Evan signaled to the waitress and said, “When our drinks get here, we should probably acknowledge the elephant at this table.”
“What elephant?” asked Lindsay.
“Do we have to?” asked Paige, reluctant to talk about it now. She’d been grateful Josh had tried so hard to distract her Sunday night, and she totally knew that was what he was doing. She suspected that had been their last relatively low-stress night together. The honeymoon was over. Their relationship might be, too. Paige couldn’t help but feel sad about that.
They all ordered martinis, then Evan said, “This is going to be a ball of tension until we talk about Paige and Josh.”
“Way to cut to the chase,” said Paige, although her stomach churned. She didn’t want to have this conversation at all, but she supposed it was better to get it over with.
“Do you not think we should talk about how you and Lauren’s brother are in a secret, lurid tryst?”
“Geez, Evan,” said Paige. “It’s not like that at all.”
“Then what’s it like?” asked Lauren.
Paige’s heart pounded and blood rushed in her ears. Lauren’s face was flat and unreadable, so Paige couldn’t guess how she would receive this. She said, “All right. Fine. Josh and I have been dating for the last month. We met at Mitch’s cat rescue event and have seen each other a few times since then. It’s not very serious yet, because he works all the time.”
“But you like him,” Evan prodded.
Paige wanted to punch him. “Stop helping, Ev. But yes, I like him.”
Lauren stared at the middle of the table for a long moment before she said, “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“We wanted to wait until we knew it was something real before we told you. If we went on, like, two dates, but then things didn’t really go anywhere, we could go our separate ways and not make you freak out the way you’re freaking out now. But since we’re still seeing each other, we were warming up to telling you soon. I promise.”
“Okay.”
“How angry are you? Really?” asked Paige.
“I’m not angry,” said Lauren. “I’m…surprised. Shocked. Still wrapping my head around it.”
“Thrown for a loop,” said Lindsay.
“Bowled over,” said Evan.
“Flabbergasted,” said Lindsay.
“Leave it to the writer to pull out the ten-dollar words,” said Evan. “Er…dumbfounded.”
“Thunderstruck!” said Lindsay.
“That’s quite enough,” said Lauren. “I’m just saying, the news was definitely not something I ever expected. You’re…dating.”
“Yeah. I mean, we’ve gone on a few dates.”
“Have you slept together? No, don’t answer that.”
Paige bit her lip.
“Ugh, gross,” said Lauren.
“I’ll end it if you want me to,” said Paige. Although, she hated how that sounded as soon as she said it. She felt disloyal to Josh, and it wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to keep seeing Josh. She wanted to be with him, could see a future with him. But she loved her friends, and she couldn’t lose this group of people. So she said, “Josh and I have barely started seeing each other. Your friendship means a lot to me. If this makes you uncomfortable—”
“No, it’s…it’s okay. It’s weird, but okay.”
“Are you sure?” said Paige. “Because I really don’t want to do anything to upset you. I didn’t know he was your brother when I met him at Mitch’s event. And then we hit it off, and by the time we figured it out, we’d both grown to really like each other. And I’m so sorry, but I—”
“Give me some time, okay?” said Lauren. “I mean, Josh said he was interested in you, but I didn’t know you were actually dating. I need some time with this.”
