The smile disappears from my face as all the amusement I was feeling dies.
“I think she’s into pricks, though,” Kyle rushes to say when he notices my somber mood. “And I think we can definitely say you are her favorite prick.”
I leave forward and drop my head in my hands, making a mess of my hair.
“Can we please have a group dinner on Saturday night? That’s all I’m asking.”
“I don’t know what the others are doing, and…”
I cut him off. “Can you please find out?”
Kyle lets out a loud snort of amusement. “You’re the one who needs the favor. You should be the one calling everyone to ask if they’ll do it.”
I hate that he makes sense as much as I hate that he has his personal life together while mine is in shambles.
“If they don’t say no,” Kyle declares, “their women will definitely say no.”
Once again, he is correct. I can’t pull this off. That’s okay, though. I can wait for Mona in front of her apartment, and if she shows up, I’ll just take her out to eat. I’ll make reservations at the same place I took her to before. Well, I never actually took her there, I just pretended to be someone else to get her out there.
I realize how messed up it all is as I run it down in my head.
“Ray’s down,” Kyle announces from the other side of my desk. When I look at him, I see that he’s staring at his phone.
“Really?”
He winces. “He has to talk to Hayden about it, though.”
I groan in my hands. I was such a prick to Hayden that I don’t know why she would go out of her way to help me.
“Cal and Evie said yes,” he continues.
I start feeling a little better about things. Maybe I can just take Mona out with Cal and Evie. It won’t be too weird, they’re both nice, I never had any incidents with either. In fact, I think Evie is awesome.
“Zara said yes, too.”
My eyes snap to Kyle’s. He’s shaking his head at me, a stupid grin on his face.
“She really is amazing, and I have no idea why she agreed to you ruining our date night.”
Just then, his cell dings in his hand.
“Hayden says yes, but only if we all go to their house.”
“But that’s far,” I protest. “Mona has to work on Saturday. I can’t ask her to take the train out there after a full day at work. And at night,” I add.
Kyle scratches at his head. “Well, you’d really be the biggest asshole if you asked her out, then made her take the train to the destination.”
“It’s not really a date,” I protest.
He blinks at me like a broken doll. “Then why the hell are we doing this? Just to feed her? Does she need food? Donations? What?”
I wince at that because it hits way too close to what I was thinking myself. I mean, this morning, she didn’t even have bread for a sandwich, for fuck’s sake.
“We’re just…” I run my hands through my hair again. “We’re trying to figure out where we are and what we’re doing.”
“So she wants you back then?” Kyle sounds a bit skeptical but not totally surprised.
The sigh I let out feels like it’s being ripped from my soul. “We haven’t talked about that yet. This is just a… friendly dinner event.”
