See. We were all doomed.

I added before he said anything else that would make me want to vomit, “I heard that we came close to not having you grace our presence at Cain.” And he continuously looked like he was enjoying himself. I said further, “That’s too bad. For real. Way. Way. Way. Too bad.”

He moved in, positioning to rest a hand on my door, over the opened window, and he laughed. “There you go, being funny. And no one said Bren Monroe has a funny personality. Personality, yes. You know the kind…dull, gloomy, dark, death, but comedic, I never would’ve believed if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears. Tell me the truth, Bren. You lie at night thinking of ways to brighten my day, don’t you? Don’t be shy. You can share your feelings for me. I know you have dirty thoughts about me when you’re in the shower.”

I was gritting my teeth, and I hated to admit this, but he was starting to boil my blood.

In the murdering way.

I shot back, “You know what’s actually funny? You don’t say any of this shit when your boy’s standing in front of you.”

That smirk immediately vanished.

Got you.

He didn’t like me talking about his best friend. Then, point taken, that’s all I was going to talk about. I positioned myself a bit more, facing him, tilting my head to the side. “You’re nice and quiet whenever Blaise is around. Why is that? Hmm? Oh, and I didn’t just hear about how you might not have come to Cain, that your daddy got mad at you.” I waited a beat. He didn’t like knowing that I knew any of these things. I had to add, “And guess who told us all that information?”

“There you go, trying to be a comedian. I lied before.” He snapped forward, baring his teeth. “You ain’t no comedian.” His eyes widened and he leaned back. “Wait a minute. What do you do? I was going to say don’t quit your day job, but you don’t have one of those anymore. You ain’t a college student. You got no career. I’m at a loss. I mean, how do I even know how to insult you if you aren’t doing anything productive with yourself?”

“Zeke!” A bark came from just in front of the truck.

We both turned.

Zeke cursed under his breath, stepping back.