Devotion

30

"I think your father might be having a midlife crisis," I said.

"Yeah. Or maybe he's finally trying to be a good dad."

"They both seem lovely," my mom said cheerily. But I could tell by her face that she was shocked. Sometimes she was as bad as me at hiding her emotions.

"A little stuck up if you ask me," my dad said under his breath.

"Dad!"

But James laughed. "You have no idea."

My dad smiled. "And they're the ones that convinced you to root for the Giants? I'll make an Eagles fan out of you yet."

"Good luck with that. I think it's much more likely I'll make a Giants fan out of Penny."

"Not a chance," my dad said.

They both laughed.

My dad had made a habit of coming up whenever the Eagles played the Giants. He'd watch the games with us. Rob, Mason, and Matt would all come over too and cheer on the Giants. It was just me and my dad rooting for the Eagles. Sometimes Bee would come over and cheer on the Eagles with us. I'm pretty sure it drove James crazy that he couldn't convert me into a Giants fan. But I had grown up watching the Eagles with my dad. That was one thing James couldn't get his way with. Besides, I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the ongoing bets we had on the games.

"Have any of you gotten dessert yet?" Rory's friend Jackson asked. "It's delightful on your palette. You simply have to try it." He held up the tray of decadent chocolate pastries.

"Absolutely." I grabbed one off the tray and took a bite. "Oh my God, this is amazing." I took another huge bite.

"You really have been hungry," James whispered in my ear. "Your declaration of love for that dessert was almost orgasmic."

I laughed and elbowed him in the ribs. "It was not."

He gave me a playful smile.

Someone pinching the side of my waist made me jump. I laughed when I looked up at Brendan.

"I'm glad I didn't miss all the family drama," Brendan said. "It's always the best thing about weddings."

James shook his head. "Laughing at my torture?"

"Always." They clapped each other on the back. "Beautiful as always, Penny," he said and gave me a swift kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, Brendan."

"Still can't believe you're marrying this clown. At least he's not your professor anymore. It actually seems like his parents disapprove of you more than your parents disapprove of him. That's pretty twisted."

James laughed. Brendan and him had grown really close ever since James had calmed down about him kissing me. I was surprised that James was able to forget about that. Maybe he had repressed it like me. Either way, they were friends now. James loved talking to Brendan about his latest development projects.

"That's actually incredibly accurate," I said.

Brendan laughed. "My parents would have loved you, Penny."

"And that's why I didn't ask you to be a groomsmen," James said.

"What? If I had known my flirting with Penny was keeping me out of that race I would have stopped ages ago."

"We both know that's not true," James said.

Brendan shrugged his shoulders. "I can't help what I say around beautiful women." He winked at me. "How do you like the new place? James and I had a blast designing it together."

I looked at James. "You left that part out."

James shrugged his shoulders. "It was mostly me."

"Yeah, right," Brendan said. "Without me, your plumbing and electricity would have been a f*****g mess and you know it."

"Fair enough. But aesthetically, I planned most of it."

"Well, you both did a fantastic job," I said.

"I'm pretty sure James designed it with the sole idea of how many places he could bang you," Brendan said with a laugh.

"Inappropriate," James said to Brendan. "And you would have made such a great groomsmen too."

Brendan gave him an exaggerated frown.

"I'm going to leave you two alone to find more dessert," I said. As I made my way toward the desserts, I saw Luke and Mason with two guys I hadn't met yet. I was promised a few stories, and I was not going to miss out on this opportunity. I walked over to their group. "Hey, guys."

"We were just talking about you," Luke said. He seemed a little drunk.

"Yeah? Hi, I'm Penny," I said to the two guys I hadn't met yet. I recognized both of them from the picture of James' frat brothers, though.

"Oh, this is Benny and Mike," Luke said and gestured to the two guys next to him.

"Ben," the taller of the two said and stuck out his hand for me to shake. "College was a long time ago but these assholes still insist on calling me Benny."

"You'll always be Benny to us," the shorter one said. "Hi, Penny, I'm Mike. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's great to meet you guys too. So...you were talking about me?"

"Nothing bad, I promise," Mason said.

"We were just talking about how much better you are than Isabella," Luke said.

I tried not to flinch at the mention of her name.

"I don't even know you and I can tell you're better," Benny said.

I laughed awkwardly. "Thanks, I guess." I didn't want to be talking about Isabella. "Luke promised me some stories once the two of you arrived."

"That I did," Luke said and took a sip from his glass of scotch. "Have you heard the professor story?"

"The professor story? I don't think so." I felt James hand slip protectively onto my lower back.

"Mason has already told Penny plenty of stories," James said.

"Surely not the ones we're going to tell," said Luke.

Mason laughed. "I have told her lots of stories."

"But Penny wants to hear embarrassing stories about James," Mike said. "Right, Penny?"

Mason smiled at me. "I've already told her loads of those too."

"See," James said. "Penny, didn't you want to go find some dessert?"

"Oh, no," I said. "I want to hear their embarrassing stories. Starting with the professor story."

James groaned. I was pretty sure I was the only one that heard it though.

"It was hilarious," Luke said. "We were all taking poli-sci together sophomore year."

"They forced me to go to it," James said. "I wanted us all to take psych."

"But no one else wanted to take that," Luke continued. "So we had all agreed to take poli-sci." He emphasized the word agreed. "When we show up on the first day of class, the professor was late. So James here," he put his hand on James' shoulder, "decided that he was going to teach it. He walked up to the front of the class and started talking about how politics is all about the distribution of power and resources. Actually, the lecture wasn't half bad. He made some valid points about how elections are basically popularity contests..."

"You're missing the punch line," Mike said.

"Right, right." Luke took another sip of his drink. "So he asks for volunteers and makes Mason, Benny, Mike, and I go to the front of the room too. And he makes the class vote on who they'd want to listen to speak next."

"I won," Mason said matter-of-factly.

"Beside the point," Luke said and waived his hand dismissively. "But as the professor walks in, James grabs Mason face and says, 'You voted for your new president based on his pretty face. Suck it America, politics are a sham.' And then he made an incredibly rude gesture to the whole class."