Page 29 of Rebound

“How many times?” Owen asked.

“Three or four,” he mumbled.

“Is he hot?” Caleb laughed.

“Very.”

“And you’re here with us instead of in bed with him? Is that right?”

Ben sighed. “Not exactly. I have plans with him later.”

Lara plucked the last pork bun off the appetizer plate in the center of their table and shoved it into her mouth, looking at him with wide eyes instead of saying a word. He’d known her long enough to know what shewantedto say, though, because it wasn’t anything he hadn’t already thought to himself.

He liked having benefits with Thomas, but the more he had conversations with the man, the more he wanted to be actual friends with him. And while friends with benefits wasn’t necessarily against what they’d agreed to, it was also a slippery slope to the one thing they’d both decided they did not want. And beyond that, Ben still had plenty of horrible feelings in his chest and they were all wrapped around Cody and the way he’d made Ben feel during their very brief relationship.

In the quiet hours he had alone, Ben had on more than one occasion wondered if there was something he’d done wrong that provoked Cody’s misplaced anger. Or, worse, he hadactuallydone something wrong. He’d never doubted himself, what he deserved, or what he had to offer, but things with Cody had changed his opinion of himself in ways he hadn’t been able to make sense of yet. Most likely because when he did have down time, he was thinking about Thomas.

That was the point of a rebound, wasn’t it?

Get over someone by getting under someone else.

He was avoiding facing the negativity that things with Cody had brought into the forefront of his mind, and Ben knew he couldn’t ignore it forever. But maybe for a little longer…

“When later?” Caleb asked.

“When I’m done here.”

“Aw.” Owen pretended to pout, looking at the appetizer plate in front of them. “And that’s so far away.”

“You’re a jerk.”

“I’m your friend,” Owen corrected.

Ben rolled his eyes and finished what was left in his glass. He hoped the waiter showed up soon because he was going to need a lot more alcohol to make it through dinner.

It didn’t take long for Owen to return his attention to Caleb, and Lara to return hers to him.

“Three or four times?” she whispered.

“A few,” he confirmed.

“That’s…not nothing.”

“It’s not something,” he said. “We have an agreement.”

“And what’s that?”

“It’s just a hookup.”

“Is it?” There was the sarcasm-laced accusation he’d expected when she had her mouth full of pork bun, and he lamented there weren’t more left to shove behind her teeth to shut her up again.

“I know what I’m doing,” he lied.

“Physically, sure.”

“I know that you are not about to give me dating advice.”

“I’m sure he’s better than the last one.”