Rig scraped his hand over his jaw and muttered to himself as he walked out of the bathroom without glancing in Rory’s direction. Rory had no choice but to follow. In the bedroom, he grabbed the jeans he’d tossed on the floor before passing out last night.
If he was staying here for a week he needed to run home and grab some actual clothes. “So talk.”
His friend’s turbulent eyes flashed. “I’m officially done with this shit.”
A knife in his gut couldn’t have hurt more. “What do you mean? Done with what?” Me? Us? Why?
Rig’s expression softened and he moved closer, one big hand cupping Rory’s shoulder. “Don’t look at me like that, that’s not what I mean.” His thumb rubbed the missed droplets of water into Rory’s skin absently. “Damn it, I’m just out of patience and everything I’m saying is coming out wrong. I’m sorry about last night, sorry I didn’t give you any warning, but if I had, I know you’d have found an excuse to avoid me until I let it go. I needed to get your attention.”
“I can guarantee you got it,” Rory said wryly, relief pouring through him like adrenaline. Rig wasn’t done with him.
“Good. I’m going to need you to listen closely. One of us needs to start the fucking honesty circle, and after all this time I can see it’s not going to be you or David without a push. So I’m pushing. I’m done being Switzerland for the two of you. It’s exhausting. I’m done putting off what I want and watching you punish yourself by keeping us at a distance. Especially when what needs to happen next is so fucking simple.”
Rory swallowed. “What’s simple?”
“Us. Clearing the air. You and David. You and me. I’m talking about putting everything on the table, the way friends do.” His straightened and dropped his hands, looking more determined than Rory had ever seen him. “Thanks to Jen, we have a window of opportunity here. You and David are the most important people in my life and I can feel us slipping away. So we’re not going to waste another year, another month, another week being too gutless to hash this out.”
Rory couldn’t stop shaking his head. “This is a bad idea, Rig. It might be your worst, and you’ve had some beauties. We don’t want to put everything on the table. You don’t want that. No one does. Maybe you and David need to talk about what comes next with you two but—”
He held up his wide palm to stop Rory’s rambling. “Us two?” He groaned. “The fact that you don’t know… That’s it. I didn’t want to do this, but I’m calling in my favor.”
“Son of a bitch,” Rory breathed out in shock. To Rig, the favor was sacrosanct. Each of them got one, only one, and it was a favor that couldn’t be denied. None of them had been in a situation dire enough to waste it. “Are you sure about this?”
He was. “This is what I’m calling in. I’ll expect you to follow these rules for the duration, at least when it comes to talking. No distractions, no lying to spare anyone’s feelings and no running away. For the next few days we’re playing Extreme Truth or Dare, and you can’t back out of it the way you backed out of our trip last March. The way you’ve been backing out of everything.”
Rory couldn’t get over it. Rig was using his one favor now. For this.
No backing out?
“This isn’t going to end well, Anthony.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” he agreed quietly. “But I’m not changing my mind. One way or another this limbo ends.”
Chapter Four
“Are you for or against anal sex?”
“What?” David Mills choked on his water and set his glass down on the kitchen counter, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and eyeing his sister suspiciously. “That’s the first question? You just opened the box and found that right on top?”
Essie’s dark brown eyes sparkled over the laminated card. “Actually, the first question was have you ever used a strap-on, but I thought that one might be too shocking for your vanilla-flavored ears. Plus I know all your exes. None of them were that adventurous.”
He turned his gaze toward his sister-in-law Janice, who’d set down the bottle of wine she’d been opening because she was too busy laughing her ass off. “You told me the game she wanted me to play was like Cards Against Humanity.”
Janice pushed her sleek blonde hair behind her ears and wiped her fingers beneath her eyes. She’d had an early morning at the art gallery so she was still wearing makeup and dressed in her cream-colored power suit. It wouldn’t be long before she was back in her usual uniform of shorts and old concert t-shirts, but the card game distracted her. “It is. They both need Not Safe For Work warnings if you actually agree to play them on camera. She asked me first, but I said no. I mean, if we’re voting, I’m all for strap-ons and open to anniversary anal play, but I have no desire to say that in front of your viewers.”