“That he was the one. That you were ready to spend the rest of your life with him? I mean heck. Am I really ready to settle down for the rest of my life?” She was looking at me, but she wasn’t talking to me anymore. It was as if she were looking through me. Her eyes were heavy with sadness and I couldn’t help but sober up a bit. Tears started falling from her eyes and she was quick to wipe them.

“Michelle…Are you okay?” I was concerned. I’d never seen her in such a state of un-perkiness. Something was seriously wrong.

She blinked and came back to me. She shook her head, put on her bright smile, and laughed loudly. Her typical Michelle laugh. Tossing her hands up in the air she looked towards Colin and yelled, “Two more shots!”

“No more shots. Time to go.” I turned in my chair and stared at Cooper standing over me. He tossed Michelle’s coat to her and held mine up to help me into it. I was still so embarrassed—drunk, but embarrassed nonetheless—by how he had rejected my soda pop offer. I snatched my coat from him and rolled my eyes.

“I can do it myself.”

I watched him frown as Eric stumbled over to us with his arm wrapped around a drunken Ladasha. It appeared he had sobered up quite a bit, but Cooper still said he should drive us all home.

Piling us three girls into the backseat of the car, Cooper and Eric sat in the front. I was lucky enough to ride bitch, also known as sitting in the most uncomfortable seat positioned between Michelle and Ladasha.

“Questions!” Michelle drunkenly screamed. I knew exactly what she was referring to when she said it. I remembered taking many drunken walks, drives, and runs with Michelle where we would always play the game of Questions on our way home. I explained to Cooper and Ladasha that Questions involved asking any question you would probably not ask if you were sober.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Cooper murmured from the driver’s seat. He was really determined to be a party pooper.

“It’s a great idea!” I yelled. “You go first, Michelle.”

“Okay. Question. Is it normal to smell your breath in the palm of your hand and then lick the air to taste it?”

I burst out laughing at the random, stupid question from Michelle. And, all of us except Cooper, cupped our hands, blew into them, and licked the air. Gross.

“My turn.” I smiled and shifted over as Michelle rearranged her body in the car. “Would you rather have a soda pop or a sour lemon?”

Eric smirked. “Who the hell calls it soda pop?”

I glanced at Cooper through the rearview mirror and knew he was looking towards me. He was giving me a stern look—warning me to not push the subject. My heart skipped a beat as I broke eye contact. “I don’t know. Some people.”

Michelle giggled, yawned into my shoulder, and closed her eyes. “That’s the stupidest question ever.” She was fading to sleep—probably the best idea.

“I think this is the stupidest game ever,” Cooper huffed. I’d never seen him in such a bad mood. I wondered what the hell was wrong with him.

“Okay, my turn.” Ladasha turned towards me, smiling as I kissed her nose.

“Could a stripper who was a bit wacky and a teacher who was handsome and smart and charming ever have a shot with one another?”

My heart sank into my stomach as I placed my hand on my chest. “Oh Dasha…” I felt so awful for her, and I looked as Eric turned to stare at her from his seat. Luckily Michelle had fallen asleep. Otherwise this had the possibility to be an extremely awkward situation.

Eric cleared his throat and turned back forward. Ladasha rolled her eyes and spoke softly. Tears formed in her eyes. “I’m so stupid…”

“You’re not,” I promised. Even Cooper’s look showed sadness. Ladasha had lived a tough enough life, and the last thing she needed was to set herself up for another heartbreak by going for an engaged man. My brother.

The silence filling the space was heavy, somewhat tainted. Eric cleared his throat again stared straight out into the darkness. “It depends,” he said. Ladasha sat up and looked at him, waiting for him to explain.

“On what?” she asked.

Eric turned as far back to face us as he could, ready to enlighten us. “It’s like a kite. There are millions of kites in the world. Different shapes. Different sizes. Some kites are made for the crazy winds. Some get torn a little. And some plop! Instantly hitting the ground right out of the package.” He locked eyes with Ladasha as he continued.

“And then there are the kites that are breathtakingly beautiful. The kites that have never even tried to fly because other bad kites told them they weren’t good enough to soar. So that breathtakingly beautiful kite believed them. It wasn’t her fault. She did what she was taught. She lived in self-doubt. She stayed grounded. That kite was stripped of a chance to ascend from the ground and rocket past the trees, into the blue sky.”

Oh crap. Ladasha wasn’t the only one who was tearing up now. Eric continued.

“So your question was, could a stripper who was a bit wacky—in the best possible way—and a teacher who was…” he said, smirking and winking towards Ladasha, “handsome, smart, charming, dapper, strong…”

“Yeah yeah, we get it.” Ladasha laughed.

“Right. Could they ever have a shot with one another? Well, for starters, I think the girl isn’t a stripper. She just stripped. There’s a big difference. But if the timing was different, and the teacher wasn’t already engulfed in a different lesson plan, there would be no way in hell he could let her beautiful kite pass his way without entangling their strings together forever. And ever.”

And that was the end of it. He turned back forward and everyone went silent. Cooper pulled up to the house and Ladasha quickly shot out of the car, running for the house. Cooper chuckled to himself as he helped Michelle out of the car. I followed after her. Cooper laid the passed out Michelle in Eric’s arms. He continued to chuckle as I turned away from him to get rid of the idea of how much I was falling for his laugh. Eric turned towards him. “What is it?”

