“Exactly!” I proceed to scrape the plate clean, thinking the conversation is done, and when I glance up, Hailey and Andrew are still tal
king, only she’s typing something on a phone.
His phone, I realize as she hands the iPhone back to him.
I toss the plate into the trash.
Marley pats my arm. “I got this.”
“Got what? Marley!”
My friend’s already moving away from me. “Hailey!”
The pretty blonde turns.
“You’re headed to Cielo later, right? Want to share a cab?” Marley asks.
“Oh. Sure.” Hailey glances my way. “We should help Georgie clean up first, though.”
See? Told you she was nice.
“Nah, I got it,” Brody says, refilling his wineglass and coming to stand beside me. Close enough for his arm to brush mine just barely, but the casualness of it has a couple-y feeling. Deliberate, I’m guessing.
I glance at Andrew, but his attention’s on his phone. Probably already texting Hailey.
“No, I’m fine,” I say to Brody. “You guys can go.”
Brody frowns. “You’re not coming to the club?”
“Nah, I have an early morning tomorrow, which means I need to make it an early night.”
I think I hear Andrew snort, but nobody else looks his way, so maybe I imagined it.
“No worries,” Brody says with a smile. “Early night it is for me too, then.”
“For God’s sake, Brody, take a hint. She doesn’t want you to stay,” the ever-blunt Lynlee says in exasperation, sauntering over and linking her arm in Brody’s. “Besides, the rest of us need you to run dance floor interference, give the stink-eye to the creepers.”
Brody opens his mouth, but I nudge my hip playfully against his. Anything to get him to leave. “She’s right. Our people need you.”
He searches my face and correctly reads that he isn’t going to get lucky. He takes a gulp of wine and sets the glass aside. “All right, then. But tomorrow night, George. No excuses.”
“No excuses,” I confirm, lifting my water bottle in confirmation.
Brody grins and leans down, his mouth close to my ear. “Wear that strapless pink dress you wore last week. Hot.”
“Don’t be gross, Brody,” Marley calls out. “Crew, we’re headed out.”
“You should come,” Hailey is saying to Andrew.
Lynlee chimes in. “Yes, do!”
“No. Thank you,” he says stiffly. “I have an early morning tomorrow.”
I smile just a little at his exact echo of my words, even though he doesn’t look at me while he says it.
“We can make it an early night. Have you home by two,” Lynlee says.
His eyebrows lift. “That’s an early night?”