Theo clapped. “Nice job, Jim-Bo. Proud of you. That’s the most emotion we’ve seen from you in months. Now it’s Griff’s turn.” He slid his knife over to me. “Oh, wait.” He took it back and replaced it with his spoon. “There, that’s safer.”
I huffed. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“It’s the talking stick,” Theo said, like I was a moron for not knowing. “So everyone can get their feelings out in the open without interruption. You go first.”
I sent it skidding back across the table. “I don’t have any feelings to get out in the open.”
Bowen rolled his eyes. Yeah, he definitely had a death wish. “Yes, you do. We all do. Everyone here is feeling some kind of way about something. I’ll go first.” He reached over and picked up the spoon. “I’m nervous?—”
“What do you have to be nervous about?” I asked. “You have your woman.”
“Bzzzzzzzt.” Theo silenced me with the annoying buzzer sound effect he always made. He grabbed the spoon from Bowen. “Griffin, you have to have the talking stick if you want to speak. Come on now. We learned these rules back in kindergarten. Also, no heckling other people. This is a safe space.” He handed the spoon back to Bowen.
“A safe space?” I stared at him. “M’kay.”
“Bzzzzzzzt,” Theo buzzed me a second time. He grabbed the spoon from Bowen once more. “Again,” he said. “You may not speak unless you’re holding the stick.”
I laughed despite myself. “It’s a spoon, noob, not a stick.”
“Bzzzzzzzt,” Theo growled. Oh, I was making him angry. I’d take it as a compliment. It was actually hard to get a real rise out of Theo. “You have two more chances. If you speak again without the spoon, unfortunately, there will be a punishment.”
I couldn’t help it. Pushing Theo’s buttons was one of my favorite pastimes. “What’s the punishment?”
“BZZZZZZZZZZT,” Bowen, Cash, and Theo bleated at the same time. Bowen and Cash laughed, but Theo looked utterly put out.
He exhaled a cleansing breath. “You now have one warning left, and then you will receive the punishment. And trust me, it will be something truly humiliating.”
My lips twitched, desperate to needle him further. But I restrained myself. I needed to know what the punishment was first. I reached for the spoon.
But Theo yanked it back. “Cash gets to pick the penance.”
Cash took control of the spoon. “Drum roll, please.” We all pitter-pattered our hands against the table—even James, though he looked annoyed about it. “The punishment is….” Cash paused for dramatics. “Karaoke.” He tipped his head to the empty stage, the mic stand lonely in the dead center, like it was just waiting for one of us to join it. “One song of your choice. But you must complete the song or take a dip, buck naked, in Lake A while we all watch. Tonight.” It was the middle of January, and we’d seen flurries on our way into the restaurant.
Theo, James, and I groaned. Cash grinned. That fool did whatever he could to bring music into every situation. Bowen just shrugged because he actually had a decent singing voice and didn’t mind the attention. I could sing, according to my mom, but I’d rather get hypothermia from Lake A than do it for a crowd. Theo and James? Completely tone-deaf.
Cash handed the spoon back to Bowen.
“Thank you.” Bowen set the spoon on the table in front of him and rubbed his hands together like this was a real therapy session, and he was trying to gather his courage. “As I said, I’m nervous because…” He glanced at me. So it was about Maggie then.
I gestured for him to hand over the spoon. “You can stop looking at me like I’m going to suddenly freak out that you’re with Maggie. I’m so far past her, bro. All I see is Jules.” At my wife’s name, a pang of loneliness hit, proving it was true. “I promise.” I handed the spoon back to Bowen.
“Okay, good. Because all I can think about is…” He chewed his lip like he was trying to decide if this really was a safe space. “I want to marry Maggie,” he blurted.
It took everything I possessed not to tease, or, as I’d been forbidden to do, heckle him—in jest, of course.
Theo held his hand out for the spoon. “That’s fast,” he said. Then he handed it back.
“It is,” Bowen replied. “Four months. But I love her,” he said quietly, like the words stole his breath. “The forever kind.” He peeked at me.
I motioned for the spoon. “Congrats. Maggie is awesome. I’m sure you’ll be very happy together.” Then I handed it back.
“I’m not going to ask her yet,” Bowen confessed. “I’m thinking we should probably be together for a year first. That’s a good timeline, right?” Everyone nodded. Everyone but James, whose head shook disapprovingly. “But I was wondering…” Bowen glanced at me again. “Do you think…would you be my best man at the wedding?”
His words hit me square in the chest—in the best way. I didn’t deserve that honor. Not even close. James did. Or Theo. Cash even. Or his best friend, Fletcher. But not me—the tool who’d stonewalled him for two years and movedacross the country just to get away from him. Why would he do that?
I had no idea, but the love in his eyes softened every muscle in my body. I reached for the spoon to accept. Bowen held it out for me.
But before I could grab it, James wrenched it out of Bowen’s hand and tossed it over his shoulder, narrowly missing a waiter walking by.
