we sat across from each other at an Indian restaurant.
“What’s your deal?” he asked. “You’ve been sort of distracted the last few days.”
“No deal.” I popped another bite of naan, the Indian flatbread we were dipping in sauce, into my mouth.
He just laughed. “You’re a terrible liar.”
My cheeks burned. I thought I was doing a much better job than that. “Whatever. How’s your paneer?”
He held out a bite for me to try. “You’ve been this way since that day you hung out with Gabe. What’s wrong? Talk to me.”
I put down my fork and looked at Landon. “Okay…so you know that Gabe and I have been best friends for years and years, right?”
“Right.” He smiled pleasantly. “Hey, when am I going to get to meet this Gabe?”
I swallowed my mouthful of food. “Why?”
Landon’s mouth pulled down. “I want to get to know this guy you spend so much time with. I need to know if I should let you keep hanging out with him.”
Red flag, red flag. “I…um…what?”
“He’s obviously important to you. I should get to know him.”
“Well, I guess you’ll have to get to know him soon, then.” It felt weird to talk about Landon and Gabe meeting. Talk about a collision of two worlds that I purposefully kept separate.
His brows lifted. “Well, since I’m in love with his BFF, maybe we should all go to dinner sometime?”
“Right.” My voice was weary.
“We could make it a double date. You and me, Gabe and…what’s her name?”
I choked on my bite. “Alicia.”
“That’s it.” Landon took a swig of his drink. “We could all get to know each other better.”
“Sure.” I was getting nauseated.
He looked at me strangely. “What’s up?”
“I’m not exactly his fiancée’s biggest fan. And I don’t think she’s a fan of me, either.”
“Why’s that?”
I took a deep breath. “Um, well, I don’t like her for a multitude of reasons, but I think she dislikes me because she’s jealous.”
Landon just chuckled. “Jealous of what?”
“Of Gabe and me.”
“But, you and Gabe are just buddies.” He tore off a piece of naan.
“Right. Exactly.” I glanced down. “Except that we were more than just friends at one time.”
Landon froze, mid-bite. “Huh?”
I was having a hard time looking him in the eye. “Um, yeah. We, you know, dated for a while.”
Landon’s tone deepened. “Gabe? The one who’s wedding you’re going to be in?”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re going to be the best man for your ex-boyfriend?”
“Yeah.”
“And that’s why this Alicia chick hates you?”
“Well, I’m assuming so.”
“And you don’t find this at all strange?”
“What, that she hates me? Yes, it’s strange.”
“No, that you’re the best man in your ex-boyfriend’s wedding.”
“Um, no. Well, it’s a little unorthodox, but I think the simple black dress will look good, and…”
“No, I mean that you are this close to your ex. Close enough to be his best man.”
“He was my friend long before we ever tried to date.”
“So you’ve said.” Landon looked down at his plate for a minute.
“It’s not strange. We met when we were six years old. Our families are neighbors. We grew up together.”
He wiped his mouth with a napkin, his movements jerky. “But you also dated?”
I nodded.
“So when did you two date?”
It felt like I was confessing to something dark and wrong. “When we were sixteen.”
He looked relieved. “I was afraid it was recently.”
I let a burst of air out of my lungs. “No. It was when we were teenagers.”
“Well…” Landon watched me for a second, then went on. “How serious was it?”
I grappled for a beat. I didn’t want to lie to Landon, but I also didn’t want to scare him away. I didn’t want to rock the boat any more than I already had.
“I guess…somewhat semi-serious…but not really serious at all…kind of.” I rubbed my eyes and sighed.
Landon’s face wrinkled up. “What the heck does that mean?”
“It means…” My mind whirled. “…it was kid stuff. And, it ended. Then we stayed friends. Well, we weren’t friends for a while, but then gradually repaired our friendship, and now here we are.”
“And Alicia is jealous of this for no reason?” He looked unconvinced.
“Guess so.” I decided to leave out the fact that Gabe and I were three seconds from having our tongues down each other’s throats when she let herself into his apartment the other day. That might have been contributing to her jealousy issues as well.
Landon thought for a moment. Then, as if a lightbulb went off above his head, he scowled. “So you’re going to be his best man, even though you’ve slept together?”
“What?” My voice