Page 5 of The Write Track
“I’ll have the Steakhouse Salad, please,” she said, flashing a smile.
The server wasn’t interested in Hayley. She nodded absently. Her attention was solely for me. “And for you, sir?” she practically purred.
This was more like it. Our server likely had no idea I was an author. That wasn’t out of the ordinary. Very few authors were recognized unless they were one of the big ten, like Stephen King, James Patterson, or George R.R. Martin.
“I’ll have the French Onion Burger and fries, please.”
“You’ve got it.” The server winked at me.
I smugly smiled back.
Once she left to put in our order, I found Hayley glaring at me with abject disgust.
“What?” I whined. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re so gross,” she replied. “Like… the grossest gross guy who ever grossed.”
“That’s not a thing.”
“Oh, but it is.” She blew out a sigh as she leaned back in her chair. “Have you ever considered that maybe it’s time for you to start dating with an eye on settling down? You are thirty-three now.”
“Are you calling me old?”
“No, I’m saying that you’re not in your twenties any longer.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
The look on her face suggested she was talking down to a teenager. She often had that look when conversing with me.
“Your twenties are for experimenting,” she started.
A wicked gleam took over my features. “Isn’t that how you realized you were a lesbian?”
“Get your head out of the gutter,” she warned. “You know I don’t like that.”
Ididknow that. If it was just irritating to her, I would keep at it. She sometimes felt uncomfortable when I talked about her romantic life, however, and that was the last thing I wanted.
For better or for worse, Haley was one of my best friends. I never wanted her to hate spending time with me.
“Sorry.” I held up my hands in apology. “Sometimes I can’t help myself.”
“I know. That’s the only reason I keep you around.”
“You would cry without me.”
She stared for an extended beat then shook her head, a small smile tugging up the corners of her lips. “I only bring this up because, with Bree and Brody getting married?—”
“Stop.” I raised my hand to still her. Now it was my turn to be uncomfortable. I didn’t want to talk about the upcoming marriage of my best friend and hers.
Brody and Bree had been enemies before they’d been friends. I’d been convinced, even when they hated each other, that there was something else there. I’d been right. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to crow about it because they’d gone from “I hate your guts” to “I can’t keep my hands off you” and “we should be hermits for the next year and never leave this bed” in the blink of an eye. I’d been all for Brody loosening up. I just hadn’t realized that him loosening up would mean spending all of his time with Bree and forgetting I existed.
“Oh, not this again.” Hayley wrinkled her nose. “Why are you so jealous of Bree?”
“First off, I’m not jealous.” That was ridiculous. I wanted Brody to be happy. Heck, I wanted Bree to be happy. I liked her. What I didn’t want was them pretending they were the only two people in the world.
“What would you call it?” she challenged.
“Um… a perfectly reasonable response to my best friend spending all of his time with a woman and forgetting I exist.”
