Roxanne pointed to the shot glasses. “Yep, bottoms up, Dree.”
Dree said, “Geez, Roxanne. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to get some ass.”
Roxanne laughed. “Nope, way worse. I’m a working mother of a toddler, and I’m living vicariously through you. I expect a full report about your wonderful week and all the fantastic things you did in your life afterward. I’ll give you my number.”
“I don’t even have a phone,” Dree admitted. “It wouldn’t work in Europe, so I left it at my hotel.”
“Our paths will cross again!” Roxanne shouted and flopped around in the booth to hug Dree. “The universe and all the angels would not permit so much awesomeness to never happen again.Goddammit.”
“What?” Gen asked her, then looked down at her phone, which was buzzing and jittering sideways on the table. “Dang. The old ball-and-chains must be ready to go to the airport.”
Roxanne said to Gen, “Balls and chain. It’s totally backward. ‘Balls and chain’ sounds much more like a husband than a wife.Balls.”She made a swinging motion with her arm.“Chain.”
“Totally,” Gen said, laughing at her drunk friend.
Roxanne retrieved her credit card from the waitress, who had run it through a little machine on the table. She waved her finger in a circle over the table, encompassing the food and drinks that had cost more money than Dree had to her name. Her huge diamond ring glittered in the light from the chandeliers. “All this is covered, right, sugar? Including the shots?”
The waitress nodded, bored by the drunk Americans.
“Then, it’s time for us to go.” Roxanne staggered to her feet.
“Wait!” Dree said. “You just orderedfour shots.”
“Oh, yeah.” Roxanne gulped down one of them, leaving the other three filled shot glasses sitting on the table in front of Dree, who’d already had more to drink than she should have.
“Holy cow, Rox!” Gen grabbed at the shot glass in Roxanne’s hand but missed. “You’re cut off. If you pass out, I cannot drag you and this baby bump back to the hotel.”
Roxanne leaned on the table and stared blearily into Dree’s eyes. “You have a good nightand a good life.Don’t waste it. Do somethingamazing.Do somethingcrazy.Do something you think youshouldregret, but you won’t. When you look back at it later, you’ll know it was the best night of your life. Do itall.”
Gen dragged the stumbling Roxanne off and waved good-bye at Dree as she grinned over her shoulder.
Alone in the booth, Dree stared at the napkin.
Curly writing in black ink covered the fragile paper.
Get a tattoo.
Go to the Louvre.
Walk from the Tuileries to the Arc de Triomphe.
That list of foreign countries and cities where Dree was supposed to visit or live.
Have a one-night stand.
She could do the walking from the Tuileries to the Arc thing. That sounded inexpensive.
Dree picked up her tray with the three remaining shot glasses and slipped through the crowd back to the bar, where men in slim-cut Italian suits were flirting with girls who wore beautiful dresses. You could tell they were Europeans, all so skinny and stylish.
Dree looked at her list, written in three different, feminine handwriting styles.
Do fun and wonderful things.
Dance in a parade on theChamps-Élysées.
Sleep with a beautiful man who you’ll never see again, just for the fun of it.
—London, Amsterdam, Monaco, and Nepal.
