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“Well it becomes my business when my girlfriend calls me and rants to me for thirty straight minutes about my asshole friends who made their new sister-friend—whatever the fuck that means—cry this morning.”
Ouch. It felt like someone had just punched Rick in the gut. “She was crying?” He couldn’t even fake indifference or keep the concern out of his voice.
Raising one blond eyebrow, Adam’s glare turned even more contemptuous. “Sobbing, according to Angel, because you don’t want her anymore and she has no idea why. Which, after an intense scene like I hear you two had last night, she’s probably feeling like you’ve seriously fucked with her head. So now my girlfriend would like to know why I’m friends with such a fucktard and, additionally, wants to kick your ass. When I tried to defend you, she told me she hopes I step on a thousand Legos and then she hung up on me.” Adam glared. “The yelling and nagging I can take. It hurts my ears but at least she’s just talking at me. Hanging up on me means she’s probably scattering Lego booby traps around my house. So yeah, this is my fucking business because somehow, I got dragged into this shit and now I’m going to have to watch my every step in my own goddamn house. Now. Would you like to explain what happened between you and Maria?”
Rick tried to feel angry again, but the strongest emotion he could summon was maudlin. He should probably be mad Angel was getting into his business, and dragging Adam into it as well, but if Maria was really that upset about the end of their friendship then he was glad she had someone there for her. Even if it was one of his best friend’s girlfriends, who happened to be a good friend herself. Although he didn’t think he’d be giving Angel a call to chat anytime soon.
“The scene was intense and afterwards she didn’t want anything to do with me. I realized I’d gotten everything built up in my head, exactly the way Olivia warned me about, and I’d spun this perfect little fantasy of the future. This morning I didn’t really want to hear the ‘let’s just be friends’ talk from her and so I kind of brushed her off. And I’m sorry if that hurt her, I’ll apologize to her later, but I just couldn’t deal with it.”
For a long moment, Adam and Rick just stared at each other, and then Adam seemed to soften. Well, as much as he ever did. Sighing, the other man uncrossed his arms and tugged on the bottom of his suit jacket to straighten it back to its usual, impeccable state.
“Just so you know, I got the impression from Angel that Maria is not upset over the loss of your friendship. I don’t know where you got the idea she just wants to be friends, but you should probably have some kind of talk with her or you’re going to have trouble getting any of the girls to talk to you.”
“Better than nagging me,” Rick muttered under his breath as Adam reached the door. Adam shook his head, a smile breaking out on his face.
“You have a lot to learn, Rick. Nagging is a sign she cares and hasn’t given up on you. Silence means she’s plotting your death.” Adam sighed, but the stupid little smile stayed on his face. “Or planting Lego booby-traps.”
Looking surprisingly content for a man who was contemplating serious foot pain, Adam left. Rick groaned and let his head fall down onto the desk, banging it several times. What the fuck was going on? Had he misinterpreted Maria last night? No... she’d definitely wanted to be left alone. Hell, he’d asked her if she wanted to have dinner and go back to the club and she’d put him off. Then she’d been silent the entire car ride home. And hadn’t said anything beyond “Good night” when he’d walked her to the door. How else was he supposed to have taken that?
Maybe Angel had misinterpreted when she’d talked to Maria. He could see that happening. Or maybe Maria had changed her mind again? Did he really want to try to start something with someone who constantly changed their mind about what they wanted?
Then again, he was already miserable. Maybe being miserable in a relationship with an uncertain Maria would be less miserable than not having her in his life at all. Rick gave a short laugh. Yeah, all he needed to do was look at Jared and Marissa to know that was a seriously fucked up way to go.
No, he wanted what Angel and Adam had. A real relationship, where even though she called him up, yelled at him, and threatened him with stupid pranks, the man was walking around with a smile on his face. Probably because he was already contemplating her punishment. Rick wished he was contemplating punishments for Maria and not just wallowing in his own little personal hell.
“Hey Rick?”
Glaring, Rick lifted his head up again. “Are you here to yell at me too?”
Justin’s lips quirked as he eased more of himself into the doorway, leaning against it rather than just poking his head in. “I don’t know, should I be?”
“No, no definitely not.”
The dark-haired man studied him for a moment before nodding his head. Rick didn’t doubt his friend would be stopping by Adam’s office immediately after this to find out what was going on. A bunch of gossip girls, that’s what his friends were.
“I just wanted to see if you had the resumes ready for Dana yet.”
Right, that’s what he’d been doing. Going through the resumes they’d gotten over the website and doing the initial sorting of the good ones from the bad ones. Adam called it using Rick’s English teacher profession to his advantage. All Rick had to do was weed out all the ones with spelling or grammatical mistakes and then send the good batch on to HR to go through.
He glanced at the computer screen. “Almost done.”
Hesitating, Justin tapped his fingers against the door frame. “Maybe you should take a break after. Wanna go out to lunch today?”
Not really, but he knew what his answer better be unless he wanted a male pow-wow in this stupid office during the afternoon.
“Yeah, sure.”
Giving him an encouraging nod, Justin vacated the doorway. Rick let his head slam against the desk a couple more times for good measure before taking a deep breath and getting back to work.
Maria was already at the bar, helping out the bartenders who had gotten a bit overwhelmed, when Angel, Jessica, and Lexie showed up. Apparently everyone wanted to get out and celebrate the end of the week, and she couldn’t blame them. Today had been hectically busy, which she’d been grateful for because it kept her from moping and checking her phone every five minutes to see if either Rick or Angel had tried to get in contact with her.
Still, her spirits lifted for the first time all day when she saw those three smiling faces. People who, she realized, she already considered her friends. Fastest friends she’d ever made, and yet she trusted them. Maybe it was because of what they had in common. They pretty much had to trust each other on a certain level because of what they knew about each other.
Despite how crowded the bar was, they didn’t have any trouble getting to the counter. A group of college guys willingly moved aside when Lexie tapped one of them on the shoulder and gave him a brilliant smile. Wearing a lacy black tank top, dark gray shorts, and some pretty heels that gave her several extra inches of height, she still looked delicate and pixie-like. And those bright blue eyes of hers stood out because of the lack of other colors she was wearing. One look at her, and the curvier brunettes behind her, and the guys were practically falling over themselves to show their courtesy by letting the girls through to the bar.
Jessica’s hazel eyes were sparkling with amusement as she gave Lexie a sidelong look, obviously thinking it was only the younger woman the guys were interested in. Maria wondered if Jessica realized three of the guys behind her were currently checking out her ass.
“Hey ladies, what can I get you?” The forced smile on Maria’s face had started to feel almost natural, but she could tell they weren’t fooled.
