"And what was that?"
"I think that you are scared of commitment."
"I'm committing to you right now. I have at least a dozen cards in my pocket, but I'm choosing to hang out with you."
She furrowed her brow again. "What did you do with your card this morning? Before we met."
Shit. "Nothing that interesting."
"Then tell me."
"You're really bossy. You do realize that right?"
She shrugged her shoulders as she stared up at me. The way the light caught her eyes almost made them look like they had golden flakes. There was no point in lying to her. Either she wanted me or not, and I was pretty sure she wanted me. Something dumb I did before I met her shouldn't matter. Hopefully. Because I had done a lot of stupid stuff over the years.
But I didn't want to tell her. I had been waiting for over a year to talk to this girl. I wasn't going to blow this chance over something I did this morning before I had even really met her. "Let's just say I should have saved my card. I would have much rather used it on you."
"You're disgusting."
"Yet you're all over me."
"Because I have to be. Speaking of which, has it been 20 minutes yet?"
"I don't know, I don't have a watch. I'm not a tool. James!" I yelled over to my brother. "How long have Daphne and I been snuggling?"
"I heard the tool comment, asshole," he yelled back. "If you'll give me my phone, it's been ten minutes."
"No can do."
"Then it's been half an hour."
"Fuck."
"Thanks, Professor Hunter!" Daphne said and quickly got off of me.
James slamming his book shut made me look away from Daphne's ass. He looked kind of pissed that these girls kept calling him Professor Hunter. Which was weird, because I knew for a fact that he got off when Penny called him that.
"So you should probably, you know...go back over to your friends," Daphne said.
"Yeah, I probably should."
She looked disappointed.
I climbed off the chair. "Don't worry, I'll be right back. I just need to check on my super sensitive older brother."
James was glaring at me from his chair. What the fuck had gotten into him? I walked back over toward my friends and collapsed in the chair beside him.
"You okay, man?"
James ran his hands down his face. "No, I'm not okay."
"Is this about calling Penny again? James, you have to learn to live a little. This is your last weekend as a single man. You should be the one over there flirting with a hot girl."
"You're joking, right?"
I shrugged. "That's what bachelor parties are for. It's time to let loose. Enjoy yourself. I got some extra cards from the front desk. You should use this one on the girl over there." I pulled out a card that said, "receive a motor boating," and tossed it at him.
James picked up the card without looking at it and tossed it back at me. "I would never cheat on Penny. Ever."
"You don't have to sleep with someone else. A good motor boating never hurt anyone, though. Come on, you old sailor." I motor boated a pair of imaginary breasts to emphasize my point.
"Why did I make you my best man again?"
"Because you love me."
"Fine. Then if you love me at all, you'll let me call her back."
"I'm not letting you call her because I love you, man."
"Look, I feel sick to my stomach. And I've been having these chest pains all morning. I couldn't sleep well last night." He ran his hands down his face again. He wasn't kidding. He looked a fucking mess. His face was pale and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. And he seemed antsy and definitely agitated.
"It's been one night since you've seen her and you're falling apart. Geez, you really are addicted to her, aren't you?"
James glared at me.
"Shut the hell up, Rob," Mason said. "I was going to call Penny tonight anyway, James. I'll make sure she's okay. Don't worry about her so much. Plus, Bee's hanging out with her tonight. They're going to be having fun. Which is what you should be doing too."
"I just need to talk to her," James said.
I pulled his phone out of my pocket. "Look, she hasn't even called you today. Whatever was bothering her last night clearly isn't bothering her anymore. And I talked to her last night. She was fine. She just misses you."
"Yeah. I guess." He opened his book back up, but he didn't look down at it. He was just staring at the empty pool.
"You have a very overactive imagination. She's in the safest apartment in the world with all your security measures. And whenever she does leave, you have that driver that's an ex-marine. She's fine. You're not actually worried about her, are you?"
"Of course I am." He didn't seem completely genuine, like there was something else bothering him. And I knew my brother. He was embarrassed about something.
"You're lying."
"I'm not lying. I just..." his voice trailed off. "Never mind. Screw both of you."
"Oh my God, you miss her. You can't sleep because you miss her." I started laughing.
"So what?"
"You're so cute."
"I'm not cute. Mason misses Bee," he pointed over to Mason. "He called her last night and talked to her. And he got to calm her down about where we were. She thought he had taken us to an underground strip club or something. But I didn't get to calm Penny down. And I didn't get to tell her goodnight. And yeah, I miss her. I'm used to telling her goodnight every night. I want to do that. That's why I'm marrying her. I don't want a day to go by where we don't talk. I don't like this feeling." He ran his hand across his chest. "So if that makes me cute, fine. I'm fucking adorable."
Mason laughed. "I really did have to calm Bee down. And it didn't help that she accidentally told Penny that I used to be a horrible person."
"What?" James sat up straight.
"She let some information about my old side business slip out. But it's fine, she calmed Penny down."
"No wonder Penny called me a million times last night. I need to talk to her. I need to tell her I'm just sitting around a pool being adorable and talking about how much I miss her." He reached for his phone but I quickly slipped it back into my pocket.
"Totally whipped. You do not need to tell her that. Don't you wear the pants in the relationship?"
"Penny and I pride ourselves in barely wearing any clothes when we're together." He folded his arms across his chest.
"Here's to that," Mason said and picked his magazine back up. "But really, don't worry, man. I'll talk to Penny tonight and make sure everything's okay. How about you just try to relax for a few minutes?"
"Seriously," I said. "There's a group of hot girls over there that would love to hang out with us for the rest of the weekend."
"I don't want to hang out with some girls that used to be in my class. That one girl basically stalked me."
"Which one?"