Page 68 of Without Bound
We spend the rest of the movie just like that, but quickly separate before the lights come back on.
Everyone stands and stretches and Viv makes an announcement.
“Alright everyone. Time to go off to your respective rooms. Ladies, we’ll be in my bedroom.” Phoenix throws her a look and she rolls her eyes. “Correction. Mine and Phoenix’s room. Fellas, you’re off to the guest bedrooms. You can split however you like, or y’all can pile up in the living room with blanket palettes. Up to you.”
“What?” Vaughan cries. “No one told me about separate sleeping arrangements. I don’t like this.”
“Babe, relax. It’s one night. I think you’ll manage. Plus, if we coupled off into room, that leaves four singles out and that wouldn’t be fair,” Cami tells him, trying to calm his sudden panic.
“Vaughan, you weren’t around for our sleepovers, but us girls always shared a room and that’s how it is now,” Viv explains.
“Woah. Wait a minute. Bishop attended some of those sleepovers. Where did he sleep?” Hayes wonders.
All eyes focus on Bishop who grows uncomfortable under the stares.
“I slept in the, uh, same room. But it was different,” he tries to defend.
“What?”
“Nuh uh.”
“Cazzo.”
Three of the men cry out with their dislike but unless he was sleeping, like sex sleeping with them, then I don’t see what the big deal is.
“Were you having sex with all the girls?” I ask and like the sound of brakes before crashing head on into a brick wall, the room comes to a screeching halt. “What? If he wasn’t having sex with them, I don’t see what the problem is.”
The shocked stares turn from me to Bishop, silently asking him the same as I just did.
He throws his hands up in front of them and says, “Hell no, I didn’t have sex with them. That’d be like sleeping with a sister. C’mon guys. You know me better.”
“Yeah. You jerks,” Vivian punches Uncle Nix in the stomach and he folds. “Let’s go. Everyone to bed.”
She grabs CeCe’s hand who grabs Cat’s hand who grabs Cami’s hand who grabs mine. And like an unbreakable chain, I follow the ladies out of the theater room and off into the master suite.
Pillows and blankets are set up all over the room, and we all break off into separate parts to change into our pj’s and prepare for bed. CeCe wears an elegant black nightgown, the silky fabric cascading over her round belly. Cami has on a simple satin set with cream colored pants and matching top. Vivian is drowning in an oversized Wranglers t-shirt that I assume is Nix’s along with a sleep mask that reads ‘Only wake for sex’ propped on her forehead. And Cat has on cute fluffy sleep pants covered in calculators and a top that says ‘Silently Creating a Spreadsheet’.
I laugh at the extreme differences between these ladies' choice of sleepwear then look down at myself. Sleep shorts with purple butterflies, rolled at the waist so that they just barely cover my ass, a cropped t-shirt that hangs off one shoulder, and knee high socks that have three purple stripes at the top cuff. I look up from where I stand and find the four of them staring at me.
“I think you forgot the other half of your outfit, Ana,” Cat jokes.
“Oh hush. Don’t you remember what it was like to have a perfect body and high metabolism?” Cami asks.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“What do you mean remember? Bitch, I still look fabulous.” Vivian tosses her long red hair over her shoulder and smiles. “Okay everyone, find a place. The two preggos are sleeping on the bed.”
Cami and CeCe climb up on the bed and sit at the end, pillows propping them up, and the rest of us grab a comfy pillow and blanket setup.
“Gossip time. Who has something juicy?” Cat sits criss-cross on her blankets and rubs her hands together.
“Oooh. Me.” Cami’s hand shoots up. “So the other day at the ranch, I heard Hayes talking on the phone. He was being super secretive so naturally, I had to eavesdrop. I heard him say something like, ‘I want to see you again too. I miss your sweet’and then I sprinted off because I didnotwant to hear my brother-in-law say what I thought he was about to say.”
CeCe gasps and says, “Do you think he has a girlfriend? Or boyfriend, no judgment.”
Cami nods her head. “Oh, I think he definitely has a girl he’s keeping secret. But don’t worry, my super sleuthing skills will get to the bottom of it.”
