“Exactly,” Chris fires back. “Too normal. Suspiciously normal. Like something you pick off a hospital birth certificate wall.”
Tony finally tears his eyes off the hallway long enough to look at us.
“I don’t care what she is,” he says.
We all turn.
He shrugs, completely unbothered. “I’d pay high for that.”
There’s a beat.
Then Mark loses it. “Ofcourseyou would.”
“Without hesitation,” Tony adds. “I have never been this attracted to another human being in my entire life. My brain has shut down.”
“You met her forty-five minutes ago,” I remind him.
“I’ve met people for years and felt nothing,” he says solemnly. “This is different.”
Chris points at him. “Man’s ready to refinance his life over a bathroom break.”
Tony watches the hallway again, unashamed. “She smiled at me. Like… intentional eye contact smiled. Do you know what that does to a man?”
“You’re down catastrophic,” Mark says.
“Medically,” Chris adds.
I shake my head, laughing despite myself.
Across the bar, Sage glances back toward our table like she knows exactly what nonsense she just unleashed by leaving us alone.
And for a moment, everything feels easy.
No mystery.
No overthinking.
Just my friends being idiots and the girl I can’t stop wanting standing a few feet away, smiling like I’m in on the joke.
Chris elbows me. “So if they turn out to be spies or escorts, we’re staging an intervention.”
“Shut up,” I say.
But I don’t stop smiling.
The after-party plan happens fast.
Tony, obviously.
“My boat,” he announces. “Harbor cruise. Let’s go.”
Beth checks her phone and groans. “I promised I’d swing by the firehouse. Sean’s on shift tonight.”
Chris claps once. “Cool, we’re out too. Early meeting at the gym. It’s back day.”
Mark nods like that’s deeply responsible behavior.
Which leaves?—
