AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lexie hadn’t been kidding when she said she didn’t have any furniture. Since Jessica and Hilary had gotten there right before Angel, and Olivia ended up practically following her into the building, they all got the grand tour together. Which consisted of being shown the bathroom and the tiny kitchen, which kept the small space from being considered an efficiency.
There was a mattress in the corner for her to sleep on, a large television set up on what looked like a decrepit coffee table, and some cushions and blankets scattered in front of it. The tiny kitchen was fully stocked though, with the important things.
“Found it!” Lexie tossed the corkscrew to Olivia.
Angel shook her head. “This is why twist off tops are the best.”
“Corks are classier.”
“But ultimately useless now that most wines are made to be drunk within a couple of years rather than being stored for decades,” Angel told her.
“I should have known! He’s corrupted you already,” Olivia accused, waving the wine key at her threateningly. Angel cracked up, because she couldn’t deny her opinion came from Adam—heck, she hadn’t known why some bottles came with twist offs and some came corked until him.
“Come on you guys, bring out the glasses!” Jessica called from the other room.
With the corkscrew in one hand, wine glass in the other, Olivia sauntered out of the tiny kitchen, Angel and Lexie following her.
“You don’t have a couch, but you have wine glasses,” Hilary said, giggling as she sat down on the chair she’d brought, accepting the glass Angel had brought her. “Thank you.” The soft pink sweater she was wearing set off her blonde good looks; she might be one of the most sincerely nice people Angel had ever met.
“Priorities,” Lexie responded cheerfully as she plopped herself down on the floor after handing Jessica a glass. Angel sat down next to her, feeling a little awkward about sitting in her chair when Lexie was on the floor; Jessica sat down too. Looking down at them, Olivia snorted and sat in her chair.
Even though she was relaxed, wearing blue jeans and a blue long-sleeved t-shirt, Olivia still couldn’t be mistaken for anything but a take charge woman. Then again, Angel knew she appeared that way sometimes too. She didn’t like taking charge in the bedroom or in a relationship. Pretty much anywhere else she was okay with it.
The redhead eyed the line of wine bottles they’d all brought. Since everyone had apparently decided to bring at least two bottles, it was quite a little array they’d gathered.
“There is more wine here than we could possibly drink in one night.”
“Challenge accepted!” Jessica and Hilary’s voices echoed through the apartment and they all cracked up.
“Are we going to make it out tonight if we do?” Angel asked, laughing. They’d all brought clothes to change into in case they decided to go out, but she didn’t think she would make it if they were seriously going to drink all the wine.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” Lexie said cheerfully. “I don’t know about you guys, but I intend to get hammered tonight.”
“At least if we go out, it can’t possibly be as dramatic as last time,” Jessica said. She looked at Angel and shook her head. “Last time we had a girls’ night out, my asshole ex-boyfriend ended up at the same club as us and tried to get in my face. And then Lexie got in his face.”
“And then the guys showed up and Olivia finally came back from paying the bar tab,” Hilary added cheerfully. “It was a hot mess.”
That led to an in-depth recitation of how Jessica had ended up with Chris and Justin and Hilary with Liam than Angel had gotten to hear before when the guys were around. Which was fascinating. The Venus School sounded amazing, although Angel didn’t feel the need to go there... although if things didn’t work out between her and Adam...
What impressed her the most was how at ease everyone was with Jessica’s decision to be with two men. Hilary admitted she hadn’t been too sure about it at the beginning, but she’d supported her friend and now she could see how well the relationship worked. Not that they had everything worked out. Angel could tell Chris’ estrangement from his family pained Jessica.
Hilary and Liam’s story was a more conventional. And then it was Angel’s turn to divulge the full story of how she and Adam met and got together, which included some revelations from Olivia.
“You should have seen him when you answered your phone with ‘Pretty boy!’” Olivia cackled. “He pouted.”
“I would give anything to see Adam pouting,” Lexie said, giggling madly. Tipping the rest of her wine into her mouth, she looked mournfully at her empty glass. “All this talking is thirsty work. Should I open another bottle of wine?”
“Am I drunk yet?” Angel asked rhetorically, thrusting out her own empty glass.
All of them dissolved into laughter again.
“Should we order some food?” Jessica asked. “I could go for some pizza or Chinese or something to help soak up all this wine.”
“That depends, are we staying here, or going out?”
They all looked at the line of wine bottles, of which they’d only worked through about a third so far.
“Staying in!”
