I reached forward and plucked one of the glasses of white wine off the tray. “That’s fine. I’ll take this one.”
“That was—” Holley stopped when I glared at her. “Yours. Absolutely yours.”
That’s what I thought.
“I’ll get you one, Holley.” Josh took a step back, but she held up her hands.
“Nope. I’ll get my own.” She scooted out of the booth and pushed through the crowd to get to the bar.
I shot a dark look after her. “Explain yourselves. Now.”
Josh’s head jerked back and forth. “What did they do this time?”
“We set her up on a date.” Kinsley set the drinks out in front of everyone without batting an eyelid.
“My condolences to her date,” came Colton’s dry drawl. He appeared as if out of nowhere and slid in next to me, squishing me, Piper, and London together. “Does he need any psychological help now?”
“At least I have a date,” I snapped to him. “What do you have? Your right hand?”
Piper snorted into her drink.
“My left one if I’m feeling fancy.” Colton smirked. “Well? How did your date go?”
“Why do you care?” Kinsley asked. “You’re not interested in dating. You literally kicked me out of your house when I suggested it.”
“Who made you Cupid?” London questioned. “Are you going to set us all up now?”
“Please, God, no,” Piper groaned.
Josh glanced at his sister. “Don’t worry. You’re not allowed to date.”
Colton cleared his throat. “You lost the right to dictate your sister’s dating life when you started sleeping with mine.”
“Ooh, burrrrn.” Saylor cackled into her drink. “Also, true.”
Piper grinned. “God, I’ve missed this place.”
“Have we really moved on from me and the inappropriateness of you setting me up on a date and lying to me because you knew that if I knew it was a date I wouldn’t go?” I folded my arms across my chest. “This is bullshit.”
“Oh, for goodness sake.” Saylor banged her fist against the table. “Yes, we knew you wouldn’t go, and that’s why we lied to you. I’m sorry our choice was a bad one, but you’ve been muttering about dating after the disaster that was those Valentine’s dates.”
“Speak for yourself,” I retorted. “You’re in a relationship now.”
“With my roommate. It would have happened anyway.”
“You don’t know that,” Colton pointed out.
“Yes, I do,” Saylor assured him. “I’m irresistible.”
Josh snorted.
“Don’t think I won’t hurt you, Joshua,” she said in a low voice.
“If you go on a date, I’ll go on a date.” London nudged me with her elbow. “If it means they’ll leave you alone, we can arrange something for the same time in the same place so if it goes badly, we won’t be alone.”
Colt snorted. “It’s a date with Tori. It’s going to go badly.”
I kicked him under the table.
Hard.
He grunted, shifting uncomfortably.
Kinsley grinned at us. “Really?”
“And nobody other than us is allowed to choose the dates,” she said firmly. “I have a child to think about and, well, you clearly did such a stunning job with Tori tonight that there’s no other option.”
“Fine,” I agreed. “One date, and only because it’ll get these guys off my back.”
“That’s the spirit,” Colton muttered.
“What’s wrong with you?” Saylor asked. “You’re grumpy. Not that you’re not usually grumpy, but you’re extra grumpy tonight.”
I side-eyed him. No, he’d only gotten grumpy since the mention of me dating had been brought up.
Ha.
Didn’t he like to share?
Sucked to be him.
We weren’t exclusive. We weren’t anything. It didn’t matter a lick that I had feelings for him. I knew where our boundaries were, and that meant my feelings had to stay locked in their box.
I also knew I really needed to end our little soirees, but I hadn’t yet brought myself to do it.
Maybe tonight would be the night.
Or maybe I’d pretend to be a little too tipsy to go home alone, thus making him take me, so he could stay a while.
It really wasn’t a healthy dynamic we had going on.
For me.
It wasn’t healthy for me.
But as his thigh pressed against mine under the table, whether intentionally or unintentionally, I didn’t care.
It would come back to bite me in the ass, one day, I was sure.
***
“If you sit here with me, they’re going to know something is up.”
The entire gang was here, and since the karaoke machine had been fired up, Piper and Saylor were currently arguing over who was going to sing Cher’s Turn Back Time.
I voted for nobody.
Colton snorted and sat down anyway. “They’re still arguing about that bloody song. Ivy keeps slipping off to call her mom to check on the baby.”
“At least she’s not throwing up anymore. She’s a terrible houseguest.”
“Who? Ivy or the baby?”
“I’ve never had Tegan stay, but I’d guess they probably both are.”
He leaned back in the booth, looking anywhere but at me. “So you’re dating.”
“Not by choice.” I sipped my wine. “As you heard.”
“Were you going to tell me?”
I jerked my head around so fast I gave myself a mild case of whiplash. “I’m sorry? Why would I tell you anything?”
Colton blinked. “You wouldn’t. I just…”
Nothing.
“Well? You just, what?”
“I just thought that if you were dating, you’d want to end our little arrangement.”
“Colton, we don’t have an arrangement. We call each other when we’re feeling horny. It’s not exactly the love story of the century.”
“Solid arrangement if you ask me.”
“Well, I didn’t ask.”
“I still thought you would have told me.”
“I have no reason to tell you.” I finished my glass in one and put it on the table. “As it happens, I’m not technically dating. Even if I were and it were of my own volition, it would still be absolutely none of your business.”
He sighed. “I guess now you’re going to storm off.”
“You’re damn right I’m going to storm off. I’m not sitting here, listening to this shit.” I snatched up my purse and slid out of the booth, fully intent on heading for the bar, but stopped on his side and leaned forward. “You’ve had a stick up your ass ever since you heard I was on a date, but instead of coming over and asking me an actual question, you’ve beaten around the bush so much that, if it were a vagina, it would have had a fresh wax by now.”
His blue eyes met mine, blazing in the low light of the bar.
“Let me make this very, very clear to you, Colton.” I leaned in as much as I could. “Just because I sit on your dick on a semi-regular basis and make you come like a bitch doesn’t mean you get to say a damn word about me dating. You got that?”