Page 66 of Loving You

“Doting girlfriend?” I repeat. “The most we’ve had to do is stand in line shoulder to shoulder at the coffee shop and hang out at our families’ homes. There has been no doting. What does that even look like?”

“Like you are obsessed with him,” Hudson says in a clear and specific tone. “You’re on.”

“On wha?—”

“Quinn, Miles, this is perfect,” Sully walks up. “We just ordered a round of drinks. We’d love for you to join us.”

Sully nods over his shoulder to where Andy, Danny, and Ashley are sitting. A few of their other friends are with them, but I don't know their names. I only recognize them from photos online. Everyone is grouped up in pairs, except Danny.

Well, this should be fun.

“You know, we would love to,” Miles says and then swings his arm over my shoulders. “But we were really just stopping in to see my brother real fast. We don’t plan to stay.”

“Just one drink. I won’t pressure you for more. We just … Andy would like to get to know you. We haven’t seen Quinn in almost a year.”

“Oh, we?—”

“One drink, that’s it,” Miles cuts me off.

“Great. Go do whatever it is you came here for and meet us at our table.”

Sully jogs off to take a seat by Andy.

“Why did you say yes?” I ask.

“Because I have a hunch they will ask us this same thing anytime they see us out until we say yes. If I say yes now, we can get it over with.”

“I see your point.”

“Let’s get our drinks first.”

Miles grabs my hand, pulls me to the bar, and places our order with Hudson.

“What’s your plan now?” Hudson asks, leaning onto the counter. He’s playing the part that we came to see him about something and he doesn't even know it.

“No clue. Pray for the best, I guess,” Miles says.

“We’ll be fine. It’s the same as any other time, but maybe put your arms around me again, and please make sure I'm not sitting by Danny.”

Miles nods.

“I have an idea,” Hudson says. We turn to him with the eagerness of a toddler who was promised candy for doing the smallest task. “What if you go to the extreme?”

“The extreme. What does that mean?” I ask.

“Be so into each other that it makes them sick. Be so touchy and cringy that they don’t want to hang out with you ever again.”

Miles stands tall with his hands on his hips.

“Maybe I just tell them, ‘Sorry, no can do, because I want to get her home and naked as soon as possible.’ That’s cringy, right?”

I swat his arm.

“You are not saying that.”

“But it’s cringy. It felt cringy as I was saying it.”

Hudson leans in close to Miles’s face.

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