Page 41 of Joey

“There’s plenty of room,” Brook says. “You guys can have whatever rooms you like, but there’s a whole separate house in the basement.”

“And a pool,” I say.

“And Wald,” Brooke says, walking over to him and grabbing his upper arm. “There are hidden passageways and secret safe rooms!”

“Get the fuck out of here!” Wald says.

“It’s true.” I laugh. “It’s like the virtual reality players said… ‘Hmmm. What should we give this house to make all four of these assholes happy?’”

Wald points to me. “Don’t fuck around about that shit.” Then he looks up at the ceiling. “They’re probably watching us right now.”

“Well, I like the idea of us all staying together,” Huck says. “And I’ve got plans for all the places we’ve been and things we’ve done over the past three years. We need about ten changes of clothes each—”

“Oh, no!” Brooke says. “I don’t have anything here. I have to go home.”

“I’ll take you,” Wald offers.

Brooke looks at me. “That OK with you?”

“Brooke. I’m not really your boyfriend. And it’s Wald, anyway. I don’t care. I’ll stay here with Huck and start writing social posts.”

“Yeah, we got a lot of posts to write,” Huck says.

“You’re sure?” Brooke asks.

“Why wouldn’t I be sure?”

“I’m just double-checking. That’s all.”

Wald and I trade a glance.

He likes her. I can tell. Hell, she can tell. That’s why she’s asking me if it’s OK to be alone with him. But even if Brooke Alder was my real girlfriend I can’t say I’d care if Wald took a shot with her.

We’ve never been possessive about women like that.

There is us. And there is them. We know the difference between the two.

Brooke Alder might be my shining knight on the white horse right now, but she stands very clearly in the “them” department.

“Go,” I say. “I swear, it’s fine. And bring back dinner.”

“Hmm,” Brooke says, grinning at me. “I’m going to learn something new. What do you like to eat?”

I nod my head at Wald. “He knows me as well as I know myself. He’ll know what to get.”

“OK.” Brooke shrugs. “If you say so. Ready?” she asks, looking at Wald.

He grabs his car keys off the counter and throws them up in the air, catching them with a jingle. “Let’s go.”

Huck and I watch them leave and then he says, “OK. Wald and I came up with a whole list of things we’ve been doing and vacations we’ve taken.”

“Yeah. Like what?”

“First, we met in Singapore. We’re sticking with that since we already have that story. Goldfish girl. I kinda love it.” He starts talking about the timeline of three years ago. Which makes me think back to what we really were doing three years ago in Singapore.

By that time the business was just going crazy. We were getting new clients every day. And throwing parties and having big-deal meetings. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

“We had some good times, didn’t we?” I say.