“Uh… yeah. It was great.”
Geoff gives me an odd look. “What was that?”
“What?”
“It doesn’t sound like it was great.”
I flap a hand. “Oh, it was. It was just a bit fancy. Like, they serve snails and stuff.”
“Snails?” Alex’s face turns green. “You didn’t order them, though, right?”
“Er…”
“Youdid?!” Geoff gapes at me. “You never eat strange food. What possessed you to do that?”
I glance between my friends, gnawing on my lip. I wasn’t planning to tell them that Shane ordered for me, because I know how that will go down. But they weren’t there—they won’t understand that it made sense with the set menu and everything. “I just… wanted to try something different. Oh, and you should haveseenthe champagne he ordered.”
“Expensive?” Geoff guesses.
“Like, unnecessarily so.”
“Well, he was obviously trying to impress you.”
“Yeah.” I feel my mouth pull into a smile as I stir my drink. It’s been a long time since a guy went out of his way to impress me, and it was nice.
“So, he’s rich,” Alex says.
I shrug, as if it hadn’t occurred to me. He is pretty well-off, that’s obvious. But I’m not going to get together with a guy just because of that.
“Wow.” Geoff straightens his glasses, looking impressed. “So when’s the wedding?”
“Ha ha. We’ve had one date, Geoff. I’m not Alex.” I throw her a good-natured grin and she smirks.
“Did you sleep with him?”
“No!”
Alex gestures at something over my shoulder, but I’m thinking back to last night, to the amazing self-control I demonstrated.
“It was tough,” I continue. “It’s been ages—atleasta year—since I had sex. Seriously—”
“Cat—”
“—I’mdyingover here. The sooner I can have sex with Shane the better. But—”
I hear a throat clear beside me and I turn, my eyes landing on Myles.
Oh, oh shit.
Mortification washes over me in hot waves, and I grimace, looking down at the table. I don’t know why I’m so embarrassed—it’s just Myles. Who cares what he thinks?
I do, apparently. And now I could justdie.
“Hi,” I mumble, trying to ignore the heat I can feel spreading across my neck. “I didn’t know you were there.” I wait for him to offer some funny quip, or for his cheeks to push into his usual self-assured grin, but when I look up he’s staring at the table and the tips of his ears are pink.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.” He rubs the back of his neck, not meeting my gaze. “Just wanted to see if you needed more drinks.”
“We do,” Geoff says, leaning across the table toward Myles. “We’ll take another round, please.”
