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I sit up and hunch forward, running h the soft sand in front ofall this out on poor Rick It’s not his fault He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I have to take responsibility for whatever happened Rubbing et this out

“You haven’t done anything wrong, Rick, and I’ ood friend, and I feel awful for doing that”

“That’s ok, dude I know you’re under a lot of stress with the wedding, and all You wanna hug it out?” he asks with a small smile

I look at hih “Sure,” I say, and we both ju each other on the back “I don’t knohat this looks like froht now,” I whisper in his ear

“Well, if I was going to be gay, it would be with you, dude You good-looking son-of-a-bitch,” he says, squeezing ht be watching us froh out loud and push each other away “Now, are you going to tellto have to beat it out of you? Because you knoill”

“Yeah, sorry Soirl knocked on my hotel room door just before you arrived and wanted to talk about the other night,” I mutter

Rick’s eyes widen “Hey, was that the chick leaving when I arrived?” I nod “Man, she was hot, with a capital H”

“Not helping,” I say, clenching my jaw

“So, what happened?” Rick asks “What did you do?”

“That’s the probleroan “I don’t know, because she ran off before I could get any more info out of her”

“Shit,to do?”

“I don’t know,” I shrug helplessly “Talk to Darcy, I guess”