“Jules.”
“Yeah. That one. She had the nerve to hand me her card and tell me to write into her column for dating advice.”
I laugh so hard, I spit champagne on his Brioni suit. Reid’s nose wrinkles in disgust as he wipes my drink off his shoulder.
“That sounds like Jules,” I say after a moment of silence. “Did you take her up on the offer?”
“No,” Reid snaps. “She’s arrogant and annoying. Who the hell does she think she is? I don’t need her help meeting women.”
“I’m guessing you were your usual ray of sunshine self when you met.”
He shoves a hand through his dark hair, his eyes on the women across the room, measuring Stefan and Marco for their tuxedos. “She yelled at me for sitting on her stool. Apparently, Juliet Frost thinks every stool at The Fox Hole belongs to her.”
“I told Harley to pair you and Jules together for the wedding.”
“Don’t you dare,” he growls. “Anyone but her.” He shakes his head, tugging at the ends of his hair. “She’s so…”
Reid has a crush on Jules. He’s never acted like this before with another woman. This should be an interesting wedding. We have two bets going for Harley and me. One for the best man. And a whole lot of love-hate and sexual tension between friends and co-workers.
I type out a quick text to Harley, telling her to match Jules and Reid together. Harley mentioned the pairing to me earlier, and I told her I didn’t care. But now, after seeing Reid’s reaction to Jules, I have to see how this unfolds.
“Yo!” Parker says as he pockets his cell phone. “When did you get here?”
“A few drinks ago.”
“Oh.” He glances down at the almost full glass in his hand. “I guess I’m behind. Jess wouldn’t stop talking my ear off.”
I raise my glass, gesturing for him to drink with me, and he does.
“What’s she bitching about now?” Reid growls.
“She couldn’t find her iPad,” Parker says, refilling his glass. “Then, she lost her laptop. It was under her bed. I swear it’s like I need to put a tracking device on her shit.”
Parker and Jess share an apartment, but he’s more like a caretaker with how much he has to help her.
“That girl needs to be on meds,” Reid says with zero emotion.
“Hey, don’t talk about Jess like that,” Parker snaps. “She’s been through a lot.”
“So have you,” Reid points out. “But you don’t fall apart every time you have to act like an adult.”
“Leave it alone,” Parker shouts, flinging his hand out. “Don’t fucking talk about Jess.”
Jess is like Parker’s wife without the benefits. He takes his relationship with her seriously. Even though Jess could use a good therapist and some medication, Parker will always baby her.
“You’re in a mood today,” I say to Reid. “Why don’t you crawl out of all of our asses?”
He pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers and sighs. “Long day.”
“Because of Jules?” I wiggle my eyebrows, which earns me a nasty look.
“Yeah, I guess. I wish I could fire her.”
Parker drops into the chair across from Reid, glaring at him. But his focus is ripped away from the conversation by a text message. He groans as he reads it. “Dammit, Jess.” Annoyed, he lifts the half-full bottle of champagne from the table, gulping it down in one long swig.
“Why would you fire her?” I ask Reid. “Jules is the top dating expert in the country. No one knows love like The Date Diva, right?”
Reid frowns at my use of the tagline for Jules’ column. “That’s why I can’t fire her.”
“What did she do?”
He blows out a deep breath. “She’s just so…”
“Distracting,” I offer.
“You like her,” Parker says with laughter in his tone. “Wow, Reid likes a woman. How about that? I didn’t think you liked anyone.”
“No, I don’t,” Reid grunts, crossing his arms over his chest. “She’s my employee.”
“Since when does that stop you?” Parker challenges with a wicked grin plastered on his face.
Reid ignores him.
Stefan slaps me on the back. “You’re up, big bro.”
I glance over my shoulder at the women standing behind Stefan.
“We have room for two more,” the blonde says.
“I volunteer as tribute,” Parker says as he gets up from the chair.
Alec plops down in Parker’s chair, revealing colorful sleeves of tattoos as he leans back and pounds the rest of the champagne from the bottle. “What’s up with the pussy drinks? We need something stronger than this shit. Who wants to go to The Fox Hole after this?”
A resounding yes echoes through the room.
Chapter Sixteen
Harley
Our private bridal suite is a mess. Callie and Lola tore through every rack in the store, adding dresses to the oversized ottoman at the center of the room until they spilled onto the floor. All of the colors and styles are wrong for my wedding. In fact, they look like they’re from another decade.