“DID YOU MISS me?” I ask Jade. She has no reason to miss me; we’ve seen each other every day since I moved back home. If she’s not at the job site, we are either having lunch or dinner together.
“It feels really weird without you at home. But did you really call for something else or just to boost your ego?”
“Ouch. Actually, I did call for something.”
“Oh, really? You need me to weed through more dates?” she asks, and I want to tell her I’ve quit the dating site. I never renewed that waste of a membership after the two months ran out.
“Nope, I’m good. Do you want to ride together to the dinner at Caleb and Kat’s place tonight? I need to swing by anyway to pick up a few things I forgot in the apartment.” I’ve been home almost a month and still have some things there. Nothing important, just a few changes of clothes just in case. Wishful thinking on my part.
Caleb called me yesterday saying he and Kat were having a post-hurricane party or some shit. Now that everyone was settled after the storm, they wanted us to all get together without having to worry about houses being blown away. At least, that’s what he said Kat wanted to celebrate. I would say she was being overdramatic, but it is the truth.
Besides, I have some news to share with everyone. I bought a house. Not just any house, though. I bought Bentley’s house on the beach. He told me he was thinking about selling it for the right price, and I guess mine was it. I won’t even discuss the price tag, but it is worth it. Down the road, I have plans, but for now, I will keep it a rental property. Only one person will be living there, though. Jade loves that house, and I would never have the heart to kick her to the curb.
“Sounds like a plan. What time will you be here? I need to shower and dress,” she says, and my thoughts go south.
“In that case, I’ll be right over. Save some hot water for me.”
“Jeremy.”
“Yes.”
“You’d better hurry then.”
I made it there in twenty minutes. The shower took an hour, and then we got dirty again, which required a second scrub down. It was worth almost being late to dinner.
“See? One minute to spare,” I tell Jade as we pull into Caleb’s driveway.
“We’re thirty minutes late.”
“In girl time maybe, but in guy time, it’s just right.”
“What’s the difference? Late is late,” Jade asks as she hops out of the car.
I wrap my arm around her shoulder as we walk to the front door. “To girls, seven means on the dot. Right?” When she nods, I continue my informative speech. “Well, to a guy, if I say around seven, they know that means at seven, I’ll be getting out of the shower, so expect me to be there twenty minutes after that. On time puts me in the category of desperate. Late means I'm going with the flow.”
“What you’re saying is all those times I showed up on time at your place, I was desperate?”
“Different situation,” I tell her.
“How so?”
“Because it’s the men who are desperate, and if a woman says a time, you arrive, flowers in hand, with the biggest smile on your face or else I would be going home alone for sure.”
“You’re an ass.”
“It’s the truth. Admit it?” She doesn’t answer, but she elbows me away as the door opens.
“Right on time,” Caleb says.
“See?” I say as I give Caleb a shoulder bump man hug then he kisses Jade on the cheek. Jade glances over at me with an evil glare, and I give her a wink back.
“Ass,” she whispers to me as I hold the door open for her to walk in.
Everyone is in the living room, and Josh joins us shortly after. I lean closer to Jade. “The single guys get to be extra late.”
She looks at me. “You’re single.”
Fuck. I rack my brain for an excuse. “But I came with a date.”
“This isn’t a date.”
I called and offered her to pick her up. We had sex twice, so I beg to differ, but we won’t go there. “Semantics. You came with me is what I meant.”
With the gang all here, minus Dani and Logan, the food and alcohol start flowing. Unlike last time, Kat forbids any talk of storms. After dinner, the men sit on the lanai, beer in hand, and shoot the shit. Talk was mainly about business and how everyone was doing. Josh is the only one who doesn’t own his own business, but then again, he doesn’t need to. He lives the cushy life of a rich bachelor and loves his job as a cook at Butter My Bread. The girls are in the kitchen laughing, and I can pick Jade’s out of a crowd.
I slightly raise my beer to her while she smiles back. Josh kicks my chair and gives me a quizzical look. I just shake his look off.
Minutes later, the girls come out loaded to the max with dessert. Me, I’m looking at mine. She’s carrying strawberry shortcake, and I’m thinking she’ll taste better than that any day.
Kat sits on Caleb’s lap, and he gives her a kiss. This is normal for the two of them, but when I see Aly and Bentley doing the same, followed by Lexi and Hunter, I get a knot in my gut. I had that once and lost it. Had things been different, I would have been the one saying something in my woman’s ear, and she would be smiling at me.
