“How do you look that good?” Kaya demanded, her hoarse voice giving away her own hungover state.
I smiled at her and fished around in my tote. Pulling out a bevy of skincare products, I tossed her the under-eye patches made with collagen, green tea, and magic. “Here, these help.”
“Ooh!” Vera demanded, “Me next.”
“I brought more.” Scooting my chair over to Vera’s huge desk, I dumped out my bag and started passing out products.
“Now I understand,” Molly whispered in awe.
I blinked at her. “Understand what?”
“I used to think you were an alien,” she admitted.
Kaya nodded enthusiastically, “It’s because you’re so pretty. And skinny. And basically, we hate your pretty, skinny guts on principle.”
“Wha—?”
“Now I know your secret.”
I rolled my eyes. “My expensive secret. But seriously, this stuff works. Natural beauty is all about a good skin care regimen.”
“In other words, it’s not natural at all?” Vera asked.
Smiling patiently at her, I said, “If I had been born during the middle ages, without my arsenal of retinol, I would have been the town hag.”
Kaya threw the container of under eye patches back at me. “Not true!”
“Okay, fine,” I sighed. “The town drunk.”
They laughed at my self-deprecating humor.
“You weren’t that bad,” Vera assured me. When I gave her a look she added, “All of us were bad. Last night was fun!”
“Best rehearsal dinner ever,” Kaya agreed.
“Did Vann get you home okay?”
I pretended not to know who she was talking to and focused on finding my favorite moisturizer—aptly named Drunk Elephant.
Boy, if I didn’t relate to that.
“Hello?” Molly snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”
“Who me?” I asked, all aflutter with confusion.
Vera rolled her eyes. “Yes, you. Did my brother get you home okay last night?” She waggled her eyebrows. “If you know what I mean.”
“Oh, was it Vann who helped me home last night?” I cleared my throat and tried not to be annoyingly obvious. “My memory is kind of fuzzy, to be honest.”
The three of them shared a look, before Kaya announced, “Come on, you guys were all over each other!”
My cheeks burned bright red. I could tell them what happened. I could fess up and ask them for help wading through these complicated waters.
But then I’d have to confess the other stuff too. And then they would tell their men. And one of those men was my brother. And another one was like a brother. And the third one was my old boss.
I would never be able to look at these people again if they knew.
Right now, I just wanted to keep my ducking and dodging to Vann and Vann only. At least he would be mostly out of my life after this weekend.
