Madeline said she liked it.”
“She was lying.”
Mitch’s eyes flew to mine.
I winced and shrugged. “I’m sorry.”
“Please don’t ever make that again,” Griffin told him.
Mitch started muttering something I couldn’t hear, but Griff didn’t seem concerned.
“You ready to go?” he asked me. “When are we meeting everyone?”
“I told them seven thirty, so we should probably go.” I had decided we should start at the bar farthest from Griffin’s place and make our way back here.
Unless I found a guy tonight for some reason, I would be sleeping in Griffin’s apartment again. There was no way I was driving home.
When we reached our destination, it was busier than I had thought it would be.
“Why don’t you go and see if you can find everyone? I’ll get us drinks.”
Griffin agreed and headed toward the back of the room, where there were more tables.
I parked myself at the bar to wait for one of the two bartenders to make their way over to me. I had my eyes toward Griffin to see if he’d found our friends. It looked like he might have found them because he smiled and stopped walking. He met my eyes and waved to make sure I saw where he was, and I nodded back.
“Oh my God,” a woman said behind me.
I thought maybe she was speaking to me, and I was about to turn around, but I stopped when I heard her friend respond.
“What?”
“I just saw Griffin Davis.”
The two women had my full attention. Using my hair as a curtain, I turned my head slightly so that I could hear what they were about to say about my best friend.
“Who’s that?” the second woman asked.
“A guy I dated a while back.”
I closed my eyes to see if I could recognize the first woman’s voice, but there was too much noise around us. Or there was the chance that I hadn’t even met her.
I doubted it because Griffin didn’t hide women from me, but there was a pinch in my chest at the thought that maybe he had done just that.
“Is this the guy with the cute dog or the guy who fucked you like a rock star?”
I already knew the answer because Griffin didn’t own a dog. Also, it wasn’t the first time I’d heard that he was good in the sack.
“The latter.” She squealed. “He was so good.”
“I’m jealous,” her friend said.
“I’m jealous of myself. Maybe after we get our drinks, I should go over and see if he’ll give me a repeat performance,” Woman One said.
Woman Two responded, but I didn’t hear what she said because I was already walking away.
Griffin turned in my direction and frowned when he saw me. “What’s wrong?”
I looked around him to see that he wasn’t talking to our friends but to someone I didn’t know.
“I want to go.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.” The truth was, I wasn’t really sure what was wrong. I just knew I didn’t want to stick around and have the woman take Griffin from me.
I mean, it was my birthday after all. And I didn’t want my best friend to leave me.
I wasn’t quite convinced of my reasoning. But I didn’t have time to think about that right now.
“I want to leave.”
“We just got here. Everyone else is on their way.”
“We’ll text them.” I wrapped my fingers around his lower arm and squeezed. “Please.”
“Of course, babe. It’s your birthday.”
A huge wave of relief washed over me, and I smiled.
Griffin shifted around. “Looks like we’re leaving. Talk to you later.”
His friends said good-bye, and he threw his arm around my neck when he faced me again. “Let’s go. Where are we headed?”
“Let’s go two doors down. Remember how I said I wanted to sit outside? We should do that sooner rather than later in case it gets cold.”
He laughed. “You could have just said that. I thought something bad had happened to you.”
I forced a laugh. “Sorry to worry you.”
As we walked out the door, I peeked at the bar to see if I knew who had been talking about Griffin.
At first, I didn’t see a face that looked familiar, but then I saw Holly, and I had to hold in a laugh.
My best friend hadn’t hidden a girl from me, and even better, I knew Griffin didn’t like her.
And the best part was that he’d told me more than once that she was bad in bed.
Oh, Holly. There is no way Griffin is giving you a repeat performance.
Six
Madeline
Griffin and I found a table outside with enough room to fit