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“Got up to a thousand sun salutes yet?”
“Two thousand, mate.Every morning without fail.I’m a demi-god.”
“Always knew it.”Aaron laughed.A pause.“Seeing anyone?”
Carts kicked the car door wide with his foot.“Kind of.I guess.There’s this girl… a friend of Polly’s actually.We’ll see where it goes.”
“Awesome.Polly does have great taste in friends.”
Carts grinned despite himself.“Sure does.”He muffled a sigh.“We’re taking it slowly, both of us have been a bit burnt.How are you and Alice?”
Another pause.“Now you’ve asked… Has Polly said something, by any chance?”
“Nope.Barely seen Polly lately.She’s gone a bit weird.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”Aaron and Polly had always clashed.Something to do with them both being big personalities.
“Anyway,” Aaron took a deep breath on the end of the line, “I do have some news.I’ve been kind of putting off telling you because… well, you know…”
“Jeesh man, get to the point.”
“Alice and I have got engaged.”
Carts’ throat constricted.“Wow!Happy for you both, mate,” he gulped out.“Been expecting it, to be honest.”He had.And yeah, bloody oath he was happy for them, absolutely over the moon, but the truth was, the timing was bad.If his Friday evening had gone better, he’d be boogying in the parking lot.He hated the stab of envy that got in the way of feeling fantastic at his best mate’s happiness.This was the guy who’d stood by him through thick and thin, who’d always been there to pat him on the back and buy him a beer after his latest romance went down the gurgler.He swallowed the bitter taste.“Hope I’m still the best man?”
“You bet.”
“Forgot to ask, did she say yes?”
Aaron laughed.“Yeah, well I probably don’t deserve it, but she did, and I feel like the luckiest bastard in the world right now.”
“Best news, mate.Congratulations to you both.When’s the wedding?”
“No plans yet.Oliver’s is next spring, so we’ll get through that first.With Naomi being a wedding planner you can bet that’s going to be the Aussie equivalent of the Hollywood wedding of the year.”
“That fits.”Carts was in awe of Aaron’s older brother Oliver, a finance guru to the young and hip, super good-looking, but also a bloody nice guy.His popular books on managing your finances took pride of place on Carts’ bookshelf.He’d not met Naomi, but there was a picture of the two of them together on the back cover of Oliver’s latest book.All smiles, perfect teeth, perfect hair, her hand on Oliver’s knee with a sparkling diamond on her finger.
There was no way the Blake brothers would ever need advice on managing premature ejaculation.
After a few more words about weddings, Aaron yawned on the end of the line.“Think I’ll call it a night.I’ll sleep easy now I know you’re okay with it.”
“Christ almighty, how could I not be?”
“Knowing you’d had a bit of a thing for Alice a while back, I guess I was worried.Didn’t want to upset you.”
“That’s all water under the bridge.Don’t get me wrong, Alice is wonderful,gorgeous… way too good for you, it’s just…”
“You’re taken with this girl, aren’t you?”
He tried to sound airy.“Yeah, I am, sort of… It’s just—”
“Sounds like there’s a qualifier in there?”
Carts hesitated.Maybe if they were at the pub, after a couple of Guinnesses he’d have the courage to blurt out about his dick dysfunction.But it wasn’t something you told your mate who was 20,000 kilometres away and inhabiting a different universe.One where love came easy.
“Nah, nothing.It’s going fine.You know me, not high on the confidence stakes.”
“Just relax mate.If she’s the one, it will work out, like me and Alice.But hey, if you want to talk it through, give me a call sometime this week.”
