Page 59 of Everything After (Everything Trilogy)

Alfie had always disliked Will and hated that I had been paired to collaborate with him back in college. Perhaps I crossed the line with Will, which might have been partly due to me having called off my friends-with-benefits relationship with Alfie at the time.

“Fuck me, would you look at this cutie,” Will bellowed, drawing attention from the crowd in the room. His eyes lit up and he beamed as he checked me out. I flashed a forced smile but silently wished for the first time that day that we hadn’t arranged to be there.

Alfie immediately pulled me close and wrapped a possessive arm around my waist.

“I thought you were in New Orleans,” I said, recalling the last thing I’d heard through the grapevine. Will not being expected to attend had been my main reason for accepting the invitation.

“I was. You can blame this little woman for me being back in Florida,” he said, slinging an arm around Mandy’s shoulder.

“You two are together?” Alfie queried, wagging his finger between them.

“Yeah… long story there,” Will remarked with a note of sarcasm in his tone.

“Does this long story have anything to do with tapping your best friend’s girl?” Alfie’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“What can I say? Things happen.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

“Yeah, we had an affair. It’s not like we’d planned it or anything.

” His eyes flicked to me, and I waited for the ball to drop by him saying something like “You know what I mean” in reference to what happened with us.

My heart pounded wildly in my chest until he spoke again.

“Next thing I knew, Mandy was pregnant, and Neil asked her to leave.”

“You’re a home wrecker and you’re still standing? Still with her? Had the nerve to show up here? I hope Neil knocked you the fuck out at least,” Alfie remarked with narrowed eyes.

Will chuckled nervously, but it had sounded more like quiet strangulation in his throat. “Yes, we’re still together, and we have a one-year-old son. It was a curveball in my plans for sure, but we’ve made it work,” he replied, shifting his gaze to Mandy.

The vibe between them felt stilted, and I figured by the red flush on Mandy’s face and neck, and her lack of eye contact with us, that she was suitably embarrassed.

“Neil and Mandy had a kid, Will,” Alfie admonished.

“Wait a minute, I wasn’t the one in a relationship… and we have a kid now too,” Will argued, then nodded at Mandy like she was the only person at fault, then his focus centered on me.

Fortunately, Alfie wasn’t done and pulled Will’s attention back on him. “Nah, mate. Rule 101—you don’t sleep with your best friend’s girl.”

For some reason Alfie sounded angrier than I’d ever heard him. Part of me wondered if he’d channeled his rage about Cody’s focus on me into that moment.

“Huh. Do you hear him, babe? Anyone would think this guy had morals. Weren’t you and Lily in a fuck buddy relationship while she was in college?”

“Will!” Mandy chastised and elbowed him in the ribs. “He didn’t mean that. Apologize,” she hissed under her breath. “They worked it out in the end, and these guys have been married a long time.”

I glanced around and noticed we’d drawn quite a bit of attention again. Some of my old classmates shielded their mouths with their hands and chatted among themselves, but their focus appeared to be squarely on us.

Knowing the last thing Alfie and I needed was more press about disharmony between us after the Delilah incident, I figured it was time we left.

“Mandy, it doesn’t matter. We need to go.

We didn’t intend to stay. We just wanted to pop in to say “Hi”, but we’ve got somewhere we need to be,” I lied.

Even though we’d only been there a little over twenty minutes.

“You haven’t even had a drink yet,” Mandy argued. ”I wanted to pick you guys’ brains if you came.”

“I’m on medication so I’m not drinking right now. Plus, we were already running late, so…” I muttered, lying through my teeth, but better a white lie that a bigger confrontation.

After a quick, silent exchange between us, Alfie nodded and pulled out his cell phone. “It’s my bodyguard,” he mumbled, gesturing to his phone and when he began to text, I guessed he was alerting Oscar to come and pick us up.

“I was hoping to catch up with you guys,” Mandy whined and glared at Will.

“I’ll find your contact details and call you,” I said, knowing as I said those words that I likely never would. As Alfie led me away, we nodded and smiled at several people as we left the gym.

“They think they’re too good for us now,” I heard Will say, in his effort to goad Alfie.

“Don’t react. He’s trying to get a rise out of you,” I warned my husband as I held on to his arm a bit tighter.

“That guy’s a fucking tool,” Alfie muttered, then took his business card holder out of his pocket as we approached Neil again.

“You know out of all those students, I’d thought that Neil and Mandy were the most down to earth. I hate he disrupted what they had. But most of all, I hate that you spent all that time with him in college.”

“Jesus, Alfie, that was a lifetime ago,” I reminded him, although I regretted it now too.

“Feels like yesterday,” he admitted as we caught up to Neil again.

“Leaving already?”

“Yeah, the air was stale in there. Take this, it’s got my number on it. I meant what I said. I’m going to be around for the next year at least, call me if you want to hang out.” Alfie handed him one of his contact cards. “Maybe you’ve heard already but we live across the bay on Star Island.”

“Seriously? You want to hang with me? I thought you were just blowing smoke up my ass for something to say. But I’ll take it,” he replied, grinning.

“Dude, I wouldn’t have given you the time of day unless I meant it. See you soon.”

“Well, that was a bust. I didn’t even get to speak to Derek,” Alfie grumbled while he sat back in the car seat, buckled up and slung an arm around my shoulders. He laid his head back and closed his eyes until his cell phone rang. “Unknown number,” he said, checking the screen.

“Don’t answer it then,” I advised, frowning.

Alfie smirked at my order, ignored me and answered it anyway. “Hey,” he said. I’d have known Alfie anytime from how he said that word, but I doubted if anyone else would. He switched the call to loudspeaker.

“Alfie, is that you?”

“Depends on who you are,” Alfie replied.

“Fuck, me, it is you,” we both heard the excited voice say. “It’s Neil. I was expecting an assistant or something.”

Alfie laughed. “Now you know I’m serious. Hey, man, listen, what are you doing next weekend?”

“Bummer, I have my daughter that weekend,” Neil muttered. “Not that she’s not my world, but I have childcare.”

“Alright, bring her with you. How old did you say she was?”

“Almost eight.”

“Cool, I have a friend with a daughter just a little older, I’ll invite her over too. Kara could use a friend in Florida, she’s just recently moved back here. Wait! Do you have a partner?” Alfie asked.

“Nothing serious, not since Mandy,” he replied, sounding sad.

“Even better. Not often I get to play matchmaker, but since you’re a nice guy and she’s important to me, I guess the least you could be is friends.”

“Sounds good to me. So… you have my number. Shoot me the details. I pick up Allie at 9:00 a.m. Friday, we’ll be free any time after that,” Neil said.

“Sounds good. I’ll speak with Lily and Kara, then I’ll get back to you.”

Alfie closed out the call and put his cell phone back in his pocket.

“Look at you… what did you say, playing matchmaker?”

“I’m not meddling. I like Neil, he’s one of the good guys, and Kara… maybe she’s finally ready to move on.”

I shook my head. “You never cease to surprise me,” I mumbled, sliding my hand through his arm and cuddling into his side.

“Lily, that sounds like a challenge when you say things like that to me. Don’t underestimate me, I’ve more than a few tricks left up my sleeves,” he mumbled, nudging me away with his shoulder and dipping to peck my lips.

“If you’re good I might even break one of those moves out for you tonight when we get into bed. ”