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“We are definitely coming here again,” I said to Emma, as I slathered cream and jam on my third scone.
“We should. It’s beautiful here.” I hadn’t looked around much, but it really was. Deep red wallpaper and chandeliers and lots of silver and the waiters all wore white gloves.
“How’s the puppy?” Sammi asked. “He’s so freaking cute and I’m so jealous.”
Nova sighed. “You know we can’t have a dog at our place, babe.”
“I know,” Sammi said, as she frowned.
“You can come over and see him anytime,” I said. “All of you can.”
“Score,” Sammi said.
“After my honeymoon, definitely,” Lara said.
“What’s Asa doing today?” Emma asked. I’d thought that Asa and Lara would want to have their parties together, but they’d had them separate. I loved Asa. They were so perfect for Lara and the two of them together was yet another reminder that love was real and some people were lucky enough to find it.
“They’re off with their buddies doing one of those escape rooms and then going on a brewery tour.” Lara made a face. “They’ve been bugging me to do that for a year, and I’m hoping they get it out of their system because there’s no way I’m doing that.” I didn’t think it sounded like a bad time, but I knew how much Lara hated beer. I also would have loved to do the escape room, but tea was fine. We had board games next at a bar, so at least some alcohol would be involved eventually. Definitely not as much as we had in Vegas, I hoped. I didn’t think I’d ever drink like that again.
Lara launched into all the issues they were running into for the wedding and it was boring as fuck after hearing about the same problems with the napkins and the caterer and the flowers and everything, but it would be over soon and she would go back to her regular laughing self. Hopefully.
Willa hadn’t been able to come today, and I was definitely missing her. She had a last-minute family funeral for a distant relative she’d never met, but her parents had told her it was her duty to go, so she wasn’t here.
We all sipped tea and ate sweets and it was nice to have something so casual, but I did have to pee a lot, which wasn’t fun.
Emma’s hand brushed my leg and I looked up to find her staring at me.
“What?” I asked, setting my teacup down and hoping I wasn’t committing some sort of faux pas in this pristine establishment. I’d had my pinky out the whole time. You were supposed to do that, right? Should have looked it up ahead of time.
“You look really pretty today, Cal,” she said, and I had that feeling in my chest again. Like someone was blowing my heart up like a balloon until it was too large for my chest and was pressing on my ribs and other organs.
“Thank you,” I said in a choked voice. Why was this compliment completely turning me inside out? I’d never been really good with them, but when Emma said things like that, it was something else.
“You’re welcome,” she said, brushing my leg again. I flinched and my teacup clattered against the plate.
“Sorry,” I said, to no one in particular.
––––––––
I(MOSTLY) GOT MY SHITtogether by the time we headed to the bar for board and card games. We weren’t actually in the bar; they put us in a function room in the back, away from the regular customers.
The place was an old pub, and I swear you could smell the scent of a thousand spilled beers wafting up from the uneven wooden floor.
It was clean, but had just a little bit of a grungy and shabby edge to make it a haven for millennial hipsters.
The room had its own bar and bartender who (of course) was wearing a kilt and had Dropkick Murphy’s playing. Lilly waddled over and had him immediately change it to something different and I was a little disappointed. The bartender, who had a conglomeration of tattoos, crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.
“We should tip him really well for putting up with us,” I said to Emma, as we took a seat at a table with Nova and Sammi.
“I swear, if we play Monopoly, I’m leaving,” Nova said, making a face at the box.
“That would take way too long and I get a little too competitive when fake money is involved,” I said.
“Callyn, you get competitive with any kind of game. Do you want to talk about the Scrabble Incident?” Emma said, raising her eyebrows.
“No, I would not,” I said, staring at the stack of board games.
Lilly got up and announced that we were going to play each game for 20 minutes or less and then switch, so that we all got to play with each other. The three people with the highest scores would win prizes.
