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I snorted as I pushed to my feet. “Okay, princess. You just recline on your throne of pillows while I serve you.”
She smiled. “You really get me, Beck.”
Despite the depressing movie and the tearing up and the wallowing that Andi had led me into, I was glad we’d spent this time together. She was hurting more over Colt than I’d realized, and maybe I was hurting more over officially ending the marriage with Wes than I had realized too. I felt a kinship with her that I’d never experienced before.
In the kitchen, I pulled bowls from the cabinet and scooped up chocolate ice cream for each of us. Wes was the weirdo who liked caramel best. I mean, I didn’t hate it. But no one else I knew chose caramel as their favorite flavor.
Wes had always had quirky tastes though. That was probably why he was into me. The women he’d dated were beautiful, of course, because Wes was hot as fuck. But usually they were beautiful in unconventional ways. Kind of like Julia Roberts, with that mouth that was a little too big for her face—not so different from mine when I thought about it—and yet somehow that imperfection enhanced her beauty and made her more compelling.
He also liked cheap, nasty pale beer, then insulted me for my tastes in imported brews. He’d stolen a swig of my beer at trivia one night, then given me shit about my preferences when he was obviously the one—
“Hurry, Beck!” Andi called from the living room, pulling me from my thoughts. “You’re gonna miss the end.”
“Maybe that’s all part of my plan,” I said, but grabbed spoons and headed back to the living room anyway. Might as well see this train wreck through to the end.
Andi looked like a miserable, tear-stained mess, but when I returned, she grinned and made grabby hands for the bowl. Women really were such strange creatures. I handed it over quickly, a little fearful as she shoved a bite into her mouth and moaned decadently. Thank fuck I’d never had even the smallest attraction to Andi. I’d only ever regarded her as an annoying pest of a little sister, and there was no danger of her escaping that designation—unlike Wes, who’d always been more like a best friend and wingman than a brother.
Maybe that’s where we’d gone wrong. Instead of being brothers, we’d become friends and roommates. We’d spent so much time together we could finish each other’s sentences. We knew each other’s favorite foods and drinks. Knew exactly which buttons to push to get a rise out of the other. Knew how to joke and banter and…possibly…flirt with each other.
I shoveled in ice cream nearly as fast as Andi, both of us groaning over brain freeze as the movie wrapped up with an ending that went pretty much how I expected.
Andi sighed. “The gay guy was the best character. Why is it that straight men are such assholes?”
I chuckled. “I don’t know. Most of my friends are gay.”
She snorted. “Really?”
“Well, gay or bi,” I clarified as I ticked them off on my fingers. “Tucker, Laurie, Clark, Hunter, Augustus… And that’s just my trivia team.”
Andi giggled. “Granville is full of man-on-man action, isn’t it? Jordan, my bestie from high school, came out after he left for college. He’s a big romance movie buff. He has a whole group of friends that watch movies together every week.”
“So I havehimto thank for this torture,” I joked.
I stood and stretched, deciding to call it a night before the topic veered back to what was happening in my own sex life. Andi might be aware that there was no shortage of queer couples in town, but that was a hell of a lot different from realizing her brothers had dabbled in a little man-on-man action of their own.
Andi stood up and hugged me with one arm, ice-cream bowl still clutched in her other hand, though it was empty now. “Thanks for doing this with me, Beck.”
“Sure, no prob.”
She held on to my arm when I tried to move away and held my gaze. “Seriously. I’m sure this isn’t your idea of fun. I’ve barged into your life and taken your room, and I really appreciate that you’ve put up with it. I know you’ve got better things to do than sniffle over a sappy rom-com with me.”
I scoffed. “Some rom-com. There wasn’t even a happy ending.”
She chuckled. “In a way, that makes me feel better. I’m not the biggest screwup out there. I could be like her and let life and love pass me by. I’m trying, at least. That’s all we can do, right? Try to find love, and if we’re lucky enough, hold on to it.”
My throat tightened. “Yeah,” I scraped out. “Well, if you need us to kick some sense into Colt, let me know.”
She smiled tentatively. “Nah. It’s not all his fault, you know? It takes two people to make a relationship work.” She sighed. “Maybe, also, two people to ruin it.”
Her eyes were glassy again, and I was worried we’d have to watch another movie to pull her back from the precipice. So I gave her a hug, and when her defenses were down, messed up her hair. It was a patented Wes move, and she squealed and shoved me away with a glare. Holding up a hand tipped with manicured nails, she said, “Don’t make me unleash the claw on you!”
I laughed, feeling a little lighter myself, as I retreated. “I wouldn’t think of it. Goodnight!”
Once I was in Wes’s bedroom, though, Andi’s words cycled through my brain.
It takes two people to make a relationship work. Maybe, also, two people to ruin it.
Whatever happened, I couldn’t allow that to become the story of Wes and me.
