Page 33 of Never Say Yes To Your Best Friend (I said Yes)

Connor isn’t going to let me speak for him, and he’s sure as hell not going to let me apologize for him, either. “When you live in this income bracket, parents push for marriage. That’s what they do. They want a suitable suitor that ticks all their boxes. You learn to live with that, and you learn to be happy becauseyou know it’s always coming. But you can always do what most people do, and even if you hate your life and your partner, you can always live for your children. Wait, I guess most people don’t do that. Most people just pretend their kids don’t exist until they have to get real about their own mortality, and then they get worried about where all their money and their empire is going to end up.”

“Ouch,” Genevieve hisses. “That’s bleak.”

“The fact that you don’t think so makes you either a total dreamer unwilling to face reality, or it makes you a spoiled little socialite who’s given everything by mommy and daddy.”

“Mmm, no. I’ve never been pushed into being anything other than who I am. Would they have liked me to be a doctor? Yes. But are they perfectly fine with me having a huge passion for nursing and loving my job even though I was initially going to be a surgeon? Yes. Do they want me to find someone and be happy on my own terms? Maybe I do get a gentle push from them every now and then, but we did talk about that, and they understand that even trying to set me up isn’t okay. My parents are different from yours. We have money, but my dad is first-generation rich.”

“Ahh.” Connor’s eyes track to Evilla. “That explains the friendship then. It was the one thing I couldn’t figure out. I get it now. Remnants from an old world.”

“Connor.” I scrub a hand over my face, wishing it could erase the embarrassment. “I wouldn’t have brought you if I knew you were going to be not-so-positive. This crab place is special. It’s not where we go to insult the way other people live their lives.” The instinct I have to beat him upside the head with a crab leg that hasn’t even arrived yet since that’s the main course is so strong that I’m barely able to repress it.

“Old world remnants isn’t an acceptable term for people?” Evilla is all her usual sass. I can’t believe she’s not mad since I’mmore than offended on her behalf. I’ve never heard Connor say anything like that before. Hedoesn’tsay things like that. I wish I could privately ask him what the hell is going on.

“We should just face it.” Connor isn’t at all deterred. “We’re only here right now, enjoying the fine crab accouterments of this place because the lady Genevieve’s parents and your parents, Mont, tried to match you both up in exactly the way I stated. They wanted you to have a lovely society marriage. They were ticking boxes, and it seemed like you’d both be a good fit. But then, panic ensued, and chaos happened, and you met Evilla through duplicitous means. It wasn’t real. You, Mont, were half darn well pissed and half intrigued, so you did the first rational thing you could think of doing. You tried to ruin her life. You wanted to make her pay. But you also couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing her again.

“This lovely flower, one that doesn’t grow in the gardens you’re accustomed to. It was like finding that flower in the wild, in a dream. You wanted so badly to pluck the flower and study it, to have it for yourself. The rebel in you said no to the society bullshit, and now you’re lost. You’re wandering around, completely out of touch. You’ve decided that nothing in your life will satisfy you other than becoming a man and manning up, manning down, and manning all over the world in a mad search to find your man self, all while what you really want is right here. You just can’t admit it because it’s not supposed to be real. You’re making a good game of it, but we all see right through you. You didn’t have the slightest interest in pudding. What you really wanted is that rare dream flower, but said flower couldn’t be bought. Not for all the money in the world. There.” Then, Connor sits back, looking rather pleased with himself. “I’ve saved you all a great deal of time and trouble. How hard was it to just put it out there? We were all thinking it.”

I can’t deal with this. I can’t look anywhere. I can feel the heat of three different sets of eyes on me, and I want to disappear into a mash of crab stews and legs, andoh my fucking god, this was the worst idea of any ideas I ever conceived.I mean the whole of it.

Having it all put out there like that, in the glaring light of day, makes me sound like a villain. And not the hot, shady kind everyone secretly or not-so-secretly pines for.

“Umm…” Genevieve is a rockstar. She hasn’t lost her composure in the least. “I say we eat more crab and talk less crabby nonsense, and then we should all go for a walk on the beach. Evilla and Mont can pair off because they obviously like each other, and you and I can have a long discussion about the finer points of subtlety, which can then branch off into a discussion of whose ass I have to kick because someone obviously hurt you, and that’s not okay. The start will be rocky, but we’ll figure out that we can be friends. You’ll find that I’m a great listener, I promise.”

“Alright, my adorable, brave snake charmer. I’ll take you up on that walk. But not the beach because it’s so unbelievably token and sappy. If you want to listen to my brand of poison, you’ll have to do it somewhere much more metropolitan.”

“Oh, good. I can hardly wait,” Genevieve responds.

“Why wait? We could go now. We wouldn’t even have to pretend to like crabs when, secretly, we detest them and all they stand for.”

Genevieve shoots Evilla a look that asks if she’ll be okay if she takes one for the team and leaves with my incredibly toxic friend right now just to spare everyone else another dumpster fire and a burning heap of humiliation. And then she gives Evilla a look within a look that seems to say she doesn’t feel like she’s taking one for the team at all. Does she secretly enjoy rude people?

“By all means, I’ll just bail on my bestie here to satisfy your timeline.”

Ha. Good for her. I like that sass runs in the friendship.

Evilla reaches over and sets her hand on top of Genevieve’s. A look passes between them, one that’s all secret best friend code that I can’t crack.

“Alright then.” Genevieve leans against Evilla, who slides out of the booth to let her out. “I guess we’re going now.” She picks through the tray of appetizers and takes a few crab sticks, a crab leg, a mysterious ball I haven’t tried, as well as a stuffed hot pepper with crab meat and cheese. “But you owe me a crab milkshake.”

“It’s a crab banana split,” Evilla corrects as she arranges herself back into the booth. Her face saysyou don’t have to do this since the guy is probably a sociopath.

But Genevieve’s face says,I’m doing this, and you’re going to be fine. I care about you, I want you to be happy, and things will work out for all of us, I promise.Also, she gives a nose wrinkle that seems to confirm she can handle herself, sociopath or not.

Connor isn’t a sociopath. Most of the time, he’s perfectly nice. Something must have happened. Something huge. He’s brutally honest, but generally, he cloaks it in a funny way that’s manageable. There’s nothing wrong with telling things the way you see it. The world needs more honesty and less fluff unless the fluff comes in the form of whipped cream. I have a secret weakness for real whipped cream with the perfect amount of powdered sugar added and the smallest splash of vanilla.

“Alright.” Genevieve’s hands are full, kind of like Evilla’s purse on our first date disaster. I can see that Evilla notices, and she’s trying not to laugh. I don’t know how she can even smile right now. “Come on, future lover, let’s go angry talk and see where it leads.”

Evilla’s hands shoot to her mouth, and I watch her shake as Connor exits the booth, but I can see that it’s silent laughter. She doesn’t stop until Genevieve and Connor are gone, and even then, she waves her hand at her eyes. “Holy ravioli. I’ve never seen a better match.”

My mouth drops, and I quickly say, “I’m so sorry about all this.”

“Gen finds it supremely entertaining. Can’t you tell?”

I can tell that you’re beautiful. That you’re brilliant. You have this unbreakable spirit, you don’t get mad about the small things, you’re generous to a fault, and you want the world to be a better place, but you do it instead of just talking about it.

“She was my ride. I knew I should have driven, but she told me she’d pick me up. Would you be able to drop me off? If not, I can call for a taxi.”

“You live close by?” I don’t know why I said that or how I’m even having a borderline normal conversation right now. I do know where she lives because I looked her up. I have the address bouncing in my brain, but I can’t make the location stick or compute the distance between there and here at the moment.

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