The tiny elderly woman grabbed her purse and started whacking her grandson over his head, cursing him to the high heavens for disgracing their family.
Antonio and Nick had been casually posed at the bar, but flung open the doors for us, ushering just our party through. Then they locked the doors from the outside, wearing matching grins. They shut Dennis and the mistress in with the room filled with family and friends, each group erupting in cries of indignation, demanding Dennis explain his dastardly ways.
Antonio and Nick were giggling like the devious little boys they were, happy to be part of the exit strategy. The six of us darted out the fire exit without looking back as the shouts grew louder, and more livid. Antonio’s driver was waiting for us with the SUV, leaving Dennis to deal with the confusion and wrath of the guests.
41
Number 50 – Find True Love
Caty’s shriek of laughter hadn’t died down, even a week later at the apartment over breakfast, when she’d spontaneously burst into fits of giggles. “I thought I’d feel sad at confronting him, making him face what he’d done, but that was so cathartic!” She shoved another bite of eggs into her mouth, grinning around her fork. “Can I do the honors of Number 34? I’ve been so excited officially moving back in that I forgot to actually cross it off the bucket list.”
I handed her the list and a pen, bowing to pay homage to the queen. “Brilliant, Caty. You were incredible.”
“My phone’s been blowing up all night, and all my social media is filled with memes people designed of Dennis making an ass of himself.” She straightened. “I even got a few numbers from some lonely would-be suitors, conveying their condolences on a marriage well-avoided.” She scribbled out Number 34 with flourish, giving another loud, giggly cheer at her triumph.
“You won’t be needing those numbers,” Brady said, sliding the list from her to give it a good look. He frowned at it, his eyes scouring the items one by one. “There’s this one, Number 50. Find true love.” He let out a sappy coo. Caty had added it to the list back when she’d thought she had that one in the bag.
“Check,” Eli said, sipping his coffee. I adored being on the same schedule as him. Sometimes we even shared a ride to work.
I shook my head. “No way. It doesn’t count unless we all do it. That one can wait.”
Eli took a bite of his eggs and then jabbed his fork at my plate. “What do ye make of these eggs? Do they taste anything like Antonio’s cock?”
Brady choked on his coffee, while Caty let out a full-bodied laugh.
I took a labored bite and chewed. “No. His is more grape-flavored. Nine full inches. Delicious.” I leaned over to kiss Eli’s lips. “I’m not sleeping with my boss. Antonio’s way flirtier with you than he is with me.”
“Just checking. Ye passed the test.”
I lightly pecked his lips. “You’re such a super sleuth. You almost caught me, too.”
Brady went back to the list. “If the subject of Antonio’s dick is off the table, I think I’ll grab a sweater. It’s drafty in here.”
“Me, too,” Caty chimed in. All of her things had been moved in with Brady. The two agreed to share a room, since Eli and I were inseparable. I felt bad making her bunk with a boy, but she was surprisingly cool about the whole thing. No doubt she was just glad to be out of Dennis’ house for good. She followed Brady into the bedroom, shutting the door to give Eli and me a moment to kiss without holding back for propriety’s sake. We were terrible at that.
Eli’s lips stroked mine with a leisurely delight reserved for brunch. I loved our life of sleeping in on the weekends, and waking up in each other’s arms. I felt completely and wholly safe with him, his large hands erasing the foreign feel of Dan’s with every passing day. He hovered a little more than usual, but I didn’t mind it. I think both of us needed the reassurance, actually. I nuzzled into him, running my lips up and down his throat just to make him grip the table. “Screw brunch. This is what I want this morning. More and more of exactly this.”
I hmmed against the hollow of his throat, which turned our bodies into magnets. His shoulders hunched inward, swallowing my form. “I think this is my new favorite spot on you,” I declared, sucking on his collarbone.
His hand that had been gripping the edge of the table gathered into a fist. “Why can’t it be Christmas already?”
I lost my hold on the romance of the moment and sniggered into his skin. “It’s supposed to be a surprise when you propose.”
