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My brows lifted. “Marriage? Why the hell are you discussing that?”
He patted Tali’s middle. “Because this lovely girl has informed us she will be a bridesmaid in a few short weeks at her brother’s wedding.”
She raised her hand. “Guilty as charged. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.”
Grinning, I nudged Jin over so I could sit next to her. A cold beer materialized from somewhere and was passed to me.
“At least you have the option to get married. I’d have to move to fucking Massachusetts for the same right. I don’t even know if I want to get married, but damn, can’t a lady have the choice?” Tali’s cousin asked.
“I didn’t know you were into girls,” Jin said.
She nodded. “Yep. I’m so fucking gay.”
“Word.” Tino held his hand up, and they high-fived.
“I wish I could gift you my right to marriage. I’m never doing it,” Laura said.
I drank my beer and listened as they went around, declaring themselves pro or anti marriage. I only really paid attention when it was Tali’s turn.
She lifted a shoulder and leaned her head back on Tino’s chest. “I don’t know. I was raisedsodamn conventionally, it feels like something I should want, you know? But there’s so much I want to do and see, I can’t imagine settling.”
I touched her bare knee with my beer bottle, and she jumped a little. “What do you want to do that some drag of a man would get in the way of?”
Nina cleared her throat. “I’m offended you assume Tali’s into men.”
“I deeply apologize.” I bowed to her, and she winked. “Replace ‘man’ with ‘spouse,’ and the question still stands.”
“I’m going to travel everywhere. I want to do A&R for a record label, or maybe run a music festival. I went to Swerve three summers straight and had the time of my life. I’m also really into the idea of managing a band. I think I’d be really amazing at that. You know how people hate making phone calls? Not me. I love it. I will call the shit out of venues and get gigs for my band everywhere.” Her eyes were bright and excited, and I found myself believing every goddamn word that came out of her mouth. “I just...I need to live. I need to forge my own path—not the one my parents and brothers, and all of my family, has already gone down. Have you ever been sure, down to your bones, about something? That’s me with music. I couldn’t tell you anything else about what I want for my future, but music willalwaysweigh a heavy part in it.”
Nina giggled. “That was a whole rant.”
Tino kicked at her. “Quiet, wench. Natalia Marie DiPietro is a woman who knows what she wants from life while the rest of us are bouncing off each other, waiting to see where we’ll end up. If there weren’t Talis in this world, it would come to a standstill.”
Tali tipped her head back and kissed him under his chin. “Thank you, Tino.”
“I think Type-As are sexy as hell,” Ben slurred. He seemed drunker and more stoned than everyone else. His eyelids stood at half-mast, and his hair looked like he’d been raking his hands through it all night.
Tali snorted. “Is that why you make fun of my desk every damn class?”
“I’m just a kid on the playground, tugging on the pretty girl’s pigtails,” Ben answered.
Tali rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Do I really need to dismantle that misogynistic trope?”
Ben chuckled, his shoulder shaking and head bobbing on his neck. “I knew you were gonna say that.”
She grinned. “I’m turning Ben into a feminist one day at a time.”
His fist shot up. “Girl power!”
Nina knocked his hand down. “I’m going to get worried if you start spelling ‘women’ with a ‘y’ instead of an ‘e’ and call itherstory.”
Seven blew out a perfect ring of smoke from the hookah. “I’m feminist as fuck,” he croaked.
“Smash the patriarchy,” Jin agreed.
I laughed, shaking my head. “I don’t think I’m high enough for this conversation.”
Like the beer, a joint materialized and was in my hand before I could ask. I took a puff and leaned back against the couch, feeling the burn of the smoke expanding my lungs. Slowly releasing it, I took another puff, then passed it to Tali, who took a dainty hit and passed it on.
