“Seems like your woman is making one fuck of an angry salad, man,” I mutter.
Aiden’s shoulders shake with amusement as he puts his beer to his mouth. “Yeah, thanks, bro. You’re gonna have her in her head all night. Watch now how she gets with Ally. She’s about to become a bloodhound.”
I’m thinking good. I can use the extra help.
She’s processing our conversation and getting pissed off at the realization I’m right.
Ally has been stringing her along without telling her much about herself and this doesn’t surprise me. Ally is hiding shit and making her friends the center of her universe not just because she loves them, but also because it means she can hide her own truths by doing so. Carly could’ve corrected me by telling me she knows all kinds of info about Ally’s life before San Diego, but my hunch was right.
“Call her,” Aiden calls into the apartment before reaching over and dunking a tortilla chip into the dip.
That’s when I hear the door. Ally’s here.
“Show’s about to start,” Aiden says under his breath.
***
It’s only been five minutes and it’s obvious the two of them are arguing in the kitchen. It’s low enough that I can’t make it all out but loud enough that I know it’s about the stuff I’ve just brought to Carly’s attention.
12
Ally
I walked in, prepared to give Carly shit, having a speech prepared pointing out how mad she got when I intervened when Aiden wanted to date her and she was trying to push him away, and how she is currently doing the exact same thing to me, but before I get a chance to do that, before I get one word out of my mouth, she’s got her finger right up in my face.
“What the fuck is going on with you?” she demands.
“Huh?”
“You slept with Jude and didn’t tell me?”
I rear back. She keeps moving in. And she’s scaring me a little.
“You ‘n me need to have a talk, missy,” she states, talking to me like I’m a naughty child. “We need to talk about a bunch of stuff, like how I know nothing about you.”
“Huh?” I repeat.
“You know what I’m talking about,” she sneers before spinning away and angrily snapping the lid on her blender, about to blend some frozen boozy punch.
“What the fuck has he said to you?” My eyes slide toward the sliding doors, and I see Jude sitting there laughing with Aiden who stands at the grill, scraping it.
“For one, that you two had a hot night and he wants more. What hot night was that?”
Damn you, Jude Novak.
“A couple days before your bachelorette party,” I say softly.
“Pardon?” She’s glaring at me like I did something bad.
Even though I did. He wants more? I already know this by his actions, but hearing it said aloud? I both hate it and love it in equal measure.
I repeat myself so I can be better heard over the blender, which is shredding ice with the same velocity as the dirty look coming at me from her.
“Why are you so pissed at me? I fucked him. So what? It was nothing and I had your wedding coming up so that took priority.”
“All the time we spent together, there were plenty of opportunities for you to share some juicy gossip. If it was nothing but sex, why didn’t you share it?”
I walk over to the sliding door and pull the heavy glass door across, intentionally not making eye contact with Jude, who is sitting there looking ridiculously hot in a white t-shirt and pair of jeans, casually leaned back talking to Aiden.
“Turn that off for a second so I don’t have to scream,” I order.
Carly lets go of the blender button and waits, looking so pissed it makes my insides feel as cold as the contents of that blender.
“First of all, my sex life isn’t juicy gossip,” I say, and it comes out shaky instead of angry like I intend.
Her eyes narrow even further. She’s a little scary when she’s mad.
“So,” Carly accuses, ”You can meddle in my life, make bets about who I will and won’t fuck, and I can’t know anything about your sex life? Or the rest of your life, right? Oh. So, it’s like that, is it? I guess we’re not as close as I thought.”
I gulp down her sourness and it tastes awful.
“I don’t mean that. And we are close. You’re my best friend, Car.”
“And you told me I guarded my personal life like Iron Mountain? Hello pot, I’m kettle.”
“That’s not true,” I lie.
“Hmpf.” She folds her arms over her chest.
“It got weird,” I say, thrusting my hands into my hair. “He keeps harassing me. I didn’t want to make it a whole thing and stress you out before the wedding. He’s Aiden’s friend.”
“Harassing you how?”
“Isn’t that clear to you? Duh. He’s moved into my apartment. He keeps showing up to pick me up after work. He-” I gesture in his direction without looking, though I swear I feel like his eyes are on me right now, “instigated this!”