Kate steps back from the bathroom mirror, inspecting her makeup before shrugging. “Yeah, why not?”
“Because we’ll be on the Amalfi Coast,” I clarify. “Think of all the fun things we could do to celebrate over there.”
“Well we can obviously still do all of those thingsandhave a New York bachelorette party,” Kate says.
I take a long gulp of margarita. “I’m just curious how much money you think I have.”
Kate rolls her eyes in the mirror. “This is a once in a lifetime thing, Jane.”
“That doesn’t mean I have a money tree.”
“Anyways,” Kate continues, “we will do our bar crawl here in New York, and when the boys do their Italian bachelor party we can have a cute little spa day and a quiet bachelorette night.”
Jessica, ever the instigator, pins me with a stare. “Is that in your budget, Jane?”
I glare at her from the bed. This is, in fact, not in my budget, but I’m just not in a fighting mood anymore. Even if it is Jessica causing trouble. So I bite my tongue and nod instead, downing the rest of the drink in preparation.
“Spectacular,” she says, clapping her hands together. Kate swipes red lipstick over her lips, gives herself one last look in the mirror, then turns to where Elise and I sit on the bed. “Is that what you’re wearing tonight?”
“You didn’t send me a link to a specific dress for this one so I assumed I was allowed to wear my own clothes.”
“Lydia?” she calls, as if Lydia is across the hall and not in the tiny kitchenette right next to her.
“Already on it,” Lydia replies, coming around the countertop and striding over to her suitcase. She digs through a heap of clothes before finally tossing a black dress at me.
“There you go,” she chirps.
I stare at the dress, lifting it and examining the fabric, the cut, the size. “This still has the tags on it,” I say.
“I know,” Kate says. “I bought it just for you. That cut will look stunning on you. You can buy a round of drinks tonight to pay me back for it.”
With a sigh, I lift myself off the bed and change into a $100 dress.
The group of us walk in the hot July evening to get to the first bar. The glass picture windows are decked out with red, white, and blue tinsel and stickers of stars and fireworks. I can feel the thrum of the music the DJ is blasting as we wait on the sidewalk to get our IDs checked by the bouncer, and I can see bodies packed together inside.
I’m already dreading going in there. I don’t know how many more backhanded comments I can take tonight, but I know if I leave early, I’ll never hear the end of it. Once we walk inside, I’m immediately met with the smell of stale beer and entirely too much men’s cologne.
“Are we sure this is where we want to celebrate?” I shout to Kate over the thumping bass.
She waves a hand at me. “This is the best dance club on the street. We’ll start here and see where the night takes us!”
Two men are already flirting with girls in our party, Elise is already pacing the slightly less loud hallway with her phone pressed to her ear—assumedly talking to Charlie—and another man is striding over to Kate, who I can tell is going to flirt away with him until it’s time to leave him in the dust and do the whole song and dance at another bar.
I turn away from the group and head straight to the bar. I’m entirely too sober for this experience. The man behind the bar notices me and walks over, simply raising an eyebrow in silent question. Bracing my elbows on the countertop, I lean over the bar top so I can shout my order to him. When he nods I step back down and wait for my margarita on the rocks.
Just as he slides the glass to me, I smell an incredibly expensive cologne to my right.
“It’s loud in here, huh?” The voice is so close to my ear that I jump, effectively sloshing my drink on my hand. “Oh, sorry. Here.”
A hand starts dabbing my hand with a black cocktail napkin and I finally take the opportunity to look up at the man attached to the arm.
He’s actually attractive. Cropped dark brown hair, amber eyes, a couple inches taller than me. A few months ago I would’ve thought he was the hottest man in the bar, but now I find myself comparing all of his attributes to Reid.
And that thought is absolutely terrifying.
His eyes are pretty, but they’re not blue.
He’s tall, but he’s not as tall as Reid.
