Forever - Chapter 26 #2
“Is there a clock somewhere?” Penny asked while Kennedy and Justin looked around for a perfect place to hang the foam penis. Did she want to hang it over a clock for some reason?
“Um…yeah.” I pointed to the display on the oven. “Why?”
She stared at it for a moment. “No reason.” But she was smiling ear to ear.
“What’s going on with you?” I asked.
“Nothing, what’s going on with you?” she said way too defensively and took a huge sip of champagne.
I shook my head. “You know something, don’t you?”
“Me? No. Never.”
I laughed. “You totally do. Tell me what the guys are doing tonight. I’m dying here.”
“Drinking too much, probably,” she said. “Actually, maybe I should call James. Just to check in.” But she didn’t look nervous at all. It seemed like she was acting. She made a big show of pulling out her phone and calling him.
It probably would have worked, but I knew how happy James was with her. He wasn’t drowning like he had been in high school. He wouldn’t be drinking too much tonight. He would never risk his life with Penny and his family.
Penny shook her head and laughed. “Mhm,” she said into the phone. “Sure you are.” She pointed at her phone and rolled her eyes. “Men,” she mouthed silently.
Yeah, that was acting. Bad acting. I grabbed her phone from her.
“No, don’t…” she started, but I already pulled the phone to my ear.
“Yeah, we’re just setting everything up,” James said. “I’ll see you soon, baby.”
“Setting what up?” I asked.
There was a long pause.
James cleared his throat. “Brooklyn?”
“Yes. Now tell me what you guys are doing.”
“Um…” he coughed. “Nothing.”
“You just said you were setting something up.”
“I didn’t say that,” James said.
“Yes you did.”
He laughed. “No. I don’t think so.”
I heard muffled voices on the other end.
“Is that Matt? Can you put him on?”
“Matt’s a little busy,” James said.
“Doing what?”
There was another long pause.
“Hey, baby ,” Rob said. He must have stolen the phone. “I knew you and James still had something going on. But you’re choosing the wrong Hunter brother.”
“Rob, can you please put Matt on the phone?”
“No can do, baby.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“You only like when my brother calls you that? Interesting. Noted though.”
“No, I don’t…” my voice trailed off. There was no use arguing with him.
“I prefer Sanders anyway. Although it’s not super sexy when you’re riding me. I’ll figure it out. But in the meantime, now that I have you, we do need to talk.”
“We do?” I asked.
“Yes. About that favor you owe me…”
“I don’t owe you a favor.”
“We’ve already been over this,” Rob said. “We don’t need to debate this again. You owe me a favor. And I know what I want.”
“Which is?”
“Well, I was saving it just in case you were on the fence about marrying Matt. I was going to use it to make you walk down the aisle. But you love him for real or whatever, so I don’t need to waste it on that.”
Part of what he’d just said was really sweet. Would he have actually used it for that? I smiled. “Okay, what do you want?”
“I’m circling back to the prank idea. On Thanksgiving.”
“You don’t need to remind me.”
“I’m not talking about the prank 16 years ago. I’m talking about this Thanksgiving. Your rehearsal dinner. I want you to help me pull a prank on Tanner.”
Was he serious? Tanner was being so sweet to let us have the rehearsal dinner at his apartment. “Rob, no.”
“No means yes.”
“No, no means no.”
“You have to do what I ask. That’s how deals and favors work, Sanders.”
“Absolutely not. It’s my rehearsal dinner.” All my friends were staring at me. “No pranks.”
Penny laughed and shook her head. “Rob.”
“You don’t really get a say here…” Rob started.
“I thought we were friends,” I said.
“Friends, lovers, potatoes, potahtoes.”
“We were never lovers, Rob.”
Daphne shook her head. “He’s being extra Rob-y tonight, huh?”
I nodded.
“Only in your dreams, Sanders,” Rob said.
“I’m not pulling a prank with you on Thanksgiving. That’s not even funny. You know what happened last time.”
“That’s why it’ll be so epic. No one will see it coming. I’m glad you’re in. Because I’m gonna need the blueprints to Tanner’s place.”
I shook my head. “How would I even get them?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll make the pudding.”
“No pudding.” I groaned.
“So much pudding. It’s a classic Hunter-Sanders mess around.”
“Robert Hunter, no.”
“Brooklyn Sanders, yes. You owe me. And you waited 16 years to give me my favor. So it has to be very extra. And it has to be this. No negotiation. I’m taking Tanner down on his own turf. He won’t even see it coming.”
I thought about the hole in the ceiling 16 years ago. He was going to ruin Tanner’s apartment. And probably blame it on me. The night before our wedding. “No,” I said more firmly.
“I feel like you should be spanking me right now,” Rob said. “Or at least calling me daddy.”
“Grow up.”
“Never.”
“This is ridiculous.” But for some reason I was smiling.
“No, it’s perfect. And so are you, baby . Love you. Gotta go. Let me know if you change your mind about that threesome. In the meantime, Matt needs help with the poles.”
“Poles? Like stripper poles?”
Rob made a fake static noise with his mouth. “Sorry, you’re breaking up.” He made the noise again and then the line went dead.
What. The. Fuck. I looked up at my friends. “He’s going to ruin the rehearsal dinner.”
“I won’t let him,” Daphne said.
I wanted to believe her. But no one could control Rob when he was planning a prank. I knew that first hand. Luckily I had several days to figure out how to stop him.
Penny glanced at the clock again.
Seriously, what the fuck is happening?