“Want some?” Jade pulls me out of my dark thoughts. She’s holding a paper bowl filled a mile high with the cake she was carrying. It takes everything in me not to pull both her and the cake in my hands.
“Sure. And I’ll take extra dessert later too.”
“Stop,” she says.
“What? I’m a hungry man.”
“People will hear you,” she mouths.
“That I like dessert?”
She taunts me by scooping some whipped cream with her finger and licking it off. Only she’s not looking at me, so I think it’s just something she does. But the way her mouth curls around her finger …
“I got some news, so shut up. Go ahead, Dulce,” Hunter says.
“We’re engaged,” Lexi says as she holds up her hand that’s sporting a big shiny ring.
I don’t know if I’m in more shocked that she said yes or that my best friend never mentioned shit about this before. I know we’ve been working on separate projects, but we own a business together so clue a friend in.
Just as everyone was about to congratulate them, Caleb says, “Hold it. This is my house, and you will not steal this moment from me and my wife. So simmer the fuck down.”
“Thanks, babe. I think we need to work on your language, but we have about seven to eight months for that,” Kat says.
“Then you’d better let me get it all out now before the baby comes.”
One by one, it registers with everyone what they were just saying, but in case we missed it, Kat tells us anyway.
“We’re pregnant.”
The girls all get up to hug one another while the boys stand to give both Caleb and Hunter a slap on the back. Times are definitely changing for us. Music is taking a back seat especially now that more weddings and car seats will be in the future. And I gotta say, I’m fucking ecstatic for them. My boy looks happier than the day he said I do. I’m jealous as hell, but they deserve this. That chest I’ve been neglecting in my workshop may have a use.
When I look over, Jade is heading inside. I notice her pace is quick as she turns down the hall that leads to the bathroom. While everyone was celebrating the news, I kept looking at my watch. She’s been gone for well over five minutes.
After ten, I head inside to find her. The bathroom door is closed, and I hear the water running. When I knock, she answers, “Be right out.”
Her voice sounds off, so I turn the knob to find it unlocked. Opening the door slightly, I let Jade know it’s me. When she doesn’t stop me, I walk in to find her sitting on the closed toilet with a wad of tissues in hand, looking like she’s been crying.
I crouch in front of her.
“It’s silly,” she says.
“What is?”
“I’m not sad. I’m really happy for them.”
I push her hair out of her face. “I know.”
“Lexi has been my best friend forever, and Kat is too.”
“They are.”
“Then why am I completely jealous of them? I’m a terrible friend,” Jade says as she wipes her eyes and blows her nose.
I pull her to sit on my lap as she curls herself against me. “You’re not. They know you’re happy for them.”
“I want that someday. I can’t help it. I thought I would have that years ago, but it was a lie. And here I am, living in an apartment, taking pictures of people’s lives and on a dating site. I’m a loser.”
“Then I’m a loser with you.”
“No, you’re not. You have a great house and a successful business.”
“But no one to share those things with. Someday I will, though, and I have no doubt in my mind that you will too.” Maybe this should be my in; I should tell her that we could put all the bull behind us and try it out together. Stop playing these games and move forward together. But, apparently, that’s not what Jade is thinking.
“I know you’re right,” she says.
“I usually am.”
“How do I get that, though, Jeremy? I mean, why can’t I seem to find the one?”
“Maybe it’s closer than you think. What if it’s been in front of you all along, and you’ve both been blind?”
“I doubt it. I haven’t been out with anyone but you, so I don’t think he’s been in front of me.”
You’re sitting on his lap, I was about to tell her when she stands and starts fixing her face in the mirror.
“That’s it. No more feeling sorry for myself. I just have to look harder, right? Come out with me tomorrow night? It’s ladies’ night at Chris’ bar. We are bound to meet someone there.”
“Yep.” That’s all I got out. One lousy fucking word and I had no clue which question I was answering.
“Thanks, Jeremy. You’re always there for me,” she says as she kisses my cheek and heads out of the bathroom.
She might as well have punched me in the gut because the knot in my stomach is growing bigger by the minute. I’m fucking tired of being the guy who’s there for people. Mr. Fix-it. Then I think, it’s time for me to step up my game or move the fuck on. After tomorrow night. Because I will be at that bar, and I will make sure she’s safe. More like that she ends up getting home safely … and alone.