Beck nodded in agreement and my eyes flicked toward Alice, only briefly. She was whispering something to the other blonde, the country one, and didn’t seem to be paying attention.
Ever since our rather awkward encounter in the bathroom, she’d mostly ignored me, barely acknowledging me other than the bare minimum of attention to keep the others from suspecting that anything was wrong.
But even as Alice pretended that everything was fine, the others, it seemed, had a better recollection than me of that night at the Black Shade. I ignored Henry and Keegan’s goading glances between the two of us, trying to get some reaction out of me.
If only they knew what had just gone down between us in the bathroom… I’d never hear the end of it. Personally, I believed I deserved at least a bit of respect for nailing Mariana, but I knew they’d just focus on the fact that I hadn’t locked the door properly. Keegan and Henry would laugh themselves hoarse over the image of me, naked and erect, under the withering glare of Alice.
Mason, forever the buzzkill, would ask what would have happened if a stranger had walked in instead of Alice, or, god forbid, a kid.
It was a fair question even though I still hated Mason’s hypothetical scold. While I disliked the stereotypes, there was something to be said for the luck of the Irish. Mariana and I would have been kicked from the premises.
Which, whatever. Would save me from having to go to this goddamn wedding. Unfortunately, the entire wedding party might have been booted along with us, and even though it would fall in line with my goal of keeping the wedding from happening, my friendship with the Knights would probably never recover. No, if the wedding was to be called off, it had to have absolutely nothing to do with me.
Not that that was something I was actively planning on or anything.
“Ready to get out of here?” I asked impatiently. I’d been waiting with a towel slung over my shoulders for twenty minutes as Sam and Henry talked like we weren’t about to see them again in just a couple hours.
I was coming to expect this from brand-new, about-to-be-married Sam; it was odd coming from Henry. But, he was reunited with Kylie, who he’d apparently slept with that same night I met Alice.
I watched them talk. Henry always did this thing when he talked to girls — broad shoulders back, weight on one foot giving him a casual, almost lazy air, head cocked to the side as half-closed eyes maintained firm eye contact so the contrast was apparent when he ‘accidentally’ let them wander. I rolled my eyes as his face broke into a grin, a smile I never saw when it was just the guys. Knowing Henry, he probably practiced it in the mirror.
Finally Henry and Sam managed to pull themselves away and headed over to me where I was waiting by the gate. I held it back for them. “Took you long enough,” I said.
“Not our problem you have the social skills of a skinned cat,” Henry replied.
It was only five o’clock, and we had about three or four hours before we left as a group to go out. Sam, Henry, and I were done with the pool and wanted to get changed for the evening and hit the casino for a while.
Sam seemed in good spirits on the walk back to the room and though my heart wasn’t really in it, I tried to mirror them.
Now that we were alone, with Beck far away and Alice’s stuffy silence no longer a distracting cloud around me, it was easier to get excited about the time we would spend together as a group over the week.
We ran the usual conversational gauntlets — the current football season, the market values of our apartments, our businesses and where we planned on taking them in the coming year.
Sam insisted that we had to come check out his new apartment building, the Astor, before it sold, while Henry regaled us with his predictions for the top technologies that would be hitting the market the following year and, his favorite conversation, how far technology would advance in the next decade.
“I’m telling you,” he said. “They got shit in the works you couldn’t even think up.”
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “Someone thought up Star Wars. Is it crazier than spaceships and lightsabers?”
“Of course! Because this shit is real,” he replied. “But just wait, and enjoy the present because it won’t be the same for long. We’re living in the best time to be alive, my friends.”
“Well,” I said, stopping Henry. He had that faraway gleam in his eyes. I knew from experience we needed to reel him back unless we wanted a really, really long conversation about giga-watts or probe chips or whatever the hell he actually invested in. “I’m launching a new bottle next year.”
“Is it good?” Sam asked.
“Hell yeah it’s good. Or, it better be anyway. The casks have been sitting for a while now, but we’re cracking one in a couple months. You can come taste it with me.”
“You know I never turn down free whiskey,” Henry said. “Which is why we’re friends, I think.”
“Feck off,” I said, pushing the elevator button. “You in?” I asked Sam.
“We’ll see,” Sam said vaguely, and the statement brought me back to earth again. In two months Sam would be married. Who knew what Beck would be allowing him to do, but I suspected letting him disappear with his friends to get drunk ‘for work’ wouldn’t be high on that list.
I changed the subject, but not far from the one on my mind. “Keegan’s girl is smoking.”
“Jules?” Sam said. “Yeah, sure is. She’s modeling in the Paris fashion week right after we get back.”
Henry scoffed. “Of course she is. But I’m surprised Beck let her on the bridesmaids team. Isn’t that supposed to be close friends only?”
Sam shrugged. “If you’re wondering if I asked her to, I didn’t. I think they’ve gotten close? Keegan’s been with her for six months. I’m surprised neither of you have met her.”
“Probably because we don’t do ‘couples night’,” I sneered.
“Maybe you will soon,” Sam said casually, not rising to the bait. “You and Kylie are getting along, Henry.”
We exited the elevator, but stayed standing in the hall. Henry raised his hands. “She’s hot, sue me. Also pretty damn funny. But come on. We’ll probably hook up this week, but you know me. I’m single and happy.”
“So was I,” Sam said with the all-knowing voice of someone who’d unlocked the secrets to the universe.
I ground my jaw at his tone, but didn’t worry too much. The day Henry Blackburn settled down would be the same day my wife of ten years gave birth to our fourth child.
“Speaking of which,” Henry said, looking at me with a stupid smile on his face, “you and Alice seem chilly.”
“Who?” I asked, trying to sound genuine. They both laughed.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Henry said. He checked his watch. “I’m going to get changed, probably shower too. Meet back here in a half hour?”
“Make it forty-five minutes,” Sam said. “I want to at least attempt to unpack.” He paused and then groaned. “I forgot I’m not on the same floor as you.” He pressed the elevator button, summoning it to take him away. “The private elevator sounds a lot better in theory,” he grumbled as the doors closed behind him.