Jem dimpled. “Surprise me.”
Eric mouthed,Soul. Mate, and lowered himself into the armchair nearest Jem, possibly to start planning the wedding.
“I’ll give you a hand,” Ward offered.
Which meant he wanted to interrogate River without an audience, but that was nothing new.
In the kitchen, he leaned against the counter while River raided the fridge. “Let’s hear it,” River said. “I know you didn’t come in here to be polite.”
“I’m worried about you.”
River clunked a couple beer bottles on the counter and then considered the contents of his fridge, wondering what Jem might want. He struck River as a simple guy, which meant he probably enjoyed beer, but beer was so… boring.
Okay, so was Jem. But that felt like cheating. Phoning it in. River should put in an effort to play the game, at least. After a moment’s debate, he grabbed an orange and the bottle of bitters for an old-fashioned. Still kinda boring… but the idea of subtly calling Jem old-fashioned appealed too much to let it go.
“Because I made a choice to actively stop trying to sleep with losers?” River asked.
“That’s a symptom, not the cause.” Ward crossed his arms. “Don’t try to pretend the loser parade didn’t start with Eric’s diagnosis and the decision to quit.”
You decided to quit, River thought, but he knew it wasn’t fair. He focused on muddling the sugar. “Watch your ego. You’re gonna tarnish your down-to-earth reputation.”
“I just—we never really talked about, like.” Ward made a face. “Your feelings or whatever.”
JesusChrist. “And you thought now’s the time? With my paid fake boyfriend in the lounge waiting on his cocktail?”
“Yeah,” said Ward, his body language and tone broadcastingduhat max volume on every frequency. “’Cause you can’t run away. Obviously.”
Obviously. River poured rye over the ice cube. “My feelings are not your responsibility.” It was possible he’d watched too much therapist TikTok.
“Shut up. You’re my friend. Your feelings matter to me whether you like it or not.”
River snorted and finished off the drink with a twist of orange peel. “That’s heartwarming. Really. But I’m a big boy. I promise I don’t need a babysitter.”
Ward raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly in the direction of the lounge, where Jem had somehow unearthed a set of coasters for the drinks.
River sighed. “I plead the Fifth.” He handed Ward two beers. “Make yourself useful, would you?”
Unfortunately, Ward probably had a point. River had felt that self-destructive urge under his skin for months now. He’d never begrudge his friends their happiness or their full lives, but he’d be lying if he said their decision to quit the band and focus on that fullness hadn’t shone an unforgiving light on theemptiness of River’s life. It waspossiblehe’d been reckless in his urge to fill it with anything or anyone that fit.
Amanda knew it too. That was probably part of the motivation behind her fake-boyfriend plan. The hell of it was that she managed it without River realizing she even knew.
God damn. If Amanda ever set her sights on world domination, they were all screwed.
When he joined the group in the lounge, he found Eric doubled over laughing, wiping tears from his face. He looked up as River entered and promptly lost it again, hiccupping and slapping the armrest.
Ward looked at River, who shrugged; River looked at Jem, who gave him that trademark sheepish smile. “He learned something interesting about me.”
Eric finally managed a full breath, then eased himself back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. “You’renot allowed to Google him,” Eric said. “No one saidIcouldn’t. And oh my God. It was worth it.”
Damn it. That made it so tempting to cheat. Sighing dramatically, River stepped forward and handed Jem his old-fashioned. “I’m gonna guess he’snotan insurance salesman.”
Jem glanced down at his glass, then back up, eyes dancing. “You trying to say something, River?”
“That would count as wasting an official guess,” River said loftily. “Which I won’t be doing until the end of the night, when I have as much information as possible.”
Ward scoffed. “Since when do you use an actual strategy?”
“Okay, that’s rude.”
