What the fuck is happening right now?
I shift closer to Denny. “Are you okay?”
Pecan and Alec keep on talking, but I sense Pecan’s attention drifting.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You never share fries.”
“Lies. I offered you one earlier.”
“It’s not like she can’t afford to share them, Zach,” Addison chimes in, because she obviously cannot read the room.
“Jesus,” Callan mutters.
“Addison, I think I speak for everyone when I ask you to leave our booth.”
Her eyes grow big. “You’re not being serious.”
“Is that all she knows how to say?” Callan asks Denny, who snorts.
“I’m being deadly serious. As serious as anthrax,” is my cold retort.
Then, something Freya said to Denny echoes at the back of my mind.
“Lots of the girls who hang around the team are jealous of you, Denny.”
Addison giggles. Like this is not only a joke but she’s some twelve-year-old, twirling her finger around a pigtail. “It’s all fun between girls, isn't it, Denver?”
“I don’t care if it is,” I dismiss. “Not only do I not see her laughing,I’msure as fuck not laughing. Now, leave.”
When no one backs her up, she flounces to her feet and storms off. Then, proving she has zero sense, she pauses, spins on her heel, and snipes, “I’ll expect a phone call apologizing to me tonight, Zach. I don’t know what’s with you today but?—”
“You’ll be waiting until the next Ice Age for that call.”
She treats us to more flouncing before, finally, we’re free of her bitchiness.
Hailey whistles. “Why don’t you stand up like that for me, Pecan?”
He gawks at her. “Huh?”
Denny’s lips twitch. “Yeah, Pecan. Why don’t you stand up for me either?”
As he sputters his way through a reply, I see her peek at me.
What Iwantto do is grab her hand and hold it in mine.
What I end up doing is gently nudging her elbow.
She shoots me a timid smile.
“Why did you let her get away with that bullshit?” I ask her quietly, while the others rib Pecan.
Her shoulder hitches. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does!”
“She’s your chickdu jour, Zach. It’s not the first time I’ve had to deal with them and it won’t be the last.”
