“I still don’t know how to answer that question. My life is kind of a mess right now.”
“Our lives are always messy. Are you going to stop having fun because of it?”
“Life isn’t always about having fun.”
“Tell me about it. There’s corporate shit, life, kids, bills. Why take time to enjoy it when you’ve got a whole big pile of shit waiting for you?” I asked.
“William … I don’t … I…”
I waited. Taking a bite out of the burger, I found it was a giant mushroom with, drum roll, lots of garlic. Damn, there was enough here to ward off Dracula himself.
“How can you eat that?” I asked.
“It’s amazing.” She took another bite.
“Yeah, I’m going to raise your amazing to fucking disgusting. I’ll be back.”
“Clearly, there are limits to what you will eat,” she said.
I spun around, put my hand on the back of her chair, and whispered into her ear. “Yeah, and your pussy is the only one I want.”
“Why do you have to go saying stuff like that?” she asked.
“You like it.” I kissed her neck, leaving her to fester in what I told her.
At the line, I put my order in for a normal burger.
Checking my cell phone, I saw Gideon was calling.
“What’s up?” I answered.
“Where are you? Sian is missing.”
“Sian’s with me. She’s not missing. I’m taking good care of her.” I thanked the waiter for my replacement burger and carried it across to where Sian had already taken my burger and was currently eating it.
“You need to come home. We need to come up with a plan to have her stick around.”
This made me sigh. “No, what we need to do is accept what is.”
“Do you want her to leave?”
“Hell no. But I’m also not going to be the kind of asshole who keeps people in place. That’s not who I am. You should know this.”
“I don’t want her to go.”
Staring at Sian, I was with Gideon on that. The last thing I wanted to do was let her go, but how could I make her stay when she didn’t want to?
“Look, we’ll talk about time. I’m busy. I’m out with Sian.” I removed my cell from my ear. “It’s Gideon.”
“Hey, Gideon,” she said.
“Put her on the phone,” Gideon said.
“Do you want to talk to him?”
She pursed her lips and then nodded, taking the cell phone from me.
I listened to the one side of the conversation.
“I’m not coming back until we’re ready … I don’t know what he’s got planned … no, I’m not going to ask him … Damn it, Gideon, just let me breathe.”
She hung up the cell phone before handing it back to me.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. Everything is fine, but your best friend is a big asshole.”
“Of course, he is.” I winked at her. “Not to sound like I’m on his side or anything but, and this is a big but, you ever thought he might have feelings for you?” I asked.
None of us had broached the subject of love.
I refused to. It wasn’t my place to talk to my best buddies about who they fell in love with, but when it came to Sian, I knew I’d fallen in big and deep.
When it happened, I wasn’t entirely sure, and to be honest, it really didn’t matter to me.
I loved her. I wanted to take care of her and to have a long, happy life with her. My friends were part of that.
Some guys might look at us and think how weird we were, and they weren’t wrong. On a normal day, I had to look at us four and wonder why the fuck we didn’t each get a woman of our own. We weren’t hurting for female company, or we never were before Sian. The very thought of having another woman made me feel sick to my stomach.
That had to be love, right?
It certainly wasn’t hatred.
“I don’t think he has feelings for me. I’m a job to him.”
“You’re not a job, Sian. You never were.” It would seem my boys and I had our work cut out for us when it came to Sian.
Chapter Five
Mateo
I got the call late.
William and Sian had decided after their trip to the mall to go out dancing. Billy called me from William’s phone, asking for me to come and pick up my buddies before they got themselves killed.
So at two in the morning, I drove to the bar where Billy stood with William and Sian, who were totally out of it. They held hands and stared up at the sky, circling.
“I didn’t see them do any drugs. They just knocked back beer and shots. I’ve got a new guy manning the bar, and he didn’t know when the best time was to cut them off.”
“It’s fine,” I said.
“They didn’t get into any trouble while you were driving here.”
“How did you know to call me?” I asked.
“I did. If any of my buddies were going to come to my rescue, it was going to be amazing, awesome, totally wonderful, amazing, charming, love-him-like-a-brother, Mateo,” William said.
“Yeah, he’s drunk,” I said. I hadn’t seen William this drunk in a long time. Whenever he did, he always got very descriptive.
“Billy, Billy, my man, did you know Sian is my girlfriend? She’s my pretty, beautiful, sexy-as-fucking-shit girlfriend and I haven’t even had sex with her yet.” William put his hand in front of his face.
“Ignore him.”
“My best friend Gideon has though, and now Dante. I’m part of the line.” He wrapped his arm around me. “Doesn’t that also mean you are as well?”
I looked toward Billy, hopefully with a bored look.
“It’s Mateo,” Sian said.
She came up to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “I told William we shouldn’t do shots, but he insisted. He said that I needed to start my new life as an authoress away from everything and tequila is the answer.” She threw her arms up in the air, nearly clocking me in the face as she dislodged from me. “I’m so hungry. We need to eat food. Lots and lots of food. I want carrot burgers and zucchini pancakes.” She rubbed her stomach.
Why did I have to be the one up late to get this call?
Billy laughed. “I’m going to leave both of these talkative people in your capable hands.”
“I’m not a person,” Sian said. “I’m an alien.” Her hands began to wriggle out in front of her, and this time, I did laugh. She began to shake her hips. “I made him laugh. Oh, yeah, you see me, William? I made him laugh.”
They were both dancing to an imaginary beat.
“Come on, it’s time to get in the car.”
“No, I don’t want to.” Sian stopped and shook her head. “Tell him, Billy! Cars are for losers. I want to walk.”
She turned on her heel a little unsteadily and started to walk in a curved line. She moved from left to right, then tripped and sat on her ass.
“The sky is so pretty.”
William was now around my neck. “Dude, she is like totally awesome. You need to see her naked.” He began to laugh.