“Oh my god, Ikram’s right, you can’t keep a secret, can you?”
“Oh come on! She’s been clueless for ages, don’t you think he’s been pining long enough?”
Nuri rolls her eyes. I can’t believe it.
“Wait, you know? Both of you?”
“I’ve just guessed a few days ago,” Evie assures me. “Weeks. When I first met you and Jack, actually.”
“And I’ve known like, forever. So don’t worry about it.”
“What do you mean you’ve known? How? Did Nate tell you?” I pause,freaking out. “Oh my god, did you already know when I talked for an hour straight about the shape of his abs?”
“No, no, he didn’t tell me back then. It was just… Well, he was different after he met you. Distracted. Not sleeping around anymore. Watching you all the time, you know? That kind of stuff.”
Speechless. I’m absolutely speechless, my eyes wide, darting between the two of them, mouth gaping like a damned fish.
“You knew. All this time. And you didn’t tell me?”
Wow, my voice is getting incredibly high pitched. I clear my throat awkwardly.
“Look, it wasn’t my secret to tell,” Nuri says softly, her hand reaching for my forearm. “But I told Nate yesterday that he either had to give up or pull his head out of his ass and ask you out. And when I asked about it this morning he told me you guys talked? And I thought you were going to talk to me about it, and then you didn’t, and now I’m just dying to talk about it and know exactly what happened, because trust me when I say that I miss having a girlfriend with me to gossip all the time, and I miss you most of all and Ineeeeedthis right now.” She pauses to take a deep breath, Evie and I silently staring at her. “So pleaaaaaase, Prue. Tell me all about it.”
“I don’t want Jack to know yet,” I say firmly.
“Sure,” she answers after a short pause. “Just tell us!”
I sigh, closing my eyes for a brief moment to try and clear all the feelings overwhelming me.
“He asked me on a date. And I think I’m going to say yes.”
“Youthink? Wow, and they say romance is dead…” Nuri rolls her eyes but Evie pinches her arm with a frown.
“That’s it? He only asked you on a date? Girl, we went on an hour-long shopping trip!” Evie groans. “We assumed he would have kissed you, or I don’t know, give you an orgasm or ten in that time.”
I spit my wine on the sand in front of me.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves with the ten orgasms. One would have been good enough.”
“Are you girls insane?” I hiss, dabbing at my lips with the towel we brought in case we wanted to take a swim. “We were in a public place! With mybrother.”
“So, you’re telling me, if you were on that private beach, right where we are now, and your brother was nowhere in sight, you—”
“No!” I yell, cutting Nuri off. “It’s not—we’ve just started talking about it. We’re not going to have sex on the beach.”
“No one said anything about having sex,” Evie shrugs, taking a sip of her wine.
“Lots of ways you could get each other off,” Nuri adds, nodding her approval. “Actually, I’ve heard back in college that—”
“No! Don’t say anything! WhatI’veheard is enough, and I don’t want to think of him with other girls just when I’m actually considering it myself.”
They both narrow their eyes playfully, exchanging another glance.
“So you’ve thought about it,” Evie grins.
I groan. “Of course I thought about it! You made me sit on his lap forhourslast weekend! How can I notthinkabout it after that?” I ask, and Evie blushes, her grin turning into a wince. “Wait, was there really no other seat, or did you make this up to—”
“I’m sorry!” Evie pleads.
