Page 30 of Finding London

“I just wanted to clarify some stuff. Stop being mean,” she whines.

I cut off their bickering, “She’s…I don’t know. I guess it isn’t so much that she’s different, but I’m different when I’m around her…if that makes any sense.”

Maggie nods, as if she knows exactly what my rambling means.

“She’s hot,” I throw in.

“Of course.” Cooper nods.

Maggie hits his arm again.

“She comes from a rich family, and she might be a bit spoiled.”

Both of their faces scrunch up with repulsion.

I chuckle. “I know. Believe me, I know. But, somehow, on her, I find it…cute.” I shrug.

“Cute?” Cooper questions, lifting a brow.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Okay, so you didn’t sleep with her because…she’s spoiled?” Cooper clarifies.

Maggie chimes in, “No, he didn’t sleep with her because he likes her.”

“I’m so confused.” Cooper forks a large piece of pancake into his mouth.

“You and me both, brother,” I admit.

“Well, I think it’s adorable,” Maggie says. “It’s about time you found a girl who makes you all confused. That’s when you know it’s real.”

Cooper turns to look at her, his mouth agape, like she’s an alien sitting at the table with us. “They’ve been on one date, babe. Let’s not get all serious here.”

“Loïc doesn’t date, so that’s how we know it’s serious. Plus, you knew you loved me almost immediately. The first time we spoke our junior year, when we were lab partners, you knew.”

“I knew I wanted to screw you. I was a horny seventeen-year-old, not Casanova. It took us years to get to where we are now,” he disagrees.

“It took years because you were immature, but you knew immediately. We both did. Loïc isn’t a boy, like you were. He’s a man.”

Cooper drops his fork onto his plate. “I don’t like how you said that.”

“Which part?” Maggie questions.

“Themanpart.” His voice is low.

Maggie and I both laugh.

She says, “Oh my God, would you stop? I mean that, at twenty-five, he’s more mature than you were at seventeen, so it’s not going to take him as long to figure things out. He is technically a man, as most guys your age are.”

Cooper eyes her with a glare of speculation before he nods, apparently satisfied with her answer, and picks up his glass of orange juice.

“Wow, I can’t wait to have a relationship someday,” I say dryly.

Maggie grins, placing her hand on Cooper’s. “I know. It’s the best.”

I chuckle—not because she’s making a joke, but because she isn’t.

“So, when are you taking her out again?” Maggie asks.

---