Page 85 of Play With Me

I polish off the last of my beer just as our food arrives. I ordered a Moroccan dish, and it smells like heaven. I’ll be fine, I just need to eat. I take a bite of the piping hot food, dripping with sauce, and nearly moan at how delicious it is.

Then I chomp down into something mildly firm that squishes in my teeth.

I grimace. “Ugh, this has olives in it!”

“Why’d you order an olive thing when you hate olives?” Cap asks around his slider, as if genuinely confused.

“Did you even read the menu?” Nora asks, her lip curled up in a smile. She knows I didn’t.

“It’s fine. I love vile salt nuggets.”

Nora laughs, and it’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. “I’ll eat them. I love salt nuggets.” She reaches across the table and spears one of my olives with her fork, popping it into her plump lips.

Ugh, how is she making olives sexy?

Somehow, we make it through the meal without me ogling my best friend too much, and without inserting Nora into ridiculous scenarios in my head. It helps that I’ve angled my chair so I’m pointing mostly at Cap, and focus all my attention on him.

But then Cap asks if he can have dessert, and when I look up at the others to see if they want to go, I’m suddenly so distracted by Nora swirling her finger around her wineglass, I nod. “Sure.”

“Jude,” Farrah says, interrupting Nora’s hypnotic movement.

I have to fight not to scowl. I promised I’d try. “Yeah.”

“Cap and I—we have something to ask you.”

I snap my gaze to them. They’re looking at me intently. This can’t be good.

“Before you say no, I need you to know the snowshoe instructor say Cap is the best they have seen in a long time. There is a longer, private excursions with the instructors.”

“Overnight, Dad!”

“What?” I’m so confused by this it takes me a minute to understand what I think is happening.

“It’s a two-night trip,” Nora says.

“How do you know that?” I feel accosted.

“It’s in the guidebook. The same instructors as the daytrip they already went on.”

“Are you asking me if you can leave the hotel with my son?” I ask, my voice steely.

All three of them stare at the abrupt shift in my tone. But I don’t know how to not be upset about this.

“Yes, Jude,” Farrah says, lifting her chin. “We are doing good. We are friends.”

Her voice sounds slightly wobbly on that word, but I don’t have time to register what that means. I don’t really care.

“Not a chance.”

The waiter comes by then, asking about dessert. Cap orders something—I don’t know what, I’m too busy fuming.

“You can’t be supportive of this,” I say to Nora.

Nora seems to harden slightly. “I don’t have any say in this.”

“But you can tell me your opinion. You think it’s a good idea for her to take my son away for two nights on some…wilderness adventure? In a country where they don’t speak the language?”

“I speak the language,” Farrah says tightly. She’s getting upset too.

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