Well. She wasn’t wrong.
Toby brightened. ‘Oh yeah? Lawyer stuff like Anna, or finance stuff like Jessy?’
Laura and Anna started giggling, and I did my best not to look over at them.
‘Something like that,’ I said weakly.
The whole table was laughing now – well, except Toby, but he smiled good-naturedly and shook his head. I got the impression he was used to his friends’ silliness.
‘Patrick here is a writer, but he’s hardly the most interesting person at this table,’ Anna interjected, giving me a look that said much more. ‘What I want to know is, where are my –’
‘Presents!’ Laura cut in with a knowing look. ‘You are so materialistic!’
‘I’m not materialistic! Some of us just have real jobs that earn real money so we can buy ourselves nice things!’ the birthday girl retorted.
‘And some of us have real jobs to buy presents just for you,’ Cas said with a grin, pulling a small, wrapped gift out of his rucksack.
Anna fluttered her eyelashes at him. ‘Aww, you should have.’
Laughter pooled around the table, and it seemed that I’d been forgotten again.
And I loved it.
This was … nice. Being with Jessy was always a good time – when we stopped fighting – but I hadn’t known what to expect from her friends. I should have known they would be an extension of her.
‘That,’ Jessy murmured beside me, low enough that no one else at our table could hear, ‘can’t happen too often.’
I glanced at Anna, who was unwrapping Laura’s present now, and frowned. ‘What?’
‘Not being recognized.’
‘Oh.’Obviously. ‘Yeah, not that often. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.’
‘Good, right?’
‘Derek would suggest not,’ I joked.
‘There can’t be too much that’s bad about being recognizable, though?’ Jessy asked, curiosity written across her face. ‘Other than …’ Her voice trailed off and her gaze melted away from mine. I frowned, curiosity of my own growing. When she looked back at me, Jessy almost seemed embarrassed. ‘Obviously there are downsides. I mean – I shouldn’t have mentioned – I … sorry, I know it must be –’
My complete confusion must have showed on my face, because Jessy lowered her voice even more and said in barely a whisper, ‘The DUI.’
Oh. Right. That.
‘It wasn’t me.’ The words slipped out without me thinking.
I mean, it couldn’t hurt. Who was she going to tell?
Jessy was the one frowning now, and the instinct to tell her the truth, to open this part of my life to her, pushed me forward.
‘I mean, it wasn’t – the DUI. I wasn’t the one driving,’ I said quietly, leaning back against the wall and turning slightly, as though that could give us extra privacy.
It didn’t seem to matter. Anna was laughing with the others about the presents they’d given her, attention elsewhere.
Jessy bit her lip. ‘You weren’t?’
I couldn’t help myself. ‘It was Ben.’
Fuck. I probably shouldn’t have told her that.
