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Lennon holds up both hands in immediate surrender, realizing his suggestion hasn’t gone down too well. Men. They have no clue what a girl’s purse means to her. How icky would that be carrying jizz around in my bag? Eeww! No, thank you.
“I’m sorry, ok? I’ll take care of it. Give them to me and I’ll put them in the trashcan over there. I just don’t want to attract any unwanted attention when I only just landed,” he says, grasping with both hands, the tissues I’d carefully wrapped and now offer him, dangling the twisted ends between my thumb and forefinger.
He goes to grab for the handle to open his door, then all I hear is, “What the hell?” and I look across to see what the problem is. Oops! Too late, he’s realized his rough handling of the delicate package I passed to him has caused some of the contents to escape, and as he tries to grab the door handle, he now has tissues stuck to his fingertips.
When I see what’s happened, I laugh so hard, tears streaming down my face as he waves his hand around to try and shake it off, but they’re not budging. Better than any glue, I guess, and I double up. I’m laughing so hard, and I can’t stop.
“Yes, very amusing, I’m sure,” he says with a deadpan expression on his face. “Now, can you stop for a minute and help me?”
I manage to calm myself down a little, but still have fits of giggles every time I look across at him. “What do you want me to do?” I ask. “I am not taking them back off you.”
“That’s fine. Can you just get out of the car, please, come around and open my door so I can walk to the trashcan? If it’s not too much trouble, sweetheart?” he says, with his own fake smile.
I can’t stop grinning as I walk around the truck and open his door. He slides out, and I say, “Don’t be mad, now. It wasn’t my fault.”
“Yeah, I know. Let me get rid of these and I’ll be right back,” he says, heading across the parking lot.
I sit back in the driver’s seat and watch every move of his perfect body as he walks. When he gets to the trashcan, I see him shake his hands and expect to see him turn around and come back to the truck, but I laugh out loud again when I see he has tissues stuck to both hands now, and all I see is him violently shaking and rubbing them together to try and get them off.
Finally, I’m relieved when I see him walking back toward the truck, looking around to check if anyone saw him, as my stomach is starting to hurt from laughing so much.
“Nice job of not attracting any attention, by the way,” I say, giggling as he buckles up his seatbelt. If looks could kill, I’d be dead, right there and then.
***
At precisely eight o’clock, I leave Lennon’s room and meet Cindy in the bar of the hotel. I still don’t know what she has planned, but I wouldn’t want her to accuse me of being late. Mom and Aunt Silvie are there already, along with Casey, and another cousin I’ve only met once. It’s a small gathering—only six of us. There would’ve been seven, but another cousin, Emily, doesn’t arrive until tomorrow. Some bachelorette party. I glance at Casey and know she’s thinking the same thing. This was partly why I was so against it in the first place. There’s nothing like a party to make you realize just how few friends you have.
Every chance she gets, Casey reminds me she’s only here because she has to be. I roll my eyes and ignore her, but I’m getting sick of her attitude. I bite my tongue to avoid telling her to just do everyone a favor and leave. Mom throws in the odd bad joke to try and lighten the mood, but that just makes things worse. I feel like I’m in elementary school all over again and my mother is standing up to the bullies for me.
“Come on,” Cindy says, throwing her arms around my neck. She looks cute in her short sparkly silver dress, her blonde hair pulled back into a bun. “Let’s go have some fun. Your last chance to let your hair down before you get married!”
“Okay, okay,” I say. “Let’s do this.” I smile, because the sooner we get started, the sooner it’ll be over. I’ll play it up and pretend I’m having fun much more than I am, because I know how much effort she’s put into tonight.
