Page 30 of Thank you, Next

“If a spicy white is color struck, does he still count as spicy?” Jane asked.

Will thought their back-and-forth was charming, and he was kind of curious about what kind of white Jane saw him as, but also kind of afraid of her opinion. “Can we just come up with a strategy for getting in and out of here?”

Jane looked at him through her rearview mirror with a smirk. “You’re fun at a party. I don’t understand why Alex has never invited you out with us before.”

“Be nice, he’s usually working.” He hadn’t expected Alex to defend him to her friend but was heartened when she did. He waited for her to look back at him. She didn’t. She just scrolled through her phone. “This is going to be fun. I haven’t gone to a party at an actor’s house in years.”

“That’s because we’re in our thirties now, and these kinds of parties are for people young enough to do mushrooms with strangers.” Will decided he liked Jane. She was funny and direct.

Lana was quieter than Alex’s other friend, but she said, “I feel like if you’re too old to try cocaine for the first time, you’re too old to party at an actor’s house.”

“I think this is more like a dinner-party vibe, not as much a coke-and-banging type of thing.” Will did not like how wistful Alex sounded about “coke and banging.” Although they’d made every effort to avoid each other after that first summer, he’d known that she’d gone a little wild in college. It had never showed up in her grades, and she’d kept it from Lexi mostly, but he’d always known when she came into the restaurant with boyfriends like James.

“I can’t believe you lost your virginity to James Faherghty,” Lana said from across the back seat, prompting Will to start hoping for death. He would never get the picture of James Faherghty touching Alex out of his mind now. He had no right to hate it, but he hated it.

“He was the first guy to ever finger me,” Alex said wistfully, and Will wanted to scream. “And he was so good at it. He really set the standard. Not all guys are good at that. I think it’s because he had to study piano for that one role.” Alex turned and looked at Lana. “Do your kids want piano lessons for Christmas? I’m sure their future partners will thank them.”

Lana couldn’t keep a laugh in, and Alex looked at him then with a devilish gleam in her eye. He realized then that they were fucking with him. Lana looked at him and winked. “Too fucking easy.” She turned to Alex. “I still can’t believe the first time you had penetrative sex, it was with an actual superhero.”

“He’s not even the best superhero,” Will grumbled.

•••

Alex didn’t know why she was nervous to see James. Maybe because it had been ten years since they’d seen each other, and she’d probably changed more than he had. Or maybe it was because men in the public eye were allowed to age, and women— in or out of the public eye—faced scrutiny for the same thing.

It wasn’t that she thought she looked haggard at thirty, but she definitely wasn’t twenty anymore. She was probably just nervous to see James because he was one of the first men who dove headfirst into a new, committed relationship after they’d broken up.

And she wasn’t sure why they’d broken up. Their relationship hadn’t been that deep—she wasn’t expecting that back then—but she’d felt a real connection with him. She’d snuck into the VIP area of some club to find a ride home because said club was lame and full of people who’d had too many drugs, too much to drink, or both. She’d thought that area of the club was empty—it was an off night—when she heard his voice.

She’d jumped and he’d laughed, but in a way that said he was making fun of himself more than he was making fun of her. There was something charming about him, which made sense. Even back then, she’d known he was going to be a huge movie star. And now he was one of the biggest stars on Earth.

When Jane pulled up to James’s house, there was a valet. As they were stepping out of the car, Alex pulled Jane aside.

“How did you pull off an invite?” Alex hadn’t asked questions when Jane had texted and told her that they were going. She just assumed that it was some sort of Jane magic—or that Jane had some piece of information or a piece of a project that James was interested in. “And does he know I’m coming?”

She hadn’t asked in front of Will. He was skeptical enough of her whole deal right now, and she didn’t think it was a good idea to express her reservations in front of him. Besides, James was truly a decent guy. If Will got a creepy vibe off him, it would be because that’s what he wanted to see.

Will and Lana headed inside the huge contemporary mansion James had bought a few years earlier. He and his wife had renovated the place completely, and it had been featured in Architectural Digest just before they split up.

Jane and Alex made their way toward the front at a much more leisurely place.

“James’s agent is the fuckboy that I was seeing.”

That was a surprise. Jane usually kept business and pleasure very separate. As her divorce attorney, Alex approved of that policy. If she ever got married again and married someone in the same business, it would be a complete disaster if and when they split up. She’d probably have to write in which restaurants each of them could make reservations for lunch at on which days so that they were guaranteed never to cross paths.

“Am I going to meet your new boyfriend tonight?”

Jane made a screwed-up face at her. “He’s not my boyfriend. He was my fuck buddy. And it’s over.”

“Are you sure it’s not going to be awkward?” Jane had spiraled the first time she’d seen her ex-wife out and about after their divorce decree was signed. It was the first time that Alex had glimpsed any vulnerability in her client turned friend.

But Jane shook her head. “Nah. I never caught feelings. I find it’s much easier to fuck a dude without feelings involved for some reason.”

“For you.” Alex had dated men her whole life, and she’d tried to do it without feelings most of the time. But it never seemed to work out the way she planned. Seeing Andrew, Lyle, and even Brody had stirred up all the feelings that she’d tried to keep buried when she was dating each of them. It was strange how much she’d forgotten why she’d been drawn to each of them and how it had come rushing back to her when she saw them.

But she’d also remembered the feeling that she was going to suffocate if any of them got too close. As though she was going to lose control, and that feeling always made her dizzy.

She should probably talk to someone about that.