The Reed Security Relationship Manual: A Reed Security Romance - Giulia Lagomarsino (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

It would make me look like a pussy. But I also couldn’t bring myself to walk home and say anything. It would kill her, and Molly was such a gentle soul.

“I’ll talk to her about it,” I said defensively.

“Sure,” Storm snorted.

“I will.”

“Yeah, just like you’ll name your kid something that doesn’t in any way sound Mexican.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t have to listen to this,” I grumbled.

“I dare you,” he said. I turned slowly, seeing the smirk spread across his face.

I huffed out a laugh. “Right, like I’m going to throw away my relationship because you dared me.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine, I double dare you.”

Flashes of A Christmas Story went through my mind and I started sweating. This was getting serious. He was baiting me into this. I swallowed hard. “I’m not a child. I’m not playing your games.”

“I don’t know,” Coop shook his head. “He did double dare you.”

“Yeah, like that’s really a dangerous thing,” I scoffed. “Look, I’m not playing these stupid games.”

Coop looked back and forth between the two of us. “Do it,” he urged Storm. “You know you want to.”

I narrowed my eyes at Storm. If he did the ultimate dare, what choice would I have? Sure, I would look like a pussy, and they would hold it over my head for the rest of my life, but wasn’t it worth it to keep Molly happy?

A slight smirk crossed his face. “I triple dog dare you.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I glanced at Coop, who was laughing hysterically. It was do or die time. I had won the thumb war, but still ended up losing. I was constantly mocked for the stupid nickname they all gave me. If I didn’t do this, it would never end. I would be the guy that backed down from a triple dog dare.

I ran my tongue across the front of my teeth, my nostrils flaring angrily. I leaned forward on the table, my fingertips bracing my whole body from leaping across the table. “Fine, you want to see me take action? I’ll do it right fucking now.”

“Whoa,” Coop said, standing up suddenly, like he had changed his mind on the whole thing. “Think about this, Tacos. Once you say this, you can’t take it back.”

“It doesn’t matter. You know why? Because Molly knows that I love her and would never do anything to hurt her.”

That’s what I told myself anyway. I would be gentle about it.

“No, that’s not at all the way women think,” Coop shook his head. “I’m telling you, if you do this, you’re gonna have divorce papers by the morning.”

Storm laughed. “Molly wouldn’t leave him if he told her he hated her. She’d just correct him and move on with her day.”

“It’ll be fine, because I actually have a way with words. Maybe you know a few pickup lines, but I’ve never called my woman’s pussy garbage.”

“Hey,” he said, pointing a finger at me. “I never said that.”

“Close enough. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have a talk with Molly.”

I turned to walk out of the room, but Coop stepped in front of me, holding up his hands. “I can’t let you do this, man. This is suicide.”

“I don’t have a choice. No man backs down from a triple dog dare.”

I shoved past him and walked out of the room. “This is why we’re writing the manual,” he shouted as he ran behind me. “I’m telling you, there’s no coming back from something like this.”

I spun around and shook my head at him. “You did worse to Becky and look how that turned out.”

“Learn from my mistakes,” he pleaded.

“Let him do it,” Storm smirked. “It’s been a while since we’ve watched Tacos make a fool out of himself.”

“What’s going on?” Cap asked, stepping out of his office. “Why is everyone shouting?”

“Cap, you have to stop him,” Coop begged. “He’s going to tell Molly that her cooking is deadly because this dumbass,” he said, slapping Storm upside the head, “triple dog dared him.”

Cap rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do you have a death wish? You’re going to destroy your relationship with your wife over a fucking game?”

“Hey, you’re the one that decided who would go after Jessica with a thumb war.” He winced slightly, because he knew he was the one that started all this. “You can try and stop me all you want, but I know how to do this. And when I pull it off and still have a woman that worships me, you’ll all be eating crow.”

Cap sighed. “Well, I know I should warn you off or something, but I kinda want to see how this all turns out.”

“You can’t be serious,” Coop said incredulously.

“Look on the bright side,” Storm smiled, clapping his hands together and then rubbing them evilly. “We’ll have more information for the relationship manual.”

I scoffed at him and headed for the elevator. This would all be fine. I wouldn’t flat out tell her that her cooking was terrible. I would suggest that I do the cooking since she watches the kids. Yeah, that would work. And when she offered to cook on certain nights, I would just tell her that as much as I loved her cooking, I would get fat from eating it. I needed a stricter diet. Hell, I could live off carrots and celery sticks. I could even slather on some peanut butter for protein. And if worse came to worst, I’d just make protein smoothies. I’d just have to keep her away from them. I might end up with raw eggs in my smoothie.

By the time I was halfway to my house, I was feeling really good about all this. But the one thing I hadn’t noticed while lost in my thoughts was that half of the guys from Reed Security were following me home. When I got to the door, I turned to them with a smirk.

“Relax, guys. I got this.”

“It’s