Page 13 of Controlled Burn
“And what about you?” Fox looked at me expectantly, and normally, I would’ve had some fun story about some cutie I’d picked up at the club, but honestly, like Jaxon, I had nothing.
“Robert’s started building patio furniture out of old pallets. Does that count?” I asked, and then I tipped back my beer.
Fox raised one eyebrow. “Are you finally having sex with Robert?”
My beer went down the wrong way, making me cough. “You can’t say shit like that when I’m taking a drink, and you know better. Not only is Robert completely straight, but he isn’t my type at all.”
They both laughed at the old joke. Robert and I were good friends, and we’d taken our fair share of teasing about how much time we spent together, but seriously, no way.
“Well, unless you’re boning him, it doesn’t count. I want to hear something juicy.”
“We caught Drew with that new paramedic in one of the ambulances the other day.” Jaxon grinned. “She’s plenty hot, but you’d think he would’ve learned by now not to shit where he eats.”
“Now that’s the kind of thing I was talking about,” Fox said with a laugh. “Let me buy you guys another beer, and you can give me all the details.”
Caleb
I pulled a couple of big bowls out of the cabinet and started filling them with chips. I had some mini quiches and some crab puffs in the oven, a few different dips, and an assortment of drinks ready to go.
It was my night to host book club, and while I enjoyed having everyone over, my apartment wasn’t all that big, and I wasn’t a very good cook. It was always pretty low-key when it was at my place with store-bought dips and frozen appetizers from the warehouse store. Not that anyone ever complained.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang, and I hurried to let the book club members in. As always, everyone had arrived together except Toby. I swear he would be late for his own funeral. Something I understood all too well. I’d tried sharing some of my methods with him to help him get places on time, but unlike me, running late didn’t seem to bother him at all.
“Come on in, guys. Toby’s coming. He sent me a text letting me know he was leaving and would be here late.”
“Of course he did,” Livy said, rolling her eyes. Then she shoved a plastic container toward my chest. “Here, I made some cookies.”
Crap, something sweet. That’s what I forgot. I dropped a quick kiss on her cheek. “Thanks, Liv.”
“Any time, sweetie.”
The timer on the oven went off right then. “Perfect timing, guys. Our snacks are ready.”
I went back into the kitchen, put the cookies on the counter with the dips and chips, and then pulled the trays with the food out of the oven. By the time I arranged the quiches and puffs on the serving platters, someone had let Toby in, and we were ready to get started.
We all filled our plates with snacks and poured ourselves a glass of wine before sitting down in my living room.
“So, how are things?” I asked the group.
“Fine. Work sucks, which is bad, and men suck, which is good,” Toby said with a grin.
“Speak for yourself.” Liv rolled her eyes. “My work is fabulous, but ain’t nobody doing any sucking.”
“Aww, poor little Livy.” Toby clucked his tongue and shook his head sadly. She picked up a cheese puff off her plate and threw it at him, hitting him right in the forehead. It fell into his lap, and he picked it up and popped it in his mouth. “Thanks, I didn’t get myself any of those.”
“How about the rest of you? Anything to tell us before we start talking about the book?”
“Nope,” Ezra said. “But how about you? You had a date, right? How did that go?”
I’d hoped Ezra would’ve forgotten about that, but obviously not. “I invited him to come try out the book club next month.”
“Oh wow, so that good, huh?” Jude asked.
“Nope, that bad. He’s a great guy, seriously. I really liked him. He checked all my boxes. He’s smart, he likes to read, he’s responsible, and he has a steady job. He was even nice to the server, and you know that’s a must for me.”
“Okay, then, what was bad about it? He sounds perfect,” Liv said.
“As a friend, sure, but as a date? We had zero chemistry. I mean zero.” I let out a big sigh. “If a guy as perfect as Cole didn’t work for me, it’s hopeless.”