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The only reason he’d done so with Jared was because he’d been so frustrated and pissed off with himself. Now he was starting to think maybe he and Maria could be more than friends, but he didn’t want to talk about it. Talking about it, before anything had actually happened, felt almost like jinxing it. Superstitious nonsense, but Rick still couldn’t quite shake the feeling.
Besides, if things didn’t work out between him and Maria, he didn’t need the teasing.
With the raise of one eyebrow, Adam said everything he needed to without even opening his mouth. Justin just smirked. Bastards.
“So how are things going with Angel?” Rick asked, changing topics to something he knew Adam would find uncomfortable. “Is she moving in yet?”
Predictably, Adam scowled. Which meant he was still working on getting his girlfriend to do what he wanted. Adam tended to be dominant outside the bedroom as well as in, although he wouldn’t admit that. He just liked to think of himself as a bit of a control-freak. Angel was definitely submissive, but not so much in her day-to-day life. So far, she was still insisting she wouldn’t be moving in till she and Adam had been together for at least a year. “Most of her stuff is at my place.”
“But she’s still paying rent for her room at her house, right?” Rick asked, teasing. Nothing like bringing up Angel’s living arrangements to get Adam’s nose out of other people’s business. It made him all sorts of cranky. Especially because her current room was at a house with three guys.
Rick had met all of her housemates and they were all nice guys. Angel treated them all like brothers, but it had definitely been hard for Adam to get his own possessive tendencies under control when it came to Angel’s friends. Most of which were male. All things considered, Rick thought Adam actually dealt with it pretty well. He got along with Angel’s friends, the fact that she lived with a bunch of guys wasn’t why he wanted her to move out–he just wanted her to live with him, and for the most part he didn’t get super caveman on her.
The big blond grumbled something about semantics under his breath while Rick and Justin grinned at each other.
“Speaking of living arrangements, did you know Liam bought a ring?” Justin asked.
“What? Already?” Rick tried to remember when Liam and Hilary had met... it was getting close to a year. Wow. He felt an immediate rush of excitement and happiness for them, and at the same time, the usual wistful envy he got whenever he thought about his friends’ relationships. That was the emotion which had helped spur his move north; seeing how happy his friends were in their relationships.
Liam and Hilary’s relationship was especially encouraging for him right now, because Hilary had been a complete newbie to the scene when she and Liam had first met. Actually, if he remembered correctly, Liam had actually tried to scare her off at first. But, as Jessica’s best friend, he hadn’t been able to entirely avoid her, and she’d kept showing up at the club. When she’d shown up for an Introduction Scene, Patrick had paired them together purposefully. So they’d had a happy ending.
Unfortunately, Maria didn’t know any of his friends, so it wasn’t like she was just going to show up at Stronghold out of the blue. That would be way too serendipitous. Hilary had had Jessica to support her and urge her out of her shell. If Maria was going to come to Stronghold, the person getting her there would be Rick. Now that was an idea.
“I don’t think he’s going to ask her right away, but he has the ring.”
Adam grinned, obviously nothing but happy for their friends. Of course, he wouldn’t be feeling envious right now. He had a girlfriend and could look toward doing something similar in the future. They all knew Angel was going to move in with him eventually, the only question was whether or not Adam would be able to get her in on his timetable or if she’d stick to hers. “Think he’ll do it at the club?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Cuz he’s romantic.”
“What’s not romantic about that?”
“And you wonder why Angel won’t move in with you,” Justin taunted. Adam scowled again.
“I can be romantic.”
“Maybe you should ask Olivia for some advice,” Rick said, laughing at the big blond’s affronted look. Adam was glaring at Justin who looked remarkably like Chris as he snickered. Those two had definitely rubbed off on each other now that they were in a relationship with the same woman. Justin had relaxed, and Chris had become more dominant. It was kind of interesting to watch. “She’s gotten pretty close to all the women.”
“Yeah, isn’t she supposed to be our friend?” Justin asked. “Now she’s on Lexie’s side about getting into the club.”
Even though they were finished eating, none of them seemed inclined to get up and leave. Rick was especially enjoying the camaraderie. Hanging out during the day and just talking wasn’t something he’d gotten to do when he’d lived in Virginia. Before his move he’d always been the last grape on the vine, getting his gossip when he finally came to the club or if he happened to talk with one of them on the phone.
“I might have to burn my eyeballs,” Adam said dryly. “I was already having nightmares about those nipple shirts she was wearing. There was less tape every week. Thank God she stopped that.”
“Isn’t anyone else curious about why she stopped it?” Rick looked at both of his friends who seemed a little surprised at his question. “Seriously, she’s been pushing the limits the entire time she’s been working at the club, why suddenly stop doing something she knew was getting to us?”
They all looked at each other in silence, mulling over the question.
“Maybe she realized it was really upsetting us?”
Adam gave Justin a look of complete disbelief. “Yeah, she seemed real concerned about it.”
“Maybe Patrick said something to her,” Rick suggested, just to see his friends’ reactions to having Patrick and Lexie mentioned at the same time. Justin coughed and looked up in the air while Adam shifted uncomfortably in his seat and stared at his desk. Yeah. “You know he’s going to let her in there sometime. Probably with him.”
“Better him than someone else,” Adam said, although he didn’t sound entirely convinced. Like Patrick, he definitely would have preferred it if Lexie was entirely vanilla and had no interest in being at the club. Although, he also hadn’t been hovering over Lexie as much since he’d started coming to the club with Angel. His girlfriend definitely took the majority of his attention.
