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“I have as much right to be here as you do,” Nikki spat back.
Ant chuckled. “You’re pathetic, you know that.”
“Screw you!”
Patrick rowed on. “Ladies… Ladies… There’s no need for this. It’s a beautiful night. Let’s all just relax and enjoy the water. ”
He was right. The night was darn near perfect.
“He doesn’t like you. Don’t you get that?”
“What do you know?” sneered Nikki, secretly afraid it was true.
“I know you’re a selfish bitch who only cares about herself.”
“And you’re a spoiled brat who gets everything she wants.”
“Really? You think I’m spoiled?”
“Uh, yeah. I do.”
“Hey look at all these nice people on the lak
e having such a good time,” Patrick interjected. “They’re not fighting.”
It was getting crowded out there. He had to steer left, then right, then left again in order to avoid a family of four peddling by. The little girl with the pony tail and the life vest two sizes too big for her waved at him. Patrick dropped the oar so he could wave back. Ant saw this. She thought it was nice and she smiled at him approvingly.
Somehow though, Nikki interpreted this to be about her, in some derogatory way. “You’re unbelievable,” she said.
Ant was nonplussed. “Really? What did I do now?”
“You think he likes you?” asked Nikki.
“Yeah. I think he does actually,” said Ant.
“Do you?” demanded Nikki.
“Well,” Patrick began, as he continued rowing them farther out onto the lake. “To be completely honest…”
“Go on.”
“I kind of like you both.”
They both heard it, the girls. But each one of them heard it in a different way. For Nikki it was good news. She didn’t care that there was anyone else involved, she was just happy to be in there. Just happy to be liked. She still had a thing for Patrick, as self-destructive as it probably was, but a thing nonetheless.
For Ant it was more of a nuisance. She knew it, obviously. But hearing it out loud like that really brought it home.
She didn’t want to be liked. Not right now. Not by anybody. She actually had no idea why she even got in the rowboat to begin with. A moment of weakness she supposed. A way to escape the party, if even for a minute. Maybe he wasn’t a bad guy after all, she remembered she thought. And even now, he was being kind of stand up about everything. Kind of honest. Admitting his feelings. Maybe he was one of the good ones…
“So, what do you say, after the party the three of us all go back to my place and get naked?”
“Huh?”
“Is he serious?”
“I think so,” said Nikki. “Are you serious?”
“Absolutely I’m serious. I know you both dig me and there’s plenty of me to go around. Come on? What do you say,” he said with a big, fat, sleazy grin. “Let’s keep it in the family.”
