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Then James sat down next to Audrey and pulled her in for a long, lingering kiss, and Celia Preston almost choked.
I laughed and threw my arm around Jenny, relieved that I did not ever have to deal with any of this shit.
After dinner—moreimportantly, after I watched James fawning all over Audrey at dinner—the girls went to the ladies’ room. I dragged James to the bar. “Dude,” I said. I ordered two bourbons.
“Yes, dude?” James asked. “Actually—aren’t we too old for that now? We used to say that at Wharton. It makes me sad to hear it come out of my mouth now. It’s like I’m an old-timer.”
“An old-timer who’s ready to settle down?” I asked.
James narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you have to go there tonight,Coley?”
“Fuck you,” I said good-naturedly. I sipped my bourbon. “You know you’ve got an emotional boner for that girl on your forehead though, right?”
“An emotional boner? I didn’t know they existed.”
“It’s like a heart on your sleeve, but bigger and more obnoxious.” I laughed. “And you totally have one.”
“She offered me a crab cake today, and I didn’t eat it,” he objected.
“You’ve fucked her, though. I can tell. Like, fifty times this week I bet,” I said.
He shrugged. “Not fifty.”
I puffed my chest out. “Then Jenny and I are winning.”
“Haven’t you been to work?” James asked me. He sounded simultaneously disgusted and impressed.
“Nah—I took the day off.” I shrugged. “This girl is like a drug for me. I can’t keep my dick out of her.”
James arched his eyebrow. “Does that qualify as an emotional boner? Or are you two just sort of disgusting?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I seriously can’t keep my hands off her. Is that…love?” I hadn’t even considered it.
“It sounds sort of like it. But it could just be lust,” James said.
“There’s definitely lust,” I said.
“Do youlikeher?”
“I’m fucking crazy about her,” I said, the words springing out.Oh fuck. Did I just say that out loud?
James looked at me. I looked at him. Then he patted me on the shoulder as if he were consoling me.
Audrey and Jenny were headed back toward us, both of them laughing. Audrey looked happy, Jenny looked delighted, and they both looked gorgeous.
“Dude,” I chided. It was my turn to console him! “Put your emotional boner away. It’s embarrassing.”
But as the girls reached us, I felt relieved. I put my arm around Jenny, my palm sliding down to cradle her ass. It felt like my handbelongedthere. It felt like it wasmeant to bethere.
Which left me wondering. Did I actually have an emotional boner, too?
And if I did…what the hell was I going to do about it?
JENNY
Audrey hauledme to the bathroom after dinner. We headed to the other end of the restaurant to avoid James’s family and anyone else connected to the wedding.
“Why’re you dragging me out to Timbuktu?” I asked.