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He raises an eyebrow. “You want to talk to those women?”
“Why wouldn’t I? That’s why we came out tonight, isn’t it?”
“You don’t think Lainey’s going to be upset about you sleeping with someone else?”
I’ve been trying not to think about it. Trying not to think about how she’s going to feel about me sleeping around, whether it might hurt her—trying not to think about how she said our night together wasn’t meaningless for her. I can’t afford to think about that. I can’t afford for things to change between us. Things have to go back to the way they were, and that means continuing to act the way I did before it happened, even if I don’t even feel like getting laid tonight. Correction, I don’t feel like being with a woman who isn’t Lainey. But friends don’t screw each other. Not if they want the friendship to last.
“After all,” Seb goes on, “isn’t that why Lainey’s not here with us tonight? Because she doesn’t want to see you putting the moves on someone else?”
“I told you, she said she was going to stay in and write.”
But my gut had called bullshit when she’d said it. It was obvious that talking to her about coming out with Seb and me for our usual Friday drink—a drink she usually has with us before she goes home and Seb and I start hitting on women—made her uncomfortable. Which was why, even though I’d wanted to see her, I thought maybe I could use this one night to get my head on straight.
“And when was the last time she stayed home on a Friday night?”
“She’s coming to The Golden Roo tomorrow night.”
“Then I guess hooking up when we’re there is off the cards.”
“There’s never anyone decent to hook up with at the Kanga anyway. Tonight, however, is a different story.”
“Then you really want to go over and talk to the women?”
“Told you I did, didn’t I?”
Seb picks his beer up off the bar. “Then what are we waiting for?”
***
The Present...
The moment I spot Cass coming back from the bar without Lainey, my chest tightens and a knot forms in my gut. “Where’s Lainey?”
Cass’s mouth is set in a firm line and her expression is wary. “She decided to go home.”
“Why?”
Duncan appears behind Cass and wraps his arms around her waist. “Cass told her about Amber and Lucas coming to her party.”
The guilt and remorse I feel over the way I’ve treated my friend all night doesn’t exactly vanish, but I latch on to the anger I feel at Duncan and Cass because it’s easier than dealing with everything that’s wrong between Lainey and I tonight.
“Nice one,” I say to them. “You know, this is exactly why I hate relationships. They change you. You two are so happy that you’re fucking oblivious to everyone else’s pain. The only thoughts you have are for each other.”
If anyone knows how much it’s going to stink for me to go to that party and see Amber there, it’s Duncan. And I assumed Cass would understand how upsetting it might be for Lainey to see Lucas again—to see him with Amber. Yet, Cass and Duncan are both so caught up in each other and what they want that they don’t give a shit about how anyone else feels about Cass’s sudden desire to become Amber’s best friend. Christ. I can only imagine how Lainey took it. She’s so upset she didn’t even say goodbye.
Duncan is now holding Cass so hard that I’d be worried about him breaking her if I wasn’t so pissed at the two of them.
“You said you were fine with it,” Duncan says.
“I never said that! I said I understood why Cass wanted to and said she should talk to Lainey about it.”
“Which I did,” Cass says.
There’s no mistaking Duncan’s body language is protective. He shoots me a warning look that screams don’t fuck with my girl. Screw him. Screw both of them.
“Of course you did,” I sneer at her, before glaring at Duncan. “You’ve changed, man. So much for bros before hoes. So much for you having my back. So much for the bullshit you spun me about understanding I don’t want to spend time with Amber. You were full of shit.”
“And you,” I say, looking back at Cass now. “You ruined Lainey’s night. That’s a bitchy thing to do for someone who calls herself a friend.”
