“I’m Craig, in case anyone wants to know,” Craig said, stepping forward after a minute.
“Oh, sorry, man,” Jamie said.
“No big deal. I seem to always get left out of the group. You know, it’s not easy being the third wheel.”
“The third…” Tessa glanced at three of us, obviously wondering if there was something there. Craig, oblivious as ever, just continued on.
“Yeah, you know, with Jamie gone all the time, I just have these two. I mean, I’ve asked him not to work so much and be around for us more, but I just can’t seem to hold the guy’s attention. And imagine my surprise when Jamie came home and told me that he’d found someone. Talk about a shocker. I’ll admit, my feelings were a little hurt. I always thought it would just be the four of us.”
I gritted my teeth and internally begged Craig to stop. He didn’t realize how much he was making us sound like an orgy. Jamie chuckled, rubbing his hand along the back of his neck.
“Well, it’s not like we’re that close.”
“Oh, come on, man,” Craig continued. “Remember what I did for you that time in Mexico with the jellyfish? Not just anyone would do that for a friend. Yeah, we’re pretty tight.”
Tessa looked utterly confused, and maybe even a little weirded out by Craig’s confession. I would be lying if I said it was normal. It was far from normal, but that was Craig sometimes.
Jamie cleared his throat. “Yeah, I guess you could say we’re close, but a normal kind of close. Not anything weird,” Jamie clarified. “Not that there’s anything wrong with it, if that’s your thing. It’s just not my thing. Craig is a normal, heterosexual friend, and that’s it.”
Craig’s face morphed into shock and he instantly started spluttering. “Shit…I just…no…nothing like that. I mean, that one time with Dr. Sunshine…and she thought, but there was nothing. I would never…totally not like that.”
“It’s okay,” Tessa blushed. “If I thought you were gay a few minutes ago, I definitely don’t anymore.”
“Good,” Craig sighed in relief. “I mean, Jamie’s a good-looking guy and all, but my pendulum definitely doesn’t swing that way.”
“Maybe now would be a good time to stop referring to Jamie as a good-looking guy,” Alec muttered.
“Right.”
“So, anyway,” Jamie laughed. “These are my oldest friends.”
“Well, it’s very nice to meet all of you,” Tessa smiled. “I know that I’ve been keeping Jamie pretty busy.”
I had to admit, she seemed to really like meeting all of us, but that didn’t mean anything. She could be a really good actress. Jamie did a really great job of not letting on that he suspected Tessa, which I wasn’t expecting. He must have gotten good over the last year of hiding what he was thinking and feeling.
“I bet you have,” I said, putting a big grin on my face to lessen the snark.
“Let’s sit down,” Jamie said quickly, motioning for Tessa to go into the living room and sit. He shot me a look, but I just smirked at him and headed for my seat.
“So, how did you meet Jamie?” I asked as I sat right next to Alec and slipped my hand into his.
“Uh, well, that’s kind of a funny story,” she chuckled.
“I bet it is,” I grinned, gnashing my teeth together when she slipped her hand onto his knee. This woman was rubbing me all the wrong ways. She was too good, too wholesome, and that just didn’t seem right to me. How had she been raised in money and come out so pure? I must have been letting my irritation show because Alec squeezed my hand hard.
“I was putting gas in my car-”
“Attempting to,” Jamie cut in.
“Stop,” she laughed, slapping at him playfully. “Anyway, I was at the gas station and I was trying to put gas in my car.”
“How do you try to put gas in your car?” Craig asked before I could.
“Well, it was my first time, so I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
I stared at her completely dumbfounded and then glanced at Jamie. He was smirking at me, I’m sure thinking the same thing I was. Either that was the best meet-cute in the world, or she was playing him hard.
“Anyway, I couldn’t get the gas to come out and I was getting very frustrated. Jamie happened to be on the other side of the pump and heard me grumbling about it and stepped over to help me.”
“So, what was wrong?” Craig asked, leaning forward in anticipation.
“I didn’t lift the lever to start pumping,” she blushed. “I know, completely idiotic, but up until recently, I’ve always had drivers that do everything for me. See, my dad is sort of rich and I’ve never really had to do anything for myself.”
“What happened that you do now?”
“About a month before I met Jamie, I realized that I didn’t want to live my father’s life anymore. So, I packed my bags and moved out. I didn’t have a job or a place to go, but I was determined not to live under his roof anymore.”
“That’s either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish,” Alec pointed out.
“Well, it was both. See, had I been thinking, I would have rented an apartment before I left.”
“So, where did you go?”
“To a hotel,” she said.
“With…your father’s money,” I clarified.
“Well, like I said, I hadn’t totally thought everything out yet. But after a few weeks of living on my own, I found a job and rented an apartment.”
“But, how did you rent the apartment without any income?” I asked, not buying this whole story.
“Well, I had to use his money. I mean, he knew about it and didn’t stop me. But it’s been almost three months and I’m no longer using his cards and next month I’ll be paying the rent with my own money.”
Jamie raised an eyebrow at me, waiting for me to challenge. I had to hand it to her, she was resourceful. As far as stories go, it was a good one. Nobody could have
