into her,” Silas said. “Like, full-on, laser beam attention directed at her.”
“How do you even know?” I asked him. “You were upstairs.”
“I came down to use the vending machine and you didn’t even notice.”
“Oh.” I shrugged as they stared at me with their wicked smiles. “It was crowded and loud.”
“Engaged isn’t married,” Holly pointed out, but I was shaking my head before she even finished the sentence.
“I’m not messin’ with that.”
“You look super sad,” Bryant said, and the pity in his voice brought that emptiness up inside of me. I’d been feeling really lonely lately. I missed the closeness I’d had with Don, and Shawn had brought all of that back to the surface.
“I am,” I admitted. “He checked off every single box of what I want in a man.”
Did Silas just roll his eyes? I stared at him and he said, “What?”
“Oh, sweetie.” Bryant reached across the table and patted my hand. “But seriously. Did you get any dick pics on Sparks yet? Because I can help you rate them.”
“Ooh, yes! Sparks!” Holly said, clapping her hands. “Tell us!”
“You should see the losers she swiped right on,” Silas told them. “I had to clear out the douchebags.”
“Why are you being mean?” I asked him.
Silas laughed. “I’m not! You let me do it.”
I was referring to his attitude, but he didn’t even seem to realize he was being weird.
“Whoa, whoa, you did what?” Holly asked him with big eyes. “This is part of her learning process! You have to let her have the full experience!”
“She didn’t know what ENM was and swiped on a few of those.”
I crossed my arms and glared at him. “They were hot. I thought the women were their sisters or something.”
“Wait, what’s ENM?” Cherly asked.
Bryant grinned. “Ethically Non-Monogomous. Genius, right? Open relationship. Have your cake and eat it too.”
“Hm.” Cheryl pondered. “Definitely not right for Harlow.”
“No,” I admitted. “I’m not sharing.”
Silas crossed his arms. “I wish someone had schooled me when I first started online dating. She doesn’t need to wade through a bunch of creeps and unsolicited dick pics.”
Bryant’s face animated as he gazed at Silas. “You got unsolicited dick pics?”
Silas made a face back. “No, but I got plenty of naked pics from women when I was just trying to have a conversation. It’s hard to get to know anyone.”
Bryant clicked his tongue. “Poor thing. It must be hard when women want you only for your body.”
Holly laughed. “You’re a rarity, Silas. Your wife is one lucky woman.”
He shrugged and gave an adorably shy smile.
“Aww,” the other four of us sang.
“Wait,” Bryant said, a glimmer in his eyes. “Does Jacquie send you nekky pics?”
“Of course, but they’re not unsolicited.” Silas winked, somehow managing not to look like a creeper when he did it.
Bryant twined his manicured fingers under his chin. “Can you wink at me again?”
“I’ll probably never do that again, actually.”
I giggled.
When Silas left to change for his flight home in an hour, Bryant sat back with his ankle on his knee.
“He’s way too hot to be completely straight.”
“He’s completely straight, just a touch metro,” Cheryl said matter-of-factly. “I get no bisexual vibes from him.”
“Damn it, Cher, shut your aura-sensing little mouth and let a guy dream.”
I smiled at this ongoing battle and looked at Holly. “Are you done for the day?”
“Yeah, we were just waiting to ride back with you.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
We said our good-byes and did our speed-walk through the airport with our roller bags. The way people craned their necks to watch the three of us made me feel like we were celebs. I could only imagine what kind of glamorous lifestyle they saw when they looked at us. Ha!
At the transportation doors we buttoned our peacoats and wrapped scarves around our necks, then headed out to the shuttle. It was blessedly heated but smelled like fuel and rust, like most everything at the airport. The shuttle took us to the parking lot which had been plowed but there was slush and piles of snow everywhere. Six inches of snow blanketed the space between my car and the ones next to mine.
“Shit,” I muttered, and Holly whimpered.
“Let’s do it,” Cheryl said. The three of us took big steps into the snow in our work pumps and squealed at the cold, then jumped into my car laughing, shaking off our feet.
“We should probably be more prepared next time,” Holly said, yanking the seatbelt twice before it moved for her. I wondered if I could fit