Page 24 of Not Yet Yours

We wave back to acknowledge her and then we make our way over to Carmen who is standing, chatting with some guests I don’t recognize, who I figure must be some of her friends. She looks cute in her black catsuit and shiny black high heels. She smiles widely when she sees us approaching her. She wraps her arms around me, and I squeeze her back.

“I’m so glad you made it,” she says.

“Happy birthday,” I say, smiling at her and holding out the card.

She takes it and thanks me and then she waves to Harriet.

“I’m Carmen if you didn’t guess,” she smiles. “And you must be Harriet.”

“Guilty as charged,” Harriet jokes. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you,” Carmen says.

We stand and chat with her for a little bit before we excuse ourselves and let her go and chat with other guests as theyarrive, and then I tell Harriet to go and take a seat while I grab us some drinks. I get a bottle of Bud Light for me and one for Cullen and then I get a vodka and tonic for Harriet, and I take a chance on a vodka and Coke for Max. I also get four shots. I watch the bartender layer them up in swirls of bright colors. They look toxic and I’m already regretting getting them but what the hell. The bartender puts the drinks on a tray for me and I pay him and take the tray to the table where I unload it.

“What’s with the shots?” Cullen says after everyone has thanked me for the drinks and I have sat down, the tray beneath the table and the drinks on top of it.

“They’re called Carmen’s Carnage. Apparently, she created them so I couldn’t resist seeing what they were,” I say.

We each pick up a shot and clink them together and say cheers and then we all down them and follow them down with a drink of our normal drinks. I have to admit the shot doesn’t taste as bad as I thought it would. It’s faintly orangey with a tang of anise. It burns like hell going down though and I imagine it’s pretty strong.

We are onto our third or fourth round of drinks (although no more Carmen’s Carnage shots) when my Aunt Dorothy finally comes over to chat with us. She greets us all and then starts asking me questions about Harriet, about how serious we are, which I field, and then she starts asking when we are going to get married. I cringe and blush and of course, she delights in that, and she starts humming the wedding march.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, who died?” Harriet says.

“Died?” I ask.

“Isn’t that the song people play at funerals?” she says.

“No,” my Aunt Dorothy says, rolling her eyes. “It’s… oh, never mind.”

She stops humming and I glance at Harriet to make sure she’s not worried that she put her foot in it, but then I see thetwinkle in her eye, and I realize she knew exactly what the song was that my Aunt Dorothy was humming. She smiles at me and tips me a wink and I smile back, shaking my head in awe.

After my Aunt Dorothy wanders away to accost some other poor relative, Cullen speaks up.

“You know she’s not going to be happy until you’re married off, don’t you?” he says.

“I’m warning you now if you tell her there’s a wedding and try to talk me into acting as the bride, I am leaving you standing at the altar,” Harriet says, and we all laugh.

A bit more time passes and it’s mostly Max and Harriet talking to each other and then me and Cullen having a different conversation. It’s not awkward or uncomfortable and it’s not because of anything between us, it’s just that Harriet and Max know a lot of the same people and Cullen and I don’t know those people and the ladies are catching up on their friends’ lives, leaving Cullen and me to talk too.

“Oh, I love this song,” Max exclaims and grabs Cullen’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go dance.”

“No one else is dancing yet,” Cullen says.

“Of course they are,” Max says, looking at the empty dance floor. “Harriet and Liam are dancing.”

I know by the way Harriet and Max both grin at me that there’s no getting out of this one. So, I give in gracefully and allow Harriet to pull me to my feet and lead me onto the dance floor with Max and a slightly reluctant Cullen right behind us. As is usually the case at parties, all it takes is for us to get up and other people start to come up and dance too.

Chapter Fourteen

Liam

We dance for ages in couples and as a foursome, and then I excuse myself to go to the bathroom. I come back and look at the spot we were dancing in but now, it’s been taken over by middle-aged women dancing in a circle and I look around for my people. I spot Max dancing with my Uncle Henry and then I see Harriet dancing with another man, and I see red.

I storm toward the dance floor, my face full of thunder, ready to knock the man who dares to put his hands on my woman the fuck out. I know we’re not together really and I know Harriet is technically free to dance with whoever she wants to but knowing that and being ok with that are apparently two completely different things, because I won’t allow this.

I’m at the edge of the dance floor, ready to punch the dick head in the face, when he spins Harriet around and they come to land with him facing me instead of her and I see that the man I was about to deck is none other than Cullen. I feel the anger slowly rolling out of me and I take a deep breath to calm myself down.

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