“Aye. The surprise is going to be tha I can’t wait until Christmas. Caty would be happy for ye, getting engaged. Remind me again why ye wanted to wait?”
“Hello, my best girlfriend just ended her engagement. I’m not going to go flashing my ring around in her face the very next week. Give it a month to settle, then I’ll say yes. I don’t want the happiest decision of my life to be bittersweet for her.”
“Marry me,” he growled, leaning down to nip at my lips.
“Spoiler alert: you know I’ll say yes.”
Eli deflated, giving me another kiss before turning back to his eggs. “You’re too considerate. Too nice. Never thought the thing I loved about ye would be the thing to keep my ring off your finger.”
I chuckled at the stink-eye he shot me. “I was thinking we could spend the day at the park. It might be the last weekend before it starts getting super cold out.”
“Fine by me.”
I swung my legs around and stood, moving toward Brady and Caty’s room to clue them in on the plan. I didn’t knock, because I knew I didn’t need to, swinging open the door without preamble.
I couldn’t stop the shriek that ripped out of my mouth when I saw Brady and Caty with their shirts off, sucking face. As in, kissing.
Like, kissing.
42
Number 47
Eli bolted to my side, ready to fight whatever it was that evoked such a loud reaction from me. His whole body recoiled from the sight he hadn’t been expecting, either. “Jays! Warn a lad next time.”
Brady scrambled to return Caty’s cast-aside shirt to her, actually blushing when he tipped his head to me before shutting the door on us.
All I could do was point at the closed door and cry out in surprise all over again. “Caty and Brady! Caty and Brady!”
Eli ran his hand through his hair, coming down from the surge of adrenaline that made him go into battle-mode. “I can see tha.”
“Did you know about this?”
Eli held up his hands. “I think ye underestimate how much time I spend staring at your arse to notice what anyone else is doing.”
I shot him a withering look, and pointed at the closed door. “They were kissing! With their mouths!”
Caty and Brady tumbled out of the bedroom with scared, contrite looks on their faces. “You weren’t supposed to see that,” Caty said apologetically. “Any chance we can convince you that didn’t just happen? Optical illusion? Mirage?”
I covered my mouth with my hands and spoke into my fingers. “How long?”
Caty’s fingers twisted in the hem of her shirt. “Not too long.”
“A few months,” Brady admitted, clearing the air with the definitive truth. He shrugged at Caty’s gasp. “What? It’s not like the real story won’t come out eventually. Frankly, I’m glad Vi walked in on us. I hate keeping us a secret, like you and me together is something to hide. You’re my hero, Vi.” He extended his hand for a high-five, but I was too shocked to participate.
“Brady, we said we’d give it until Christmas, and then tell them!”
Brady threw his arms in the air. “Merry Christmas!” he bellowed like he was Santa Claus himself.
Eli shook his head. “What is it with putting off big life decisions so the other ones won’t get uncomfortable?”
Caty stood with her hands on her hips. “Because I didn’t want you to think I was slutty. I didn’t mean to kiss Brady when I was sleeping here. I saw Dennis and that woman, and I snapped. It was like I could finally see my who
le life clearly. After the boxing match, I came home with Brady. We got to talking, and I saw what was obvious all along.”
“That you like each other?” I guessed, still talking into my hands.
Brady shook his head. “No, that we love each other. We didn’t want to say anything until well after she and Dennis were officially broken up.”
“You’ve been kissing this whole time?”
A cocky grin spread across Brady’s face. “More than kissing. We did it in Dennis’ BMW, on the couch right there, obviously in the bed. Where else?”
Caty batted at Brady. “She doesn’t need a roadmap! We were going to tell you, I just wanted to wait until there was more time between me and Dennis. I didn’t want you to think this was a rebound, or that it was a casual fling. We’re together, Violet.” Her face fell, her shoulders slumping. “You’re freaking out. You’re looking at us like we just knocked over a liquor store.”
