“For water? What’s it made out of, gold?” I peered at the clear contents, then twisted the lid off, Nik’s mouth falling open when I grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and then poured each one of us a drink.
“I feel like we need to say grace or something before we drink this,” she said, her eyes wide over the rim of her glass.
“You can.” I took a long mouthful of my drink, feeling the slight prickle of bubbles on my tongue, then an admittedly very clean tasting mouthful of water.
Still not sure that warranted a thirty-buck price tag, but whatever.
“Oh my god…” Nik sipped her drink, then walked out into the lounge room. “They’re spoiling you, wooing you, setting you up in a not so little love nest—”
“That only I have the access code for. Don’t get excited, that’s not it.” We sat down on the couch, both of us letting out a little sigh as we sank into the soft cushions. I turned around, resting my elbow on the back of the couch. “What is going on is a bit more complicated.”
Her lips shut with an almost audible snap, her attention entirely on me as I took a deep breath, then told her everything that had happened.
“So you’re…?” Nik started to say.
Both of us were sprawled across either end of the lounge now, clasping pillows.
“Looks like it.”
“And they—”
“Think I’m the only one for them. Yup.”
I got a moment’s silence, maybe two, tops, before I felt her launch herself at me, landing on me with all of the force of a fucking tackle in a footy game. My breath was forced out of me, leaving me wheezing, then sucking it in as I fought to shove her off.
“Bitch, you’re getting every damn thing you fucking deserve.” Her hand rose. “All of the attention from four of the hottest bachelors in town.” She ticked one finger off. “Being picked up and carried away from a bunch of rapey pricks by a guy with a face that would make angels weep.” She ticked off the next. “If you accept them, they’ll love you and only you. Alphas can’t get it up for anyone else other than their fated mates. Did you know that?”
She jumped up and down on the couch then, making my guts lurch and forcing me to scramble out of her way, lest she WWE this shit and body-slam me into the couch.
“They’re gonna love you and only you from now until their very rich, very privileged demise at hopefully a ripe old age. Four hotties. Four fucking hotties.” She shoved four fingers in my face, just in case I’d never considered how many Lockwood brothers there were. “Oh my god! You could have one going down on you while another massages your feet, and the last one could be giving you a head massage while unlucky number four cleans the damn toilet and puts the seat down for once.”
Her shriek had my hands clapping down over my ears, and once they were there, that was where they stayed. I’d known Nik would respond like this. One of the things I loved about her was she raged through life like a meth addled T-Rex, but even I would sometimes want to curl up in a kitchen cupboard and hide from her.
“Shit, Sage, you OK? Fuck, you’re an omega now, so no loud noises.”
I peeled my hands away and cast her a grateful look, now she was sitting very quietly on the coffee table.
“I don’t know what I am, Nik—that’s the issue.”
“Right, so am I listening, problem-solving, or planning their demise?”
We’d been friends since university and had quickly learned that we needed a shortcut to making sure our needs got met, and this was it—the person in distress got to choose the mode of response from the other person. Usually, it was a tremendous help, but right now?
“Listening…? Maybe problem-solving?” Mentally, I recoiled at that idea, knowing I needed to move onto that phase but not feeling ready. I’d tucked Riley’s card into my bag, meaning to call her, but hadn’t since I’d arrived. “Not planning their demise, even though I wouldn’t be in this fucking situation if it weren’t for them…”
I watched Nik leap up, then go scouring through the kitchen cupboards, tossing bowls and packets of food up there with gay abandon before returning laden down with bowls of chips, popcorn, and other treats. She set them down on the coffee table, then flicked on the massive TV, jumping through to Netflix and bringing up a familiar sight.
“Gilmore Girls…” I barely whispered the words, feeling the warm squishy feeling as soon as I saw Lorelai grinning in the teaser image. Those ladies might be overly caffeinated and speak so fast only dogs could hear them at times, but it was my go-to comfort show.
“You got it, babe.”
Nik settled down beside me, pulling a throw off the back of the couch and tossing it over to me before retrieving another for herself. We ended up side by side, snuggled down into the couch as Stars Hollow filled the screen.
“I’ll let Brian know I’m here for the day at least,” she said. “We can eat shit and watch TV. You can pretend you’re Lorelai and that you don’t have to choose between Max, Luke, Christopher, or Jason.”
“Ew, Jason,” I said with a wrinkle of my nose, but she just laughed. “And there is a Max.”
“Max Lockwood…”