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“Thanks babe,” I tell her while Kaiden soothes the blow by filling up their empty glasses. He never mentions that it’s alcohol free, and no one asks or comments on the taste being different. Can’t say I’ve sipped enough champagne in my life to be able to tell the difference.
It doesn’t take long for everyone to relax, and soon the girls are all giggling and chatting. Kaiden entertains everyone but Zie is mostly quiet.
“You okay?” I ask him when we arrive and everyone climbs out of the limo but us.
He shoots me a rueful grin. “I shouldn’t have complained about the black dress. If that was lingerie, this is positively indecent. Kaiden was right, you know, you do look like a sexy ballerina.”
I giggle. “Maybe I’ll dance for you later,” I joke, but when his pupils dilate neither of us are laughing.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Come on, Odi! Hurry up!” Jess complains from outside.
“It’s fucking freezing out here!” Lucy adds.
I give Kaiden a grin. “Better go.”
“Listen Odi,” Zie says urgently, gripping my arm to stop me leaving. “I can see you’re not telling the girls the whole truth about everything that’s going on, and that’s smart. Order drinks as normal tonight. I’ll slip behind the bar and make them. I’ll make yours virgin and they won’t have to know.”
“Thank you,” I tell him, touched that he’d do that to keep my secrets for me. “I appreciate you being here, you know.”
“Someone has to keep Kaiden in line,” he jokes, flashing me his cheeky boy next door smile with dimples that I love. “Let’s go before I change my mind and ravish you in the back of the limo.”
Damn that sounds good.
Hours later,I’ve lost all sense of time and I’m having so much fun that if I didn’t trust Zie so implicitly to keep me safe, I’d wonder if my drinks were actually spiked with alcohol.
“I love seeing you smile!” Lou yells at me over the pounding bass of the music. I can’t hear a thing, I’m parched, and my feet are killing me, but I can’t wipe the smile off my face either.
“Drink?” I yell back, miming the action. Lou nods, and we push our way across the crowded dance floor of Trinity’s, grabbing the others as we go. We make our way to the back of the building, to the stairs which lead up to what once would have been the choir loft or balcony when this was once a church. Or cathedral. Whatever.
Now it’s a roped off VIP area and it’s exclusively ours for the night.
Flopping down onto one of the blood-red velvet upholstered pews, I sink back and remove my shoes, groaning at how good it feels.
“Big mistake, Odi,” Steph tells me. “You’ll never want to put them back on again.”
“I don’t anyway,” I moan. “I think I’m done. What time is it anyway?”
“It’s still early. Or late. Depending on how you look at it,” Jess says. She’s always been a bit of an oddball, but I know what she means.
“Well I think it’s past my bedtime. Are you ladies coming back with us or are you out until the early hours?”
“We’re staying out. Those bodyguards of yours have arranged a car for us whenever we’re done, so don’t feel guilty about leaving,” Lou explains. I pull her in for a quick hug.
“Awww! Group hug!” Jess cries, and the next thing I know, Lou and I are being crushed by Jess and Steph. Out of the corner of my eye I can just make out Lucy shuddering and mouthing ‘pass’ at me. I giggle. I feel that. I’m not normally much of a hugger.
“Okay, but before you go,” Steph says, excitedly. “We have one last surprise for you!”
“Please tell me it doesn’t involve moving.”
“Nope! Get comfy. You’re going to love this!”
With a slight sense of trepidation at her excitement, I wiggle my ass into my seat and wait with baited breath for their surprise.
The lights in the VIP area go out, and the music changes to a song I don’t know, but it gets the girls hollering with excitement. Thanks to the glass on the balcony, the music from the main dance floor is largely blocked out, but the pulsing lights still illuminate our space enough to see.
Two shadowed figures step into the space and the girls whoop and cheer as I realise what this is. What they’ve done. Oh god, I can’t believe this is happening. The guys are going to kill me.
