He nods and turns.
“Hey!” I call, he turns back toward me. “Where’s my goodbye kiss?”
He narrows his eyes before he leans down and kisses my cheek. “Stop fucking nagging me.”
I smile up at my handsome friend and fix his hair from hanging over his eyes.
He turns, storms off, and I watch him disappear into the distance.
Hmm, weird. I take out my phone and call my mom. She answers on the first ring. “Hey, Mom.” I smile.
“Hello, darling, how’s my girl today?”
“Oh my God, I didn’t call you last night because it was too late. Guess what Nathan bought me for my birthday?”
“I can’t imagine. That man spoils you rotten.”
“I know.” I laugh. “A trip to Majorca.”
“Where’s that?”
“Spain.”
“Oh my God. Tom!” she calls out to my father. “Nathan bought Eliza a trip to Spain for her birthday.”
“Oh, hell, that’s great. Can we come?” I hear my dad reply back.
“Can you believe it?” I gasp.
“I can, honey. He takes you everywhere.”
“I just bought the most beautiful bikini, and I love it.”
“This is great. You have that baby shower this afternoon, don’t you?”
I roll my eyes. “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”
“Listen, honey, I’ve got to go. Doris is picking me up for tennis in five minutes and I’m not ready. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay, love you.”
“Love you, too.”
* * *
The waiter pours our glasses of wine. “Are you ready to order?” he asks.
I peruse the menu. “Can we have five more minutes, please?”
“Of course.” He gives Brooke, Jolie, and me a broad smile and with a nod of his head he rushes off to serve someone else.
“A toast.” Brooke smiles as she holds up her glass. “To surviving an afternoon in the snake pit.” She smirks.
“To surviving.” We giggle together. God, this afternoon’s baby shower was horrendous. “I’m not having a baby shower, and neither are you two,” I say before I take a sip of my wine. “Nathan’s right, they’re a complete waste of time.”
“That’s if we even have kids,” Brooke says casually.
“You don’t want kids?” I frown, this is the first I hear of this.
Brooke shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m thirty-three and single. Who knows what the future holds. It may not be in my destiny.”
“I’m having kids,” I tell her. “If I can, of course. Or I want to adopt or foster, but being a mom is something I definitely want to do.”
“Well, you’d better get Nathan out of your bed then,” Jolie says before she takes a big gulp of her wine.
“What does that mean?” I frown.
“It means just that. No guy is going to want to date a woman who sleeps with another man every night.”
“We’re friends. And when was the last time you had sex?” I retort.
“A while ago.” Jolie sighs.
I look between my two beautiful friends, and something blindingly obvious stands out. “What’s going on with us?”
“What?”
“Look at us,” I say. “In our thirties, successful, financially independent and happy, yet nobody out there interests us romantically. There’s no shortage of men, just none are appealing to us three.”
We all stare into space as we each go over that notion in our mind.
“I don’t know about you girls, but casual sex has most definitely lost its shine.” Brooke sighs.
“For me, too.” Jolie nods. “I go to the gym, then work, and I hang with you guys on the weekend. I really don’t do much else. I may be the most boring person on the planet.”
“Me, too,” Brooke agrees.
“You know what the problem is?” I say. “We’re too comfortable.”
“To be honest, I’d rather eat a cupcake than spend an hour getting ready for a date with a loser. Men just aren’t worth the fucking hassle anymore.” Jolie shrugs. “Well, let’s face it, nobody satisfies us in bed like BOB does, anyway.”
We all clink our glasses together. “Amen.”
I slump and lean on my hand. “I’ve had way too many dates with my vibrator. I think I’ve forgotten what real sex is even like.”
Brooke narrows her eyes. “Girls, I think it’s official. We’re in a midlife rut.”
We sip our wine in silence, suddenly depressed by the thought.
“But, how? How did it go from dating all the time and having the time of our lives, to waking up one day and realising that we haven’t gone on a date in six months?”
“Continual disappointment in men, I suspect.”
“We should shake things up a bit,” Jolie chips in.
“Like how?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” She thinks for a moment, and then narrows her eyes as a plan presents itself. “Step out of our comfort zones. We each have to go on a date and we need to talk to different people-do things we don’t normally do. Yes! We could do it. The six of us should go on a date, and then we can reward ourselves with a weekend away… somewhere exotic.”
“Oh, please. Nathan won’t go on a date with anybody.” I roll my eyes.
“Bullshit!” Jolie snaps. “He’s fucking people all the time. A man who looks like he does has to be having sex on tap.”
“Like when?” I scoff. “He spends every spare minute of his day with me.
“He still has his apartment, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Why exactly do you think he has that bachelor pad, Eliza?” I stare at her. “Nathan’s apartment is his booty-call place. He works late some nights, he fucks whoever he wants, kicks them out, and then he goes to your house to sleep.”
Brooke widens her eyes as if I’m totally clueless.
I cringe. “You think?”
“I know.”
“I never thought of it that way. Maybe…” I shrug. “Good for him, I guess.” I toast the air with my wine. “At least one of us is getting some action.”
“You know,” Jolie says. “This little arrangement you and Nathan have going on, is really not good for you.”
“Why? I don’t care who Nathan fucks.”
“Because it’s not equal. You can’t fuck who you want, or invite men over because Nathan is always at your house. He’s got his cake and he’s eating it, too.”
“We’re friends, you idiot. I’m not his fucking cake.”
“How many texts have you sent each other today?” Jolie asks.
“We’re friends. Friends text each other.”
Brooke and Jolie exchange looks. “All right… then put it this way: would you invite a guy over with Nathan there… in his boxer shorts, sleeping in your bed?”
“Absolutely not.” I wince. I imagine Nathan strangling some poor man for interrupting his time with me.
“But when Nathan wants to have sex with someone, he has his apartment to go to,” Jolie continues. “He has an out, Eliza. You don’t. Why can’t you see it? One day, he’s going to meet someone special and stay at his apartment with him, and he’ll never come back. Where will that leave you?”
I imagine what a horrible day that would be.
Maybe the girls are onto something here. This isn’t a normal set up between him and me. The boundaries between us are blurred. As much as