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Definitely should have brought Rick. Then they could have avoided the whole scene altogether. Maria wondered if she and Rick would still be together closer to Lara’s wedding, when she’d have to be seeing more of the wedding party anyway. She imagined bringing Rick to her sister’s wedding and seeing the look on Jeremy’s face when he saw her imaginary boyfriend.
It gave her a little shiver of both apprehension and hope when she realized how far into the future she was picturing Rick and herself.
Bodies were sprawled out, in various limp positions, across the mats. They were supposed to be stretching, but that had pretty much devolved into basically resting. Even Liam seemed tired, he was the only one still stretching, but he was doing it slowly and almost disinterestedly.
Rick groaned as a sore muscle in his back twinged when he tried to roll over. Andrew had gotten him good there during their sparring match. Maybe he could convince Maria to give him a massage tonight. Extra bonus of having a girlfriend—someone to help relieve his aches and pains.
Next to him, Jared stretched out his leg and nudged Rick with his foot. “So what are you doing here tonight? I thought you’d be hanging out with Maria.”
“She had a family dinner... I’m just wasting time with you guys till she’s back.”
“Family dinner and she didn’t invite you?” That was Andrew, pushing himself up to a sitting position. Sweat had visibly soaked through his white tank; he’d been working out some kind of emotional angst tonight for sure, sparring with both Rick and Liam. He’d definitely be feeling it tomorrow too.
“We haven’t exactly been going out long,” Rick reminded him, trying not to feel defensive. Although he knew very well that if she had invited him, he would have been delighted. But he wasn’t going to get upset she hadn’t. “I’ll meet them eventually. We’re still figuring things out.”
Andrew’s eyebrows went up. “What does that mean?”
“It means she’s a newbie to the scene,” Rick said, shrugging as he moved his head back and forth, trying to work out some of the kinks in his neck. “She’s just a little apprehensive, so we’re taking things slow.”
“Good idea,” Liam said, interjecting while Andrew scowled. “You don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“I liked her when I met her, but don’t let her twist you around or lead you on if she’s not sure she’s actually into this lifestyle. All you’ll end up with is a bunch of regrets and doubts,” Andrew said, his voice dark. He pushed himself up to a standing position. “No woman is worth that. I’m gonna hit the showers.”
Now Rick was definitely feeling defensive, but he kept his mouth shut while Andrew stalked from the room. All of them knew it was his past speaking for him. Rick didn’t know all the details about Andrew’s last relationship, but he knew it had been right when Andrew had first started exploring BDSM and his girlfriend had been doing so with him. Then everything had gone to shit, and Andrew hadn’t had anything more than scenes at the club ever since. So he knew Andrew wasn’t really talking about Maria leading Rick on, he was talking about his ex leading him on. Which made Rick even more curious about exactly what had gone down between them. He wasn’t sure he’d ever know.
“Don’t mind him,” Liam said quietly. “He’s just a wee bit biased.”
“Besides, newbies work out for some of us,” Jared said, giving Liam a significant look. The big man was looking pretty relaxed these days, with Marissa out of town. Sure, he wasn’t playing at the club, but at least he didn’t look constantly miserable either.
“Pretty darn well too,” Liam said. He grinned, boyishly, and suddenly looked almost sheepish. “I’m ah... well, I meant to tell you guys when Andrew was still in here, but um... This weekend I’m going to ask Hilary to marry me.”
Rick let out a whoop of joy, doing a kind of sitting leap to land on Liam, hugging the fucker for all he was worth. A heavy weight crashed into both of them, taking them down to the mat as a laughing Jared piled on.
“Fuck yeah! Congratulations man.”
“You’re the man.”
“Get off of me. You’re both sweaty and gross.” Liam pushed upwards, using momentum to stand and shove both Jared and Rick off of him. Laughing, they rolled away on the floor. All of Rick’s lethargy from the workout had vanished. He was too happy for his friend to be anything but super energized.
“So you think she’s gonna say yes?”
“Fuck you.”
The television was on, but no one was paying any attention to it. They’d all wanted to do a small celebration with Liam, because no one really thought Hilary’s answer would be anything but ‘yes,’ and Rick had convinced them to come back to his place so he could keep his promise to Maria about being there. He supposed he could have just texted her he was going out and why, but he wanted to see his girl.
For some reason, knowing the first of his friends was getting engaged, was making Rick feel even more anxious to see her. Almost needy. He didn’t like that word. Needy. But he couldn’t deny that was how he felt. Maybe especially because of Andrew’s words. He still didn’t know what had happened to end Andrew and Kate’s relationship, but he definitely didn’t want to go that way with Maria. It made him want to get his hands on her and ensure she wasn’t going anywhere.
Plus, it was cheaper than going out to a bar. They’d bought a couple six packs on the way back to his place to share. Liam had already told Olivia, Justin, and Chris, he called Adam and Patrick from Rick’s to tell them. Adam declined the invitation to come over, saying he was all tied up with Angel that evening—Rick had a feeling Angel was probably all tied up while Adam took the call. Patrick didn’t answer his phone, but since it was Swingers Night at the club that wasn’t too surprising; he was likely walking the floor and keeping an eye on things.
They weren’t looking to get drunk, just have a good time and enjoy each other. Liam admitted he was nervous.
“I was gonna do it last week, but I chickened out.”
“You guys have talked about it though, right?” Jared asked. “I mean, it’s not just going to come out of the blue.”
“Well I’m hoping to surprise her, but yeah we’ve talked about getting married.” Liam grinned. “Talked through the important things like how many kids we’d like, whether or not to go to church, how we’d want to do our finances. All that kind of stuff.”
Geez. Just hearing Liam say it made everything seem more real. He and Hilary were really going to do this and make babies and be a family. It hit Rick that he and his friends were really, fully adults now. Being responsible for yourself was one thing, but taking on the responsibility of having a family? That almost seemed like a fantasy to him, something for the far away future, but now Liam was bringing it home.
