“How am I the one with a bad attitude?” Ryan asks. “You’re the one who got us thrown out of our hotel room.”
“Tell me you’re not still whining about this. God strike me down for forgetting to serenade your dog with Celine Dion’s greatest hits while simultaneously petting him to sleep on the second night of the full moon.”
“All you had to do was play the playlist.”
“If I hear you say ‘play the playlist’ one more time, I’m going to buy the rights to every one of those songs and destroy their original recordings in a fire.”
“That would make zero difference whatsoever. There’s billions of copies of them around the world.”
“And I will make it my life’s work to delete them all.”
“You guys are fun,” I say with a grin.
Beau and Ryan’s relationship is a bit surprising. Beau comes off as very metro—well groomed, well dressed, ready to mingle and probably drives a sleek little sports car. Ryan is happiest in jeans, wants to be home with his dog and has driven nothing but a pickup truck since he was sixteen.
“How long have you been friends?” I ask.
“Since kindergarten,” Beau answers. “Ryan came in the first day of school wearing camo shorts and cowboy boots and kicked everyone in the shins, including the teacher.”
“I did not kick the teacher,” Ryan clarifies, “I hissed at her. There’s a big difference and I couldn’t help that my shyness was misinterpreted for aggression.”
“As you can imagine, I’ve been a mentor to him through the years. He’s always been there for me, so our friendship is one of my top priorities... And I think Cristina’s morally questionable coworker just walked in, so it was nice talking to you both. Farewell.”
Beau is out of his chair and is crossing the room before I can even say goodbye.
“Well,” I say to Ryan. “He seems like a handful.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty much nuts. He has severe shiny ball syndrome but he’s a good guy.”
“I liked him. It’s nice seeing you annoy someone other than me for a change.”
“All he had to do was play the playlist.”
I stifle a groan and roll my eyes. “Hey, I forgot to ask you, what are you going to do about Duke tomorrow while we’re on wedding duty?”
“All taken care of. I booked a dog-walker for him four months ago. The guy is really sought-after so I had to get him early. We’ve already FaceTimed a bunch of times so Duke could get used to the sound of his voice.”
“A sought-after dog-walker?”
“I found him through a highly vetted dog-walking company. He’s going to visit with Duke, walk him twice, play with him, feed him—essentially, he’s going to offer complete physical and emotional support.”
“Lovely, and this is all happening inside my apartment?”
“That is correct.” He pauses as I give him a pointed look. “So, I’m just now thinking that I probably should have run this by you.”
“Probably,” I say.
“That makes sense. I’ll tell you what, if anything is damaged or stolen, I will apologize profusely and pay half the value.”
“You wish.”
“You drive a hard bargain. Hopefully you’ll mellow out a bit when me and Duke move to New York.”
I freeze, feeling like my chair has suddenly fallen out from under me. Ryan looks as shocked as I do, if not more so. I don’t think he meant to say those words out loud, but they’re out there now. “What was that?” I ask as calmly as possible.
He doesn’t move a muscle. He looks like he’s entirely afraid but is trying not to show it. Seconds tick by until he turns to me, seeming to make a mental decision. “I said, when I move to New York, I hope you adopt a more relaxed lifestyle. A stressful environment is very detrimental to Duke’s personal growth.”
My heartbeat drums faster and faster. It takes real effort to keep my voice level. “Just so we’re clear about what’s going on right now, are you asking to move in with me?”
