Page 21 of Just Bromantically Invested

She shifts uncomfortably. “It’s done now. Hopefully, I can meet some awesome queer women out here and get to be myself. Finally.” She gives me a cheeky grin. “Until then, I’m stuck with you.”

I laugh, relieved that this coffee date is going well enough that she can joke with me. “I might not be a lesbian, but you can still be yourself around me. Despite my impression before, I’m really not a bigot. I love Madden, and all the guys he lives with are queer too. I don’t care who people are into.”

“You love Madden?”

She’s nudged at our relationship a few times now. “Platonically.”

“And he only feels platonically about you as well.”

“Exactly.”

“And definitely wasn’t jealous when I showed up?”

“Like I’ve been saying, he was in a weird mood this morning.”

“Right.” She props her chin in her hand. “Then that isn’t his eyes glaring at me through a ficus?”

“What?” I go to spin around, but her hand lands on mine.

“Don’t look.”

Don’t look? That’s easier said than done. “What ficus?”

“I’ll tell you when he looks away, but there’s a fake wall of them in the middle of the room, and he’s on the other side. Definitely spying on us.”

I rub a hand over my face. “I might have told him last night that I’ve been lonely, and so now he’s determined to help. I don’t know what part of killing me with yoga and stalking us is helpful, but I’ll bet it makes sense in his brain.”

Her eyes flick over my shoulder again. “Should we go and say hi?”

“Hmm … do I want to go and say hello to my best friend, who’s massively overstepping boundaries and probably doesn’t even realize it?”

“It’d serve him right.”

It would, but the thought of purposely embarrassing him doesn’t sit right with me. Yes, I bought him a chicken costume a few days ago, but that joke was between us. He chose to wear it inside his place. If I go over there, Lana will follow, and then he’ll be put on the spot and forced to explain.

Neither of us wants that.

“Better to ignore him.”

“If that’s what you want. But can we at leastpleaseagree that he’s a tiny bit jealous? Maybe not over us dating, but even having me as a friend. You just said you don’t have any outside of him.”

For some fucked-up reason, that gives me a thrill. That Madden might actually care about me not always being here to hang out with when he feels like it. I know it isn’t like that—in reality, he spends more time with his brothers because they live together, but when I’m home by myself, it can feel that way sometimes.

“I’m not agreeing to anything,” I say through a smile.

“Fine … fine.”

We stand and take our mugs back to the counter. “It was a rocky start, but I really enjoyed myself,” I say.

“Me too. I like you, Penn.”

“I have a full workday ahead, but give me your number, and we’ll hang out again this week.” I hand over my phone, and Lana punches her number in, then calls herself and hands it back.

“You heading home first?” she asks, nodding toward the door.

“You can go ahead. I have a feeling there’s someone who might want to talk to me.”

Even though I haven’t actually seen him for myself, I’ll take Lana’s word for it that Madden is here. It’s a very Madden move to pull. He might be laid-back, super personable, and have big ideas about a lot of things, but he’s also protective as hell.

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