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“Look, I know I screwed up. If one of my guys hadn’t gotten a stomach bug, I would have been there and even done my best to be on time.” I chuckle awkwardly.
“Is that really what you think this is about?” Jamie asks coolly.
“I’m not sure what else it could be besides the chess event.”
“So there isn’t anything else you’ve done recently that would warrant our being here.”
“Us? Are you kidding me?” Phillip scowls.
“We talked about this.”
“No, you talked at me and then over me. We are not on the same page.”
“Are you seriously going to start this again? I already told you that you’ve made a huge mistake.”
Phillip lets out a low whistle. “Tell me, is it lonely up on that high horse of yours?”
If I don’t put a stop to this, things are going to get ugly.
We’re no strangers to poking fun at each other or having a small disagreement, but I haven’t seen them at each other’s throats like this since…
Oh, shit.
Ten years ago, there had been a woman we’d all dated—Bridget Callahan.
She was the gentlest, most caring person any of us had ever met—outside the bedroom, anyway.
Inside it? Well, let’s just say she helped me pick out several pieces of furniture for my little dungeon.
Things with Bridget had been good—great, even. I never thought I’d enjoy a relationship like that but with her, it just worked. The four of us were working toward becoming a cohesive unit, and I’d started thinking it could be something permanent.
Then everything imploded.
I’d been so wrapped up in what it might be like to have a family—however unconventional it may have been—that I hadn’t paid enough attention to Jamie. If I had, I would have seen what was going on.
The closer we got, the more Jamie withdrew. He got cold and critical. He’d stopped smiling and only paid attention to Bridget when it was time to be intimate.
Then one day, she was just gone and there was a Dear John email in our inboxes.
That time, though, it had been Phillip and me going after Jamie rather than the other way around.
“Why did you have to ruin this for us?” Phillip demands.
“She wasn’t happy. She left. End of story,” Jamie snaps.
“The only person she’d complained about in the letter was you. What exactly is your problem? I thought you liked her. Why were you treating her like garbage?” My hands clench into fists.
“Sure, she was fun, but clearly, she read too much into things.”
“That’s a lie and you know it.” Philip shakes his head. “I saw the way you acted with her, saw the way you looked at her when you didn’t think anyone was looking. Are you afraid of commitment?”
“Maybe you should try taking more clients. You clearly have too much time on your hands if you’re starting to psychoanalyze your friends.”
“You chased her away,” I say through gritted teeth. “This could have been something permanent.”
“She was easy entertainment, nothing more.”
I’m seeing nothing but red.
