Vail finally gifted me with one of her smiles as she brought the rose up and sniffed it.
“Thank you,” she said, ducking her head and letting her hair fall forward. I think she was trying to hide a blush.
So. Cute.
“Come on, let’s go get some expensive shoes that are going to ruin my feet.”
* * *
We founda pair of simple black pumps (no red bottom) that would meet with the dress code and hopefully wouldn’t destroy my toes.
“You know there isn’t going to be a ton of dancing, so you can just sit a lot if your feet start hurting,” Vail said, which was a good point. These kinds of weddings didn’t have a lot of dancing. At least not until everyone had had enough to drink. Then things could get frisky. Hopefully we’d be gone by the time that happened because I didn’t feel like having to defend my body against handsy older men.
Vail and I both agreed we were starving, so we got a table at a local seafood restaurant, ordering a fried plate to share with haddock, shrimp, scallops, and fries, along with an appetizer of lobster nachos.
She got a local cider and I asked for a glass of sauvignon blanc.
“You said you were meeting up with your brother?” I asked as we dug into the lobster nachos. They were covered in meat and smothered in multiple cheeses and I wanted to shove the entire plate into my mouth.
Vail frowned and snapped a chip in half with her fingers. “Yeah.”
“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?” My own memories of him were watery and vague.
“At least a year. Maybe longer.” She crunched on a chip and looked out the window. Okay then.
“We don’t have to talk about that. We can talk about something else.” I just didn’t want her to shut down on me again. If she did, I would get up and leave.
Vail’s eyes snapped back to me. “I’m sorry. Again. I’m just not used to talking about this. To anyone. I’ve gotten out of practice at being a person.” For some reason that made me laugh.
“I think you’re doing okay at personing.”
She snorted and tried to hide a smile. “I’m not sure what he wants to talk about, or if we’re just catching up or what. Most of the time I forget I even have a brother. He’s not part of my life.”
So that hadn’t changed.
“Hopefully he doesn’t want money.”
“Maybe he wants to reconnect. Not everyone wants something from you, you know.”
She clenched her jaw. “I know that. But it’s hard to remember.”
I understood that.
Vail finally went for the food and seemed to be a little less tense.
“Are we taking a car to the wedding? I’m just wondering what the transportation situation is,” I asked. The country club was at least thirty minutes away from the city.
“I’ll take care of it. I’ve got a car service for the night.”
That was a relief.
“Open bar, remember?” We shared a smile.
“You’ll have to stop me from getting totally wasted. We’ll need another safeword.”
“How about…raccoon?” I laughed, startling a few people dining around us.
“That works. And you might even see an actual raccoon at the country club. I’m sure it happens.” If I remembered correctly, there was an issue with a raccoon when I’d been a kid that kept stealing the golf balls.
