“Who’s going to grab our refills?”
“Dibs not it!” Rina shouts, much louder than necessary, before bringing the tip of her index to her nose.
Freddie, Peter, and Eden immediately mirror the gesture, leaving Alexander the odd one out. He sighs, reluctantly getting up from the table to head to the bar.
“I’ve never been good at that game,” he mumbles as he goes.
The second Alexander is out of ear shot, the trio lean in and practically swallow Eden whole.
“Holy shit, Eden,” Rina practically squeals.
“What?”
“Uh, are we not sitting at the same table?” Freddie asks. “You two have been giving each other googly eyes all night.”
“‘Googly eyes?’ What, are we seven?”
“You know what I mean!”
Eden can’t stop smiling. “We haven’t.”
Peter rolls his eyes. “If you two look any more like lovesick puppies, I’m going to have to adopt you both.”
“You’re over exaggerating,” she insists. “There’s nothing going on between us.”
“Really? You were basically dry humping his thigh.”
Eden gawks. “Wasnot!”
“Freddie, baby, can you book me an appointment to see the optometrist because Eden apparently thinks that I need my eyes checked.”
“Guys, we’renota thing,” she insists.
Peter squints at her. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s the truth.”
“You’re not interested in him atall?” Rina asks. “Because from where I’m sitting, y’all seem pretty dang cozy.”
Eden squirms a bit. She didn’t realize how obvious she was being. She mentally blames the alcohol. “I’m not interested in him. We’re just… friends.”
Someone behind her taps her on the shoulder. Eden turns to find a pretty young woman with blonde hair sitting at the next table over. There’s actually a whole group of them, dressed up for a girl’s night out on the town.
The blonde smiles. “Sorry, couldn’t help but overhear. I was actually hoping to give him my number.”
Eden flushes bright red. “Wha—Oh. Um...”
The woman scribbles her number down on a nearby napkin and passes it to Eden. “Would you mind giving this to him? We were actually on our way out. I wasn’t going to say anything before because I thought you two were together, but—”
“Sure, I guess,” Eden says in a mousy voice.
“Thanks, doll.”
Eden’s smile is obscenely tight. “Yeah. No problem.”
Except it’s definitely a problem.
“So, like, where’s he from?” she continues on, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger as she eyes Alexander at the bar like he’s a piece of meat at the butcher’s shop.
