She laughed. “We were all such assholes back then, right?”
“Yeah, but he was the biggest.” I cringed internally at the fact that I’d been just as judgy about him. “Anyway, we barely tolerated each other, made it through graduation, and didn’t connect again until Sam and Nolan’s coed bachelor party on a boat in New York Harbor.”
Carly’s eyes lit up. “Okay, I like where this is headed.”
I swallowed hard. “I got really drunk. Obscenely, make-bad-choices,blackoutdrunk.”
“Yes, I love bad choices!” Carly clapped her hands gleefully. “Keep going.”
“I don’t remember how, but Andrew and I both ended up in a storage closet and... we hooked up.”
“Seriously? This is way juicier than I thought.”
“We didn’t have sex, I’m sure of that,” I added quickly. “But everything else? Yeah.”
Carly glanced toward the doorway Joe had just walked out, then leaned forward. “Was it good?” she whispered. “Please tell me it was good.”
The memories of his hands and mouth exploring me as my body responded to his every move were seared in my memory, and even thinking of them in the light of day at my friend’s kitchen table set off a shiver inside of me.
“Amazing,” I squeaked out as my face went hot.
She let out a breath. “Thank God. I’d be so disappointed if he looked like that and couldn’t deliver. So what happened next?”
Thiswas the part in the story I wished I could erase. I pressed on. “We were both half-dressed and I... I felt sick and I...” I cringed at the thought of it. “I had to run to the edge of the boat so I could vomit.”
Carly threw back her head and let out a room-shaking cackle. “No!”
“Yeah.” I didn’t blame her for laughing. If I hadn’t been the one puking I’d think it was hilarious too. “I was sick for the rest of the night, and then I passed out.”
“And what did he do?”
And here was the other part of the story, where my cringe shifted to sadness; the part that showed Andrew’s true colors. “Nothing. I texted him right before I passed out and I woke up when we docked. I lost my phone that night but I never heard back from him. And I sent him an incoherent...” I made a face then forced myself to keep going. “Incoherentloveletter. I said things that I didn’t even know I was feeling. I bared my soul.”
“Ohno. He ignored it?” Carly said softly. “I’m so sorry, Chels.”
I shrugged the sad feelings away. “I was a drunken mistake for him. It happens. The good news is neither one of us feels the need to talk about it. It’s history.”
“Is it awkward now?”
I took a deep breath and tried to come up with a way to explain what happens when you mix a rainstorm, goats, and someone you can’t get out of your head.
chapter twenty-seven
My worry list was longer than ever, and to stress myself out even more I dissected each item in detail during the drive to Andrew’s.
Seeing Samantha for the first time in forever.
Being back in a foursome with dicey history.
Trying to act normal with Andrew nearby.
Not letting on to Samantha that Andrew and I had hooked up.
And on a completely different level, bringing Edith even though she hadn’t met Dude yet.
Then there was all the usual stuff to obsess about, like if my outfit was cute, and would I be able to eat despite a simmering belly. I glanced at Edith in the rearview mirror.
“Be good tonight, okay?” She tilted her head to the side and gave me her most innocent look. “Exactly. Keep it up.”
