Page 75 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“Oh my god, why is that hot?” Barbie said, staring at Alan more closely then looking across at me. “It’s hot, isn’t it?’

I couldn’t answer her, not because I refused to respond to yet another request from her to confirm Alan’s attractiveness, but because his words dragged something else up. He was joking, of course he was, but… It wasn’t hard to see it, my own brother or my father being as protective of me as Alan was pretending to be. My eyes dropped to the creamy turmeric-tinted soup, and I gave the noodles a swirl. I was pretty sure the men in my family would’ve just shoved me at the guys to be rid of me.

“Hey.” A gentle nudge of Barbie’s elbow had me coming back to the here and now. “I know talking about how sexy Alan is makes you gag, so don’t.” She grinned. “Talk to me about how sexy those three dudes of yours are.”

“Not my guys.”

I said that on automatic, but even I thought twice about my words.

“Oh, they’re your guys. They are one hundred percent your guys. You didn’t see the way they looked at you when you first walked in the door. Alan. Alan.”

“Yes, Barbs.”

She went to protest at the nickname, right before he kissed the end of her cute little nose.

“They looked at her like she was prime rib and they hadn’t been fed for weeks. No, no! Like she was a case of beer and a pizza that walked in the door once the footy game finished.”

“That good, huh?” He winked at me, making clear he was just humouring her.

“Oh my god, the keys to Mad Max’s car!” she shouted, stabbing a finger into the air. “The big, shiny black one.”

“The Interceptor? Damn.” He nodded slowly. “OK, so do we get invites to your wedding…” Alan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Weddings? Is that even legal? Commitment ceremony then.”

“Um…” My thigh muscles tensed, my butt starting to lift off the seat.

“Don’t say the word commitment!” Barbie hissed. “You know how Kendall gets when you say the ‘C’ word around her.” She turned to me, now adopting an exaggeratedly calm tone. “It’s OK. No one’s going to ask you to marry them. Just take a breath with me.” She sucked hers in, gesturing for me to do the same. “Big breath in!”

I poked her in the ribs hard, so hers came out in a big rush.

“Stop being a dick. I’m not about to run.” Tell that to my quivering thighs, and not in a good way. “I’m not.”

“That was very… convincing.” Alan shot Barbie an alarmed look. “So, more wine?”

Before I could even answer, my glass was filled and pushed towards me. That wasn’t smart, and neither was me having a big gulp of it, but once I put it aside, I turned to face the two of them.

“But in other news not related to my vagina, I decorated a cake today.”

“Yeah?” Alan helped himself to another one of Barbie’s po pia, only to earn himself another smack. “Chris rope you into helping him in the kitchen?”

“And I served the customers,” Barbie told him proudly.

“Will they have any tomorrow, that’s the important question. Remember those people you yelled at when you were working as a waitress.”

“He was about to pinch my bum!” she snapped.

“He was the aide of the bloody Prime Minister.” Alan frowned. “And a complete arsehole, but, Kendall, you made a cake?”

“Decorated one.” I blinked, able to see it in my head. “And Chris has asked if I want to do an apprenticeship.”

“Is that something you want to do?”

I had Alan’s attention now. He’d tried to talk to me about job security as carefully and politely as he could, but Barbie had let me know he was concerned about my future employment.

“Yeah.” That felt weird, really weird to say, but it was true. “I think I do.”

I was forced to hang around for a few hours to let the wine burn out of my system, so we finished off the Thai food, packed it away, and then cleaned up the kitchen. A couple of episodes of Drag Race, with Barbie throwing her shoes at Alan’s expensive flat screen TV— the usual crazy—and I was good to drive. But right as I was about to leave, Alan caught me at the door.

“Hey, just making sure you’re OK.” He looked back at Barbie, who was in the bathroom, getting ready for bed. “I know Barbs is super excited about all of this. So excited I’m going to have to pop her bubble and make clear I’m not gonna share her with any guy, but… just wanted to make sure nothing is happening that you aren’t one hundred percent on board with.”

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