Eternal Longing ✓

28. Small Circle

FINLEY

"Something about New York City just makes my balls feel heavier."

I set down my coffee on the table with a heavy sigh, eyeing the dumbass that I call my friend with narrowed eyes.

"Did we really have to get that visual, Gage? Did we really?" Evan, the other dumbass I call my friend, asks the guy with laughter.

Shrugging carelessly, large sunglasses on his nose, a grin breaks out on Gage's lips. "I'm just saying. Every time I come to New York, it's the same thing so I was-"

"We don't care," Jacob grumbles, typing something on his phone then clenching his jaw at the device.

Leaning back against the trendy coffee shop's wooden chair he sits on, Gage smirks at Jacob who sits across from him and to my left. "Just because you're pissed doesn't mean you should ruin our little reunion."

Jacob ignores him, typing furiously on his phone for a few more seconds before sighing deeply and finally looking at us.

"She says she needs time away from me," he reveals to us, visibly frustrated.

"That's perfect then, you're in New York for a few days while she's back in North Carolina. Just perfect." Evan smiles victoriously, missing the whole damn point.

"You're missing the point." I take a sip from my coffee. "Amara's angry at him. She's not talking to him. How is that anywhere near perfect?"

Jacob knocks on the table and nods at my words. "Thank you."

Drinking his fancy iced cinnamon almond milk macchiato, Evan snorts. "You two are way too blinded by pussy. Each blinded by one, singular pussy. Be freed."

Neither Jacob nor I find his joke funny, but Gage almost falls out of his chair laughing, earning a few glares from the other patrons close to us. I smile at them in a friendly manner and they turn back to mind their business.

The coffee shop isn't the busiest at the moment, but the lush greenery aesthetic and its location on the edge of campus make it a fairly popular destination.

"This place is . . . something." Evan looks around the shop, taking in the plants with distrust. All plants that aren't marijuana automatically earn his disapproval. "The girls on this campus are hot, though."

They are? I look at the giggling girls who sit a couple of tables over, noticing their attention jumping around our table as if they don't know which one of us to focus on.

I incline my head and take them in. I suppose they aren't disgusting to look at, but I'm not so sure about hot or remotely more impressive than any other person. Apart from their difference in hair color, they sort of all look alike.

Then again, there's only one woman I find hot and irresistible enough to truly notice in a packed room.

Gage and Evan bullshit about the four girls, making it so obvious to them that they're interested while Jacob and I stare at them making a fool of themselves with mild amusement.

It was only a matter of time before the two found the nearest women around and flirted with them from a distance. I haven't seen them in months and I'm not even surprised that they're more focused on pussy than catching up with me.

After a few more minutes of letting them be, I lean back against the chair and sigh. "Okay, you've flirted enough. You can get their numbers later." I tap the table in front of them to get their attention. "Enough."

Their eyes finally snap back to me and identical grins tip up their lips. Just to piss him off, I snatch the obnoxious sunglasses off Gage's face and throw them on the table, not giving a fuck if he's hungover.