“This is mine,” she says. “Obviously. You’re not new and exciting.” She clinks her glass against Jacob’s and then leads us farther into the house, to the kitchen, where Matty, Erin, and Hunter are sitting around a large wooden island. Matty is unscrewing thecork from a bottle of red wine while Erin and Hunter are chatting over a stack of pizza boxes. I go a little lightheaded with hunger at the smell.
“Thank god,” Hunter says when he spots us. “If I don’t eat something, I’m going to die.”
Heather rolls her eyes behind his back. “Vegans,” she says. “They’re all weak and frail from eating twigs and shrubs.”
“Jacob, this Hunter and Erin,” I say. “And you remember Matty, the guy who vaguely threatened you in Crosswire’s motorhome the other day?”
“Hey!” Matty complains. “I was defending you, asshole. That’s what a good bro does.”
“Okay, please don’t ever use the word ‘bro’ again,” Erin says. “You really can’t pull it off.”
“Like you and the word ‘girl,’ you mean?” Matty shoots back. Then, in an exaggerated falsetto, “Hey, girl, call me later, okay? We can sip prosecco and playCall of Duty!”
Hunter snorts. “Is that what you think women do?”
“That’s what Erin and her sister did all last night!” Matty says.
“Can we eat now?” I cut in. “Jacob and I haven’t eaten all day.”
“Whyever not?” Heather asks innocently.
I pretend I don’t hear her. We all find seats around the kitchen island and descend on the pizza. It’s insanely delicious, even the piece of Hunter’s vegan pizza that I take by mistake, but there’s a certain awkwardness to the silence as we take our first bites.
I shoot Heather an imploring glance, and she sits up a little straighter. “So—Jacob.” She smiles at him. “On a scale of one to never, what do you think the chances are you’ll break up with Travis again?”
I nearly choke on my pizza. “I got you, babe,” my ass.
“Heather,” I snap.
“What?” she says sweetly. “I broke the silence.”
“It’s okay,” Jacob says. “I’m not going to break up with him again.”
“Good answer,” Heather says.
“Can we get that in writing?” Matty asks.
I raise my eyes to the ceiling. “You two are the actual worst.”
“We’re just looking out for you, babe,” Heather tells me. “Well, that, and we don’t want to have to listen to you pine after him again. Months and months of this very sad, very self-indulgent obsession—honestly, Jacob, you should probably run away while you still can—”
“Ha, ha,” I say flatly. The tips of my ears are hot.
Jacob squeezes my thigh under the table. “I can’t imagine Travis obsessing,” he says. “Are you sure it wasn’t someone else?” He looks over at Matty. “Didn’t you chase after a contract with Crosswire for, like, twenty years?”
There’s a sputtering noise. Erin’s snorted into her wine.
“He totally did,” she says, laughing.
“Uh, it was two years, fuck you very much,” Matty retorts. “See, Jacob, I knew I didn’t like you. Travis, break up with him immediately. Go on.”
Everyone’s laughing, and Jacob’s hand is still on my leg. Heather shoots me a little wink across the table. The atmosphere is much more relaxed, now.
Talk turns to everyone’s jobs—Erin’s got a photoshoot coming up in Alaska, and Hunter tells a funny story about one of his coworkers. Matty asks Jacob how things at Crosswire are going, and Jacob tells us a bit about the testing they’re putting him through.
“You’re all good from the crash now, though, yeah?” Hunter asks.
“Mostly, yeah. My hip gets kind of sore sometimes where I broke it, but it’s nothing major.”
