Worth the fight

friends…we’ve been friends since law school.”  
    “Men who sleep with a woman don’t do friends, Babe.”
    “Well William does.”
    “I see the way he looks at you.   He doesn’t want to be your friend.”
    “Whatever .”  I roll my eyes, this conversation is going nowhere.  “It’s not like I have a choice, we have cases together.”
    “Okay, so you work together.  You don’t need to sit at a bar and have drinks too.”
    “You don’t understand.”  I’m sure that he just doesn’t get what William and I have.  William’s fine with being friends and I don’t understand why he’s acting jealous. 
    Nico releases me and I think our conversation is over, so I begin to walk to the door, intent to take a shower and finally drag my ass into work. 
    “So you won’t mind if I have drinks with Amy tonight, then?” 
    I stop in my tracks and turn back to look at Nico.  He’s sitting up in my bed, his hands clasped behind his head in a casual stance.  Who the hell is Amy?  
    “Oh, we’re just friends.  We used to sleep together, but we’re just friends now.  She’s a vitamin sales rep and we’ve been talking about addi ng a line of vitamins to my gym, but I usually keep our business talks in the gym.  But maybe it would be better if we discussed our business over drinks instead.”
    Very nice.   I feel like ripping Amy’s head off, whoever the hell Amy is.  But I get it.  Point taken.  “Fine, I’ll do my best to keep my business with William in the office.”
    Nico thinks I’m walking back to him to give him a kiss.  He’s got such a damn , smug smile on his face.  I pick up the pillow and hit him with it before heading to the shower.   I hear him chuckling behind me as I stomp my way to the bathroom.

Chapter 43
    Nico
    I’ve never brought a woman to our monthly dinner.   It’s not that my mom and brothers would mind , I just never found one that I thought would still be around by the time the next month’s dinner rolled around, so why bother introducing them?  Elle baked cookies to bring, which is sweet, but I’m going to have to hide them from the kids to save them from possible food poisoning.  She burned three batches before she finally got it right, or at least she thinks she did.
    My niece Sarah takes Elle almost the minute we walk in and introduces her around like she’s a shiny new toy. My mom seems curious and I catch her watching Elle a few times. She must like what she sees because she smiles to herself as she watches. I check on Elle every once in a while, but she doesn’t look uncomfortable so I leave her to the women.  She catches me looking at her each time, and smiles like a kid.  It’s hard for me to tear my eyes away.
    “ You got it bad, bro.”  Sam smiles at me before taking a swig from his beer bottle. 
    “Shut the fuck up.” 
    Sam laughs.  “What?  It’s about time.  You had us worried you were going to get STDs the way you tore through women.”
    “I didn’t tear through women.” 
    “Yeah, ya did.”
    “You’re just jealous, asshole.”
    “Jealous about what?”  Elle’s voice surprises me, I hadn’t realized she was near me.
    “Nothing.”  I snake my arm around her waist , pulling her close to me. “Come here.” I kiss her forehead as I wrap my other hand around her waist.  She looks up at me and smiles.  Jesus Christ I’m so far gone for this woman that I do shit like kiss her forehead and smile just because she smiles.  Yep, I’m god damn whipped.  And I love every damn minute of it.  It doesn’t even bother me when I look up and find half my family watching us, smiling like complete idiots.
    ***
    Sarah insists on sitting in between me and Elle during dinner.  She’s the only girl among the seven boys my brothers have spawned.  She’s wearing a silver princess crown, pink bodysuit, and her Girl Scout sash across her like Miss America.  She’s also wearing yellow rain boots and it’s not raining.  But whatever, she’s freakin adorable and she seems to have taken a liking to Elle. 
    “ Can I paint your nails after dinner?”  I look over at Elle’s manicured hands and try to save her, throw her a lifeline.
    “I think Elle’s nails are already painted , Sarah.”  Yeah, reasoning with her should work.
    “I wasn’t going to repaint them , Uncle Nico.”  She responds to me as she rolls her eyes, like I’m crazy for thinking she wanted to paint her nails, even though that’s