‘I don’t know. She didn’t say. I’m guessing she just wants to tell me goodbye before she leaves, although she’s not actually moving until after the summer.’
‘Must’ve been a good night if she’s coming all this way to see you,’ Sawyer says, in a way that implies she’s only coming here to have sex. ‘Is she staying all weekend?’
‘No, and it’s just dinner. Nothing else.’
‘Did she get a hotel?’ Nick asks. ‘She’s not going to drive back that late. It’s too far and it’ll be dark and if she’s been drinking—’
‘Yeah, I’m sure she’ll get a hotel,’ I say, although she didn’t mention it. I didn’t even think about that until Nick brought it up, but he’s right. It’ll be too late for her to drive back to Madison. Should I offer to let her stay with me? No, that’d be bad. Really bad. We’d end up repeating the night of the wedding and I’d fall even harder for her.
‘Kate thinks this girl wants to get back together with you,’ Brody says. Kate is his girlfriend. They’re living together. Kate’s opening a store downtown and when I was there the other day, I mentioned Mia calling me, which prompted Brody to ask his girlfriend what it meant.
‘Mia and I never dated, so there is no getting back together.’
Brody turns to me. ‘I’m saying she wants to continue wherever you left off the night of the wedding. Like actually go out and see if it turns into something.’
‘I thought the night of the wedding was just sex,’ Sawyer says.
‘It was more than sex,’ I tell him, ‘but it doesn’t matter. She’s moving at the end of the summer.’
‘So date her for the summer,’ Nick says.
‘From an hour away?’ I roll my eyes. ‘Yeah, that’ll work. Can we stop talking about this? Nothing’s going to happen with Mia. We’ll go to dinner, and after that, I’ll probably never see her again. I don’t have a reason to.’ I look over at Sawyer. ‘Let’s talk about Nick’s bachelor party.’
‘I don’t want another bachelor party,’ Nick says. ‘One was enough.’
Nick’s bachelor party was in Chicago a few weeks ago, but Sawyer thinks we should have another one here, for people in town who couldn’t make it to Chicago.
‘How many strippers should we get?’ Brody asks.
‘No strippers,’ Nick says, looking at Brody, Sawyer, and me. ‘And there’s not going to be another party. I’m serious.’
‘We’re just joking,’ Sawyer says. ‘Lighten up, man.’
‘Hey, it took me a long damn time to get Lyndsay. I’m not letting you guys do something stupid to screw it up.’
‘She’s going to marry you no matter what,’ Brody says.
‘You’re still not getting me strippers. And I don’t want another party.’
‘Then we’ll save the strippers formybachelor party,’ Sawyer says. ‘Jason, you’re in charge of getting them.’
‘Why him?’ Brody asks.
‘Because he’s single. If you or Nick do it, your girlfriends will get pissed.’
‘And Gina won’t get pissed?’ Brody asks. ‘She’s okay with you having strippers at your bachelor party?’
‘She hasn’t said she isn’t.’
‘You might want to run that past her,’ Nick says. ‘Why are you even talking about this? Are you guys getting engaged?’
‘Not right now, but we will eventually.’
‘What are you waiting for? You’re not getting any younger.’
‘Yeah, if you don’t hurry up, you’ll be old like Nick before you have kids,’ Brody jokes.
‘I’m not old,’ Nick says to Brody. ‘People have kids later now. It’s not like when Mom and Dad were our age.’
