The three of us bullshitted until Connor convinced Tyler to go over and talk to a group of women who were checking us out, leaving Ryder and me to hold the chairs. That wasn’t Tyler’s MO. He was more of a get-drunk-and-flirt-with-an-equally-drunk-girl-at-a-party kind of dude. He wasn’t the type to walk up to an unknown group of women out of nowhere with no reason. But Connor was.
Connor always had this way about him with women. His mom was born in San Juan, and he grew up speaking Spanish. He’d throw in an over-rolled R every once in a while just to show off how long his tongue was. It was kinda gross how many women he slept with. Then again, Connor was also a built-as-fuck Latin guy who always had his facial hair on point. I was just glad they left me the fuck out of it.
“You’re not gonna join in?” Ryder asked.
“Nah. Not my style.”
“Oh, right.” He rolled his eyes. “Your style is waiting and never doing anything ever.”
I chuckled and shifted to face him. “What about you? Aren’t there any hot guys that might play for your team?”
Ryder rolled his eyes again. “Even if there were, which there aren’t, that’s notmystyle.”
I had to laugh at his hypocrisy. “That’s bullshit.”
“Not bullshit.”
“How’s it not bullshit?”
“Because in a setting like this, I might end up with a black eye hitting on a guy out of nowhere.” Ryder tried to suppress a smirk.
“That’s not true, man. C’mon, what year is it?”
“No, I’m mostly kidding. I’m shit at flirting anymore, though. Unless a guy throws himself at me, I can’t tell if he’s interested, much less into guys in general.”
“So why are you giving me shit for feeling the same way?”
Ryder stared at me, then laughed hard. “Fair fucking point.” I laughed too until we just kind of looked at one another.
I couldn’t place the feeling I got. I used to be afraid to talk to Ryder and never felt like myself around him. That wasn’t the case anymore. If someone had told me years ago that the two of us would be bullshitting and roasting each other, I’d have said they were crazy.
But I also kinda loved it. Ryder was an awesome fucking guy, regardless of what was going on between him and Miles. And if that meant I got more of his attention, I didn’t hate that either. Okay, that was bullshit. I’d much rather they get along, but at least there was a silver lining.
Connor appeared out of nowhere and flopped down in the lounge next to me. “I’m fucking bored, bro.”
Ryder said, “What happened?”
Tyler walked over and sat next to Connor on the same chair. “They’re on a bachelorette, and all have boyfriends.”
“Damn,” I said.
“Sucks,” Ryder said.
Connor pouted. “Let’s go to the beach or something, man.”
“We can’t just leave them,” I said.
Ryder sat up. “Yes, we can. Why not?”
“’Cause it’s like, his bachelor party?” I didn’t need to pose it as a question, but did anyway.
Ryder said, “Where are they?”
Tyler sloshed the last bit of beer in his bottle. “Jason got a work call and asked Miles to field it with him, hoping to make it quick.”
“That sucks,” Ryder said with a laugh. “If they’re not back already, it means they won’t be for some time. Let’s go and come back. If it’s nice, we’ll all go later.”
Ryder’s brow flattened as he said it. His brother and Jason came walking back out to the pool. They were mid-conversation, and I heard Jason say, “That’s what I mean when I say managing up. You gotta know when to exhaust him. Let him spin his little wheels until there’s nothing left for him to ask.”
