Aidan had come around pretty quickly after our fight. He and Ava had spent a lot of time together talking things through, and when he was convinced that I hadn’t trampled his little sister’s heart—only her virginity, though she never specified that part—he actually apologized to me. The Man in Black, the most terrifying real estate baron in Manhattan, drove all the way out to Nowhere, Long Island to apologize in person. Noah said I should have filmed it.
Of course I forgave him. He’d been mad, and then he stopped being mad, and that was the end of it. That’s the way men work. But Ava wanted regular dinners, so we agreed. And in a way, she was right. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with my best friend in the
past eleven years, and I hadn’t spent much time with Samantha at all. Every time we had one of these dinners, it was actually fun. Ava said she was proud of me for—as she called it—“briefly emerging from my cave of grumpiness.”
“What’s the news from Okada?” Aidan asked me as I took his dishes.
“You know I can’t tell you that,” I replied. “Top secret and all that.” I’d spent ten days in Tokyo two months ago, looking over Okada’s cancer treatment project and giving ideas. Kaito and I had regular phone meetings—over a secure connection, of course, so there was no chance of anyone listening in.
“Does he need investors?” Aidan asked. “Tower is still interested, even though Okada tried to steal one of our partners.”
“You never quit,” Samantha said, shaking her head and smiling.
“Neither do you,” Aidan said to his wife. “We didn’t get where we are by quitting.”
“It was me who quit,” I said, putting the dishes in the sink.
Aidan ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t wearing black tonight; that was something he did at work to give him the scary image he swore helped in making real estate deals. Tonight he was wearing jeans and a navy button-down shirt and he didn’t look scary at all. He looked like the guy I’d been friends with at fifteen. “I can’t believe you retired,” he said, looking around. “Part of me thought you wouldn’t go through with it.”
“I’m not even close to retired,” I said as I turned the tap on and started washing. I’d been washing my own dishes for as long as I could remember, and it was as naturally to me as breathing, no matter how much money I had. “I consult with Okada, I’m working on the AI program, and I’m helping Ava launch her business. The difference is that I work when I want, and I take time off when I want.”
“I have no idea what that’s like,” Samantha admitted. “I work all the time. I think I’d go crazy if I had too much time on my hands.”
“Maybe we’d have more sex if we didn’t work so much,” Aidan said to his wife.
Her eyebrows rose. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Oh God, stop,” Ava said. “You’re both being gross.”
“I’m sorry, am I shocking you?” Aidan said to her. He pointed to her stomach, which was subtly and beautifully rounded at three months. “I’m the one who has to pretend that was immaculate conception.”
I grinned down at the soapy dishes I was washing. Though Ava and I both kept busy, it didn’t make a dent in our sex life. I’d read that sex gets rare once there’s a baby in the house, so I used the excuse that we had to stock up for nine months. Ava agreed. We stocked up as often as possible.
“Speaking of work,” Samantha said, “My sister has to travel to L.A. on business. She’s never been before. I suggested she get Noah to show her around the city.”
I froze in my washing and turned, catching Aidan’s eye. We shared a look that only two men who had known Noah as long as we had could interpret.
“What?” Ava said. “What’s the problem?”
“Have you met Noah?” I said.
“Of course I have,” Ava said. “He’s a man-slut. We all know that. But Samantha’s sister isn’t an actress or a model. I think he can behave.”
Samantha frowned. “Do you think he’d actually try to sleep with her?” Emma, Samantha’s sister, was the owner and founder of Executive Ranks, a recruiting company that found high-level executive assistants for the most demanding CEO’s in New York. It was Emma’s company that had hired Samantha as Aidan’s executive assistant, which was how they met. I’d never met Emma, but from what I heard she was smart, successful, and hard to fool, just like Samantha.
“Noah doesn’t try to sleep with anyone,” Aidan said. “It just happens without any effort from him.”
“He’d be a pretty big jerk if he tried to get Samantha’s sister into bed,” Ava said.
“He’s been living in L.A. for years,” I said. “Being a jerk is kind of a requirement.”
Samantha held up her hand. “I’m not worried. You all don’t know my sister like I do. A handsome guy and a few witty lines won’t have an effect on her. My sister makes her Tinder dates cry.”
“So she’d be a challenge, then,” Aidan said, looking at me.
“Noah is lazy,” I said to my friend. “Maybe he won’t bother.”
“He’ll definitely bother,” Aidan said. “Emma is female, and she’s almost as good-looking as my wife. Noah will definitely try to sleep with her. The question is, how hard will he try?”