“That was a good speech you gave.”

Eric laughed and shrugged as he opened his door. “I majored in English.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

I SHUT THE car door, watching Eric carry Michelle towards the house. What a f**king night. Andrea looked at me and I gave her a half smile. She still looked pretty drunk, and cold. “Let’s get inside.”

“Wait,” she said as she walked closer to me. I took her cold hands and rubbed them together between my hands to warm them up.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know from day one my signals towards you have been confusing and all over the place. And I make rules. And I change them. I cry and say panda. But next I’m begging for soda pop. Then I want you to go away. And I change the rules again. And now we are friends, with no benefits, and I don’t know how I messed this up so much.”

“It’s all right, Andie.”

She chuckled. “It’s not. I just wish…” She wandered off with her sentence, shifting her feet on the ground. I kissed the top of her head and rubbed her arms.

“You’re drunk.”

“No,” she shook her head. “I’m wide awake. And I know deep down in my heart that if today were opposite day and you had told me you hated me…I want you to know that I would say I hate you, too.”

Her eyes glimmered like the white snow as she poured her heart out to me. She loves me. I went to open my mouth to speak, but before I could, she was bending over, violently vomiting on my shoes.

How f**king romantic.

“THIS SUCKS,” ANDREA moaned into the toilet as I sat on the edge of the tub.

“At least with your new haircut you don’t have to worry about holding your hair back.” I chuckled towards the tequila-suffering beauty. Tequila was never a good choice. It had a way of making you feel like its best friend and suddenly, without any warning, it stabs you in the back and mocks you.

“I’m never drinking again…” she whispered. I laughed, secretly hoping she would remember her confession to me. My smile faded a bit as I thought of the other confession I’d heard today from Steve. I was beating myself up for knowing the lies Derrick had kept from her. But Derrick was gone, so what good would it be to tell her about Rachel and him? I wondered if she would still be mourning over a cheater…

I should tell her. If it came out I’d known and hadn’t told her, she would kill me. Even worse, she would hate me. And I didn’t mean the ‘opposite day’ kind of hate. And there were all the things I already wasn’t telling her—all the information about Iris, my past, and the paparazzi that she deserved to know.

I’d tell her when the time was right—and when her head wasn’t in the toilet.

Chapter Thirty-Three

I WOKE UP with the need for a garbage can next to my bed. I felt awful. Dammit Jose. No more tequila. Ever. Pushing myself up on my elbows, I was pleased to see Cooper walking in with a tray of all types of liquids and foods on it.

“You’re up.”

“I’m up.” And I remembered everything I’d said the night before. And I still meant it.

He placed the tray on my bed and gestured towards it. “A hangover kit. I dropped two off to Michelle and Ladasha, who both look worse off than you, may I add.” He pointed towards the tray and explained what was included in this magical hangover kit.

“We have water. Coffee. Bloody Mary.” I wiggled my nose as he said Bloody Mary and he removed it from the tray. “Okay, no Bloody Mary. We got toast, crackers, some weird baked bread type crap the chef made and two Tylenol.”

That I could do. I opened my mouth for the Tylenol, and he dropped them in and gave me a sip of water.

“Do you have any flaws?” I wondered out loud.

He studied me with a serious look. “I have many flaws, Andie.”

I removed the tray from between the two of us and placed it on the ground. I pulled him closer to me. Stroking the side of his face, I leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. We rested our foreheads against one another and sat in silence. My head was still spinning and I wanted nothing more than to fall back to sleep in his arms.

“Speaking of flaws…” His brows lowered as he spoke.

“No.” I didn’t want to speak of flaws. I wanted him to lie next to me. The sun was peeking through the window shades as I lay down and patted the spot next to me. He listened to my wordless request and joined me. My body slid into the curves of his body and he held me as if it were the last thing he ever wished to do on this planet. I’d never felt so safe and protected in my life—and that’s saying a lot.

“The costume designers are coming tomorrow for the party. We have to try things on…but until then, can we stay here?” He kissed my earlobe. I assumed that was him agreeing, and we both fell asleep. A lazy Saturday was very much needed after last night’s crazy events. Plus, my head hadn’t stopped pounding and I was almost certain if I got up out of bed I would pass out.

“IT’S A LITTLE tight.” Ladasha sucked in her stomach as Ms. Jacobson tightened her corset.

“Suck it in!” Ms. Jacobson hollered. “I swear, Rose, these dresses weren’t made for people like this,” Ms. Jacobson whispered to Mrs. Rivers, who was working on Cooper’s costume. Ladasha quickly placed her hand on her hip and looked to Ms. Jacobson.

“What’s that suppose to mean? People like what?”

“Nothing. Nothing. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. You’re just a very curvy girl,” Ms. Jacobson hissed. Ms. Rivers, her gossiping, rude, sidekick joined in.

“It’s true, honey. And back in the time period of Pride and Prejudice, I’m sure there weren’t any people of color involved in the balls. You should be thankful to be able to wear these pieces of clothing. Let alone take part in the dance.”