Page 121 of Unexpected

“Oh, shit. You’ve got to be kidding me,” she groaned but smiled brightly and waved at someone behind me. “One of my shit kids is here, and he’s spotted me. Now, I have to say hi. Oh, God, his mother is awful. Order me a frozen margarita with salt while I’m gone. Abigone.” She cupped her hands in front of her, demonstrating the bowl-sized margarita she wanted.

I chuckled a little but told her I would.

Just a few tables behind us, I could hear who I thought was the kid’s mother eagerly exclaim how excited she was to see Amanda or Ms. Allan, as the children called her. Amanda returned the sentiment in a voice that perfectly disguised her annoyance at being seen in public.

When the waiter, a young, skinny teenager who seemed less than thrilled to be working the day before a holiday, approached our table, I ordered two huge-ass margaritas and queso. He did not return my smile and merely grunted when he walked away.

I heard Amanda speaking to her student and laughed in amazement. How she was able to deal with hormone-driven twelve-, thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds would always be a mystery to me. But I’d learned throughout the day she really did enjoy her job and had an unparalleled passion for teaching.

She was currently one of two middle school science teachers at one of the elite private schools in the area. Her stories about the students and parents alike had me laughing most of our day shopping together.

By the time Amanda returned, the condensation from our margarita glasses was dripping onto the table and I’d eaten my fair share of queso. Before she even muttered a word in my direction, Amanda sucked down half of her margarita and then scrunched her eyes shut.

“Fucking brain freeze,” she mumbled, rubbing her fingers across her head.

I stared at her across the table with my eyebrows raised. “That bad?”

She sighed and grabbed a chip, scooping up a plentiful amount of the cheese. “She’s one of the PTA moms, so she began ranting that the children should have also received the Monday after Thanksgiving off because too many families travel and should get an additional travel day. I just gave her some bullshit about understanding and blah blah blah.” She took a bite and continued talking around the chip in her mouth. “So, yes, that bad, but also the same old shit.”

I laughed, and we perused the menus. We sucked down our margaritas quickly and decided to order another because why the hell not?

Being with Amanda was easy. The conversation rolled smoothly, and we were similar yet different enough to keep things interesting. It was a good first friend date as I had called it and then Luke had continued to call it when I told him I’d be going with Amanda to find something to wear for our date.

He’d been at my house every evening since the night he told me he would be. It was all oddly comfortable and normal. He got to my apartment around six thirty after stopping at his house to pick up clothes and Sadie. We ate dinner and afterward, he watched TV while I wrote. He not so subtly attempted to sneak peeks over my shoulder, but I still hadn’t let him see any part of it.

Then, after at least a round or two of sex, we went to bed, the three of us cuddled up on my queen-size mattress. I’d thought it would have been big enough, but between a full-sized dog and an extra-large man, I was sorely mistaken.

Luke got up and left for work long before I did, but before he left, he always kissed my forehead and told me he’d see me that night. He took Sadie with him and dropped her back at his house with Josh, although I told him she could stay. Apparently, Josh missed her too much when she was gone all day.

We easily fell into a cohabiting routine, and as far as I could tell, we’d only grown closer even if it only had been a few days; at least we hadn’t wanted to kill each other. And I couldn’t help but admit that having him there every night eased some of the worries I’d begun to have about Valerie. She was unpredictable and the last thing I wanted was to be on the wrong end of her rage if I could help it.

Once the second margarita arrived, and since I was already feeling the first one, I had the courage to finally ask the question that had been on my mind since the Friendsgiving party.

“What happened with you and Josh?”

Midsip, Amanda’s eyes went wide, really showing off the brilliant, deep blue. She took an extra second to take an even longer sip, then, with a sigh, crossed her arms in front of her on the table.

“You noticed that, huh?”

She didn’t seem upset that I’d asked the question but did seem slightly uncomfortable talking about it.

“I noticed that Josh couldn’t keep his eyes off of you and seemed to be directing his thankfulness for second chances toward you.”

She groaned and threw her head back into the shiny red cushion of the booth. She took a deep breath and said, “Subtlety is not that man’s best trait.”

I chuckled but waited for her to continue; I had already pushed enough but was eager to hear more, so I kept my eyes expectant and my mouth shut.

“I’m not sure what everyone else knows at this point, meaning I don’t know what Josh and Reed have told Blake, Devon and James, so just don’t say anything even to Luke, please.”

I made a cross over my heart with my finger as I chewed the rest of my chip. “I swear.”

“So, at the end of July, all of us were hanging out at Reed’s parents’ house. They have this amazing house on the other side of Austin, right off the lake, with a beautiful pool. We go there pretty often and that weekend, all seven of us were there. We hung out by the pool and by the lake and drank pretty much all day. We had so much fun, and before we knew it, everyone else was passed out in their rooms besides me and Josh. We had been on the back porch talking for hours but hadn’t even realized we’d been out there for that long. We were cozy on their couch, just talking about anything and for the most part, it felt like it always has between us, completely platonic and friendly. But then something flipped, and I can’t even pinpoint it, but I know we both felt it. I was especially raw from everything going on with my ex. But then one thing led to another, and we kissed,” she paused for a second, flipping all her hair over one shoulder and playing with it between her fingers.

“We kissed and it was such agoodkiss. Then I was on his lap, and at that point, whether we wanted to or not, neither of us was going to stop. So, we went upstairs to the bedroom I was supposed to be sleeping in, only when I opened the door, the room wasn’t fucking empty. Reed was sitting at the end of the bed with his head in his hands. We were caught red-handed, and I had no idea what to do. I asked him what he was doing there, and after a few minutes of pulling the answer from him, he said he came to find me.”

My eyes had to have been the size of golf balls, and I was mindlessly sipping my margarita, slowly heightening my buzz as she continued.

“I’m not going to bore you with the details of the conversation, and to be honest, I don’t remember them all that well because I was slightly drunk. But… we had a threesome.”

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