Page 86 of Best Served Cold

Briar sighs contentedly. “That’s so romantic.”

Laughing, Hannah bumps shoulders with her. “You think it’sso romanticthat he fucked her in the shoes she was going to wear to marry his brother? Mind you, I’m not knocking it. It’s definitely hot.”

I roll my eyes, but it feels nice to have friends like this. Friends I can talk to about anything, even the elephant in theroom: the fact that we’ve all slept with Jonah, so we know exactly what mediocre sex feels like.

“He was just trying to help me.”

Hannah gives me a disbelieving look. “You think he had sex with you because he was being nice?”

I shrug, feeling the thought burn into my brain. I don’t really believe it, at least not all the way, but an old voice whispers in my ear,He felt bad for you. He left…

“Itwasvery nice of him.”

“I don’t doubt it, but that’s not why he did it,” Hannah says.

“You’re beautiful, Sophie,” Briar says firmly. “And you’re glowing this morning. We would have known what happened even without Hannah’s invasive texting. Heck, we’ve known he’s interested for weeks. Hannah says he couldn’t look away from you when you were wearing your wedding dress, and he’s kept popping back up?—”

“Because he feels guilty about what Jonah did,” I say. “He’s trying to make amends.”

“Men don’t fuck women to make amends on behalf of their cheating brothers,” Hannah scoffs. “They do it because they want to.He wanted to.”

I think back to last night, to the way Rob looked at me, like I was a feast he wanted to gorge himself on.

“Okay,” I concede, rubbing my forehead. “You may have a point. But he still left afterward. It mustn’t have meant that much to him.”

“Did you want him to stay?” Hannah asks, lifting her eyebrows. “Did youaskhim to stay?”

“No.” I lean back in my chair, feeling stupid now. “But Iamsupposed to meet up with him and Emil today at the park.”

“He’s introducing you to Emil?” Hannah asks. “It’s obvious Emil is super important to him. Travis told me all about it.”

Briar and I exchange a split-second knowing look.

Hannah laughs. “I’m not into him. If I were going to fuck anyone in that band, it would be the one with the weird name, but everyone knows two redheads can’t sleep together. There’d be a supernova.”

“You like Bixby?” I ask. “He barely said two words the other night.”

“Thus the basis of his appeal. I’m done with men who talk a lot. My bullshit threshold is very low. Plus, I’m not into him either. I was just making a point. I’m definitely not sleeping with anyone in your kind-of-fake-kind-of-real boyfriend’s band. Our web is tangled enough, don’t you think?”

I can’t deny that.

“Sure, but if you really want to sleep with Bixby, I’m not going to get in your way. Maybe we can all rebound with the band.”

I’m mostly joking, trying to make light of something heavy.

“No, thank you,” Briar says. “I meant what I said. I’m done with men. Even if I get another cat, it’s going to be female.”

Hannah laughs. “We’ll see how long that lasts. But let’s get back to the fact that Rob asked you to hang out with the kid he wants to foster. That’s sort of a big deal.”

“Yeah, but I asked him for that too.”

Hannah gives me a pointed look. “Ask and ye shall receive. He doesn’t need to give you what you want, you know.”

“This brings us back to him trying to make amends,” I say.

“He doesn’t evenlikeJonah,” Hannah says. “I don’t see him going out of his way to make amends for something his brother did. Look, I’m not saying he’s your one true love or any of that bullshit. But he likes you. He wants to be your friend and enjoy those sweet, sweet benefits. Nothing wrong with that.”

“But why?” I ask. I’m not fishing for compliments. I’m honestly not sure. I’ve acted like a complete nutcase around him,getting on his case one minute, begging him to have sex with me the next.

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