“Interesting,” I say, finally.
“All good things,” Julian assures me.
“Not sure I can say the same for him,” I mumble under my breath.
Julian laughs again.
“Well, as you might remember, my name’s Julian,” he says, holding out a hand for me to shake. I take it. It is unexpectedly soft, but its grip is firm. “And I know it’s not good to speak ill of the groom, but I don’t blame you.”
An age-old reflex to defend Brandon springs to my mind, and I bite my tongue and push it down. For so many years, I’d fielded complaints about Brandon’s sometimes prickly nature with an “I know he seems like a hardass, but he’s actually a good person,” comforted theresidents who came to me after he’d reamed them out with assurances that he was harmless. Because he was. He cried when his favorite clinic patients died and bought breakfasts for the trainees who worked weekends in the ICU. Kept an eye out for the learners who looked confused but were too scared to voice it and took special care to go over a topic until everyone in the room had absorbed it. Organized a committee of guys to move me out of the apartment my ex and I shared in six hours flat and build my IKEA furniture in my new studio.
He’d been, for the most part, a good man. I’m not sure when that changed.Ifit did, or if, as Krause had said, he’d just gone and found true love in the messiest way possible.
I close my eyes. I’m exhausted. If Sophie and I didn’t have an hour-and-a-half-long drive home in front of us, I might have liked another glass of wine.
“Well. This was lovely. But I think I should probably start heading home.”
I try to push out the bench to leave, but it’s stuck, set firm by Julian’s counterweight.
“Did I upset you?” Julian says innocently, as if he isn’t intentionally keeping me captive. “I didn’t mean to.”
“No, I just—” I start.
“Then forget why you’re here,” Julian interrupts. “And play with me some more.”
If there was any doubt in my mind that Julian is hitting on me, it’s obliterated by the command in his stare. His eyes are golden now, lupine. From so close, they’re a vortex, sucking me in.
“You’re pushy,” I observe.
“Sometimes you have to be, to get what you want,” Julian says, with all the easy confidence of a man who has never been rejected in his life.
“And what you want is…?”
Julian smiles.
“Nothing much,” he says. “Just to get a little more time alone with the woman I’ve been wanting to talk to all night.”
I ignore the traitorous thrill in my stomach.This is a young man,I remind myself. Somebody’sson.
“I am thirty-eight years old,” I announce, holding my age out in front of me like a shield. “I’m an elder millennial at best. Didn’t have a cell phone until college. My goddaughter says I use old lady emojis.”
“Yes,” Julian says, as if to say,Your point?
“And you’re, what, twenty-four?”
“Twenty-seven,” he corrects.
“Brandon’s got some cute cousins your age,” I continue. “Did you meet Hannah? Brown hair, bangs? She’s lovely, and I’m sure she’d love to meet you. You’d have a lot more to talk about. There’s also Bridget; very sharp, very pretty—”
“Just so I understand,” Julian says, the corners of his eyes creasing with amusement. “Are you suggesting, based solely on our respective ages, that you and I won’t have anything in common whatsoever? That there’s no chance that you’ll find our conversation riveting? And are you currently offering me to other women in response?”
I cross my arms.
“Be serious, Julian. A riveting conversation isnotwhat you’re looking for.”
Julian’s grin becomes a laugh, and his fingers dance over the keys again. I watch the tendons in his hands flex, then look away, annoyed by the hummingbird flutter in my chest.Pull yourself together, Sean.Julian’s running circles around me, and he knows it. This is probably fun for him. Girls his age have probably gotten boring, but an older, seasoned woman? Better yet, one with an axe to grind, who mightconsider a night with her best friend’s ex’s mistress’s man of honor a particularly exhilarating form of vengeance? I would be an adventure.
“You’re right. I’m greedy. I also want to ask you to dinner,” Julian continues. “But for now, yes, a conversation will do.”