Except, he doesn’t. It’s quiet for too long. The bartender drops the beer on the counter. Hunter takes a sip. Then he lets out a heavy sigh, and I keep waiting for him to say something, but he doesn’t. Why the fuck is he so bad at this? Why can’t he just speak? At least to me.
My patience runs out as I mutter in his direction, “I know you’re testing me.”
“I’m not testing you,” he replies plainly.
“Yes, you are, and I don’t blame you, but—"
“Drake, I’m not fucking testing you,” he barks in response.
My eyes widen. “So, you’re telling me that was serious?”
“Yes.” The cool confidence in his expression is infuriating. How can he be so calm about this? It makes me want to knock him right off his seat.
Hiding my frustration, I turn away from him, facing my beer again. “That club is going to your head.”
He laughs. “My sex club, you mean?”
“Yeah. You’ve changed. All this kinky shit is going too far.”
Leaning forward, he glares at me. “You mean the same sex club you’re at every night? It’s changing me?”
“Yes, Hunter. I’ve always been the way I am, but the man I knew ten years ago would never say what you said this morning.”
“Oh, come on, Drake. It was one fucking idea. Isabel said no, so I dropped it. It’s over.”
My brows pinch together in disgust as I turn toward him. “How could you ask her that? I get it if you want to put me to the test, but her?”
“I asked her because I’m not the kind of guy who asks my best friend to fuck my wife, without letting her in on the request.”
My beer glass slams so hard against the lacquered bartop, it silences everyone around us. I have to cool myself down before I get myself kicked out, but my temper is rising. I honestly have no clue why I’m reacting so viscerally to this. But it’s Hunter’s nonchalance that really makes me irritable.
This means so little to him. It couldn’t possibly mean more to me.
“Stop saying that,” I grit through my teeth.
“I’m not going to be ashamed of what I want. Even if I can’t have it. I have never passed judgment on you for your sexual activity or the things you like, so I don’t understand why you’re being so dramatic over mine.”
“Maybe because I’m involved.”
“You’re only involved,” he replies, leaning closer so no one else can overhear us. “Because my little fantasy involves watching someone with my wife, and you’re literally the only person on earth I would trust enough to do that.”
“Do you hear yourself?” I reply in a low whisper, leaning closer. “You’re asking me to sleep with Isabel.”
Then, point-blank with his stoic eyes focused on mine, he asks, “Do you want to?”
And I’m rendered speechless. All the rehearsals I did in my head for how I would answer this, without sounding fake or forced, are useless now because it’s written clear as day on my face.
Instead of answering, I stare slack-jawed at him, and it’s enough of a confirmation for him. I quickly pull away, grabbing my beer and guzzling the rest of it down.
“You think I’m mad because you want her?” he asks, but I ignore him, nodding at the bartender, so he knows to refill my empty glass. He walks over, giving Hunter a skeptical side-eye as he takes my glass and carries it over to the tap.
Hunter continues, “Drake, I’m not surprised you want her. Who wouldn’t? If anything, the fact that you do want her and haven’t made a move proves to me more than anything how good of a friend you are.”
“So, this is a test?”
“No,” he barks.
“It’s not normal,” I mutter as the bartender returns my glass, foaming at the top, and I quickly take a long drink.
“Define normal,” Hunter replies.
“You are my best friend, and that is just a line you don’t cross.”
“I’m asking you to cross it.”
“When you got married, I stood at the altar next to you. I was there when you made those vows, and I took them very fucking seriously.”
“I’m not breaking vows, Drake. It’s just sex.”
I don’t know if I’m losing my patience because he won’t give up or because he’s starting to wear me down. Or because I know Hunter always gets what he wants. I know, deep down, that if this is really what he wants, he’s going to get it. Even if I say no. Even if Isabel already did. Hunter will somehow get us to say yes and he’ll get what he wants because he always does.