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“At least the staff is hot,” Andi says. “Especially that one with the nice butt.”
“Thank you,” Maddox, Carter, and Liam all say in perfect unison.
“She’s talking about me, dumbasses,” Jesse says. He comes up from behind his pregnant wife, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her head. “Maybe if you guys stopped endlessly screwing around, you could have a woman like this of your own.”
“I don’t know,” Maddox says. “Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. But one hundred percent of one night stands end in happiness.”
“Not true,” Carter says. “I once slept with this girl who robbed the shit out of me after I passed out. She even stole my socks. Who steals socks?”
“Were they those fancy ones you kept bragging about?” Maddox asks.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I’ve stolen some of those from you, too. You need to buy more, by the way.”
Jake is watching Caroline as Maddox and Carter start arguing and pushing each other.
“Wonder what your sister thinks of all that,” Jake says, looking from Jesse to Caroline. “You don’t seem to be in any rush to settle down, but you also don’t seem to be on team one-night stand with Carter and Maddox.”
Caroline almost chokes on her drink. “What do I think?” she asks. “I mean, sure. Marriage is great, if you have time for it. Or no ambition. I mean, if you’re a guy you can keep your time and ambitions. You just tell your lovely little wife to stay home and tend the house–to give up her dreams and desires and everything else to support you. And–” she cuts herself off, wincing. “Sorry, Andi. I didn’t mean that like–”
“No apology necessary,” Andi says, smiling. “I am perfectly happy being a career odd jobber. And Jesse is perfectly happy being my sugar daddy.”
“Barf,” Jake says. “Please don’t call him daddy in front of me.”
“What’s an odd job?” Maddox asks. “Is that like when a girl gives you a handjob with her left hand? Because I agree, it does feel kind of odd. Not bad, of course. Just odd.”
For the first time all night, Nolan bursts out in true genuine laughter. The rest of the guys join him, including Maddox, who doesn’t appear to know why anyone is laughing, but doesn’t want to miss out.
I watch Nolan laugh and something dangerous happens deep inside my chest. It’s like the spark of a memory igniting. I can almost feel the heat of it rippling through me, threatening to set everything I’ve been pushing down and burying ablaze.
And then Nolan meets my eyes. His gaze falls to my mouth as his smile fades. For a ridiculous second, I think he’s about to lean over in his chair and try to kiss me in front of everyone. For an even more ridiculous second, I think I want him to.
Then I stand up, my chair screeching loudly enough to kill the moment for everyone. “S-sorry,” I stammer. The attention of too many eyes makes my brain feel fuzzy and dumb. And then I feel the sensation of my time of the month coming several days early, as it loves to do when I get too stressed. “Uhh, sorry. I gotta go,” I say.
“What’s wrong?” Caroline asks.
“Do you have a headache?” Jake asks.
“Something in the food?” Nolan asks.
“No, I’m fine. Really. It’s just… that time of the month,” I say, feeling self conscious announcing it in front of so many people. But I also don’t want them to think it’s something more serious. “I just get really bad cramps when this happens and I want to get my heating pad ready. Really, it’s fine. Sorry if that’s T.M.I.”
“Bro,” Maddox says. “You think a little pussy blood scares us?”
“Can we not call it pussy blood,” Andi asks? “Just, you know, for the future?”
Maddox squints as every part of his brain works overtime. “Baby house blood? Cause it’s like blood from the baby’s house?”
“Or you could always just not talk about it,” Caroline suggests in an overly sweet voice.
Maddox shrugs as if this was an option he hadn’t considered yet.
“Blood is blood, dude,” Carter says. “Do you call it nose blood when it comes out of your nose?”
“I call it a nose bleed,” he says, raising a finger, as if he’s made a clever point.
“I’ll drive her home,” Nolan says, cutting off the debate of intellectual giants.
