Page 99 of The Hot Shot

“At least you whispered this time,” I mutter. “Please tell me this isn’t about Finn being famous.”

“You wound me, Chess.” James sniffs. “This is about you finally getting what I know you’ve wanted since you met him.The fact that I’ve had a tiny crush on him for years is just frosting on the cake. But can you blame me for wanting to know? I mean, come on, have youseenhim?”

“Oh, I’ve seen him,” I can’t help but say, fighting to maintain a straight face.

“Bitch,” he says with a smile.

“Do I have to remind you that you’re in a relationship, James?”

His teasing expression fades. “No.”

I glance at him sharply, and James fidgets with his bow tie.

“What?” I ask, because that fidget never bodes well. “God, did you break up?”

“What? No.” James sounds horrified. He exhales as if pulling himself together. “No, nothing like that... Chess.” He reaches for my hand.

I pull away, my heart suddenly thumping. “Why are you saying my name as if someone died?”

“Chess,” he says again, pained. “I’m moving to New York.”

The words hang over us like a fug as I stare at my best friend in frozen silence. My face feels too hot, my eyes scratchy. “You’re moving?”

“Yes. I love Jamie. I don’t like being away from her.”

“You’re moving.”

I’m stuck on repeat, but can’t seem to snap out of it.

He takes my hand then, and I feel how clammy his skin is. “I found my person, Chess. After all the searching. After empty nights of wondering if I should swear off women or swear off men, I found someone. I don’t want to wait or take things slow. I want it all now.”

“All?” My mouth is dry. I hear him. Of course, I hear him. But my mind won’t move past the fact that he’s leaving.

James gives me a small but hopeful smile. “Marriage, a dog named Sue, maybe even kids.”

James is telling me this. James, who has scoffed at convention his whole life.

James, who once said having kids wasn’t for everyone—wasn’t for people likeus,he’d implied. I run a hand through my hair and find my forehead damp.

In silence, James looks back at me, his eyes wide, his skin pale against the red of his hair. He’s leaving me. He won’t be here if things don’t work out with Finn. He won’t be here if things do. I won’t have him to talk to when I work or when I’m worried.

“Chess...”

I blink out of my fog, and realize James is biting his lip. My sweet, funny friend is in love. He deserves this and more. My chair scrapes over the floor as I jerk to my feet. James watches me with clear trepidation that turns to surprise as I lean across the table and cup his cheek in my hands before giving him a big, smacking kiss.

“I’m so happy for you,” I tell him.

He laughs a little, letting out a gusty breath. “Jesus, I thought you were going for aGodfather IIkiss of death reenactment or something.”

I sit back in my chair. “What, the ‘I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart’?”

“‘You broke my heart!’” James intones with feeling.

We laugh like loons, but inside my heart truly is breaking a little. Change is rushing up like a rising tide against me, and I am unmoored.

Finn

Since I really don’t want to mope around the apartment waiting for Chess to come home from her night out with James, I decide I’ll go out to dinner, too.