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Lilac snorted.Queen Animaliao’s Campside Ball, she typed, correcting him.And I’m onbreak.
Pembroke was already joining the chat. She typed,Sounds fun! I’m sure you did an amazingjob!
Wish you all could be here, typed Lilac, wondering why Pembroke’s journeys hadn’t yet taken her down to the Sunshine State.Though it’s mostly for kidsanyway.
Take pictures, typed Gavin, though that went withoutsaying.
What?typed Brielle, joining the conversation.Sorry. Busy. Papers flying everywhere. Mom havingepiphany.
“Damn,” said Lilac aloud to no one but herself. “Someone’s having a busy day.” She knew Brielle was working a museum job in her hometown now—and that she’d gotten back together with that hot pseudo-celebrity some months back.Off work and about to shag hot comic guy?Lilac typed, always happy to teaseBrielle.
Basically, wrote Brielle, not even denying it.Why, your dorky mascot still in his costume and you’re trying to fill the time while he gets his handler to get himunstuck?
Shut up, wrote Lilac, though she was grinning. She added a grinning emoji for good measure.No one gets him out of his costume but me.Not entirely accurate, given the sanctity of the dressing and undressing ritual Nolan and his crew adhered to, but Lilac’s friends didn’t need to know that. Sworn Tildy Scout secrets andall.
Okay, dirty ladies, wrote Gavin.Can we move on please? I gathered you here today for a very importantannouncement.
How are we ‘gathered’ anywhere exactly?wrote Lilac, in a mood to besnarky.
First…wrote Gavin, not rising to her bait.Pembroke has something tosay.
Pembroke started working on her line of text, but it took her a little while. Lilac had time to take a sip ofwater.
I think I’m in love, wrote Pembroke atlast.
Lilac stared at the phone in shock. She’d talked to Pembroke a bit during her travels this summer and the girl had seemed so uninterested in the idea of finding someone to shag in every port. Lilac sent a few questioning emoji her way.How?she wrote.I thought you weren’t intoromance.
She isn’t into sex, wrote Gavin.Bigdifference.
That made zero sense to Lilac.Maybe for you, she wrote, her toes curling as she thought of the way Nolan had grabbed her by the wrists and pressed her against the bedroom wall of their new condo just the night before. They were supposed to be unpacking their things, but they’d gotten as far as putting together the new bed the previous weekend and that had been about all they’d needed thus far.Told you you just hadn’t found the one,Pem.
That’s not how it works, said Gavin. Always the one to take on the mediator role.Lilac, open your mindalready.
Scoffing, Lilac took another sip of her water. Brielle used the space to speak up.Guys. Can we let Pembroke talkplease?
She did, after another pause.I still don’t want sex. But I don’t know… I kind of like kissing. Maybe someday. Maybe withthem.
“Them”?asked Gavin. So he didn’t know everything there was to know afterall.
I told you she was gay, wrote Lilac smugly. She’d had this conversation with Gavinbefore.
Not quite, typed Pembroke.Romantic ace. I don’t have the restdefined.
The rest?askedBrielle.
Questioning, wrote both Gavin andPembroke.
Lilac was dying to know more, but she’d ask Gavin when she had him alonelater.
In any case…wrote Brielle.Glad to hear! Happy foryou.
Lilac felt like she should say something, though she didn’t quite understand.Yeah. Good foryou.
ANYWAY, wrote Gavin then.I’m super happy for Pem, but I wanted all three of you here at once to ask you one thing: Will you be my groomsmaids? Boyfriends, partners, and dorky mascots welcome to come asguests.
Lilac dropped her phone. The thing actually slipped free of her fingers and fell to theground.
SHUT UP, she wrote the instant she scooped it up again.How could you not tell me you were getting married?She was ecstatic for him, though bewildered that so little time had passed since he’d started dating Gabriel—hot, hot Gabriel, who’d come to Orlando for Labor Day weekend with Gavin to meet her and Nolan. But mostly she was just atinybit pissed Gavin hadn’t told herfirst.
