Page 49 of Tips and Trysts

“Actually, she still thinks I’m only in it to fuck her,” I admit. When my friends stare at me, I sigh. “It’s complicated. She hates lying, and I’ve been lying about my feelings for months.”

“…So, your solution is to liemore? Everett, come on.” Lander groans and throws his head back. “Valeria is going to kill you.”

“Can we pause,” I request. “Were you two actually going to let me drop out of the election?”

Lander and Dalton both shrug. “Yeah,” Dalton admits.

“Pretty much,” Lander agrees.

“Lander, you’re my campaign manager.”

“I’m your best friend,” he counters. “So if you tell me you want to be in Congress, I’ll get you elected. If you tell me you want to be with Cora, then I’ll help you figure out how to get Cora. That’s it. I have no agenda other than to be there for you, Ev.”

“Alright, well what if I want to be in CongressandI want to be with Cora?”

“Pick,” Lander answers immediately.

The thought makes my stomach tighten on reflex. I exhale and look between Lander and Dalton. “I’ve been preparing for this since I was eleven years old. I’m not running because I can win; I actually want to prioritize the right things.”

“Okay, great.” Lander bobs his head. “Let’s focus on getting you elected.”

“But I also want Cora so badly that I barely sleep. I miss her and we’ve only been apart for, like, two days.” I exhale again.“And if I listed all the things I’ve done over the past seven months to feel close to her, you two wouldn’t recognize me.”

Lander settles back in his chair. “You know me: I scheme. That’s my thing. If you want to have your cake…and eat pussy too, great. I can help. But Cora needs to know the truth first.”

“Agreed,” Dalton chimes in. “Tell heryesterday. Let her decide if she even wants to be a part of this shit. You can’t have a relationship built on secrets.”

I look to the side. I know they’re right. But owning up to everything feels contrary to what I’ve always been taught.

Cora deserves to know though. “I’ll tell her,” I decide. “I’ll confess everything after the debate.”

Lander’s brow knots. “The debate isn’t until Wednesday.”

“The timing is better. She’ll see me onstage and realize how good I am at this, and it’ll help her…come around.”

My friends exchange another glance. This time, I don’t ask, but they don’t say anything either. Lander takes a drink of his beer and clears his throat. “Speaking of secrets,” he mentions, “remember the time we went camping and Dalton got poison ivy on his hands, and you two didn’t tell me you had to hold his dick when he peed?”

“Yeah, remember, Ev? You had to hold my dick because it’s so big.” Wearing his usual shit eating grin, Dalton waves at me like we’re not sitting at the same table. “I would have peed on my leg otherwise—because it’sso big.”

I tilt my head back and force an exhale before droning, “Jesus, Dalton. Everyone knows you have a big dick.”

“And I don’t know why you waited to tell me what happened,” Lander presses, looking between Dalton and me with an unexpectedly tight expression. “Kind of rude, frankly. I’m a great friend. Anamazingfriend. I would have helped, no hesitation.”

“Yes, Lan,” I murmur, picking up my phone again. I’m decidedly over this conversation.

“I mean it,” Lander insists, jabbing his finger onto the tabletop. “I’d hold your junk anytime, anyplace. So, I don’t know why you guys felt the need to exclude me.”

“Motherfucker, stop pouting. We literally told you fourteen hours after it happened,” I remind him.

Lander pauses, considering it before he raises a shoulder and admits, “Yeah, fair. But it felt good, right?”

“Nah, it didn’t really do much for me,” Dalton muses, shrugging.

Lander’s sigh is only slightly more exasperated than mine is. “I was talking about telling the truth, not Everett holding your dick, you dick.”

“Oh,” Dalton chuckles. “Yeah, telling the truth felt good. Right, Ev?”

I nod. “Sure, yeah.”

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