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Gia wrapped her pinky around her friend’s. “What are we swearing to?”
While Gia had turned down the effects of the alcohol, Alison was at full volume, feeling no pain at the moment, and Gia was pretty certain they’d entered the part of the night Alison wouldn’t remember come morning.
“Swear to marry Xander so we can be sisters,” Alison said.
Gia rolled her eyes. “I can’t promise that.” But holy hell, did she want to. While this thing between her and Xander was brand stinking new, she couldn’t help but wish things were different. Or really, just one big thing.
His address.
She wished he lived in Maris because she desperately wanted more time with him. Time to see if he really was the person her stupid heart kept insisting he was.
The one.
“How about if I swear you’ll always be a sister of my heart?” Gia offered as a compromise.
Alison’s nose scrunched up. “No. Real sisters. Xander needs you. And you need him.”
Gia wasn’t sure Xander needed her, but it felt good to hear Alison say he did.
“I’m gonna go dance,” Alison said, her hand dropping heavily to the table as they released pinkies.
“Need help getting out there?” Gia offered.
“Nope. I think I’m drinking myself out the other side.”
Gia laughed, familiar with the expression because it was one they’d made up at Gia’s twenty-first birthday party. They’d passed through tipsy and drunk during the course of the evening, steadily consuming hard seltzers until—by the end of the night—they both strangely felt completely sober. That was when Gia had joked they’d drunk themselves out the other side.
Alison might be right, because she headed to the dance floor with a steadiness Gia wouldn’t have expected.
She smiled as Alison joined Adele, Paige, and Harley on the floor. At least half of their party had peeled off, heading home as it was getting late. It was just after midnight. Cruisers closed at two, but Gia wasn’t sure she had it in her to shut the bar down.
“Hey, Gee.”
She turned around, surprised to find Mark standing there, sans Darlene. She glanced around for the other woman, too tired for another round of spite.
“She’s in the bathroom,” Mark said, responding to her unspoken question. “I was hoping I could talk to you for a minute.”
“What about?”
“I’m worried about you.”
Gia was confused, until she figured he was talking about tonight. “Oh, you don’t have to be.” She pointed toward a booth to the right. “Macie and Coop are our DDs tonight. They’re going to drive us all home.”
Mark shook his head. “No. Not about that. About Xander.”
Gia frowned. “Listen, Mark, I don’t think that’s any of your bus?—”
“I know you’ve always had a crush on him.”
Gia didn’t know how to reply to that because she’d never told anyone—with the exception of Xander the night of the holiday social.
“I could just tell,” Mark continued, responding to her confused look. “You sort of lit up whenever he came home.”
“Oh,” she replied. He’d been her boyfriend. Hadn’t that bothered him or made him jealous?
Probably not.
Lukewarm…that was the word she kept using to describe every aspect of her relationship with Mark.
