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Ah. So it’s just me who’s blackmailed into putting rings on my finger. Good to know.
“Did everyone around here grow up together? Same elementary, middle, and high schools?”
“Shouldn’t you know this already?”
“Mom lived in Regalia when we were little. I was three when we moved,” I said. “My mom used to come back to visit old friends, but it was a girls’ weekend kind of thing. We didn’t go with her. It was during one of those weekends that she met Jack.”
“Ah.” Katie worked her way toward the front, forming the dress bit by bit. “They have a torrid affair and then, one day, she springs on you that she’s getting married and you’re moving back home. Too bad you were home for all of a second before stepdaddy shipped you off to the nunnery.”
“That wasn’t quite how it went down, but close enough.”
She chuckled. “To answer your question, yes. Everyone knows everyone around here. Best part is that Regalia gossip is way juicier than normal small-town gossip.”
My ears perked up. “How juicy are we talking?”
“No names, of course. But pretty much every scandal you can think of has gone down in the last five years. That guy ran off with the maid. That lady was caught banging the pool boy. The secretary drained the pension fund and took off to Tahiti. The girl in the grade above took five months off because she got mono.” Katie shook her head, lips pushed out. “Secret adoption. Might’ve gotten away with the lie too if someone didn’t peek her C-section scar.”
“Wow. The most scandalous thing that happened in my high school was Callie Gilbert sneaking in cigarettes.”
“No way. All those girls trapped in a nunnery, stewing in angst. I know you got up to something, Lu-Lu.”
“First, it wasn’t a nunnery. Second, we wanted to get up to something—don’t get me wrong—but it was impossible. We were stuck in this little town that was basically a pretty countryside nursing home. As soon as the kids grew up, they moved away and raised their families by movie theaters, restaurants, and shopping. All things our town did not have.
“There was no one below fifty to hook up with. There was nothing fun to do even if we managed to sneak out. Of course we behaved ourselves. We didn’t have a choice.”
“Wow, you have such a sad life.”
I looked away. “Yes,” I whispered. “I do.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant.”
Katie patted my arm. It could’ve been an attempt to comfort me. It was over too fast for me to tell.
“Let’s get back to talking about me. Did I tell you how Dean and I met?” She plowed on, not needing an answer. “His sister was usually in the next bed over, receiving chemo. I pulled him aside to threaten his life if he told anyone at school that my mom was getting treatment. The jerk said I couldn’t take him, so I informed him I was on the wrestling team for two years. He replied that he was captain of his wrestling team for four years, and I definitely couldn’t take him. So I dragged his ass into a storage closet and I”—she winked—“showed him what I learned on the mat, if you get my meaning.”
I rolled my eyes skyward. “Oh, I definitely get your meaning.”
“Just making sure. Wouldn’t want it to go over your sweet little virgin head.”
“Who said I’m a virgin?”
Katie spun me toward the mirror. It was quickly dawning on me that she was amazing at this. The wrappers spun down my body in a rainbow of color, molding perfectly to my curves. It seemed she had other gifts besides turning people’s hatred into love.
“Uh, you did. You were sent off to boarding school in the land of geriatrics. Unless you and your roommate were dipping in the honeypot, that cherry is ripe for the plucking.”
“Is it serious between you guys?” I asked, steering the conversation back on track. “You say you don’t buck the social order, but what do you call you and Dean?”
“Fuck buddies,” she dropped without hesitation. “The only thing serious about us is how hot the sex is. And how quick I can get him over here. The man’s like a bag of buttery popcorn—ready to go in minutes, all it takes is a push of a button.” Katie held up her phone. “I send him this and he’s tripping through my door with his pants around his ankles within the hour.”
I looked down, and shrieked. “Joseph Collins, woman!”
On the screen was Katie Langford buck naked and doing things that I didn’t even do to myself. My hand flashed, smacking the phone away before the image permanently seared into my brain.
Katie gave me a look. “Oh yeah, you’re a virgin. Just wait until you see a penis. I bet you faint.”
