I smiled and turned to Izzie, who watched us from behind the bar. “Two shots of Patrón, please. And keep them coming.”
I tossed my second shot and bit into the lime wedge, relishing the sour sting. What I relished even more was the screwed-up twist of Ben’s mouth that told me he was already struggling. Me? I brushed my teeth with tequila.
“Another,” I told Izzie, and she poured.
“How are youlikethis?” Ben groaned. “I remember thinking you were secretly a Terminator robot, but that was because you laughed when Anna threw herself under the train at the end ofAnna Karenina. I guess it should’ve been a warning sign, in retrospect.”
“Pssh. Anna. So melodramatic.” I held out my newly refreshed shot. “Ready to admit defeat?”
Ben’s eyes steeled. “To you? Never. Besides, I’m pretty sure my friends ditched me a long time ago.”
A cute guy had swung by a while ago to pick up the drinks I’d ordered for my friends, so I’d assumed Operation Help Mac Meet Men IRL was going well without me. “Are they new friends, or old?”
“Old. Guys I went to high school with.”
“I guess you’ll have to apologize for spending all your time with me.”
Ben shrugged. “Eh. I was trying to make it work, but it turns out we don’t have a lot in common anymore.”
“Now that you’re so California?”
“Am not.” He grinned, dimples flashing, and tucked his hair behind his ear. For a split second I imagined him as Clark Kent, but instead of flying through the air, he was riding a wave on a surfboard.California Clark.Ugh—tequila brain.
“I still get along plenty well with you,” he added.
I waved a hand between us. “You call bickering and trying to outdo each other getting along?”
“Is that not a perfect description of our past relationship? If you can call it a relationship.”
“Ha.” I turned away to face the bar. For some stupid reason that probably had everything to do with alcohol, Ben trivializing us was making a weird lump form in my throat.
“Hey.” He laid a warm hand on my shoulder. Surprised, I turned to find him dangling his shot glass with a grimace. “Watch this. You’re going to love it.” He downed the shot and clapped a hand over his mouth, eyes widening, as the tequila clearly tried to come back out the way it went in.
I couldn’t help it. He was right. I laughed.
Ben waved a hand at me, signalingYour turn, for the love of God.
I downed my shot smoothly, cocking an eyebrow. “Another?”
It took him a long, drawn-out moment in which I assumed he weighed the humiliation of losing to me against the humiliation of vomiting all over Olive & Izzie’s. And chose poorly.
He shook his head. “I fold.”
“Throwing yourself on my mercy. Older but not wiser, I see.”
He rolled up the sleeves of his button-down and rested his forearms on the bar, leaning in against my shoulder. I leaned back, mostly because at this point in the night, I required a source of balance. I’d forgotten how hard his biceps were. Ben had always been religious about lifting. In law school, it was a low-cost way to relieve stress.
From what I could feel through his shirt, he still had plenty of stress to work through.
The smile Ben was giving me was one I remembered from countless nights home alone together. He used to do this thing where he picked me up and threw me on his bed, caging me with his arms while I laughed and tried to squirm away. This was the smile he used to wear right before he leaned down to kiss me.
“You win, Stoner. Let’s hear it. How are you going to torture me?”
I was about to answer when my phone rang. Which was strange because no one outside of work ever audio-called me, and it was late on a Friday night. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and saw the ID:Alexis Stone. My little sister. That meant nothing good.
Ben caught the ID, too, and frowned. “Is she ok—”
I held up a finger and answered. “Lex, what’s wrong?”
