Can’t tell him the real reason.
This conversation is already humiliating enough, and I don’t need to add to that humiliation.
Nope, I need to come up with an excuse. Something good.
Something that will require my attention in Los Angeles.
“I can’t go,” I say, as if it’s the most preposterous suggestion. “I have... things to do. Important things.” Christ, that’s not exactly what I was hoping to say, but then again, kind of drawing a blank here. I have no things. I basically sit on my ass waiting for my brothers to tell me what to do because that’s how much I despise this job. “Things that can’t be rescheduled.”
“What kind of things?” Breaker asks skeptically. He’s onto me.
“Important things,” I repeat.
“But what kind of important things? Give us an example.”
Huh...
Umm...
*Mentally taps chin*
What could be so important in my otherwise boring life that could prevent me from flying up to San Francisco with Kelsey?
Nothing.
Absolutely fucking nothing.
But that doesn’t prevent me from continuing the farce.
“Appointments,” I answer. Vagueness is the way to go. “The kind of appointments I don’t care to discuss in front of the ladies.”
There. That should work.
Man troubles.
It’s written in bro-code that when a man says he has an appointment he doesn’t want to discuss in front of the ladies, that it should be kept hush-hush and talked about later when feminine ears aren’t around.
“An appointment you don’t want to talk about in front of the ladies?” Breaker asks. “Like... are you having man troubles, dude?”
God, I hate him.
Now what the fuck do I say?
If I confirm I might be having man troubles, Kelsey and Lottie will ASSUME I have man troubles, and there’s nothing troubling about my manhood. Everything is in healthy, working order.
But if I say no, then that exposes me and I’ll have to go to San Francisco.
So... pride or giving in?
Save my self-image or spend two weeks in agony with Kelsey?
Fuck... this is a hard—
Pinning me with a stare, Huxley says, “Tell me right now something is wrong with your dick or you’re going to San Francisco.”
Shit.
Nothing is wrong with my dick.