“Of course I’m freaking out! My best friends are hooking up. That’s the best news ever!”
Caty took a step back. “Seriously? You’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad? I don’t want Brady. You can have him.”
Brady’s head whipped to me. “Hey! I’m not a baseball card.”
“Of course not, babe.” Caty rolled her eyes conspiratorially at me, as if being exasperated with our boyfriends was nothing new.
“So is this a real, actual thing? What’s the deal here?” It was probably none of my business, but I couldn’t stop the inquisition.
Brady’s arm wound around Caty’s thin waist, and I couldn’t stop squealing and pointing. Brady laughed at me. “I can’t speak for Caty, but this isn’t casual. For me? This is it.”
Caty gazed up at him with a gooey expression I’d never seen on her before. Her shoulders were relaxed, and there was a blissful look to her that every girl wants for her best friend. “Me, too.”
Brady pulled away and stalked into the kitchen with purpose, tugging our bucket list off the refrigerator. “I’d like to talk about Number 50.”
Caty shifted uncomfortably. “Brady, are you sure now’s the time? We’re freaking them out.”
Eli wasn’t nearly as bowled over as I was. He sat back down at the table, listening to the cuteness with a smirk as he went back to his eggs.
Brady took a pen out of his pocket and slapped the list down on the kitchen table, motioning for us to gather around. “I’m sure two months ago was the time, but you made me wait.” He cleared his throat, as if gearing up to make a grand speech. “I’ve been wanting to cross this sucker off the list for too long now. Caty, would you do the honors?” He handed the pen to her.
I assumed she would waste no time crossing off Number 50, which was “find true love”, but she paused, leaned up on her toes and kissed his lips. “I did something bad.”
Brady froze, and my heart plummeted. “Out with it,” he said, sounding like a robot.
Caty set the pen down and twisted her fingers nervously, her pitch raising, as it usually did when she was filled with anxiety. She moved over to the couch and bent down to fish underneath it. She slid out a notebook, flipping it open and showing us what she’d been so secretive about in the past few weeks. “When we were on our revenge path for trying to bring Dennis down, I got to thinking about how to pay you guys back for being so sweet with all your horrifyingly vindictive pranks.” She tugged out of the binder a detailed list (because even Caty’s revenge plans come in bullet points, and are well-organized), and slapped it on the table. “I didn’t tell you all, but Dennis must’ve been feeling so guilty about being a cheating bastard, that he upped the wedding budget by five grand last month. Said he was going to give me everything I want.” Her nose crinkled. “The funny thing is, I only wanted him. Boy, does that feel like a million years ago.”
Brady was a live wire, ready to snap at getting so close to his goal, and having it snatched away from him. “You want to go back to that bastard because he gave you some money?”
Caty guffawed. “No! Of course not. The wedding budget was all on his credit card, but the five grand was a check he wrote me, and I deposited it into my account.” She started bouncing on the balls of her feet, too giddy to get through her whole plan without squeaking a little bit. “A few of the things I booked on the card, they let me return for cash. Not everything, but a couple things. I know it’s sneaky, but I don’t care.”
Brady’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh, that’s all? You had me worried. I thought you went back to him or something.”
“Me, too,” Eli agreed, shoveling more eggs into his mouth, now that the seeming crisis had been uncovered and deemed neutralized.
Caty pulled out a page that unfolded and had a detailed list of things to do… in Paris. “Before we cross off Number 50, I want to talk about Number 47.”
I glanced at the list. “Paris? What about it?”
“After everything Dennis put me through, I want to go somewhere beautiful. I want to paint in Paris. I want to see the Louvre. I want…” She looked across the table to Brady, and then her eyes darted away again, almost guiltily. She seemed to lose her words, and started wringing her hands. “I want to cross off Number 50 at the top of the Eiffel Tower, so I bought us tickets.”
Eli frowned. “Tickets to what?”
“Paris!” Caty’s expression was on the edge of Mount Elation, just waiting for our reactions to push her over the edge. “Well?”
