Page 88 of Loved

“That is the sappiest thing I’ve ever heard. I love it. Tell her exactly that. And I’ll cut a hole in the floor and…”

“No. Definitely not.”

“Boo.” He finished his drink. “We need a picture. To remember this day. When we planned your proposal.”

“When I planned my proposal which you’re not a part of.”

“Nah, what I said.” He grabbed my phone from me and took a selfie of us. At the last second, he flipped the middle finger at the camera, and then he texted the picture to Penny.

“What the hell was that?” I asked with a laugh. “Why did you send her that?”

“To keep her on her toes. I gave her the finger so she won’t expect what we’re planning. It’s the perfect plan within the plan.”

“The plan within the plan.” I nodded. “Oh, before I forget, we’re invited to New York to catch up with Matt and Mason. Mason sent a fancy invitation and everything.”

“To his sex club?”

“No, not to a sex club. It’s just a bar.”

“Boo,” Rob said again as we finished our next round of drinks. “But yeah, I’m in. It’s been forever since I’ve seen either of them.”

“I know. It’ll be good to catch up. Speaking of which…how was Costa Rica?”

“The prison part wasn’t my favorite. But the rest was great. We gotta go there together sometime. Oh! Maybe for your bachelor party. Dude, we need to be celebrating right now!” Rob ordered another round of drinks and this time we cheered to proposals.

Shit, how many drinks was that? I’d been so good recently. I smiled to myself. But tonight wasn’t about being good. And I felt in total control of what I was doing right now. “Wait. We need another plan.”

“A second plan?”

“I need to beat the shit out of someone.”

“Tell me more.” He put his elbow on the bar top and placed his chin in his hand.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “This sick professor made a pass at Penny today.”

“What’s he sick with? Is he dying or something?”

“No,” I said with a laugh. He wasn’t dead.Yet.“I just meant he’s gross. He’s all old and shit and a total perve. I can’t believe he touched her.”

“Oh, well if he’s not sick, let’s beat the shit out of him. I just would have felt weird about it if he was really sick, you know?”

“Yeah.” I probably wouldn’t have wanted to beat his face in if he was dying either. Even if he did deserve it.

“Here’s to pervy professors,” Rob said.

I tapped my glass against his.

He laughed. “We basically toasted to you there. Because you slept with one of your students.”

“Penny’s only seven years younger than me.”

“So when you were seventeen she was ten, bro. That’s sick.”

“But I’m not seventeen and she’s not ten, bro,” I said back.

He laughed. “Shall we?”

“Shall we what?”

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