He raised his brows when I gave him a look. “What? It’s not my fault people like me.” He took a sip, ice clinking softly. “Do you want something, or are you using the I-have-to-go-back-to-work-in-an-hour excuse?”
My eyes skimmed the menu, the faint hum of conversation around us spilling over from nearby tables. “Not an excuse.”
“Don’t bother with that. I already ordered.”
I set the menu down with a sigh. “Do you have an ulterior motive for bringing me here? My Spider-Sense is tingling.”
He tried to look innocent for all of two seconds. “Okay, so Mateo has this gallery event with four other artists, and he invited me. I get to see his work, but it’s also a sneaky move on his part to get me out on a social call.”
Right. Mateo. We’d been going in circles over this since they met. Henry kept avoiding him and, at the same time, couldn’t stop bringing him up. And even though I respected his reason for wanting to stay away, he was still very clearly into him, and Mateo was a total sweetheart.
“You want me to go?”
“Ineedyou to.” His expression was practically pleading.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
He grimaced. “They also invited Ash.” We stared at each other. “And plus-one.”
I groaned, dropping my head back for a second.
“I know it sucks, but Aria is going to be there—and a bunch of hot local artists. And free drinks, and you love me and can’t say no.”
“Fine.”
The server dropped off our appetizers and a Diet Coke for me.
“So when is this?” I asked.
“Next Thursday.”
I grabbed a potato, dragging it through the orange sauce beneath it. “And you talked to your brother about it?”
Henry’s eyes lifted to mine mid-chew.
“He said he was bringing Luca?”
Another chew.
“Like… still?”
Henry swallowed. “Yeah, as far as I know. Why?”
I popped the food into my mouth. Spicy. “Have you hung out around them a lot? Are they, like, coupley?”
Henry pressed his lips together. A soft hum slipped out of him, growing louder until he practically yelled, “Ding! Ding! Ding! Alarm bells are going off, ladies and gents. Ethan Bennett has crossed the fucking line!”
I fixed him with a flat look. “It was just a question.”
“Do I need to remind you that you screamed at me that this was none of my business not too long ago?”
“I’m not asking you to pass notes. I just wanted to know your read on the vibes.”
He let out a humorless laugh, stabbing a piece of food a little too aggressively. “No. You want me to validate your claim on him.”
“It’s not?—”
“Ya-huh, it is. You want me to say Luca is terrible for Sebastian, that they have nothing in common, and that he needs to get out of that relationship fast so you can be like,Well, okay, guess I’m going to keep flirting with him then.”
