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“Nice to finally meet you.”
He had the rich voice of a radio DJ, but it was all man, no show. As his full lips curled into a smile, he mouthed the wordsI’m sorrywhile he shook my hand.
“Nice to meet you too,” I smiled back. As I continued to ogle but not overly-ogle him, I added a half-shrug that said everything was okay.
The music changed, and a new song came on. It was something a little older from our high school days, which we’d all shared together. Tyler and Jay had gone to the school at the east end of town, while mine had been at the west end. We might’ve met earlier than my freshman year of college if only the geography was different.
“Nice place,” I told Tyler, poking him playfully. “Much better than the closet you always took me to while we were dating.”
“It’s not my place actually,” Tyler responded. “It’s his.”
He jerked his chin Luca’s way, and his friend nodded. “Just bought it, actually. I had a little money squirreled away, so I settled on a fixer-upper.”
“Oh?” I flirted. “Are you handy?”
“No,” laughed Luca. “Not even a little bit. But I’m ambitious, and that counts for something.”
We sat down together, letting the wine and the fire warm us up. Jay eventually got up and moved into the kitchen for snacks. It was the perfect opportunity to discuss what happened.
“You didn’t tell me Jay was here,” I hissed quickly.
“Yeah well, he just sortashowedup!” Tyler whispered the words low, as he and Luca hunched forward. “You know how he is.”
Jay was always a wild card, and never one for calling ahead. I couldn’t count the number of times he’d crashed dates between Tyler and I, and he was just as likely to show up in the dead of the night as he was to come over in the middle of the day.
“I was going to call you back, tell you to stay home… but…”
“But?”
Tyler shrugged and smiled. “I really wanted to see you.”
Luca’s grin rivaled my ex-boyfriend’s. He reached forward boldly and touched my shoulder, right where the black satin strap of my lingerie was peeking out.
“I was looking forward to seeing you too.”
His touch set off a boiling cauldron, deep in my belly. I glanced to Tyler, then back to Luca, and sighed.
“Getting rid of Jay would take until dawn,” said Tyler. “You know that.”
“I know.”
“Besides, he’s my best friend,” said Tyler. “And admit it, you love him anyway.”
“I do love myself some Jay,” I smiled. “And I haven’t seen either of you in such a long time.”
I took another sip of my wine that turned into a delicious gulp. The music was nice. The crackling fire felt good on my skin.
“Don’t worry about Jay showing up,” I said at last. “It’s cool. We can just… chill.”
Luca’s eyes hadn’t left my shoulder. Reluctantly, he pulled the shoulder of my sweat-shirt back up to cover it.
“This isn’t what any of us wanted,” I smiled. “I know.”
“That’s alright,” Luca said with a wink. He leaned back into the couch, stretching his beautiful arms high overhead before folding his hands behind it.
“Just as long as you promise to make it up to us.”
Five
