Jack: It was a joke, Katherine.
Katherine: You’re not funny and I may call you later. I shall see. Night.
I look up and see that Levi is back, and he’s standing there with a weird expression on his face. I stare back at him and wait for him to say something.
“What is it?” I finally ask, annoyed by the knowing look on his face.
“Who were you texting?”
“Why?”
“I’m just curious.”
“Why?”
“Because you had a shit-faced grin the entire time you were texting away, and I’m just curious as to who you were sending messages to. I’ve never seen you look so excited before.”
“That’s because you’ve never seen me in the bedroom.”
“Thank God.” He shudders and takes a seat. “I ordered us another round, by the way.”
“Awesome. Thanks.” I sit back and put my phone back in my pocket. “Call was okay?”
“Yeah, it was nothing big. Just some contact information for my trip to the UK. Do you have any recommendations for places to eat in Bristol?” He pauses, and I see his eyes narrow for a few moments. “Do you know if Brielle is getting married?”
“Brielle? As in Katherine and Willow’s friend?” I ask him in confusion.
“Yeah.” He nods and looks at something near the door. “For some reason, I thought she was single.”
“I thought so as well, but I’ve never really said much to her. Why?” I twist around to see what he’s gazing at, and my jaw drops when I see Katherine, Brielle, and Marina standing there in short skirts, fur boas, with lots of glitter on their skin, and headpieces that read Bridesmaids and Bride. “What on earth?” I frown as I think about my last messages with Katherine. Hadn’t she said she was at home watching movies with the girls, or had I totally made that up in my head?
“Why don’t we go over and say hello and see which one of them is getting married?” I jump up, my heart racing. I’m not going to bother saying that it couldn’t be Katherine. She was not the sort of woman to be banging me on a Monday while engaged to someone else. And she’d told me she was single. Levi and I both head over to the girls, who only seem to notice us as soon as we are next to them.
“Mr. Heathcliff, hi. Levi, hi.” Marina is giddy as she sees us and gives us both a big hug. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“Indeed,” I say and look over at Katherine. “Enjoying the ice cream, I see.”
“I will be. Later.” She winks at me, and I take a step closer to her. She looks amazing, and all I want to do is rip her clothes off.
“I thought you didn’t like lying.” I shift closer to her. “I thought you were at home watching movies.”
“And I thought you were at home, asking me to come over.” She shrugs and then shows me her phone screen. “Technically, I didn’t lie. I said nothing about movies, you did.”
“Technically, I still want to fuck you tonight, so we’re all good.” I stroke the side of her arm. “You look hot.”
“Thank you.” She blushes and I tug on her hair.
“Marina’s getting married?” I ask in surprise as I look over at her. She’s bouncing up and down while Brielle and Levi discuss something.
“No, it’s for an audition.”
“Huh?”
“She’s trying out for a play where she would be a zombie bride, so she wanted to go out and see how she was treated as a real bride first.” She giggles. “That’s just how Marina is about these things.”
“But she’s not a real bride.” I press my lips together. “Is Marina crazy?”
“Maybe a little bit.” Katherine laughs loudly. “But aren’t we all?”
