“Damn,” he mumbled, sinking into the sofa. “Lucky sons of...”
“Sorry,.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? As you said, I snoozed. But uh... um... are you all a thing now? Or was it a post-graduation drunken one night only and all that?”
His question gave me a whole hell of a reason to pause. “I don’t know, man. We’ve been friends for years. We know one another really well. We could be good for one another, but, well... we didn’t talk after it all went down. She got dressed and raced home.”
Noah laughed. “She went home? Wait, you didn’t do something... unsavory to her, did you? I’m not going to be angry at you for beating me to her, Sam, but I’ll kick your fucking ass if I hear you’ve hurt her so bad she’s turned off guys forever.”
“Dude, if I did something like that, I’d let you beat the hell out of me. No. I don’t think it was just something like that. We treated her nice, and she had a great time.” I winked and reminded myself of Dad, which made me shudder. “I just... I just don’t know, man. It’s weird.”
“No communication?”
“Ryan and I both sent cute little text messages to her this morning, but she hasn’t replied to them. Balls in her court, and neither of us want to force her into something she doesn’t want to be in.”
Another long sigh from Noah. “Still, though, getting both of you? That’s something I can’t compete with.” Noah stared toward the TV screen with a glum expression settling on his face.
“It was a one-night stand, man. You got every chance with her.”
“Hardly. Date the school or date the hottest twins. I know which I’d take if I were a girl. And that’s what you want, right, to date her?”
Did he mean me and Ry date her at the same time? I stared at him for a bit before shaking my head. “I don’t know, man. That sounds like, polyamory or something, and I read that shit just doesn’t work out.”
Noah shrugged and looked at the game. After a short pause he said, “Brandon thinks it can work. It just needs the right people. The right amount of respect and communication between them and all that. You never hear about the good outcomes, it’s always the catastrophes, because those make for more entertaining stories.”
“Guess I can see that.”
“So what next for you three?”
“Balls in her court, as I said. We go to the coast tomorrow and won’t be back for three weeks. It’ll be the longest, slowest three weeks in history if we have to wait that long to find out what’s going to happen next with Gray.”
“Ah, well, there’s an amazing invention called a cell phone.”
“Yeah, but some things should only happen face to face. I don’t think we should pester her while we’re away. I think we should give ourselves and her space to get our heads around things and then see how she feels when we get back.”
“But some other dudes are bound to step in while you’re gone. You know that, right?”
“You want to date her, Noah, you should be the man who steps in. And you’ll probably do really well in a relationship, as you do great at everything you turn your hand to. Remind me precisely how much your business has made so far?”
Noah smiled and shook his head. You wouldn’t think to look at him, and he never boasted about his achievements, so most people didn’t know. The dude had made over half a million dollars in profit from a project he’d set up a little over a year ago. Half a million was only the last figure I’d gotten out of him, so could well be at a million while we sat watching the ballgame and talking about the GILT.
“True. And I’m glad you realize that. I’ve been patiently waiting for the right time to ask her. And we do get along well at the Christian soup kitchen where we’re both volunteers under the watchful eye of Big Bad Brother Brandon.”
“Well, you go for it, man. She’d be lucky to have you. And if you’re more her type than me or Ryan, then good for you. We’ll learn to live with it. And if it doesn’t work out for you, then at least you’ve tried, and it means I still have a chance.” I grinned at him.
Much as I loved my friend, underneath it all, I wanted him to try his luck with Gray and for her to definitely reject him because she was saving herself for me and me alone. But I wouldn’t tell anyone that.
CHAPTER NINE
BRANDON JONES
A few high school graduated are here, but plenty haven’t bothered turning up.
“Let’s go people, we need to get this soup cooking if we want it to be ready for the lunch rush,” I bellowed out, walking through the crowd of people, encouraging them to keep up the pace.