Page 66 of The Paris Roommates: Dean
Golden Boy reluctantly pulled out his T-shirt and undid it with a comic wince. “CARS NEVER LET ME DOWN,” he read. “Interesting. I find myself unsure of what Dean really thinks of me.”
“He thinks you have intimacy issues,” Brooke told him with a laugh, “and trust me, you do. But so do most of us here, so you’re in good company.”
“I don’t have them anymore,” Thea broke in. “Well, mostly. Right, Jean Luc?”
“The French do not really talk of intimacy issues.” He gestured to Nanine, who nodded her head in agreement.
“That’s because you guys don’t get as emotional about sex as Americans in the beginning,” Sawyer said, falling into his professorial voice. “Only later does it get intense and tragic. But that’s more like sex obsession, not true intimacy.”
“Thanks for the clarification, Doc,” Madison said, huffing out a laugh. “Should we be taking notes?”
“Only if you have someone in mind with whom you’ll need to use them.” Dean mimed kissing noises, hoping to lighten the mood.
Kyle reached over and gave him a light shove. “Enough of the kissing reminder. Madison saved my hide, and she deserves more credit.”
“She got plenty of credit,” Brooke said, adding her own kissing noises to the conversation.
Kyle’s jaw locked with an almost audible click. Wow, he was getting upset. Madison gave him a shove as if sensing it.
“Keep it up and I’m getting my cleaver.” Madison pointed to her shirt, now lying in Brooke’s hand. “Read and follow instructions.”
That had Brooke and the others laughing like old times.
Thank God.
Dean was starting to feel a turn in the room, as if the shirts had worked after all. “Pizza? Lebanese? Chinese?” he asked quickly. “What do we feel like tonight?”
The last thing he was going to say was that dinner was on him, because then they would know for sure he was trying to butter everyone up after the fallout from the vote. He was just going to volunteer to make the orders through his app, which would have the same end result.
“I’m going to have dinner in my apartment and go to bed early,” Nanine said, rising from her chair. “Thank you for the gift, Dean. You all have a good evening.”
Paralyzed, he watched her walk away with her gift bag. She may have sided with him in the vote, but it had cost her, and she’d been out of sorts as well. Had he been naïve to think his gesture could fix everything? Probably. “How about we get a few types of food?” he asked the others quickly. “We’ve done it before with good success. I wouldn’t say pizza and Lebanese are my favorite together, but it wasn’t half-bad.”
“I agree with different types.” Brooke pulled on her red T-shirt. “As boss, shall I simply order or shall we pass around my phone and have everyone type down their order in a note?”
“Order,” Madison encouraged before he could say he would handle things, “and read my shirt again. I need to get back to the kitchen tonight. Pierre is taking a nap so he’ll be ready for our next round of testing.”
“What are we drinking?” Dean asked, desperate to keep the momentum going. “Cocktails? I’ll bartend.”
He purposely was not going to refer to anything that might be in a cave. Because he really did believe he needed to let things play out. He could not ignore the ongoingso tangible he could touch itfeeling that the cave was related to his “It” idea.
“I’d have a Cosmo,” Thea injected with valiant attempt at a smile. “Jean Luc?”
“Red wine.” He rose from the table. “Where are we keeping the wine right now?”
It was like watching a train wreck.
Brooke’s mouth tightened. “In the cave.”
The whole table tensed, from the set of people’s mouths to their shoulders. He had the sudden urge to tap his foot nervously again as Thea wrung her hands.
“I’m thinking about looking at wedding dresses,” she announced in a halting voice.
Everyone turned and looked at her. Clearly, she was trying to do her part to inject good feeling and companionship into the group. He wanted to blow her a kiss.
Jean Luc retook his chair, taking her clenched hands and kissing them with a delighted smile. “That’s marvelous,chérie! So does that mean we can discuss a date later?”
“Absolutely,” Thea said, glancing around the room as if gauging the mood. “Kyle, are you still thinking we could have the bakery open in February? Because I was hoping we could open on Valentine’s Day.”
