Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 119964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
“God. When do I ever give you details?”
I swear the man’s bow tie trembles with ire. He practically leans across the table. “Since you nailed Finn Mannus.”
“At least you whispered this time,” I mutter. “Please tell me this isn’t about Finn being famous.”
“You wound me, Chess.” James sniffs. “This is about you finally getting what I know you’ve wanted since you met him. The fact that I’ve had a tiny crush on him for years is just frosting on the cake. But can you blame me for wanting to know? I mean, come on, have you seen him?”
“Oh, I’ve seen him,” I can’t help but say, fighting to maintain a straight face.
“Bitch,” he says with a smile.
“Do I have to remind you that you’re in a relationship, James?”
His teasing expression fades. “No.”
I glance at him sharply, and James fidgets with his bow tie.
“What?” I ask, because that fidget never bodes well. “God, did you break up?”
“What? No.” James sounds horrified. He exhales as if pulling himself together. “No, nothing like that . . . Chess.” He reaches for my hand.
I pull away, my heart suddenly thumping. “Why are you saying my name as if someone died?”
“Chess,” he says again, pained. “I’m moving to New York.”
The words hang over us like a fug as I stare at my best friend in frozen silence. My face feels too hot, my eyes scratchy. “You’re moving?”
“Yes. I love Jamie. I don’t like being away from her.”
“You’re moving.”
I’m stuck on repeat, but can’t seem to snap out of it.
He takes my hand then, and I feel how clammy his skin is. “I found my person, Chess. After all the searching. After empty nights of wondering if I should swear off women or swear off men, I found someone. I don’t want to wait or take things slow. I want it all now.”
“All?” My mouth is dry. I hear him. Of course, I hear him. But my mind won’t move past the fact that he’s leaving.
James gives me a small but hopeful smile. “Marriage, a dog named Sue, maybe even kids.”
James is telling me this. James, who has scoffed at convention his whole life.
James, who once said having kids wasn’t for everyone—wasn’t for people like us, he’d implied. I run a hand through my hair and find my forehead damp.
In silence, James looks back at me, his eyes wide, his skin pale against the red of his hair. He’s leaving me. He won’t be here if things don’t work out with Finn. He won’t be here if things do. I won’t have him to talk to when I work or when I’m worried.
“Chess . . .”
I blink out of my fog, and realize James is biting his lip. My sweet, funny friend is in love. He deserves this and more. My chair scrapes over the floor as I jerk to my feet. James watches me with clear trepidation that turns to surprise as I lean across the table and cup his cheek in my hands before giving him a big, smacking kiss.
“I’m so happy for you,” I tell him.
He laughs a little, letting out a gusty breath. “Jesus, I thought you were going for a Godfather II kiss of death reenactment or something.”
I sit back in my chair. “What, the ‘I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart’?”
“‘You broke my heart!’” James intones with feeling.
We laugh like loons, but inside my heart truly is breaking a little. Change is rushing up like a rising tide against me, and I am unmoored.
Finn
Since I really don’t want to mope around the apartment waiting for Chess to come home from her night out with James, I decide I’ll go out to dinner, too.
I call Jake, who informs me that Dex, Rolondo, and one of the tight ends, North, will be joining us. Oh, and we’ll be eating at Rolondo’s house. I really don’t care what we do as long as I’m out.
Like me, Rolondo lives in a condo. His is in the Central Business District. Located on the fifteenth floor, the place looks like something straight out of Versailles with French-style woodwork painted pale gray, mirrored walls, and ornate crystal chandeliers.
“Jesus, Ro,” I say as he leads me into a white kitchen with black-and-white checker pattern floors. “I feel as though I should have dressed for the occasion.”
Dex is leaning against a counter and drinking a beer. “Londo has always been particular about his place. By ‘particular,’ I mean fussy as all hell.”
“A man’s home is his castle,” Rolondo intones.
I accept the beer Rolondo hands me. “I don’t think you’re supposed to take that literally.”
Dex snickers just as the doorbell rings again.
“Jealous bitches,” Rolondo says before he goes to answer the door. But his voice echoes in the hall. “You keep it up and see if I share my ribs.”