Redemption (Forgiven Series) (9 page)

Thankfully by the next morning Angie had cooled off and was willing to listen to my apology. “So, are you still willing to ride over to class with me this morning?” I asked, flashing her my most charming smile. It always worked so well on Angie because she knew I wasn’t hitting on her. She would just shake her head and laugh at me.

“Yeah, I’ll ride over with you,” she said through her giggles. “Let me just grab my stuff.”

Angie and I had classes in the morning on Monday’s, but Caleb’s classes didn’t start until the afternoon so the lucky bastard was still asleep. When Angie was ready I grabbed my stuff and we walked out of the apartment.

Caleb must’ve said something to Angie last night, because she didn’t mention hooking me up with someone the entire ride to campus.

“Any plans for the wedding yet?” I asked, making up for the unusual silence between us.

She looked at me from the passenger seat with a huge grin on her face and, albeit belatedly, I realized that asking a woman about her wedding was probably not the best idea. Then again she was marrying my best friend, so there was no way I was ever going to completely get out of listening to wedding plans. At least this way it was on my terms.

“Well, we talked about dates last night, but that’s about it so far,” she answered.

I kept my eyes on the road and waited for her to tell me what date they might have picked, but the silence continued. “Are you gonna tell me what date you picked?”

She startled and quickly turned to me. “Sorry, what did you say?”

I laughed. I knew exactly what she was doing. “You were sitting there daydreaming about the rest of the day, weren’t you?”

“Yeah,” she said sheepishly.

I continued to laugh. “I wanted to know what date you two decided on?”

“Neither one of us want to get married while we’re still trying to finish our degrees, so we decided to get married next summer, after we graduate.” She was so excited she was bouncing up and down in her seat. “We’re thinking the end of July.”

“July, hmmm…” I pulled into the parking space and turned off the engine. “You know what that means, don’t you?” I asked mischievously.

She scrunched her nose up. “No, but I’m almost afraid to ask.”

I patted her on the arm. “That’s okay, I was going to tell you anyway. It means there won’t be any classes, so we can have one crazy-ass bachelor party.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Oh, I’m dead serious.”

She flung open her door and hoped out of the car. Once I’d gotten out and started to walking to class, she turned on me. “You have to be out of your mind if you think I’m going to let Caleb have any type of bachelor party that includes naked women,” she said with disgust.

I wasn’t going to give in so easily, but I had almost a year and a half to work on her. I slung my arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, we have plenty of time to talk about it.”

The death glare she shot at me should have stopped me in my tracks, but it wasn’t as nearly as scary as the face Emily wore as we approached. The twisted snarl on her face was a clear sign that I was in trouble. Part of me considered saying I’d forgotten something and escaping back to the safety of the car, but I’d have to face Emily at some point, so better now than later.

Her eyes narrowed as we got closer. “Why are you such an asshole?” she snapped.

Angie looked back and forth between the two of us. “Wow, Josh, so it wasn’t just me you were being a jerk to this weekend?”

Emily’s eyes snapped to Angie. “What did he do to you?’ she snarled.

Oh shit, I was in for it. On top of Emily being mad about Lauren, now she was going to be even more pissed because of Angie. Angie watched me closely while Emily tapped her foot, waiting for an answer.

Angie turned to me. “Josh, what happened this weekend that has made Emily look at you the way she used to look at Caleb? She looks like she wants to murder you, or at least diminish any chance you ever have of having kids.”

“Oh, so he didn’t tell you about his night with Lauren?” Emily said sarcastically.

“Yeah, they went out with you to the bar after the party, and then she drove him home. I don’t get what the big deal is?”

“Figures you didn’t give her the whole story,” Emily snarled. “What he failed to mention was that when we left the party, I caught him standing beside her car with his tongue shoved down her throat.” Angie’s faced dropped and I could see the anger return to her eyes. Emily clapped her hands together, seemingly enjoying the fact that Angie was getting mad at me too.

“Then he spent the next few hours dancing with her at the bar while she got drunk. It wasn’t Lauren who drove Josh home—Josh had to drive because Lauren was wasted.”

Angie glared at me. “I guess Lauren wasn’t as forgettable as you made her seem last night.” She walked to the door without looking back, Emily’s brows lifted in a look that clearly said, “Take that,” before she turned and followed Angie.

I sighed and started towards the door. This was going to be one long class. If I didn’t get this cleared up with Angie, Caleb was going to have my ass later.

The looks I got as I walked into the class behind them made me a little nervous about sitting in my normal seat. But it was my only chance to fix this, so I cautiously took my usual seat next to Angie.

I waited for Angie or Emily to rip me a new one, but neither seemed interested in speaking to me at all. Wracking my brain as to how I might salvage the situation, I nudged Angie. Getting through to her would be much easier than trying to talk to Emily when she was like this.

“Angie, don’t be pissed. I never said that Lauren was forgettable, I’m just not interested in a relationship.” Something flared in her eyes, but she refused to look at me so it was hard to tell what exactly it was. When she continued to ignore me, I decided to try one more time.

“Look, when I’m ready for something serious, I promise I’ll come to you for help first,” I said with a hopeful smile.

“Answer me one question, Josh.”

“Okay,” I agreed, afraid of what she was going to ask. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Emily face us so that she could hear my answer too.

“Did you sleep with Lauren?”

How was I supposed to answer that? It was a loaded question if ever I’d heard one. Any answer I gave could get me in trouble. Watching her watch me, I realized that even if she got more pissed off, I still had to tell her the truth.

I kept my eyes on her. “Yeah, I did,” I admitted.

