Chapter 24
Koen~
“C’mon, man,” Ivan drawled out.“When are we going to finally meet her?”
Since I was officially obsessed with Rya, when I wasn’t working, I was with her, and so I’d been missing in action on the friend front, and though Ivan understood when you considered how he felt about his wife, that wasn’t stopping him from giving me shit for it.
“She’s not ready for that,” I told him truthfully.“In fact, I’m not sure if she’ll ever be ready for that.”
“Trust me, no way would Teddy or any of them be invited,” he assured me, and while I appreciated the sentiment, I was determined to do this at Rya’s pace.
Now, when I’d first told Ivan that I was dating Rya, I’d told him everything about when I’d first met her, including how Teddy had been a complete asshole to her.I’d also told him that he’d have to choose between me and Teddy in any social settings, though that might not have been fair to him.Nevertheless, I hadn’t cared, and I still didn’t.Not only was Teddy just an asshole, but I’d never knowingly do something like that to Rya.Whether she cared about his opinion or not, I care that he’d been rude to her, and that was enough for me.
Of course, being the best friend that he was, he’d been quick to agree to my terms, but I still had him on hold because officially meeting him might not be a pleasant thing for her.Though we’d come a long way these past few weeks, I was still wary about scaring Rya away.
“Besides, Nitti is dying to meet the girl that has finally tamed the one and only Koen Wilder,” he joked.
“Well, when you consider that there wasn’t much to tame, that’s hardly a feat worth writing home about,” I snorted.“In case you’ve forgotten, I’m a workaholic.”
Getting serious, he said, “Look, it can be just a quiet dinner for four at our place.No one else, and I’ll even let you pick what to make.”
I grinned before taking a drink of my beer.“How generous of you.”
When Ivan had come barging into my office this morning to harass me about Rya, I had agreed to a quick beer after work, but we were officially on our third drink, and it was actually nice to catch up.Though we saw each other constantly at work, this was something different.This was when we could actually talk about the things that really mattered to us.
“C’mon, man,” he whined.“Don’t make me have to tell Nitti that I couldn’t get you guys to dinner.I mean, now that you’re in love, surely you can sympathize with me not wanting to disappoint the woman that I love.”
That got a laugh out of me.“Touché.”
“Just ask her,” he said, refusing to give up, which made him great at his job.“It won’t hurt to ask.”
After a few seconds, I said, “Okay, I’ll ask.”
“That’s-”
“Only because she’s the one, Ivan,” I told him honestly.“She’s the one, and I want her to be comfortable inallaspects of my life, which includes you.”
