AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I ordered a round of shots, then Ben said, “It’s only Tuesday, dude. Not me.”
“Just one round to celebrate my early-morning start,” I said.
Alex laughed. “Let me guess—ten o’clock.”
I shook my head. “More like eight.”
He grimaced. “Oh shit. That’s cruel.”
I stared into the mirror, and Ivy looked straight at me and grinned. She was enjoying this.
“Chase’s girl’s here with an older dude,” Ben said to Alex.
Alex downed his shot. “That’s an oxymoron.”
“Who’s a moron?” Ben asked.
“You are.” Alex chuckled. “What I meant was Chase having a girlfriend is a paradox.” He peered into the mirror. “She’s hot, though. I’d be pissed off.”
She sure is.
Alex’s comment made me look like a shallow prick who had the attention span of a fruit fly.
“For starters,” I argued, “it’s not weird of me to like someone after two months. And we have a history.”
Ben laughed. “Weren’t you together for two months a while back before she left you?”
“Yeah, eight months ago.” That time gap landed in my brain quicker than usual. Measuring time between girls had never been my strong point. “I would’ve kept seeing her, but she wanted a relationship.”
“Don’t they all,” Alex said with a cynical bite.
“In any case, I need to ask her to the family ball next week. I made a pact with my father.”
“Let me guess,” Alex said. “You have to pretend you’ve got a girlfriend?”
“I don’t mind that part,” I admitted.
As one of Manhattan’s biggest commitment-phobes, that was new to me.
“I have to actually marry. Like soon.” My shoulders tensed. I gulped back my shot and nodded over to the barman for another round.
Alex hissed. “Ouch.”
“I’m not getting my dick chopped off,” I said, laughing at his look of horror.
“That’s an apt analogy, because you might as well chop it off.”
Ben shook his head. “You’re being a tad dramatic there. Marriage can’t be that bad. My parents have been together for thirty years.”
“Do they still have sex?” Alex asked.
“Ew. I don’t know. That’s not the type of thing I want to talk about, let alone ask.”
I looked in the mirror and noticed Ivy rummaging in her bag. She struck me as edgy.
“Hey, come on, guys. I reckon I can do it for a few months. And then we can come to an arrangement. You know, an open marriage.”
“Which planet are you living on?” Alex chuckled. “A woman agreeing to an open marriage? You’ve got more chance of seeing a dinosaur in Central Park. Marriage is a death sentence and was invented by lawyers so that they could drive Ferraris.”
