Page 50 of Playing By Their Rules

“You’re trying to hook me up with Bradley?” I ask, incredulous.

Bradley looks over across the crowded restaurant, sees us, and gives me a cautious wave.

“No, jeez,” Mina says in a hushed voice. “He’s here for me. Mikey is your date.”

“What.” Flat tone. My surprise and incredulity are fresh out—she’s used them up in the space of sixty seconds.

“Look, this is perfect,” Mina says.

Bradley, for his part, looks completely nonplussed while he tries to make small talk with my “date.”

“How is this perfect?” I ask. “How?”

“Bradley will stay close to us and you won’t be used by two old men, and…”

“Mina,” I say. I’ve never sounded quite so stern with her, and she seems to feel it because her shoulders hunch and she takes a step back. “I’m going to go through with this to be polite to this other guy and not make things awkward for Bradley. But for the record, I want it clear between us that I don’t appreciate you meddling in my relationships. Even if you don’t believe Chance and Ethan will stick around, they’re mine for now. Please don’t try to interfere, okay?”

Her chin wobbles and her eyes get shiny with tears. With Mina, that either means she’s going to cry or start lashing out.

But she grabs me in a hug. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. You can leave now if you want to.”

I shake my head. I’d feel too bad for this other guy. No one wants to be stood up. “Mikey, you said his name is?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe he could be a friend.”

She beams.

Dinner is awkward. Bradley appears surprised at the “date” nature of this get-together, and he sends me several pleading glances across the table. I think he even starts blinking out a secret message like he’s in some kind of hostage situation. And friendship with Mikey? Not a chance. Between several “accidental” brushes of his arm against mine, an attempt to put his arm around me, his foot rubbing mine beneath the table, and the way he stares at my chest and forgets what he’s saying, it soon becomes clear that Mikey has no interest in being friend-zoned.

Just when I think the dinner can’t get any worse, Bradley looks past me. His mouth drops open and he mutters, “Oh, shit.”

I turn around. Everything feels like it’s underwater, or in slow motion.

Chance and Ethan are standing in the entryway of the restaurant. It looks like they were waiting to be seated, but now they’re staring at me.

And of course, at that moment, Mikey decides to try again to put his arm around my shoulders.

15

WHAT WOULD MIKEY DO

Ethan

Chance puts a hand on my shoulder, squeezes a reminder that I need to keep my temper in check.

How can I fucking not lose my goddamn mind? Our girl is on a date with some other guy, a mere week after we told her that we want her to be ours…after we told her that we belong to her.

She’s just going to throw that away for some asshole?

I shake Chance’s hand off my shoulder, then turn to look at him.

He looks just as enraged as I feel. And it’s fucking twisted, but seeing him so angry actually helps me calm down. I count to ten and pull myself together.

“There’s probably an explanation,” I say under my breath.

“There better fucking be,” he says. “Why the hell is she even here? She told me she was going to the movies.”

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