Page 65 of Ladybirds

Sara frowns, raising her cocktail and correcting him. “Excuse you, I’m a happy drunk.”

“Bloody American vernacular.” He stands in front of her, bending until he’s closer to her eye level and makes a tally on his fingers. “Sloshed. Smashed. Wasted. Pick your favorite, but you are undeniably drunk.”

“It’s a party! You’re s’pose to drink at parties.”

“It’s a wedding,” he hisses back, looking over both shoulders as if checking to see if they were still alone. “And you’re the maid of honor!”

A giggle escapes her. “You’re funny.”

“And you’re bloody well screwed. Did you forget you have a speech to deliver?”

Sara pales. Seth curses.

“We come on this day,” Seth drones, a step behind her, “to celebrate the joining of two wonderful people.”

Sara raises her glass of champagne, all too aware of the crowd of eyes watching and forces a smile through her nausea. “We come on this day, to celebrate the joining of two wonderful people.”

She repeats his every word faithfully, copying his every intone. It’s not until she’s about halfway through, that she realizes the speech she’s giving is the very same one she has written on fancy stationery in the bridal suite. She wonders, drunkenly, how he managed to memorize it.

When she finishes, raising her glass and calling for a toast, the crowd follows suit and cheers. Sara takes the smallest sip out of respect (and perhaps a little superstition) for the couple. She never was a fan of champagne.

When she finally gets home, she barely gets her heels off and her dress replaced with an oversized t-shirt before collapsing into bed.

“Thanks. You know, for helping,” she murmurs into her pillow. She can feel her mascara catching on the cotton. She should probably wash her face, but she can’t summon the motivation. Her body—her eyelids—feel so heavy, she can’t bring herself to look at him. “Was sorta nice of you.”

He scoffs, but the sound is soft—more affectionate than anything. “Oh dear, is my devilish reputation suffering? Shall I tell you, my reasons were purely selfish and I merely couldn’t stand the thought of suffering such second-hand embarrassment?”

“Seth,” she groans, “Shut up now.”

A soft chuckle. “Very well, Princess.”

A few moments, a hair's breadth away from her subconscious wading into sleep, and a thought distracts her. A nagging little thing she can’t bring herself to leave alone. “What did you do?” she mumbles, forcing her eyes open.

It’s too dark for her to see much more than the shadowy outline of her dresser, but (somehow) she knows he’s still there. She can feel him, hovering just outside of her vision.

He takes too long to answer, and when he does, it’s too vague to be completely honest. “Nothing you need to concern yourself over. Now go to sleep, Sara. God knows you’ll need it to face the hangover you’ll be feeling tomorrow.”

She forces herself to sit up with a groan. Even with the pounding headache at her temples, and the fuzzy feeling on her tongue, she’s sober enough now to know this is important. Knows it with the same certainty that his answer is complete bullshit. He’s a shadow at the foot of her bed, but there’s just enough light for her to make out his expression—blank.

The same neutral mask he always wears when he wants something hidden.

She glares at him. “What did you do?”

“There... might have been an unfortunate incident in regards to the family dog.”

Sara thinks of the floppy-eared basset hound David used to fuss over. The one that was so old he could barely hear. “Freddie?” The implication dawns, and the fatigue evaporates under her horror. “Oh my—what did you do?!”

Seth raises his hands in… surrender? Mercy? Sara’s past caring she’s so livid. “He’s unharmed! He just got... conveniently lost.”

“You lost their dog?!”

“Only temporarily.”

She falls back into her bed with a groan, face in her hands. “I can’t believe you.”

“Well, I’m terribly sorry if you don’t approve of my methods, but it worked.”

Sara peeks at him between her fingers, not entirely surprised to find him looking completely unrepentant. “Why?” she murmurs.

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