A beat of silence fell over the room. Finally, Brady broke the tension. “What do you mean, you bought tickets to Paris?”
Caty hopped on the balls of her feet. “The thing I’ve been trying so hard to keep from all of you for weeks! The reason I called Antonio last week, and you got all suspicious,” she said apologetically to Brady. “I had to make sure he’d give Vi and Eli the time off.” Her smile was so bright, I thought she might burst into pure sunshine. “But he went one further, and made arrangements so we could stay at his friend’s place. Now we don’t have to pay for lodging!”
Eli stood, perplexed at the espionage that had gone on right under his nose, between his own boss and our roommate. “We’re going to Paris?”
Caty nodded. “From three days before Christmas to January second. We fly back on the third. I’ll only have to take two days off from work, because I’ll be on Christmas break. Brady, you’ve got the one week off, so you’ll have to trade shifts for a few of the days, or take vacation time. Other than that, it’s set. It’s done.”
I gaped at her, unable to comprehend that one of my items was being crossed off the list, and I hadn’t done a thing to earn it. “I can’t let you pay for one of my bucket list items. It’s not right, Caty.”
She raised her nose in the air. “I’m not paying for it; Dennis is. He doesn’t know he is, but the plane tickets are on him. We’ll have to pay for our own meals and whatnot when we get there, but after our big win at the boxing night where we crossed off Number 26 with a high-stakes bet, I’m thinking we can swing it.”
We were frozen in shock, until finally slow peals of laughter started trickling out from us, one by one. My eyes were wide, and my grin couldn’t be stopped. “Antonio okayed this?”
“Sure did. He was worried about you jumping back into your life so soon after the attack,” Caty said to me. “Said it would be a good idea for you to fill your head with good experiences to push out the bad ones.” She shifted her weight from side to side. “Though, fair warning, he sounded like he wanted to pop over the ocean for a surprise visit, so prepare yourselves for Antonio in France.”
“You booked us a trip to Paris?” I asked again, unable to comprehend it. Something I’d written so long ago on the list was being crossed off. Of all the things I never thought we’d actually get to, an overseas trip to the most beautiful city in the world always seemed out of reach. Now that it was being handed to us on a silver platter? I merely stared at the offer, my mouth hanging open like a guppy.
“I wanted to do something special after all D
ennis put us through. You guys went above and beyond, defending my honor. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through it all without you.” Caty crossed over to me and threw her arms around my neck, squeezing with all her tiny might. “Thank you. Our bucket list was just what I needed.”
“You’re always just what I need,” I agreed, kissing her cheek and holding her until she let go. “So, we’re seriously doing this?”
Suddenly, the fact that we were going on vacation began to dawn on us all in waves of elation.
Caty rose triumphantly, looking like a beacon of femininity and accomplishment as she beamed at us. “We leave in less than three weeks. Mr. Li’s going to get our mail and drive us to the airport.” She shifted her weight from side to side. “I found a great deal online, and after I booked the flight, I had a little money left over. I got a little carried away, and booked us tours, transfers to and from Antonio’s friend’s place, shows, and prepaid for as much of it as I could on Dennis’ dime.”
I couldn’t stop marveling at the confidence radiating from her. She’d gone from a girl who was terrified of heights, and had fallen apart when her fiancé had cheated, to a woman with a plan. “You’re so… I want to say badass, but that’s not the word. Are you alright? You’re sure this is what you want to do with your money?” I asked, utterly flabbergasted.
“Are you kidding? We’re going to Paris!” Caty screeched, bouncing on the balls of her feet excitedly.
I could tell Eli was already packing his bags in his mind. He slammed his fork down, jumped up out of his chair, and laid one on me. “France,” he said with so much joy in his eyes, I couldn’t look away. He was too beautiful. Too happy. I was too in love. Eli kissed me over and over, and then ran to Caty, scooping her up in a hug that made her laugh. “Ye are the best sister I could ask for. Cheers, Caty.”
Violet’s Bucket List Page 27