Page 37 of Little Gray Dress

“What, you’re sick?”

“Not sick, yet, just… iffy.” I wasn’t going to tell her this at all and just hope it passed. Literally.

“Well, hold it together.”

When she’s finally ready we walk the few blocks from our hotel down to the bar where this magical event is to take place. I probably shouldn’t have worn heels this high for this much walking, but I hate looking an entire foot shorter than Jack.

“Wow! This place is busy!” People are spilling out of the front doors, laughing, drinking and just overall partying. “Come on.”

We push our way through the crowd and look around the busy bar for the rest of our party. Someone waving from the private balcony above grabs my attention, and I look up and see Evan.

“They’re up there.”

“Perfect! We wanted to get the balcony but weren’t sure we could at such short notice.” We squeeze through a crowd full of scantily-clad half-naked bodies towards the stairs, and the man guarding the VIP rope nods towards us without a word while letting us through.

“It’s so hot in here,” I yell to Lily over the music, following her to the top.

“It’s Mexico, Ems. It’s always hot.”

It’s so hot that I think my hair is sweating, but I continue up the stairs and hope there is air conditioning in the VIP room.

“Finally! What took you so long?” Jack greets me with a smile.

“Lily… She just had to look perfect.” I glance across the room at her and Josh already making out in a corner by themselves. “I’m not sure why we are having a party to watch them have sex in public. It’s kinda gross.”

“They’re not gonna have sex. That would be disgusting.” Evan takes a swig of his beer. “We leave disgusting to me, remember?” He winks at the only other bridesmaid that made the trek from Oregon to Mexico.

“No, Lily will be pissed if you screw her cousin.”

“Lily will never know.” He and Jack both laugh and glance at me. “Right?”

“I know you have like zero morals about this stuff, just don’t do it here, please?” I beg Evan to try and keep it in his pants, but I know he’ll never listen. He never does.

“I got you a drink.” Jack points at the Cosmo on the table in front of him.

I take a giant slurp, hoping it doesn’t go to war and piss off the burrito from earlier. “Please promise me that if we ever were to get married that we won’t have bachelor/bachelorette parties.”

“Promised. Really aren’t they just an excuse to do something dirty right before the wedding?”

I glance back and Josh and Lily, still making out. “I thought so, but apparently, in this case, it’s just to make the rest of us feel dirty.”

“They’re just in love.” Jack smirks over at them. “Dirty love.” His scrunched-up disgusted face matches my own, even through our laughter at his joke.

You can only drink in a hundred-degree room for so long before you feel like you’re going to have a stroke. An hour was about all it took for us decide to take our party outside to the beach.

“Where’s Josh?” Lily asks after she finally realizes he’s not lying on the sand with us.

“Maybe he went to get another drink?” Jack says, without moving from his star-gazing position.

“Evan’s gone too, so I’m sure that’s where they are.” I glance around at the indentations that held all six of us just thirty minutes ago. “Wait…” I sit up and glance around again. I may be seeing doubles of things, but I know I’m missing a complete person here. “Corinne is gone too.”

“Yes, as close as she and Evan were getting in the bar I’d say—” Jack groans suddenly, probably because of my elbow in his ribs. “I mean…”

“What? Evan is with Corinne?”

“No.” I quickly denounce the idea of Lily’s engaged cousin Corinne doing anything she shouldn’t with my brother. “Maybe she went back to the hotel? I’m sure Evan is with Josh.”

“Let’s go.” Lily jumps up but stumbles backward, catching herself on a nearby lounger. “Your brother will not screw another one of my friends, or family members.”

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