On His Knees by Tabatha Kiss
Chapter 38
Seth
Drew raises his coffee mug. “To post-party pancakes,” he says over our stacked plates.
I smile as I raise mine. “To post-party pancakes,” I repeat.
We bring our mugs together, creating a dull tapping sound in the middle of the busy diner.
Then, I take a victory sip. To a damn fine party. To an even better after party. To a beautiful morning at Manny’s Diner.
My cheek is still tingling.
“Today’s pancakes are on Jenna, by the way,” I say.
Drew sets his mug down. “Yeah, by the way,” he says, curious, “what the hell was that about last night?”
“What was what about?” I ask.
“You and Jenna.”
“What about me and Jenna?”
Drew twitches his brow. “That bet,” he says as if it were obvious.
Which, of course, it was about the bet.
It’s not like anything else happened between me and Jenna last night.
“Oh.” I brush a hand through the air. “Nothing. We were just messing around.”
He scoffs. “O-kay.”
“What?” I ask.
“Since when do you and Jenna mess around?”
Loaded question.
“Since you wanted us to at least pretend to be friendly with one another to make your girlfriend happy,” I say, perhaps a bit too forcefully.
“Hey.” Drew sits back. “I was just curious. If out-partying each other is how you two choose to bond or at least pretend to, then I’m all for it. Assuming it’s all just fun and games and no one gets hurt.”
“It’s all just fun and games,” I confirm. “No one’s getting hurt over a dumb bet.”
Assuming one doesn’t run his mouth off afterward and piss off the girl in question, but that’s more of a post-post-party pancakes problem. Still not sure how I’m going to approach that one yet.
But I’m not worried.
“Good,” Drew says. “So, you won your bet, huh?”
I smirk. “I like to think we both won.”
Drew furrows his brow, confused.
“I saw Jenna leaving with some guy,” I blurt. “Seemed like a promising acquisition.”
“Well, good for her. And good for you, man,” he adds. “I know it’s been... kind of a dry summer for you.”
“Dude.”
“Not judging,”he says with raised hands.
“I’ve focused on work,” I say. “And school.”
“I know.”
“Hitting the gym a lot, too.”
“And you look fantastic.”
“Thank you,” I say. “Plus, I figure, another year or so, I’ll be drowning in women every night once we open the bar. I’m in no hurry right now.”
Drew nods, his eyes flicking in... an odd way. “Right,” he says. “Hell yeah, man. Delta Xi.”
“Delta Xi,”I repeat.
He looks away, pretending to scan something across the diner as he sips his coffee.
And just like that, I know. I take one look at my best friend and I know exactly what he’s thinking.
Our bar really isn’t happening.