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Brooke allowed Olivia to lead her over to the line that had developed at the bar. She’d only finished half her wine, but if she dedicated herself to the task, she could probably be ready for a refill by the time they got to the front.
“So I’m just gonna take a wild guess that you two are sleeping together,” Olivia said as they stood in line.
Brooke took a large drink of wine and gazed across the room to avoid meeting Olivia’s eyes. “Maybe.”
“Well? How is it? Things seem pretty great between you.”
“It’s…nice,” Brooke offered noncommittally.
Olivia poked her in the arm. “Nice? That’s all? I was hoping for fucking awesome.”
The corner of Brooke’s mouth tugged in a grin. “It might be that too.”
“So when’s he going back?” Olivia asked.
Brooke gulped down another mouthful of wine. “Tomorrow.” Her throat felt tight as she said the word. It was too soon. They’d barely had a chance to enjoy this new normal, and it was about to end.
“You gonna be okay with that?”
“Of course.” She didn’t have a choice. It would happen whether she was okay with it or not.
Olivia arched a skeptical eyebrow and Brooke frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Olivia said, feigning an innocent expression.
“Stop doing that with your face.”
Olivia waved a hand around her head. “This? Is just my face being authentically itself.”
Brooke rolled her eyes at her friend. “Dylan and I agreed from the start that this was just temporary. The fun ends when he goes back to New York, which was exactly what I wanted.”
“But is it what you still want?”
“Yes,” Brooke insisted, fighting off a wave of irritation. “Being with Dylan is great, but it’s like Penny’s triple chocolate cake. It’s amazing while you’re eating it and you wish it could last forever, but you know if you eat the whole cake it will make you feel sick, so you stick to just one slice. It’s the perfect serving size for satisfaction without unwanted complications.”
Olivia shook her head. “You’ve got more willpower than me. Last time she made that cake for my birthday, I ate three slices and spent the rest of the night curled up in the fetal position.”
“See? That’s exactly what I mean. You overindulged and regretted it after, didn’t you?”
“Nope. Totally worth it,” Olivia insisted. “Also? Dylan’s not chocolate cake.”
“It’s a metaphor,” Brooke said sourly.
Olivia shot her an annoyed look. “Okay, but you do realize you two make a perfect couple, right? It’s kind of ridiculous that you’ve never gotten together before now.”
“We’re still not together now.” Brooke downed the rest of her wine. “We’re just friends having some fun.”
“You say that, and yet you two are so cute together, you’re actually making me queasy.”
They reached the front of the bar line finally and placed their drink orders: two glasses of white wine for Brooke and Olivia, and two glasses of red for Dylan and Adam.
The two men were still deep in conversation when they got back to them. They were joined before long by Esther and Jinny, dragging their dates in tow.
Once again, Brooke found herself growing irked as Dylan charmed everyone. But unlike at the picnic, he wasn’t putting on a show this time. It was just him being his genuine, outgoing, and likable self. He talked to Jinny about fashion and to her husband Yemi about Nigerian cooking. He let Esther rant at him for five minutes about the space junk problem caused by zombie satellites and other debris cluttering Low Earth Orbit, then got into an enthusiastic discussion of Coen brothers movies with Esther’s screenwriter boyfriend, Jonathan.
Brooke ought to be delighted by how well he got along with everyone, but instead she found herself rankled by it. He’d known these people for all of a minute and already got on with them better than she did after several years of acquaintance.
