Page 49 of Some Kinda Romance

23

DASH

Lance and Jennifer were already at the restaurant when I arrived, only a few minutes late. Obviously, they’d both gotten there early. Their drinks were already halfway done and they were so wrapped up in conversation that I felt like I was crashing a date.

Starched tablecloths. Candlelight. Chandeliers. Shit, am I crashing a date?

I’d been invited but this was a nice restaurant for a friendly meetup between old pals. When I arrived at the table, Lance smiled at me and Jennifer kicked out the chair kitty corner to hers at the table.

“There you are,” she said easily. “We’ve been waiting for you. I was starting to wonder if you’d stood us up.”

“Nah.” I smirked as I sat down. “I didn’t have any better offers tonight, so here I am. Sorry to interrupt.”

She scoffed down a laugh and took a swig of her wine before giving Lance a pointed look. “Is he interrupting, Lancelot?”

“He’s always interrupting,” Lance joked, then rolled his eyes at her. “Let’s not start with that nickname again. I wasn’t trying to be a knight in shining armor that day. I just helped a girl over the rocks on a hike. It was no big deal.”

“Oh, good,” I said jokingly. “I got here just in time for the old college war stories to start.”

Jennifer chuckled. “You’re so late, we’re almost done with the old college story part of the evening.”

“Well, that’s okay,” I said. “I was there when it happened. I don’t need to rehash those years every time I see someone who was there when it happened as well.”

“But it’s so much fun to talk about old times,” Lance said sarcastically. “How else will we figure out if someone has gone senile yet?”

“And suddenly I get it,” I said. “The rehashing is all about seeing who has forgotten the most. Considering the amount of alcohol we consumed though, not remembering might not have anything to do with being senile.”

Jennifer laughed. “Gosh, we did consume a lot of alcohol, didn’t we? It was crazy. How did we drink that much and survive?”

“Our guardian angels were working overtime,” Lance said, chuckling.

We talked a bit more about what had happened back in college. Then Jenn got us caught up with everything she’d been doing and we told her more about our own lives since. Lance’s face lit up when she told us she was very much single and I groaned internally, feeling like I absolutely was crashing a date.

Working in tech, she had a few interesting stories to tell before she finally brought up the inevitable. “So, Dash. What’s with all the gossip in the tabloids about you these days? You were doing so well being all mysterious publicly and then suddenly you were everywhere, supposedly dating a reality star.”

I laughed it off, ignoring the pang of annoyance over the fact that the entire world thought my business belonged to them now. “It was nothing. Just gossip, is all.”

Lance made a face and Jennifer called me out on it. “You know what they say, the best lies always have a little bit of truth to them.”

She didn’t make me either confirm or deny it, letting it go without making me say it, but I had been thinking about Serenity all night anyway. I was always thinking about her these days. While I was enjoying myself with Lance and Jennifer, I’d never had anyone on my mind as much.

Somehow, I still had not managed to get her out from under my skin and it was really starting to get to me. Although I’d never been out with her with friends, I still missed her as we ate, drank, and laughed, and I had no idea when this torment would ever end.

On the plus side, Lance and Jennifer were really hitting it off, and it was good to see him so happy. He’d always had a bit of a thing for her back in the day and it looked like he was picking up right where he’d left off.

Eventually, our conversation turned to the business side of things and Jennifer smiled at us. “Look, boys. I love the estate where you host stuff. We’re definitely going to book this event with you, so we’ll talk about options for food and stuff, but it’s a done deal.”

I grinned. “Of course, it is. If you can get the estate, you take it. Simple as that.”

Her nose wrinkled. “Always so damn modest.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

She laughed. “No, I guess it doesn’t. It’s quite a place. Is it true your Mom’s not getting married there?”

Lance reached out and touched her forearm, shaking his head at her with his eyes wide. “It’s a touchy subject.”

“Ah, so it is true then.” She gave me a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Dash. I know how close you were to your dad. It must be hard watching her get married again.”