Chapter Three
Mark
Traffic in Boston isalways a bitch, but Friday nights are immensely worse, especially making my way from Cambridge to South Boston.
After finishing my notes and charts at the hospital, and recovering from that brief exchange with Eli, I had to head home to shower and change, then turn right back around to get on the road.
When I finally arrive, it’s nearing nine p.m. and the party is well underway. I need a drink.
My college friend, Sasha Lee, is the first to greet me as she sees me walking through the door, her expression discerning and surly.
“It’s about time you graced us with your presence,” she grouses, throwing her arms around my neck and pecking my cheek with a kiss. When she steps back, she glances behind me, her brows furrowed.
“I thought you were bringing a date?”
I shrug off my outer coat and place it on the back of a barstool, straightening the bottom of my grey V-neck cashmere sweater over my dark-washed jeans. Smirking just a little, I turn back to face her.
I shrug non-committedly. “I may have lied and told you that just to get you off my ass.”
Sasha swats me across the chest with a huff. Sasha’s always trying to fix me up with women. It’s even worse now that she’s in a monogamous relationship with Jackson Koda, the man who finally got her to settle down. Over the last several months she’s been working extra vigilantly to find me someone to fix me up with. In her words, to “fix my broken heart.”
Sasha knows all about my troubles in Ghana and what went on with Elise.
“You fucking asshole,” she sputters, rolling her dark eyes at me. “You’re a liar and I believed you.”
I tap her nose with the tip of my finger in a condescending manner. “I guess that just means you’re a gullible brat.”
She’s about ready to throw another swing at me when Jax steps behind her, gently folding her hand in his. I give him a chin nod and thankful greeting.
“Thanks for the save, Jax. Your woman here was just ready to get her claws in me.”
Jax lifts a brow. “What did you do this time?”
I scoff, running a hand over my clean-shaven jaw. “Figures you two would gang up on me. I’m totally innocent. It’s your fiancée who started this war.”
“That’s because you lied!” Sasha practically screeches with indignation.
Jax looks between me and Sasha and then guides her hand to his mouth, placing a kiss atop her knuckles.
“Darling, I thought we talked about keeping your hands to yourself and not assaulting the guests,” he chastises sweetly, as she snorts. “Now, let’s all try to get along tonight for the sake of our hosts.”
I give Sasha a haughty smirk and wink and she returns it with an evil glare, gesturing with the ‘watch your back’finger point, lighting into me with her snarky tone.
“I’ll get you later. You best not pass out tonight or you might find DICKHEAD written across that pretty forehead of yours. Just like old times.”
We all laugh, hers more of a calculating cackle, at her unsuccessful attempt to scare me. Sasha is all big talk and bluster. She and I have been best friends since our first year in college and then went through medical school together. She’s the closest thing I’ve had to a sister. Although we were both very sexually active in those years, we’d never once tried it with each other.
It just wasn’t for us. Our connection is too deep and founded on the notion of strictly friendship not lovers. Not even friends-with-benefits. She knows almost all of my secrets. All but one.
“Where’s our honorees this evening? And why is my hand empty and without a martini? What kind of hostess are you?”
I give a pointed look at Sasha because I know it’ll get her riled up.Three...two...one...
“Get your own motherfucking drink, asswipe,” she snarls, flipping me off as she does. “I’m not your hired help. And since you didn’t bring a date, you can also serve as host. Now go over and help Sloane with the drink trays before I kick your ass.”
I stand for a moment and watch them retreat toward a group of her colleagues. A tender feeling vines through my chest, the direct effect of being back home and in the company of my good friends once again, who I missed terribly the last three years.
While everything changed while I was away, and nothing will ever be the way it used to be now that Sasha has Jax and our other good friend, Rylie, just married Mitch and is ready to have their first child together. I rub my knuckles over the phantom ache in my chest, caused by the weirdness of how life changes as we grow older and the progress of time.
