Page 35 of Summer Ever After
Shit. I hadn’t meant for that detail to slip out. I’d managed to avoid that conversation earlier, albeit by agreeing to show up at this shitshow of a night.
“Here.” She typed in her password and handed her phone to me.
Before I could locate Trey’s phone number, the screen lit up. “Someone is calling you. I read the name on the screen. Big Bro.”
“My brother.” Jessica took the phone from my hands and accepted the call.
Come get us.
Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be getting drunker by the second if that was possible. She was going to be incoherent if she kept going at this rate.
I searched the sea of swaying and grinding couples, searching the patio, hoping that at least one of the other two girls was going to be in good enough shape to get Jessica home.
Jessica’s side of the conversation consisted of clipped one or two-word responses.
Stone Oven.
Drunk.
Come now.
I love you.
She went from barking orders at her brother, to a sweet tone I hadn’t heard from her yet.
“My brother is coming to get us. He can drive you home.”
Ramona teetered to the table, workboot guy in tow. “Darryl is coming home with us. Jenny is fucking Braydon in the bathroom. I don’t think he’s going back to her house. I don’t know where Amanda went…”
“Cool.” Jessica’s eyes were now half closed.
I didn’t want to get a ride home with Jessica’s brother, but I also didn’t feel right leaving the girls alone at the bar. “When is your brother going to get here?” I asked.
“Soon.” Jessica’s one-word answers continued.
“I’m going to find Jenny and Amanda. You two stay here. Got it.” I pointed at both of them and they nodded, Construction guy did too.
I wove through the crowd and paused at the bathroom door, knowing that I was likely walking in on Jenny bent over the toilet with Braydon behind her, his shorts on the bathroom floor. “Lord help me.” I took a breath and pushed on the door.
Jenny was at the sink applying lip gloss. “Hey!” her eyes flickered with recognition in the mirror.
A glance under the stalls didn’t reveal any men’s feet. “Jessica’s brother is coming to get us.”
“Good.” She screwed the top of her gloss onto the tube. “I’m ready to go.”
“Does Braydon need a ride?”
“He left. He’s got some important business call with Tokyo or something.”
I laughed. “Ramona told me he was in here with you, you know…” My voice trailed off. I had just met these girls and already knew a lot more about them than I figured they wanted me to know.
Jenny dropped the lip gloss into her handbag. “We just finished. I’m ready.”
We found Amanda, who was in the best shape of the group. We tromped up the stairs and returned to the table. The crowd had started to thin and it was easier to navigate among the sticky tables. “Why didn’t Jessica call Trey?” Jenny asked. “Her brother has such a stick up his ass, he’s going to give us shit the whole way home.”
Chalk up another point for the brother I’d never met. These socialites were supposed to be classy. And while they’d been kind and welcoming to me all night, I was shocked by their behavior. I thought they’d be stuck up and look down on everyone who wasn’t on their level. It turns out they could rival the trashiest women in town.
“I’m not sure why she didn’t call Trey.” It was easier than explaining that she was likely not capable of calling their chauffeur. I also wouldn’t want Trey to have to deal with the fallout from the bar. For sure Ramona was going to puke off the side of the boat.
