Page 18 of The Castle
Dare
Julian:Dare, get your ass to the barn grill.
Julian:Silas is doing car key holy shit
Julian:Carkey
Julian:Stupid speech text thing car key
Julian:Hey. It’s Daniel. My beloved is attempting to inform you that Silas is doing karaoke at the Bar and Grill. We’re pregaming the wedding and you need to be here!
* * *
Caroline (Next Door):Hey, Dare! Having a get-together in our yard. Street might be crowded, but we’ll be done by 12. Come by if you want!
* * *
Mitch:saw your truck in town. dad’s grilling at the house if you wanna stop over
* * *
ExoticJoe:r u hung?
ExoticJoe:wut r u into?
* * *
I clicked my phone off,threw it on the sofa cushion, then flopped down beside it and propped my feet on the coffee table in the darkness. My skin was still damp from my shower, but the second I’d heard my phone buzz against the vanity, I’d practically killed myself getting to it just on the off chance it might be Brian.
A clue: it wasn’t.
So now, while I should have been out at a bar with my friends, or hanging with my family, or hooking up with some Grindr boy, I was instead drip-drying on my couch at eight o’clock on a Friday, wondering where Brian was and what he’d been doing for the last four hours.
Leaving him with Mark had been so freakin’ hard, I’d nearly had a mental breakdown in the middle of Weaver Street while the two halves of me fought for control. One part of meknewthat Brian needed to make his own choices, and if he wanted Mark, I had to accept it or lose him completely. The other half of me wanted to pull up a chair at the table right between him and Mark, just so I could make little comments and touch Brian’s arm and have those magic brown eyes on me every possible second.
Which was selfish and I knew it, so here I sat. Fucking miserable.
I slammed my fist into the cushion next to me, making the phone jump.
The man was just so fuckingspecial, and it was a constant mystery to me why he couldn’t see it. If he were mine…fuck.
Someone pounded on my front door and my stupid heart leaped. I jumped off the sofa, flipped on the light, and yanked the door open.
“Whoa!” an incredibly drunk dude said, looking me up and down and reminding me I was only wearing a towel knotted around my waist. “Guess I should’ve gotten here earlier. You Caro’s boyfriend?”
“Next door,” I sighed, hooking a thumb to the right.
“Oh, shit. My bad. But if you’re looking for company…” Drunk dude wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m not.”
I slammed the door and leaned back against it.
I debated texting Brian but quickly dismissed the idea. I debated opening Grindr but dismissed that too.
I hadn’t exactly been lying when I told Brian I was chatting with other guysorthat I wanted to try dating. But the guys the dating app matched me with werenotthe ones I’d bothered chatting with.
The pounding on the door resumed.