Page 88 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
“I don’t. . . how. . . wait,” Everly stammered out. “George?”
It was cute to see her in all her beautiful perfection fall to something as silly as confusion over a man. I was sure she’d always had men falling endlessly at her feet.
She drew her brows together and shook her head in denial. “George is. . . George. I can barely stand him.”
I mashed my lips together. “Yet every time I see him, you always wind up next to him,” I said.
“Because he’s insufferable and likes to torment me,” she insisted, making me wonder if she believed her own claim. “I’ve told him to stay away from me, but he doesn’t listen.”
Ryenne and I gave her identical smirks.
“What?” she asked.
She looked so innocent. So sweetly naive.
“Donnie’s gonna be sad to hear you’re off the market,” Ryenne said.
I agreed.
“What market?” she asked.
I bit back a giggle. “The dating market.”
“Donnie wants to date me?” she asked.
Ryenne leaned her head back and barked out a loud laugh. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. He’s so into you. And then there’s George who’s. . .” She fanned herself. “Whew. I’d be jealous if I didn’t have my own sex on a stick.”
“Sex on a. . .” Everly shot me a confused look.
Ryenne held her side when she laughed harder. She shook so hard she almost fell off the countertop.
“How much has she had to drink?” I mock-whispered to Everly.
She held up two fingers. “Two glasses, same as me. How strong are these?” She shot a worried look at her glass. “I don’t think I feel intoxicated.”
Still laughing, Ryenne slowly slid off the countertop to sit on the floor. I shook my head and let out my own huff of laughter as she crawled to us. I pushed out a seat toward her so she could sit on it.
My best friend was wonderfully strange and would probably corrupt Everly’s innocent sweetness before the day was through.
“What can I do about Donnie?” Everly asked. “He’s a good ma—” She stopped to take a long drink. “Man. He’s a good man. I don’t want to hurt him.”
Ryenne waved her away. “You’re not leading him on or anything. He’ll be fine. Well, maybe not fine.”
At Everly’s crestfallen expression, I kicked Ryenne under the table, and she yelped.
“Of course he’ll be fine,” I said.
“What?” Ryenne protested, bending over to rub her shin where I’d kicked her. “Tell me you’d be fine being turned down by someone who looks like Everly.”
I scrunched up my nose. “I wouldn’t expect someone that good-looking to be into me,” I countered.
“Yet here you are.Homelylittle Teddy banging the hottest thing on two legs.”
“You’re dumb.” I rolled my eyes and did my best to hide my twitching lips. “And what are we. . . sixteen?Banging,really? That the best you got?”
“Oh my gosh, Ted.” She grabbed my hands. “You guys haven’t, you know. . . yet?”
Everly looked back at us, eyes wide in surprise and a hint of a blush on her cheeks. Whether she was surprised by the direction our conversation had taken or that I hadn’t had sex with Elias yet, I wasn’t sure.
