“Yup, they’ve already confirmed. And it’s strictly a girls’ night. Or I guess a single night in Chloe’s case. Not that she’s seeing anyone.” Chloe was still totally wrecked from her breakup and hadn’t found someone she was willing to trust again. But as long as she was happy and enjoyed being single and having a fling every now and then, that was all that mattered.
“I wish I knew someone I could set her up with,” I said. Chloe was super picky and not easy to please.
“Ditto. But most of the people I work with are men and are either married or headed that way. And it’s not like I can come out and ask someone if they’re a lesbian.”
“Exactly. Talk about awkward.”
“Seriously.”
She sat down on the couch. I sensed she didn’t want to head back to her place just yet.
“Everything okay?” I asked. The high of the dress had worn off and she seemed a little melancholy.
“Yeah. Just overwhelmed with everything. I wish life was more stable. I wish I could just think about planning a wedding instead of trying to figure out how to get the company back on track and worrying about Dad. He’s still spreading himself too thin, and I keep feeling like something bad is going to happen.” Rory had a lot on her shoulders. I had no idea how she did it. I’d never had so much parental expectation hanging over my head. If my company failed, it was on me. I didn’t have to worry about disappointing my father. That would just be the worst.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said with a sigh. “If all else fails, Mom and I are going to tie him to a chair, or hide all his keys or something so he can’t go to work. He was doing good for a while, but he’s back at it. Like he lured us into a false sense of security and then snuck back when we weren’t looking.” If Rory was a workaholic, she came by it honestly. Her father was a wonderful man. Her mother was fantastic too. They’d taken me in when I was just a friend of their daughters. They’d bought me clothes, helped me with school and paid for the apartment I shared with Rory before she moved in with Lucah.
“Hey, how about you come with me to Sunday dinner? Lucah’s going to come, but I know Dad would like to see you, and Mom loves to hear how everything is going.”
“Sounds great. I’d love to.” Although, the last time I was at their place for dinner, Ryder had been there and caused a scene when he’d talked about their dead parents at the dinner table. He’d known it would upset Lucah and he did it anyway. I’d thought it would come to blows, but they had sort of worked things out.
“I’m probably not going to invite Ryder, if you’re okay with that,” she said, not meeting my eyes.
“No, that’s fine. I’d rather not have the drama we had last time.”
“Good. So you want to just ride with us?”
“Sounds great.” I looked at the clock and saw that it was time to start dinner. Rory drifted into the kitchen to watch (I was mean about letting her help), and Lucah arrived a few minutes later with Ryder right behind him.
The minute I made eye contact with Ryder I blushed. I hoped that wasn’t going to be a thing now.
Lucah and Rory said hello, and Ryder came over.
“Hello, Sloane. How are you doing?” He acted like I was an acquaintance, and it drove me nuts.
“I’m well, how are you?” I matched his formal tone and it made him smile.
“Doing good, doing good. What are you making?” Lucah and Rory were busy talking softly to one another, so they weren’t really concerned with me and Ryder.
“Well, I thought about sushi, but decided to go for apricot chicken, rice, and a spinach salad. If you want, you can wash the spinach and tear it up for me.” He nodded, moving past me to get the spinach, and his hand brushed my back. It had to be on purpose. I gave him a look, but he just started whistling and washing the greens.
“Guess what?” Ryder said over the running water in the sink.
“What?” I said, stirring the sauce for the chicken. I’d gotten out the portable skillet so I could grill inside. One of the downsides of this apartment was that it didn’t have a balcony. I’d love to have one so I could grill outside and maybe even have a smoker for meats. Someday, maybe.
“I got a new therapist,” he said with a huge smile. “A woman this time.” I felt an instant pang of jealousy, which was ridiculous.
“Does she fart?” I asked.
“Not yet. But I’m watching her.” I wasn’t going to ask if she was pretty. I couldn’t. It was none of my business. So what if she was pretty? What was I going to do about it? He wasn’t my boyfriend, and even if he was, so what if he had an attractive therapist?
Lucah and Rory joined us and started handing out the wine glasses, so the topic changed to the worst movies we’d ever seen, which caused a light-hearted argument.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Rory said to Ryder. “You cannot say that Legally Blonde is the worst movie you’ve seen.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me in thinking that wasn’t a terrible movie.” He sipped at his glass of water. I’d started keeping seltzer on hand for him so he wouldn’t feel left out.