of like Brianna when he came too, now that I think about it.
And now I need a shower before my shift, which sucks, because the sex wasn’t all that great, but here I am, getting hot and bothered at the memory.
Maybe if we hadn’t been in a thirty-five-degree fridge?
No, it’s probably more that Tyler’s ego is bigger than his skill. I know that’s a thing.
Brianna points at me with her half-eaten fish stick. “Wait. We were talking about you being single.”
“Right. I’m that friend who’ll tell you to go to the doctor but refuse to do it for myself. It’s easier to have clarity for other people, and I like making other people happy, so I’m okay with being single, and it doesn’t interfere with my ability to help you. If anything, it makes me more objective about the men I screen for you since I have no interest in them myself.”
Which is good, especially considering how I’m meeting men to screen these days.
She’s still frowning while she takes another bite of fish. “Oh my god, this is so good. I would date this fish. I would take this fish to bed. Have you tried this? Here. Have a—no, you know what? I’ll give you ten bucks to get your own.”
“That’s okay.” I wave her off as she reaches for the wallet in her back pocket. “I can afford my own fish, I promise. And I’m going to find you a man who makes you moan as much as that fried cod does.”
Her eyes go round. “Oh, shit. We’re in public, aren’t we?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve seen worse here.”
“Muffy! Dude! You’re here early too.” D’Angelo swings through the door and stops at our table, holds out a fist, and we do our usual bump-slap-shake routine, which we both miss at least one step of, and we end up staring at each other for a split second before cracking up.
We are such dorks.
I hope that doesn’t turn Brianna off.
Probably not, considering she’s looking at him like she was looking at her fish a minute ago. A piece of cod dribbles out from between her lips. I make a quick wipe your mouth gesture, and she jerks to grab her napkin, bumps the table wrong, and spills her Coke all over both of us. “Oh, shit.”
“I gotcha.” D’Angelo leaps into action, grabbing a leftover stack of napkins on the next table and helping me attack the mess with the fervor of a guy who doesn’t want to mop the floor twice in one night.
“Sorry,” Brianna stutters. “Sorry. I—you’re gorgeous.”
His brown eyes glow with the kind of warmth that makes him one of my favorite people. “Aw, not next to you. You okay? Didn’t get any on you, did you?”
She shakes her head.
“D’Angelo, this is my friend, Brianna.” I smile at both of them.
Brianna gapes.
“Hey, Brianna. Nice to meet you.” D’Angelo smiles back, and I congratulate myself on my instincts.
Brianna needs the kind of guy who’s a little protective, a lot of good humor, and a dash of hard work, and D’Angelo has been bemoaning his lack of courage to talk to girls lately.
They’ll become friends, realize they like each other as more, and boom.
It’ll be my first all-organic match, no side scheming required.
He tilts his head at a stunning woman behind him. “And this is Willa, my girlfriend.”
Girlfriend?
Girlfriend?
Since when does he have a girlfriend?
“We hooked up last night,” he adds in a whisper to me.
Oh, fuuuuuuuck.
Muff Matchers fails.
Again.
I’ll find a guy for Brianna.
I will.
My bad for thinking this time might be easier.
8
Tyler
In the three days since I told Muffy I’d be her date to this thing, I’ve almost backed out twice an hour, but my dick is still playing dead, and Nick cornered me after the game last night and told me Kami doesn’t have details, but some shit happened to Muffy to make her leave medical school, and if I do anything to make her life difficult today, I’ll wish getting an atomic wedgie on my way to a swirly of death was the worst thing looming in my future.
So here I am, pulling up to a two-story house with faded siding and patchy dead rose bushes in need of pruning in an older neighborhood in Copper Valley, hoping Muffy comes running out so I don’t have to talk to Aunt Spanky-Spanky—ah, I mean Muffy’s mom, who has an unfortunate self-given nickname in the locker room—before I play the gallant gentleman who saves the woman who faked it the one time we