Page 144 of Due Diligence

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After the wine had long run out and our parents had dispersed to their different hotels for the night (with plans to go on a group trip to the freaking Statue of Liberty—of all places—the next morning), Alex was the last one to leave. He and Marcus had somehow gotten into a rousing game of darts on the dartboard in our living room. When I really couldn’t handle them tipsily shouting profanities at each other anymore, I got up, took a dart from Alex, and immediately threw a bullseye.

“What the fuck?” Alex questioned, frowning at the dartboard. “Was that luck?”

“Please,” I responded. “While you and Marcus were spending money on bottle service at rooftop hotels, I was absolutelycrushing itin dive bars.”

“That’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen you do,” Marcus muttered from his spot a few feet away. His eyes looked me up and down once. “Can you do it again?”

“And that’s my cue to leave,” Alex declared briskly. He grabbed his coat and headed towards the door. “Hey, boss, I’m going tohave another demo ready on Monday. Do you want to come over to my place to do it, or should I come over here?”

“You come here. I’ve told you plenty of times—we’re not working at your place until you buy a coffee maker,” I said.

“Pay me more,” was his cheeky response. “Alright, bye lovebirds. I’ll see you two on Monday.”

Once Alex was gone, Marcus let me put onRosemary’s Babywhile he cleaned up the kitchen. When he was done, he joined me in our bedroom, where Frank and Sammy were napping by me.

He climbed into the bed behind me and wrapped his arm over me. As he settled in, I paused the movie and I turned to face him. “Did you have fun tonight?” I asked.

“I did,” he said. “All our parents in one room, celebrating our first round of funding. Last time this happened, it was just Alex and me and his parents took us to the Red Lobster on the New Jersey Turnpike.”

“That’s so funny,” I murmured. “Makes me kind of wish we had ordered Red Lobster.”

“Next round,” he promised. “Because there will be more rounds. I swear it. I’m going to make your company unstoppable, Cass.”

“I know.” I leaned forward to give him a slow, appreciative kiss. “Of course I know.”

He smiled as he rested his cheek on the pillow. “Do you love me?”

“Honestly, I probably love you a little too much,” I responded. I reached out and fisted his t-shirt so I could pull him closer to me. “It’s probably all going to your head.”

“How could it not?” he responded. He lowered his hand to my ass. “I love you too, Cass.”

We kissed for a few minutes, staying comfortable in that position instead of taking it any further. Sometimes we did that.Sometimes we just kissed each other and showered each other with affection instead of fucking like rabbits (although that was also a fairly common occurrence for us).

“Guess what today is,” he murmured when we came up for air.

“Friday?”

“Close,” he responded. “Actually, no. You’re not even remotely close.”

“Ass.”

He chuckled. “Today is the eleven-year anniversary of the time we got into that fight in college, and you insulted me to my very core, and then I insulted you back, so you threw a beer in my face.”

He delivered this update so quickly and casually, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“It is?”

He nodded. “But you knew that, didn’t you?”

Of course I did. “Do you forgive me?”

“Only if you forgive me,” he responded. “And for the record, I know you’ve forgiven me. Either that, or you’ve taken the concept of hate sex to a whole new level.”

“I never hated you,” I said. “I never could. Even when I tried, even when I said I did, I was trying to cover how I really felt. I always liked you, Marcus. From the first moment I saw you, I liked you. Obviously I had a weird way of showing it…”

“It was kind of hot,” he said.

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