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He reached for her, sliding a hand around her waist and the other into her hair. Then he kissed her. “No, Angel. We’re good. I’ll take you for dinner in a bit.” They gazed into each other’s eyes a generous beat longer than was comfortable for the rest of us, and there it was.
Peace.
“Okay… see you later, guys,” she said happily and drifted back out, like the very air she breathed had been infused with serotonin.
Johnny looked about the same.
Dane just looked smug.
“Like we were saying,” Lex said, “she leaves on Sunday. That means—”
“You’ve got less than four days to get your shit together,” Dane finished for him.
They were all watching me. And clearly, they were all on the same page with this shit.
“Is this funny for you?” I asked them. “Is that it? You’re all a bunch of pigs in shit, reveling in your happily-ever-after bullshit, and I’m the punchline now?”
“You’re calling my relationship bullshit?” Johnny said lightly.
“And mine?” Lex said.
“And mine,” Dane said.
“Maybe I just don’t subscribe to the belief in fairytales. Happily-ever-afters included.”
“And you think I do?” Johnny said. “Do you think I ever thought there was an Angeline out there for me? I never believed that, until it happened. I never would’ve even believed you if you told me so.”
“So?”
“So, why don’t you tell us how not in love with her you are,” Dane said, “and how you don’t see any kind of future with her because you’ve never even thought about it. And how you don’t care she’s leaving in four days. Say that to my face. I want to hear it.”
“And while you’re at it,” Lex put in, “maybe you can tell us that you didn’t almost get your ass destroyed in that fight because you saw her in the crowd.”
“I did not.”
“He dropped you on your ass. You didn’t even know what happened for like five seconds there.”
“I saw her,” I said. “So what?”
“Yeah, I did too,” he said. “She looked fucking horrified.”
“Well, maybe I need a woman who isn’t fucking horrified watching me do what I do for a living.”
“She wasn’t horrified by you,” Lex amended. “She was horrifiedforyou. She was like, heartbroken, watching you do that shit to yourself.”
“What shit?” I bit out.
My friends went silent.
I got up and toweled the sweat off my chest, fucking waiting. I did not like this feeling. That my friends were all fucking judging me or something. Collectively.
Then Johnny said, “Fighting, Shane. Fighting likethat. Lax security, lax rules, lax safety precautions…”
“Is it so wrong that she doesn’t like seeing you get hurt?” Dane asked me.
“Why are you all ganging up on me here?” I asked them irritably.
“Because we’re your friends,” Johnny said. “And you’ve helped every one of us figure out shit in our own lives. You’ve been a great friend, Shane. We’re just trying to pay it back.”
