Piper orders a glass of wine, and I end up doing the same, thanking the server and passing her back our menus. When I return my attention to the table, I find both of my friends leaning forward, chins propped on their elbows, and watching me expectantly.
“What?”
“Oh, you know what,” Lucy says with a suggestive eyebrow raise and a less-than-casual head-tilt in Riley’s direction. Piper stays mum but offers a knowing smile.
I sigh. “You guys know we have history.”
“Yeah, but that’s all we know.”
“And it’s going to stay that way.”
Lucy opens her mouth, but I raise a hand to halt her protests.
“It didn’t end well, okay? And I’m not going to say more than that. You know I don’t like talking about this kind of stuff, and I especially don’t want to talk about this.Him.I can’t, okay? I can’t relive it. What I will say is that I’ve accepted he’s back to stay, and we’re working on being civil. Friendly, even. That’s it.”
“Sorry to break this to you, Steph, but it didn’t look just ‘friendly’ to me,” Lucy counters, using her hands to make quotation marks.
Piper nods her agreement. “Yeah, my friends definitely don’t look at me like that.”
I know I’m going to regret asking this, damnit, but curiosity gets the better of me. Seems there’s a lot of that going around tonight. “Like what?”
“Like he wants to eat you,” Lucy says with wide eyes.
“He doesnot,” I argue.
Why do I like the sound of that, though?
“Does too,” they both say in unison and then break into a fit of giggles.
I shake my head at them, unwilling to go any further with this discussion.
Lucy sighs. “Well, I wouldn’t mind being looked at like that,” to which Piper smacks her on the arm.
“What?!” she all but shrieks, cowering away from her.
“What do you mean, ‘what’? Noah absolutely looks at you theexact.Same. Way.”
“You think so?” The small smile that crosses her face is at once hopeful yet shy, and I’ve never seen anything like it from Lucy before.
“Uhh,yeah.”
Lucy looks to me, and I nod my agreement, my own smile one of relief. The focus is off me, at least for the time being. “He definitely gives you a look, Luce.”
She sighs again. “I know.”
Piper huffs out a laugh and then takes a sip of her wine. “If you know, then why are you asking?”
“And why do you sound upset about it?” I add. “You literally just said you wanted to be looked at with …” I search for the right words, not wanting to revisit the whole Riley-wanting-to-eat-me thing. Not with them, anyway. Much as I hate to admit it, I’ll probably come back to that later. When I’m alone in bed. “… hungry eyes,” I finally manage.
Lucy’s face lights up. “Ooh, I like that . . .hungry eyes. Yeah, that’s good. Like the song.”
“Well?”
Another sigh, this one heavily exaggerated. “It’s not that I’m upset, really, more confused. I guess. Concerned, maybe …?” she trails off.
Piper and I both nod for her to continue.
“Noah and I have gotten a lot closer lately,” she finally says with a secretive smile. Then she proceeds to shovel down several mouthfuls of food. Thank goodness she ordered the boneless wings because it appears as though she’s barely chewing. Piper and I exchange an exasperated look. Lucy’s enjoying drawing this out. I wait as she takes a large sip of her drink. She puts the near-empty glass down and flags the server, pointing at it to indicate she’d like another. When she finally turns back to us, her mouth is tipped up in a smirk.
