“Nothing. Okay, good, you’re both here,” he says without taking a pause. “Basically, I need your help. I want to ask Darcy to marry me, and I’m possibly panicking a little about it, and I can’t pull this off on my own.”
“Oh my god!” Lyric yelps and jumps up and down, clapping her hands together. “Oh my god! Oh my god, this is so exciting! How are you going to do it? What do you need us to do?”
“Well, uh, I could use your help with all of it, really. I know I want to do it in front of everyone, but I don’t know a reason we’d all be together that didn’t seem suspicious,” Ridge says, scratching his jawline.
“Right, so we need something like a party that she wouldn’t besuspicious of,” Lyric says. “And you never really host parties, so that would seem odd.”
“Guys,” I say, holding up my hands. “Chill out, I’ll just throw a party.”
“Oh yes, that’s perfect!” Lyric says. “You do random stuff all the time.”
“And Darcy wouldn’t be suspicious because she’ll be too excited about seeing Lyric,” Ridge says, snapping his fingers.
“I really don’t know why this couldn’t have been a text message.” I laugh.
The two of them look at me and then at each other.
“Imagine if you tried to casually text this to me,” Lyric says to him.
“Right, I never would’ve heard the end of it,” Ridge says.
It’s clear to me that they’ve talked about this before, which makes sense. Lyric is a very big part of Darcy’s life. Having the best-friend stamp of approval is very important.
“Okay, well, now that we’ve established contact about it, maybe we can have a group chat for it and work out the details later? You know, when it’s not almost nine at night on a weeknight.”
“I don’t want to poke fun or anything, but that just made you sound like an old man,” Lyric says, then presses her lips together like she’s trying to keep from laughing.
“Yeah, sure,” Ridge says. “Let me get out of here so you can get to bedon time.”
I roll my eyes, we say our goodbyes, and before he ever pulls out of the driveway, there’s a ping from my phone and Lyric’s at the same time.
RIDGE
This is a group chat for discussing Waylon’s frail state. Lyric, please make sure he gets to bed at a decent hour.
At least I know that little joke will stay between these two people. He can’t tell anyone else or he’d have to spill about the rest and letting slip the engagement plans would suck.
“I’m going to go slip into the tub for a soak before bed,” Lyric says.
“Shouldn’t we finish the conversation we were having first?”
“What’s to discuss? You said we can’t.” She shrugs. “I’m a big girl. I can take no for an answer.”
“That’s not exactly how I meant it.”
She’s halfway down the hall when she stops, pulls her T-shirt up over her head, and then continues walking. She doesn’t turn or even look back, just gifts me with the sight of her completely naked back. Boy, is she sexy.
She disappears around the corner, the soft click of her door echoing in the corridor. I adjust my dick in my pants because it’s run out of room. And then I close my eyes and lean over the counter like it’s going to hold me up as I try not to melt into a puddle on the floor.
Great. My dick is hard. Lyric is getting wet in the bathtub. Ihave to throw a party. And on top of that, my buzz is totally gone.
Tater pads across the floor and rubs his face against the side of my leg. I pick him up and hold him against my chest as I let out a long sigh. “She forgot about her dinner, boy. Do you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”
Tater’s head tilts left and he lets out a short bark.
“You’re probably right.” I scratch behind his left ear. “Best to leave things as they are.”
Maybe I can re-approach the subject of roommates with benefits another time. Except why would I be bringing it up after I’m the one who said no? Hell, why did she bring it up to begin with? Is it unreasonable to ask? It’s probably fine, right? Just curiosity. Except what if this was just a one-time spur of the moment offer and I’ve lost my window?
