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22

CHRIS

I finally made it to the party.

The yard was decked out in tiki torches and the pool had beach balls floating in it. A band was playing.

I was about an hour behind everyone after getting off work, then running home to shower and change into my Hawaiian shirt. I scanned the yard through the kitchen window and found Larissa. She was wearing a floor-length strapless dress with flowers on it, and she had a big white flower in her hair. I stood there a moment just to look. She was beautiful. I didn’t usually see her dressed up—not that she wasn’t beautiful when she wasn’t.

I lingered another few seconds, then headed for the yard. I found the group of my friends clustered around a high-top table. I edged in between Jesse and Larissa. When Larissa turned and saw me, she lit up. “Hey, you made it.” She was grinning. And then I saw why.

Woofarine’s face was on her dress, mixed in between the flowers. The plot twist of the year because Woofarine’s face was also on my shirt. I’d ordered it online and we must have gotten them at the same place and picked the same design. We both burst into laughter.

Mike paused, looking between us. “Damn, I didn’t know there was a dress code,” he said.

Everyone watched us cracking up.

“Uh, can we also be in on the joke?” Becca asked.

I pointed to the dog faces.

“Oh my God,” Becca said. “You guys are nerds.”

“I didn’t even notice it,” Mike said, looking back and forth between our clothes.

“Did you plan this?” Jesse asked.

“No,” we said in unison, which made Larissa laugh harder.

“You should have told me. I would have got one too,” Mike said.

“You wouldn’t have worn this,” Larissa said, still giggling. “It’s too hokey for you.”

“Eh, you’re probably right.” He wrapped his free arm around her and squeezed. She leaned into it and beamed, and I took the moment to study a citronella candle on the table.

Jesse looked over at the bar. “Hey, I’m gonna get one of those pineapple things. Anyone want anything?”

Mike shook his head. “I’m not drinking tonight.”

Jesse looked at him like he had two heads. “What? Come on! They got like, three signature drinks over there.”

“I’m training, dick,” Mike said.

I shook my head. “I’m not drinking either.”

“I’ll take one,” Becca said.

“I’ll have a piña colada,” Larissa said.

“Remind them about the allergy,” I said.

Jesse gave me a finger gun. “Got it.”

Jesse left for the bar and I went to serve myself some dinner.

“Isn’t it pretty?” Larissa said, coming up behind me as I surveyed the graze table. Deli meats and cheeses, crackers and berries, chocolate-covered almonds, wasabi peas and dried fruits. It was garnished with hibiscus flowers and palm leaves and birds-of-paradise.

“Too bad it’s got nuts on it,” I said.