Page 7 of Third Time Lucky

Blech. I nearly gag at the thought of it. The mental image is bringing back ‘Brandon does Sexy Lexy,’ and I wanna vomit.

‘You’re sleazy.’

‘Yes, I am,’ he says proudly. ‘You order any coffee? My head is pounding.’

I push the full pot his way. ‘Speaking of head?—’

He smiles wide, suddenly interested in somebody beside himself. ‘You?’

‘No.’

I slide my phone across the table to him, the video already pulled up and on mute because I don’t need that kind of attention. I hit play and Aaron immediately picks it up for a better look.

‘What the—? You filmed a guy getting a hummer and didn’t order your own?’

‘No, king of fuckboys, I didn’t order my own – as classy as that sounds.’

He looks at me like I’m the one who’s nuts. ‘You’re into watching? That’s wei?—’

‘Brandon,’ I point out. ‘Thatis Brandon, the groom-to-be of the wedding you said we’d attend.’

Aaron looks at my phone again, now zooming in on the video. He laughs. ‘Shit… and this is your friend? Lucy?’ He taps the screen, restarts the video and watches it again. ‘Lucy’s got some skills.’ He looks up at me with sudden sympathy on his face. ‘This coulda been you – I told you. Why didn’t you invite her up to the room to catch up?’

I snatch my phone from his hand. ‘That’s not her.’

His eyes go wide, and for a moment, he looks less hungover than he did two seconds ago. ‘Shit. I suppose – good guy that you are – you’re going to show her this?’

I shrug. ‘Don’t I have to if I consider myself her friend?’

‘Old teenage friend – your words. Is that something old friends do?’

I’ve asked myself that question at least thirty times since sitting at this table.

‘I think I have to.’

He sighs heavily, running both hands through his hair. ‘Can you do it without ruining what may well be the love of my life with her maid of honor, Madi?’

‘You slept with her maid of honor?’

‘Guilty,’ he says with a not-so-sheepish shrug.

‘Wait, I thought there were two women?’

He laughs, pouring coffee from the pot into one of the mugs on the table. ‘One maid of honor, one bridesmaid. Bridesmaid’s got a boyfriend back home, so she wasn’t as into me as she was Madi – which I was totally cool with because those girls together were – Jay-sus.’ He lifts a hand like he’s praising God. ‘That, Madi – wow. She did this thing with her tongue?—’

I hold up a hand. ‘Do not utter another word of that story.’

He smirks. ‘Jealous much?’

‘Of the fact that we’ll need to stop by the Planned Parenthood before we leave here to get you tested for bugs? No.’ I roll my eyes. ‘Madi’s not the love of your life.’

‘You don’t know,’ he says defensively, stealing a slice of bacon from my plate.

‘I know ya said the same thing last month about a Sara, and that didn’t exactly pan out, did it?’

He smirks, then shrugs as if he doesn’t understand how women don’t love him the morning after, even though they are drawn to him at first sight. But I know he knows, and I can’t wait for the day some girl ropes that asshole’s heart in a way he can’t escape, and I get to watch him writhe for his life before falling hopelessly in love with someone and promising to only sleep with her for eternity. Though, I’ll never tell him that.

‘How in the hell do I tell her this?’

---