Here's to Us(What If It's Us #2)(45)

Dylan looks down at his shirt. “Say what you want about your ex-boyfriend, but when it comes to my crumbs, you mind your business.”

“Noted. I wonder if Arthur and me breaking up was a good thing for him in the long run.”

“I care more about if it was good for you.”

As Dylan eats a blueberry muffin, my phone buzzes.

I smile. “It’s Mario,” I say, and answer the call. “Hey!”

“Hey, Super Mario,” Dylan says with a mouthful of muffin. He grabs his phone, probably to rate the pastries.

“Oh, you’re out and about,” Mario says. “I don’t want to bother you if you’re busy.”

“No, it’s okay. Dylan is acting like a food critic because . . . he’s Dylan? Did you make it back okay?”

“Just landed a bit ago and headed home now. I’m still on LA time and I’ve got some extra hours in me. I thought maybe we could hang out and you can welcome me back to the future.”

“I’m game!” I’m not even going to play it cool. “I’m with D. You cool with a group hangout?”

“The more, the merrier, as long as you’re there, Alejo. Figure out the plan. I’m almost home and going to take a quick shower.”

I can practically smell his ocean breeze bodywash already. It makes me wish we could have an evening in together, but my parents are home, and his house is never empty on Saturday nights.

“Te veo pronto,” I say and hang up.

“What’s that secret language stuff?” Dylan asks.

“Just saying that I’ll see him soon since he’s back. Where should we go?”

Dylan’s eyes widen. “You know who’s nearby, right?”

I know who he’s talking about, but I shake my head. “No.”

“Yes. We are in full-on Arthur Territory. You ready to party like last time?”

“I am so far from ready.”

Dylan holds up his phone. “They’re expecting us!”

“What?” I take his phone and see that he’s texted Arthur, letting him know that we’re in the neighborhood. “Are you doing some Parent Trap thing and trying to get us back together? He’s with his boyfriend, D. We should leave them alone.”

“If they’re in it for the long term, they will have plenty of alone time.”

“Why are you talking like you’re a wise man of long-term relationships? You and Samantha have been dating for two years.”

“Which makes me an expert compared to you and Arthur.” He’s not wrong there. “I think there’s a great opportunity here for you to show off your boyfriend—I know, I know!—and spend more time with Arthur and his.”

It would definitely be a different dynamic getting Mario and Mikey in the same room. It could even settle a lot of my insecurities. Prove once and for all that Arthur and me not being together opened the door to us finding better matches.

“A do-over double date,” I say.

“Plus one, of course,” Dylan says with a massive smile. “I’ve got to see this.”





Chapter Sixteen


Arthur

Saturday, May 30




“They’re coming . . . when?” Mikey looks slightly bewildered.

“No clue. Dylan just said they’re on the Upper West Side, and apparently Mario’s back in town?” I pass him a barely rinsed dish, still speckled with bread crumbs. “And then he asked if we were home, and I said yes, and he said they were on their way, and that was it. I can text him again if you want.”

“It’s fine,” Mikey says without looking at me. I watch him rearrange the dishwasher for a moment, trying to dial my heartbeat down to normal.

“Hey.” I grip the edge of the counter. “I haven’t forgotten about what we talked about.”

He flips a plate around, slotting it neatly beside the others. “Okay.”

“Do you want to talk about it now? I was just going to wait for Jess to head out, but—”

“Later’s fine.”

“Later,” I echo, ignoring the guilty twinge in my chest. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with talking later. It’s just that the laters keep piling up on top of each other. First it was Ben walking us home from ice cream last night, and then it was Jessie and more Jessie, and then we slept, and then today it was the museum and Six and then talking about Six, and then dinner. So it’s been kind of a lot. And now this, just when Jessie was heading out to Samantha’s parents’ house.

Right on cue, Jessie appears in the doorway, a weekend bag hitched over her shoulder. “Namrata thinks I should bring condoms and booze.”

“Orgy etiquette on point.” I press my palms together.

Mikey’s eyes widen, and Jessie laughs. “Absolutely one hundred percent not an orgy,” she assures him. “Samantha’s friend Patrick’s in town, so we’re eating cupcakes and watching movies.”

I shake my head. “I still can’t believe you text with Namrata. She and Juliet acted like I was a little kid.”

“I mean, you kind of were? That was two years ago.”

Two years ago. The way Jessie says it makes my breath hitch. She makes it sound like the Stone Age—but maybe it really was a whole other era. Me at sixteen, with all my high-octane feelings. I was like a human volcano. I remember every beat of that summer, everything I felt, everything I thought. It’s right there, but I can’t seem to climb back inside it. It almost feels like something I read in a book.