Page 131 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

Oh shit. “Ohmigod, please don’t tell him I said that, okay?” I grabbed her hand. “Please?” I wasn’t above begging her, but I was not going to be humiliated by him. He could not know how deep my feelings went.

“I… I promise.”

“Thank you.” I pushed myself up. “Nice seeing you again, but all this talk about love is making me queasy. I probably should ask Adam for that ride home now.” I tried holding on to the back of the chair, but someone must’ve greased it down.

Jillian was there holding on to me. “I’ll give you a ride, no problem. But I don’t feel right about leaving you alone tonight. Do you live with anyone?”

“Nope. Just me.”

“Would you mind coming back to my place? I’d feel so much better about that. I would’ve never gotten you a drink if I knew you were this far gone. Mike and I can come back out later and get your car.”

“Right. It all just hit me. Wait, who’s Mike?”

“My husband.”

“Oh yeah. Do you love him?”

She laughed. “Of course I do. He’s my husband.”

“No, likelovelove.” I stumbled against her.

“I think we should get you into bed.”

“Hey, that’s what your brother said too.”

She grabbed my purse for me, and I caught Adam’s eye, giving him a little wave. Then I pointed at Jillian, indicating I was leaving with her. Wouldn’t want him to think someone snatched me. It wouldn’t be too hard at the moment.

We linked arms as she helped me out the door. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“I told you. I like you. But even if I didn’t, Stephen would more than make up for that.”

I snorted. “He needs to work on his people skills if that’s how he shows it.”

She got me into the car and I buckled my seat belt. For as high as I was flying, I was hanging on pretty well. My lips, however, felt like I’d fallen asleep mouth down in a giant anthill. I blindly dug around in my purse for lip balm and came in contact with shamrocks instead. I wrapped my fingers around them and sighed. Then I rested my head back and closed my eyes.

When she slipped into the driver side, I said, “Just so you know, Stephen was a great guy until he turned into a dick. He was there for me at a time when I really needed it.”

“I’m sure there’s some sort of explanation, Perry. He’s still a great guy. Trust me.”

“Sure, you can say that because you haven’t slept with him.” I turned my head towards her. “Figures that he’s incredible in bed too. No one has ever made me feel like that. He does this thing with his tongue where—”

“Um, this is my brother here.”

“Oh right.” I giggled. Then I sighed. “It’s just that…. You think I hurt him, but he’s the one who hurt me bad. He made me believe in fairy tales and then he took that away. You know, just because I never want to get married doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a princess and have a fancy wedding.”

She laughed. “What?”

Yeah, it probably didn’t sound too logical outside of my own head. I always thought it’d be a hell of a lot of fun to go through the wedding motions without actually coming out of it tied to someone. But there was never a guy I even wanted to do that with. Until Stephen.

“I just want fairy tales to be real, that’s all.”

I was quiet after that, and Jillian probably assumed I’d dozed off. But instead, I was just closing my eyes and thinking. I didn’t know why I’d just told her all that stuff. I guess I could blame the booze or the necklace, but I also felt really comfortable with her. Figured.

When she pulled into her garage and stopped the car, itreallyhit me. What I’d felt before was just a slap. This was a full-body sucker punch.

“Uh, Jill… Jill… Jills?” That was the best I could do. One syllable was easier than three, and the ‘s’ just hissed out as I tried to breathe through the nausea. I grabbed the door handle, trying to stop the merry-go-round. I tried saying, “I’m going to throw up,” but it came out “Arghgrmarm.”

Fortunately, she spoke Drunk. She ran around to my side and helped me out. “There’s a bathroom in the basement right through the garage. Come on, you can make it.”

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