Page 100 of Only You and Me

Her words are like a soothing balm to those old insecurities I work very hard to keep from rearing their ugly heads.

“All right. Let’s do it.”

When we walk back to the table, everyone is staring at us expectantly. We sit back in our seats and Trina wastes no time getting to it.

“So, Ben and I have something we want to share.”

“Here it comes, suckas. Get ready to pay up,” Shayna utters. She’s not as quiet as she thinks she is, and Finn turns bright red and covers his face with his hands. Trina spares her a brief look, squinting in confusion at Shayna, before focusing on the entire group.

I’m used to Shayna’s weird shit, so I just figure Shayna’s being Shayna.

“Anyway, Ben and I are”—she glances at me, grabbing my hand under the table—“married.”

“Damn it!” Shayna yells, smacking her hand down on the table.

“What the hell, Shay?” I wrap my arm around Trina.

As I look around the table, Emily is sitting with her mouth wide open. Fitz is smirking and Jack and Annie are laughing.

“Sorry,” Shay says, at least having the decency to look contrite. “I hate losing.”

“What is going on here?” Trina’s head tilts to the side and her eyes narrow at our friends.

Annie is the one who speaks up. “Okay, don’t be mad, but we’ve been taking bets for a while now about what was going on with you two. We were afraid to ask. You have no idea how hard it’s been keeping my mouth shut about your secret.”

“How’d you know?”

“Uh, I was your nurse, and Ben came into the hospital all ‘I’m her husband.’ He apparently growled and everything. All very swoony, according to the ER gossip mill.”

“Oh my God, I did not growl.” I can’t help but chuckle.

“It’s okay, Ben. I know from all the smut Emily has been manipulating me into reading that they like it when we growl,” Fitz deadpans.

“Oh.” I turn to Trina. “In that case, I definitely growled, babe.”

Trina blushes a pretty pink but just rolls her eyes at me. “Tell us more about the bets.”

“Well, I’ll start since I lost.” Shayna shrugs her shoulders. “I thought you were just having sex on the regular. Like an enemies with benefits thing.”

“We weren’t enemies,” I protest.

Emily, apparently pulled out of her shock, is now smiling. “You might not have been in your mind, but my sister sure seemed to hate you for quite a while there. Her tolerating you is what actually got all of us wondering what the hell was happening.” Emily’s tone is teasing, but in reality, she’s not wrong.

“And what did you think, Em?”

“Apparently, since I’m the sappy romantic of the group, I thought you were dating and slowly falling for each other after Ben’s grand gesture of bidding on you at the Valentine’s fundraiser. But I’m happy about this news even though I lost.”

“Jack thought you were knocked up,” Shayna tosses out.

Poor Finn just shakes his head, now even more red than he was at her initial outburst.

“Hey! I didn’t say ‘knocked up.’ I said I thought maybe they slept together at the fire conference, and she was pregnant. And before Shayna says some crazy shit about Annie’s bet, my sweet,”—he leans over and kisses Annie on the cheek—“somewhat naïve wife thought nothing was going on. That you were just spending so much time together because of the… the stalker situation.”

“True,” Annie says. “I mean about what I thought. Not that I’m naïve.” She pushes Jack in the shoulder.

“Finn?” Trina asks. Her eyebrows lift high on her forehead, clearly amused by his discomfort.

Finn shakes his head. “Nope. I declined to take part.”

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