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“Spill it,” he says, his eyes boring into me. With a clean shave and a polo, he seems more like himself.
“Spill what?” I look at him with as close as I can get to a straight face, though my pulse is racing from how blunt he was. I can't exactly look innocent, because I can't get Renee off my mind, and I can't pretend there's nothing going on. Still, it takes me by surprise, and I wasn't ready to spill, as Brody says.
He furrows his forehead. “Whatever you're thinking about. You've been jiggling your foot for twenty minutes and it's driving me fucking insane.”
“It's nothing.” I plant both feet on the floor and look down at the printed-out spreadsheets. “I'll tell you about it later.”
“So it’s not nothing then.” Brody tosses his pen down on the table, clearly ready to ignore the rest of the financials until he has the answers he wants. “Tell me now so we can get back to running our business without me being distracted by you being distracted.”
My best friend sits back in the booth and crosses his arms over his chest, looking me up and down. I don't like that look. “This about Renee?”
Fucking hell. How does he know?
With a quick inhale I readjust in my seat, not saying a word at first.
”Come on. Out with it,” he urges.
I rub my hands over my face, let out a sigh, and say, “Yeah, it's about Renee.”
“Jesus, finally.” Brody slaps his hand down on the table. “I thought I was going to be a grandfather by the time you made your move.”
I give him a look.
“So…you did right? You asked her out?”
“Well, I made a move.”
Brody leans forward, looking at me like I've never told him anything more exciting in both our lives. “What kind of move was it? After-work drinks? Did you run into her in the grocery store? Oh, shit, the snow—did her car get stuck?”
“Her car didn't get stuck in two inches of snow. And it was after work, technically. But we didn't have drinks.”
He gestures with his hands for me to continue when I pause, not knowing what exactly to tell. “What did you do?”
She didn’t say not to tell anyone, but it’s obvious she wants this to be a quiet thing. I struggle to know where the line is. I just look at him. I've known Brody for so long now that most times we don't have to say everything out loud. He narrows his eyes, and then they get big, and I nod.
He whistles quietly, although I catch a few glances from the two men at the bar. He leans back in his seat again, a grin plastered on his face. “So you're seeing each other?”
“Not exactly.” I give him a vague outline of how it went down and how my text conversation with Renee went yesterday. “So now we have plans to go to the drive-in movie theater.”
Brody laughs. “Of course you would take her to the drive-in movie theater.”
“It was her idea,” I bark back with a smile. “I get the feeling she just wants to keep it quiet, you know?”
Brody’s eyes narrow but he nods his head like he understands. “Like how quiet?”
“Like I don’t think she wants me telling anyone, including you.”
He reaches for his beer and takes a swig. It’s a fresh batch and I’m damn proud of it. He grins into the glass while tasting it before squaring his shoulders and nodding more confidently.
“Small towns talk, and she wants to make sure there’s something there before going official…I get that,” he says easily, and I agree with him.
“That’s probably all it is. Just her wanting to test the waters before everyone else makes a big deal out of it,” I tell him even though I don’t quite believe what I’m saying. Something feels off, but I shake it off. With Renee, I have a tendency to overthink things and right now, I’m grateful for whatever I can get with her. “Time will tell, and I just want to let whatever’s going to happen, happen, you know?”
He lifts his beer and says, “Cheers to that.”
Our glasses clink easily enough and finally I can focus on the damn spreadsheets.
One Day Later
