Page 3 of It Must Be Fate

“Baby,” she purred, hugging him around the waist. “I’ll let you…”

I didn’t hear the rest of her sentence because she pressed the words right up against his ear, but the way his shoulders relaxed in response told me he would also give in. She was just going to need to put in some extra convincing, but I knew she was more than willing to do it.

One thing about The Pen? The walls are thin.

Verythin.

“Earth to B?” Thayer calls out, waving a hand in front of my face and snapping me out of the memory. “You looked like you were in a trance just there. What were you thinking about?”

I laugh, smacking her hand aside.

“Just the boys and how dramatically they took the news that we wanted to spendonenight without them.”

“For real, so dramatic. Except maybe for Tristan,” she quips back. “You really made that man suffer, Nera,” she adds, turning towards the woman in question.

“Hey!”

“Not a criticism,” Thayer adds, putting her hands up. “I’ve seen the man shirtless, you’re literally God’s strongest soldier. How you managed to resist the fanny flutters for that long is beyond me. You should teach a class or something.”

With no throw pillow nearby to toss at Thayer, Nera picks up a loose roll of toilet paper lying in a pile of random items we still need to put in a ‘miscellaneous’ box and lobs it at her.

Her target ducks just in time and the roll bounces off the wall before hitting the ground.

“Missed!”

“Have you been watchingLove Islandwithout us again?” Six asks. “‘Fanny flutters’ sounds suspiciously un-American.”

“Guilty,” Thayer answers, putting her hands up for the second time in less than a minute.

“Anyway,” Nera says before turning towards me. “Are you up forTruth or Dare, B?”

“Absolutely.”

***

Chapter Two

Thayer

“Okay, ladies,” I announce, standing up next to the coffee table. For a moment, I sway, the ground moving dangerously underneath my feet.

The floors have been super weird tonight, I think to myself as I bring the bottle of tequila to my lips and take a swig.Not sure what’s up with them.

All three of my friends’ faces are upturned, listening intently to what I’m about to say, and I’m just so happy we were able to do this.

One last night, all together.

“We’re going to play using the typicalTruth or Darerules, but with an added ‘mercy’ option. If you don’t want to do the dare or tell the truth, you can take a shot of tequila instead.” I brandish the bottle between us. “It’s not actually a merciful option, you’ll definitely pay for it in the morning, but it’s a fun excuse to get a little drunker,” I add with a grin.

“We’re all in, it’s our last night,” Nera says. “But don’t sit back down just yet, Thayer, you’re up next.”

I spread my arms to each side. “Hit me.”

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” I say, tipping my chin up.

As if I would pick anything else.

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