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“Oooh! Oh, oh, I’ve got it!” Sophia shrieked, and I clutched my ears, sloshing the margarita on the counter.
I shot her a glare.
“Sorry!” She danced around the counter. “But I’ve got a wedding solution. You need someone who knows you and can dodge any questions, right?”
Her reaction told me I wouldn’t like where she was going with this. Her too-convincing set up had a knot forming in my gut. Or maybe it was the bite of tequila. “Yes, that would be helpful,” I said slowly.
“You need someone impressive. Someone who won’t be cowed. Someone with a successful career on his shoulders but also is considered yummy, right?”
I blinked. “Yummy is good.”
“Take a good long drink,” Sophia coaxed, always the bad influence.
As the one who didn’t need a whole hell of a lot of convincing, I obeyed readily. Once half the chilled liquid was down my throat, I set the glass down. While I’d been slurping, Sophia had taken two shot glasses, filled them with tequila, and now held one out to me. I looked down at it dubiously. “Soph, at this rate, we won’t get the packing finished.”
“You’ll need it, trust me.” She smiled wickedly.
I took the shot, then demanded, “Who, Soph? Who are you thinking of?”
From the limited pool of our school acquaintances, there were only a few choices who could fit her description. As bookworms and overachievers, we didn’t spend our undergraduate and chosen graduate work doing much socializing. Sure, we partied hard, but we studied harder.
When Sophia didn’t answer me, I lifted both my hands and waved the shot expertly through the air. “Who?”
“Viktor.”
That one word had me squeezing my eyes closed. “Soph—”
“Take your damn shot and hear me out,” Sophia urged. I obeyed. Sophia refilled it. “Here, take another, you look positively sick.”
“It’s because my crazed roomie is suggesting her Viking brother!”
“Kievan Rus or Slav—we’re not the same as the Scandinavian Vikings.”
She refilled my first shot glass and pushed it together with the other over to me. Of course, she would know that detail. “Fine!” I snapped, slamming back two more shots in quick succession.
Sophia went to turn down the party music we’d been packing to, throwing over her shoulder, “Vik is perfect. He’s known you for the last seven years since I’ve been at Harvard—hell, he probably knows you second-best to me.”
“You should be my date,” I grumped.
“Come on, you know this ass is too fine to waste on your pessimistic soul.” She threw me a wink, then took a row of shots herself. “But seriously! He won’t be intimidated by your parents, who he met when we completed our undergrad programs, remember? And he won’t be creeped out by how freaky your siblings are, especially the twins.”
That terribly awkward mixed family celebration dinner still made me physically nauseated. We’d unanimously agreed not to repeat it to celebrate our graduate work. “Gavin and Bridgit are an acquired taste, but Mikey’s not so bad,” I protested weakly.
“The twins should frickin’ marry each other,” Sophia said with a snort. It was one of our favorite projections—how twisted and Game-of-Thrones-like my family was.
Watching her ramble on, my chest clenched in fondness. Sophia and I met at a freshman sorority party. Neither of us pledged, but we hit it off immediately. This girl could outdrink everyone. She claimed it was because Russians suckled on vodka at the teat.
I’d gotten her drunk before to try and get her to spill her secrets, but the damn little Russian held her liquor so well that I hadn’t whittled one tantalizing tidbit from her.And now I’m going to lose her tomorrow.
“Briana!” Sophia exclaimed, stopping her diatribe and running around the counter of our island. “Are those tears? Viktor isn’t that bad, is he?”
“He’s horrible.” I sniffed. “But no, I’m not crying about that.”
Sophia smacked my upper arm. “We said no tears! Thus, the silver bottle,” she reminded me, her voice getting all sing-songy.
“There isn’t enough booze to heal a broken heart,” I moped.
“We’ll still be best friends from the other side of the country.” Her eyes took on a wicked glint. “Who knows, maybe this fake date with Viktor could make us real life sisters!”
