Page 125 of It's Complicated

“Where do you want to sit? Back corner?” he asked.

“Yeah, sounds good.”

I followed Jamie to the far corner, and we slid into the booth.

“How do you feel about that?” he asked when we were settled.

“Fine. Still not over the brojob thing, but everything else was good. How are you feeling about it?” I asked, putting my hand on his where it rested on the table.

“Same.” He took my hand and held it. “It was probably easier because he already knew, but it wasn’t scary or weird or anything.”

“I’m glad. We’re totally rocking this boyfriends thing.”

He grinned. “We totally are.”

“I knew we would,” I boasted. “We’re awesome.”

“We are.” Jamie rubbed my thumb over my knuckles. “I think we should celebrate with some brojobs when we get home and start the official tally for our bet.”

“Agreed.” Movement to our left caught my attention, and I turned from Jamie to see a server walking toward us with menus in her hands.

I waited to see if Jamie would pull his hand from mine as she approached.

He just smiled as she passed us our menus, went over the specials, and took our drink orders.

“Totally nailing it,” Jamie said when our server left.

“We rock.”

“We do,” Jamie agreed, but something was off. He looked distracted.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing.” He scraped his teeth over his bottom lip. “But I think I want to tell Andy and Johnny about us.”

“Of course.” I squeezed his hand. “We’ll tell them whenever you want.”

Out of all of his friends, Jamie was closest with them. They’d all played hockey together from the time they were five, and they were two of the only people who’d kept in touch with him while they were all away at school and didn’t just catch up when they all happened to be home at the same time.

“Maybe today?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I know it kills the whole block out the world weekend, but I’d rather not wait. Get it over with, you know?”

I let go of his hand so he could text. “I get it. Why don’t you see when they’re free, and we’ll go from there.”

Nodding, Jamie started typing on his phone.

He’d just put the phone down when it beeped.

“That was quick,” he said, checking his screen. He read something off it, then started typing again.

“What did they say?” I asked when he slipped his phone into his pocket.

“They can meet in an hour.” He chewed on his lower lip. “I don’t know why I’m nervous.”

“Because it’s a big deal.”

“It shouldn’t be. We’ve been friends for twenty years. Out of everyone, they’re the two I’m not worried about. This shouldn’t be so hard.”

I took his hand in mine again. “The first time you say it out loud to someone is hard. It’s scary, even when you know it’ll be okay.”

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