Page 62 of Wild Ever After
A carefree laugh finally slips from her lips and the happy sound makes the air around us lighter. “I thought you were mimicking him earlier.”
“You said it yourself, they’re good inspiration.”
She leans into me and we walk slowly toward our friends, taking our time and stopping to see what kind of food they’re serving.
Jade takes a canape from a tray and stops. “They’re not us, though. We wouldn’t be like them if we were a real couple.”
Leo can hardly keep his hands to himself and Scarlett isn’t any better. Doesn’t seem so bad.
“How would we act?”
She studies me for a beat. “At a party like this?”
I nod.
“We’d show up late, probably because we spent too much time kissing in the car or at the house before we left. And once we got to the party, we’d spend time together, of course, but we’d be confident in what we had, so we could each go our separate ways to chat with people, too. You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who wants to hang around and talk about magazine business or one who needs to show his affection constantly.”
In the past, maybe she’d be right, but I’m not so sure when it comes to Jade.
“But every few minutes, we’d find each other’s gaze across the room, a sort of reassuring smile and reminder that we were thinking of each other. And when you’d had enough socializing or I was itching to get home, so I could work, you’d give me a look and we’d sneak out early, without saying our goodbyes to anyone.”
I’m stuck in a trance, imagining all that. Sounds nice. Too nice.
“Or something like that,” she adds, a hint of embarrassment pinking her cheeks. “I don’t know much about being a great couple in public. Sam and I rarely went anywhere together.”
“Why?” I ask.
“We didn’t share a lot of friends, and aside from the occasional party with his frat brothers, he wasn’t a fan of going out after he quit his job with the karaoke company. I think all those late nights at bars and parties got old for him.”
I stay quiet because nothing I have to say about her ex-fiancé is nice. We reach Leo and Scarlett, who have finally escaped the group of people they got stuck talking with and are looking over the auction items along three tables on one side of the party.
“Anything good?” Jade asks her friend.
“I’ve got my eye on the spa package. Thinking I might hide the clipboard.”
Leo chuckles. “Let’s not resort to stealing from charity.”
Scarlett makes a face at him but sets the clipboard back down.
Jade and I do our own slow perusal of everything up for bid. It’s a lot of local businesses, offering everything from dog grooming services to a thirty-foot boat.
“What should we bid on?” I ask my date.
She arches a brow, but grins. “A year of house cleaning so you don’t divorce me over coffee mugs?”
“Eh.” I shake my head slowly.
“Signed baseball?”
“There’s a lot of baseball stuff here. I’m feeling really underrepresented.”
“Maybe the Twins are just more generous.”
Laughing softly, I pick up a clipboard and write my name down. Jade leans over to see what item I picked, and her eyes widen in surprise. “If you win that, I may be down one best friend.”
“Nah. I’m sure Leo won’t let me off that easy. Just driving the price up a bit.”
Looping her arm through mine, Jade’s laughter hangs in the air around us.
