefly, letting her know she was going to sit with Stu and his friends for a little bit but would be back. She then trailed behind Stu with her purse over her shoulder and her wine glass in hand. Phil looked up when she approached with a smile.

"Sam. Long time, no see."

"Same to you, Phil. Hey Doug," she nodded her greeting to the shorter guy across the table from where she was standing.

"Hey, Samantha. So, you're in town for your sister's wedding?"

Sam nodded as Phil stood up and pulled out the extra chair between him and Doug. "Sit down," he offered.

"Thanks."

As soon as she was sitting, she took another sip of her wine and caught the eye of Alan.

"Who are you?" he demanded, curious about the intrusion on the wolf pack dinner.

"Alan, this is Samantha, she works for Stu," Doug introduced. "She's cool, don't worry."

Sam smiled. "You can just call me Sam."

"I'm fine with Samantha." Alan was still unsure.

"Let's make a toast," Phil announced, changing the subject. He looked around at his two best friends, Alan and then Sam before raising his wine glass slightly. The others did the same. "Here's to my wife cheating on me and leaving me with nothing accept child support payments. And to my friends who have been there since the beginning, and who I have the most fun with. And to my newfound free―"

Before he could finish that sentence, he was cut off by Alan, who was holding a paper napkin with some writing scrawled on it. "Phillip Wenneck," he began, causing Phil to look across the table at him; not pissed off, but slightly annoyed. He should've expected it, though. This was Alan after all. "He is a man who is handsome and loyal and my favorite part of our wolf pack." Alan looked up from the napkin and over to Doug, then to Stu. "No offense, guys."

"It's okay," Stu assured.

"None taken," Doug said, giving his brother-in-law a smirk.

Alan looked down at the napkin, over to Doug again, then back to the napkin to continue. "New York City is the city that never sleeps and now that you are no longer married, Phil, you can sleep your way through the city if you want without being a cheater like your whore ex-wife." He flipped the napkin over and continued on the other side. Stu looked over at Phil for a reaction. Phil simply brought his wine glass back to his lips, watching Alan over the rim. "Unless whoever it is you sleep with happens to be married. But even then you wouldn't be a cheater, but more of an accessory to adultery."

"Alan," came Doug's voice.

"Sorry," Alan frowned, looking up apologetically to Phil. "I get carried away sometimes."

Phil set his glass down and waved it off. "It's okay, buddy."

Alan smiled at Phil for calling him buddy and went back to his napkin. "We became a pack of four wolves back in the desert of Las Vegas four years ago, then much to my initial displeasure, we...we temporarily became a five-pack when Teddy joined us in Thailand and lost his finger and Stu had sex with that--" as he rattled on, mispronouncing Thailand again, both Doug and Stu cut him off at the same time.

"Alan!"

Crumpling up the napkin, he placed it beside his plate and eyed Doug, to his left, then briefly Stu on his right. They all just looked back at him. He frowned and huffed a little before casting his eyes over to Sam who was sitting between Doug and Phil, pointing at her for a moment before dropping his hands to his lap. "While I don't think it's cool that this lady has joined us for a drink without asking me first if it's okay, I guess a wolf pack can't grow without a bitch involved." He shrugged, unprepared for the onslaught of exclamations from around the table, everyone speaking at once.

Stu turned and snapped at him, "Alan!"

Doug with a, "Hey, not cool!"

Phil simply furrowed his brow, almost stone-faced. "Whoa! Uncalled for."

"What the fuck, man?" Sam pulled her wine glass closer to her, not knowing why she was being called a bitch all of a sudden. She didn't even know this guy. Where did he get off calling her a bitch?

Alan looked confused. He had no idea why everyone got so mad. "What? A bitch is a female wolf," he explained. "You can't make more wolves without a male and a female. Didn't you learn about the birds and the bees?"

"I think you should wrap this up, Alan." Doug leaned over and placed his hand on Alan's shoulder.

"Let's just finish this toast already," Phil commented, holding his glass back up. The others brought theirs closer to the middle of the table so they could all clink glasses together.

"To friendship," Stu offered up.

That seemed good enough to them. The glasses clinked and they brought the glasses to their lips to down a sip, or gulp. Phil looked over at Sam briefly who met his look with a smile. He brought her glass over to hers, confusing her for a moment.

"To new friends," he said.

Sam smirked and gave him a nod. "To new friends," she repeated. Everyone overheard the duo and clinked their glasses together again after Phil and Sam clinked theirs together. "And to my sister getting married before me," she added with a chuckle and strained smile.

"To the Jonas Brothers who are playing Madison Square Garden tomorrow!" Alan cheered, getting in on the further toasting. He held his glass up again, but no one was up for that one. They just let out a laugh, smiled and drank away.