Page 63 of Third Chances (Men of Manhattan 2)

"Probably not, but fine. Regardless of that, how do you even know if you won't like something if you won't try it?"

"I know what I do and don't like. I just want what I want. Is there something so wrong with that?"

"No, I guess not. But trying new stuff is a fun experience."

"It's true," James said. He was still talking a little loudly. "If I didn't get out of my comfort zone I never would have ended up with Penny. She's my favorite experience. And I get to experience her all the time, if you know what I mean." He paused. "I mean sex. In case you didn't know what I meant. But not recently, actually. We're waiting until we get married, you know? Which is funny, because we've been fucking this whole time. Like a lot. Sometimes more than once a day. Which maybe isn't a lot to this guy," he pointed at Mason.

Mason pushed his hand away. "Are you feeling okay?"

"But it's a lot to me," James said, ignoring Mason. "So I don't know why we have to stop on the homestretch. You know? It's like she's punishing me." He laughed. "Inside joke. Not with these guys." He waved his arms around, gesturing to the rest of the table. "It's an inside joke with me and Penny." He took a sip of his drink and made a slurping noise with his straw.

Daphne and I both laughed.

"See," I said, giving James a weird look. "Experiencing new people or new food is fun. And very passionate."

"You're so full of yourself." She picked up the margarita I had ordered for her and took a sip. She scrunched up her face. "Fine, I have to admit that it's actually pretty good."

"Exactly."

"Is it?" Ja

mes asked. "Let me try." He put his straw in Daphne's margarita and took a sip. "It is pretty good." He laughed and made the slurping noise again with the straw as he pulled it out of her drink. He kept it in his mouth, letting it dangle like a weirdly long cigarette.

"Um, are you feeling okay, James?" I asked.

He spit the straw out onto the table and cleared his throat. "Yeah. Why? I mean, I'm a little overheated I guess." He pulled off his suit jacket. He tried to toss it on the back of his chair, but completely missed and just threw it on the ground. He didn't bother to pick it up. Or maybe he didn't realize he had missed. "What are you looking at?" he asked when he turned back around.

"Nothing?" I glanced over at Matt.

Matt immediately gave me two thumbs up. Oh, no. What the fuck did Matt do?

Chapter 21

Daphne

I quickly picked up the suit jacket that James had accidentally thrown on the floor. "You dropped this," I said and handed it to him.

"Oh, no, that's not mine." He immediately pushed it back into my hands. "I'm not wearing one."

"Right. Because you just took it off..." I let my voice trail off. Does he really not remember wearing it a second ago? James had only drank half of the beer in front of him. Maybe he was a light weight, but I had never seen someone react so quickly to a beer. I placed the suit jacket on the back of my chair so it wouldn't get stepped on.

James ran his hand through his hair. It was the same thing that Rob seemed to do so often. It made me wonder if their father did it too.

"So," Layla said, breaking the awkward silence, "should we play an icebreaker game?"

"I learned a fun icebreaker game from my boyfriend, Tim," Kristen said. "You ask a question about someone, but then someone else at the table has to answer it."

"Two truths, one lie," James said way too loudly for the middle of a restaurant, completely ignoring Kristen's suggestion. He rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt and put his elbows on the table. "I just played this with Penny and some of the new interns at my company. It's lots of fun. When it's your turn, you tell two truths and one lie about yourself, and everyone has to guess the lie."

"We can totally play that, if that's what you want, James," Kristen said way too seductively for normal conversation.

Rob leaned toward me. "Has everyone at this table lost their minds, or is it just me?"

I laughed. "I was just thinking the same thing. Your friends are very interesting."

"My friends? What about your friends?"

I laughed again. My eyes wandered to his mouth. His smile was so charming. And I couldn't help but think about how his lips felt on mine. The kisses we had shared had been some of the best of my life. Maybe Rob was right. Maybe there should be more passion in a relationship than I realized. His smile broadened when he noticed I was staring at his mouth. I cleared my throat and looked away from him. Kristen gave me a not so subtle thumbs up from across the table.

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