Page 39 of Caught Up

“And it’s not going well?” someone asked.

“I told you it’s not going at all,” I bit out. “There’s nothing to talk about, so everyone can shut up now.”

Vinny sniffed. “You must have really messed up.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

Beside him, Jimmy sat forward. “I agree.”

Nods all around.

“I’m not discussing this with you assholes,” I said.

Vinny and Jimmy shared offended looks. “Why not? Between the two of us, we’ve been married twice as long as you’ve been alive.”

“To six different women,” I pointed out.

“Yeah,” Alec said. “But that means they know whatnotto do.”

The two men nodded sagely.

“We’re not having this discussion,” I said.

“You plan to apologize, right?” Jimmy asked, ignoring me.

“It’s important to do that, even if you don’t think you did anything wrong,” Vinny added.

“Fuck apologizing,” Enzo, one of the big dudes by the door, said. “Alphas never apologize.”

I eyed him. “Alpha, huh? Is that a furry thing?”

Alec choked.

No one else seemed to pick up on the joke, and I sighed, lamenting the fact that most of the people I hung out with were too old to get my humor.

“You could buy her flowers,” Jimmy said.

“Or chocolates,” someone else chimed in.

How had I lost control of this situation so fast?

“Personally, I’m a fan of the grand gesture,” another man added.

Vinny looked impressed. “Good idea. Take her out to her favorite place and propose.”

“Propose?” I said. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“What? Proposals have gotten me out of all sorts of trouble.”

“Yeah,” Jimmy chimed in. “They’re like the universalget-out-of-jail-free card.”

Alec started shaking with silent laughter. Kicking his ass wasn’t good enough. I was going to take him out in the woods and bury him alive in our graveyard of oddities for this.

Suddenly, thewalkie-talkiein my hand crackled to life. One thing I could say about these idiots: They knew when it wasreallytime to shut the fuck up.

My brother Stefan’s voice came over the line. “His car is pulling into the neighborhood.”

“Get ready,” I said.

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