“Could you quit acting like Neanderthals?” Jules said.
“Sorry, babe.” Brad grinned at her like, well, a Neanderthal. He and Rodney went down on all fours to help the waitress, and he gave her a grin too. “Sorry, ma’am. You can add ’em to my tab.”
Jules rubbed her forehead. “He is such a doofus. But he’s my doofus.”
“I’ll let you have him.” Anna gestured toward the ladies’ room. Jules followed her.
Anna had dressed for a night in a bar. Jeans, sparkly top, and boots that made squeaky noises on the restroom floor once the noise of the bar and karaoke were shut out by the door. “Rodney’s totally checking you out,” Jules said.
Anna went straight for the sink. “Technically still married here.”
“Don’t be like that.” Jules leaned into the mirror and checked her mascara.
“Like what?”
“Bitter about me getting the better brother.”
Anna was up to her elbows in pink bathroom soap and chlorine water, with jeans that were stuck to her legs, and she was laughing for the second time in five minutes. “No offense, Jules, but I wouldn’t have picked either of them.”
“Yeah, well, look what you pick—erm, what you’re missing out on.” Jules pulled a lipstick out of her back pocket.
Look what you picked. Right. But Jules using her verbal filter for once made up for the near insult. “Yeah, can you picture the in-law Christmases? Imagine the toys Rodney and I could come up with to give you in front of their parents.”
Jules gave her a withering look. “Dude. Did I tell you what he gave us for the wedding?”
Soapy hands or not, Anna clamped her hands over her ears. “La la la, not listening.”
“Exactly,” Jules said with a smirk. “You’d totally tame him. Nothing else with spikes for us.”
Anna shuddered. Sex was great exactly the way it was meant to be. With two bodies, on a bed, in the dark. Maybe next to the bed, but that had to be planned in advance in case things got messy.
Jules fussed with her hair while Anna finished cleaning up as best she could. “Ready?” she asked Jules a minute later. She reached for the door. Jules grabbed her arm.
“Hey, listen. Rodney’s not really into commitment, but I’ve never heard a complaint about hisskillsfrom any of his girlfriends, so if you wanted to” —Jules cleared her throat— “with him, to, you know, get experience with someone else, maybe take the edge off, I’m cool with that.”
Good thing they were in the restroom, because Anna wanted to wash her hands again. Maybe a few other parts too. Moving on was one thing. A pity screw with Rodney—no. Just no.
“Or not.” Jules shrugged. “Your call. Thought you should know he’d be up for that.” She tilted her head. “So to speak.”
The restroom door opened, and two drunk coeds staggered in. Jules’s eyebrows went wonky. “But then, that might be more his speed. God, I am the best sister-in-lawever.”
If she said so. They left the restroom. “You gonna sing tonight?” Anna asked. Brad and Rodney had fresh drinks at the table.
“There isn’t enough alcohol on the planet,” Jules replied.
She slid into the seat beside Brad, who put his arm around her shoulders and tipped a bottle into her mouth.
Anna took her own seat and averted her gaze.
“Disgusting, isn’t it?” Rodney said. He dropped his arm over the back of her chair. A familiar scent overcame the lingering Sprite on her clothes.
Rodney used the same body wash Neil had. Anna crossed her legs. She leaned left, far enough to get the odor out of her nose, which, unfortunately, put her closer to Brad and Jules, who were now rubbing noses and doing something borderline obscene with their tongues. She tried to smile at Rodney. “Like watching my parents make out.”
He guffawed. His eyes dropped to her chest. His tongue darted out of his mouth. “I like funny girls.”
She caught sight of the two coeds and nodded toward them. “The redhead over there was in the bathroom telling blonde jokes.”
His eyebrows looked like two fuzzy caterpillars hooding his eyes. He contorted one in hisgiggidypose, but never once looked toward the redhead. “You’re a funny girl.”
