Never Been Kissed

Ch.35 ↬ J

"You two are awfully cosy," Vincent observed smugly.

Vincent slipped his arm around the back of Raegan's chair, relaxing back into his. Raegan, however, leaned forwards on her elbows on the table, monitoring every second of mine and Madeline's behaviour. Something told me the two girls had already had some type of heart-to-heart... whatever it could have been.

Glancing at Madeline, I was pleased to witness the pink hues on her cheeks. "What you trying to say, Vince?" I asked.

It was our traditional Friday night dinner at Shake Shack. Madeline insisted on driving us this week and I had no complaints. I was gasping for a beer, frankly. It'd been a stressful week at work, especially after I received several complaints from various employees against one particular employee. That was a HR mess I could have easily done without, but it was sorted now. The complaints had been serious enough that they were escalated up to my tier, way above HR.

"Nothing," Vincent replied, still donning that stupid smirk that I knew all too well. "Nothing at all. It seems to be going good between you both."

"Shouldn't it?"

Raegan had her lips shut, her eyes flitting back and forth from Madeline and I. From the angle of my arm I knew they were both aware that my hand was splayed across Madeline's exposed thigh where her resplendent summery dress ended. I was hiding nothing and nor was I ashamed. We were all adults here and we all knew what was going on. What was there to hide?

Vincent turned his attention to Madeline. "Not prepared to turn gay anytime soon, Madeline? Obviously there's nothing wrong if you are... it also wouldn't be surprising after his last girlfriend."

She smiled. "I'm not a lesbian," she replied, flashing me a sly smile.

Vincent chuckled but I distinctly saw Raegan lean back temporarily to nudge Vincent in his ribs. It seemed as though her teasing had come to an end when it came to Madeline and I. That was nice to know, and it definitely verified that her and Madeline had had some type of heart-warming discussion.

A waitress meandered to our table to take our order. By this point we weren't even opening our menus unless one of us fancied a change, and tonight apparently none of us did. We ordered within minutes and the waitress, bemused by our quick ordering, ambled to the counter to process our order.

The conversation moved swiftly away from my ex-girlfriend and how Madeline and I were behaving. Actually, I believed it had. Of course that wasn't going to be the case. With Raegan and Vincent's body language, clearly something was bugging them.

As we were waiting for our meal, at one point, Raegan stood up abruptly, her chair creating a wince-inducing noise as it scraped along the floor. She gazed down pointedly at a perplexed Madeline before announcing, "Bathroom," and not posing it as a question.

Madeline dutifully but bewilderingly followed Raegan.

Once the girls were out of earshot, Vincent leaned forwards onto the table. He was acting just as peculiar as Raegan was. Clearly we were the two in the dark regarding whatever matter had concerned them both. The whispering seemed to suddenly make sense as I awaited whatever Vincent was going to throw my way.

"Why don't you just admit you like her already?" he asked, exasperation distinct in his tone.

What?

That wasn't what I was anticipating.

"Because I don't."

He rolled his eyes. "You've had your goddamn hand on her thigh since you sat down. How can you say you don't like her?"