Kai snorted out a laugh. “If your aim isn’t true, then it’s on purpose; let’s be honest.”
Jay blushed. “Yeah…”
I sent him a narrow-eyed glare. That guy had way more stories than he was letting on.
“So then…” Kai grabbed the bears. “If she’s new to all of this, you go slow even though you’re probably going to be done in like three seconds, thus the need for the other things.” He said it so matter of factly that all of us just stared at him. “What? I’m sexy, all right? My mom was worried I’d be stupid and get a girl pregnant out of wedlock. I had the sex talk—with dolls, so much more traumatic than bears—at the age of twelve. Trust me when I say I was scared of girls for years after that, thinking they’d eat me afterward. She did say they were like black widow spiders. I took it literally.”
Sookie raised his hand.
“Yes, Sookie.” Jay pointed.
“Praying Mantis also eat their partners after sex, or they’ve been known to. It’s a well-known term called sexual cannibalism. Thankfully, unless your partner is into a lot of kink and, you know, a serial killer, you won’t die after sex. It just might feel like it, the French call it…” He lifted his fingers into the air. “La petite mort.”
The room fell completely silent as he crunched down on his celery while we stared with our mouths gaping.
He gave a half shrug. “What? I like science.”
In what world did Sookie know more than me about sex?
Jay cleared his throat. “He’s um… right.”
The bears were still in their embrace when Rae let himself in. We all looked guilty, like we’d just been watching porn. The bear’s clothes were scattered on the floor, and Jay was holding them close while we watched.
Rae shook his head. “Do I want to know?”
“No,” we said in unison.
“Weirdest thing I’ve walked in on…” he mumbled to himself. “Lucas, can I talk to you real quick?”
Shit. No. “Sure.” While I wanted to leave that room more than anything, I preferred the bear stripping to Rae at that moment.
I followed him into the kitchen and pulled out a barstool. “What’s going on?”
He looked over his shoulder then back at me. “Don’t make fun of me.”
“When have I ever—”
He glared.
“Okay fine, let’s not list the times. What do you need?”
“I, um…” He was twitchy. Nervous. And he was never nervous. He’d been calm when we went to the Grammys, and I was puking in the bathroom. “I need to know what foods Grace likes and thought you could find out for me.”
I stared. My nightmare was coming to life.
“Could you maybe ask her?” he pleaded. “It feels weird going into her room and asking her since I want to take her out and— Not dating, I just wanted to say thank you and get her out of the apartment for the night. It would be really helpful. I went over all her social media, and she posted a lot about Italian food, but I wasn’t sure.”
My heart sank to my stomach. Numbly, I got up and found myself nodding. “Yeah, I’ll find out.”
He slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re the best. Oh, and don’t tell her I’m taking her out. It’s a surprise; I already cleared it with Solia.”
He’d cleared it with Solia?
Was that what I was supposed to be doing?
“Oh, and tell her to be ready in an hour.” He slapped my shoulder for a second time. “Thanks, man.”
“Y-yeah.” On wooden legs, I walked to the fridge, grabbed another water, then slammed the door shut.
Immediately, the reflection of the piano room behind me formed in the stainless steel. I stiffened, my eyes drinking in the scene.
Did he see us?
No, it had been dark, late at night.
Had the lights been on?
I couldn’t remember.
But the more I thought about it, the more I knew—Rae was my best friend, he would never knowingly ask Grace out or even attempt it if he knew that I’d been kissing her, that I’d had her pinned against the wall while we tasted each other.
Nope. No way.
Decision made, I went over to her door, hung my head, and knocked.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sort of not a date…
Grace
No matter how sweet Rae had been at the start of dinner, I still couldn’t get the look of Lucas’s face out of my mind.
He’d been very curt.
He’d asked what I loved to eat, and my heart had done this insane thump as if to say. YAY, he’s asking us out, only to find out an hour later that he was setting me up with Rae—not on purpose either.
It was the most eerie feeling, getting dressed up and leaving the apartments without Lucas by my side when that was where I wanted him. I still couldn’t pinpoint how any of it happened, I was drawn to him, and he was drawn to me, and it made no sense. We barely knew each other, and yet it just…