She watched me for a few seconds more before turning back to face the front of the classroom. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her again before the professor started the class.

Normally I enjoyed this class, especially with Angie and Emily keeping me on track, but not today. Instead I spent the whole time trying to think of a way to explain what had happened. Caleb had warned me about this but Lauren was just so sexy. How was I supposed to resist her when she was all over me? I tried to take her home, but I only had so much will power.

Shit. This was a mess.

Angie and Emily were like my sisters, especially when Emily was having one of her tantrums, like that of a child. We’d known each other since freshman year, and Angie and I had only grown closer when she started dating Caleb. I didn’t want what happened with Lauren to hurt our friendship. Even though the sex had been amazing, I had to find a way to make this right. Going out with Nick on Thursday and hooking up with some random girl was probably not the best idea. Then again, I could always go back to the girls’ places until this blew over. I shook my head. Damn! Why did they have to ask?

Suddenly, there was a set of fingers snapping in my face. I looked up and saw both of them standing there, waiting for me. Their expressions were neutral so I had no idea what might be going through their heads.

I collected my stuff and followed them out. Their silence was starting to piss me off. Lauren and I were both consenting adults—whatever we chose to do when we were together was no one’s business but ours. Lauren had known before we’d even left the bar what to expect, and yet she’d still come home with me. I stopped to tell them exactly that when I realized that Emily was headed to her next class, but Angie had stopped and was watching me.

Usually, we had lunch together while we were waiting for our next class, but I wasn’t sure what was going to happen today. I walked up to her and opened my mouth to tell her what happened between me and Lauren was our business, when she held her hand to stop me.

“We’ll talk over lunch.”

Nodding my head once I followed her to the cafeteria, walking the entire way without talking. The hustle and bustle in the cafeteria seemed louder for her silence and once we got our food and grabbed a seat. I watched Angie and waited for her to begin, but she didn’t. Instead, she sat there staring at the table. “Angie?” I said trying to get her attention.

She sighed and looked up at me and I immediately felt bad for getting pissed at her because I could see she was upset. “I’m sorry for being a bitch earlier.”

I shook my head. “You weren’t a bitch, I was being an asshole, again.”

“Yes, I was. Lauren’s been through so much lately with that stupid jerk Ryan and I don’t want her to get hurt anymore,” she admitted.

Just the mention of Lauren’s ex made my blood boil. Why it mattered to me, I wasn’t sure.

“And you… I feel like you’re not actually happy, you just pretend to be. I’m sorry for constantly pushing all those girls on you,” she reached out to take my hand, “but you’re Caleb’s best friend, and the closest thing I have to a brother, and I just want you to be happy,” she said with a sad smile.

I smiled back at her. “Don’t worry about me. I’m happy. Lauren and I had a lot of fun the other night, but I’m still not looking for a relationship.”

Our conversation halted for a few minutes while I ate my lunch, but I could feel her watching me. The sandwich Angie had chosen sat largely uneaten while she picked at her napkin, like she still had something on her mind.

“You know, it was the way you looked at her,” she said cryptically.

“Huh?”

“It was the way you stared at her. It’s the same look Caleb gives me.”

What was she talking about? Lauren was freaking gorgeous, but I don’t think it made a difference to how I looked at her. “I didn’t look at her differently than any other hot girl.”

This answer wasn’t enough to convince Angie, who looked at me and shook her head. “I think you’re kidding yourself, but I promise from now on I’m going to back off and let you enjoy your freedom. At least until you figure it out for yourself.” She winked at me and I felt the atmosphere between us return to normal.

I laughed and stood up to hug her and kiss the top of her head. “Thanks for caring, but I think I’ll be fine.”

We finished our lunch and went to our next class. I felt much better than I had that morning. Everything was back to normal, plus Angie was going to stop trying to set me up with her friends. Even though I was happy about that, there was part of me that didn’t want her to stop trying. Plus, I still wasn’t exactly sure what she’d meant when she said I was fooling myself.

I rubbed my eyes with my thumb and forefinger, deciding that I really didn’t want to analyze what that was all about, I just had to think about Thursday. Nick and I would be able to pick up any chicks we wanted and everything would go completely back to normal, or at least I hoped it would.

For the next few days, whenever I was on the main campus I would catch myself searching for Josh, not sure whether I wanted to see him or not. I’d never done anything like that in my life. Maybe it was because of Ryan didn’t really matter anymore. He had quickly become a distant memory as Josh infiltrated my thoughts. The difficult thing would be trying to move forward. I had to find a way to forget him, especially as it had been a one-time thing, something that Emily was kind enough to remind me of when I saw her on Tuesday. God that had been an awful conversation.

“What were you thinking?” Emily snapped the minute she walked up to me.

Rolling my eyes at her probably wasn’t my best idea. “Em—” I started to say before she cut me off.

“Don’t Em, me. I told you what would happen”

I really didn’t want to tell her that I slept with Josh. I didn’t need her judgment. “Nothing happened,” I told her, hoping she didn’t hear my voice wavering as I flat out lied to her.

“Nothing happened?! So, you didn’t sleep with Josh Saturday night?” she asked sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest and daring me to deny it.

Crap!

“Who said I slept with him?” I asked, trying to hide my panic.

Using her fingers, she started to list her reasons. “One, I can read it all over your face. Two, Josh told Angie when she confronted him about it.”

I groaned. This was all I needed. I looked down at my feet. “You’re right, something did happen.”

She didn’t say anything right away, which made me start to fidget.

“Look at me,” she commanded.