Chris smiled affectionately at me and reached his hand across the table to clasp mine. “Babe. Focus. We want you to come work for Banks Consulting. It’s time.”
I met his eyes and got lost in them. One time I’d teased him about using those eyes against me like the snake from The Jungle Book. When I looked into Chris’s eyes, I almost never said no.
“I really love my job,” I argued for the millionth time. “The reason I wanted to go into nursing was because of the patients. At Banks, I’d be working at a desk in an office.”
His warm hand held mine tighter, reminding me of the night my mom had been rushed to the emergency room our senior year of high school and Chris had held my hand all night, waiting to find out what was wrong with her. He’d called in his dad to make sure we had the best doctors available. When it turned out to be a gallbladder attack, Mike had helped get Mom in with the best surgeon in Chicago.
Not only had they always been there for me, but I owed them. Still, I hated the idea of saying goodbye to my patients at Wilton.
Chris moved his leg under the table until our calves were resting against each other. “Teo. Just think of all the good you’ll be able to do, helping optimize policies and procedures at hospitals all over the world to ensure more patients will get better care.”
He had a point. If I went to work at the consulting company, I could help a greater number of patients get quality nursing.
“What if I hate it?” I asked.
“What if you love it,” he responded with a grin and a wink. “Plus, just think. We can go to lunch together practically every day. I’m dying to take you to that sushi place I keep telling you about. And you can play nurse with Grandpa when he needs his insulin shots.”
I blew out a breath and looked around the bar, not really focusing on anything, more like thinking things through and trying not to fall under the known effects of my best friend.
“I’ll think about it,” I finally said. “Put together a formal offer.” I locked eyes with him. “And make it worth my while.”
Chris’s eyes widened. “Oooh, look at Mr. Big Shot standing up for what he deserves. I like it. You should do that more often.”
I laughed, feeling lighter than usual. Instead of taking his words as a jab, I took them as encouragement to continue standing up for myself.
Chris let go of my hand and sat back in the booth, taking a slow sip of his beer and studying me. “You seem to be in a good mood. Did you do something fun last night?”
I thought back to my night. The word fun was woefully inadequate.
“Yes.” I couldn’t help but smile like a lunatic.
“Spill,” he said with a laugh. “This isn’t like you. Did a new Star Wars movie come out or something?”
“I…” I hadn’t intended to tell him. In fact, I’d been relishing keeping FlyGuy all to myself. But when Chris mentioned a new movie as the probable excitement in my life… well, I couldn’t stand not correcting him. “Last night I had sex with the hottest guy ever,” I blurted.
We stared at each other across the table for several long beats before the server arrived with the giant wings platter.
“Enjoy, fellas,” she said before racing off again.
I reached for a little plate from the stack and began selecting wings from the platter to put on it.
“You… what?” Chris asked with an awkward chuckle. “Dude, you never talk about your sex life. I was beginning to wonder if you were even getting any.”
I shrugged and bit into a piece of chicken. “You know me. I don’t kiss and tell.” I met his eyes to see if my words meant something to him. To see if they reminded him of the time we’d made out at Wesley Kincaid’s house the night of his older brother’s pool party. Chris had convinced me that telling anyone we’d kissed would ruin his future at the family business.
It hadn’t stopped him from kissing me in secret every chance he’d had. No, that had come when I’d shown up at his college dorm room to surprise him for his birthday and found he was already being well celebrated by a woman and a man in bed. I’d learned the hard way that it wasn’t necessarily my gender that was the problem, it was my desire for commitment and loyalty.
Chris simply wasn’t ready yet. And if I ever came across actual wild oats, I planned on burning them with poison fire.
“But you’re kissing and telling now,” he said. “Why the change?”
I took another bite of my food to keep from admitting the real reason, that it had been the first thing to tell. “You asked,” I said simply, realizing another truth. He’d never wanted to hear about my hookups, and now that I thought back on the past several years, I saw the truth of it plain as day.