“I assume you’ll behave this time,” she says, meeting my gaze.
My face morphs into one of shock. “I always behave at parties.”
She laughs. “I heard all about your little outburst at the engagement party.”
I scoff with a roll of my eyes. “Come on, it was not an outburst. I just laughed a little, that’s all.”
“Yeah, at the worst time.”
She’s not wrong, so I don’t bother arguing with her. “I’ll behave,” I reply in a low whisper.
“Good boy,” she says under her breath, and we both fight back our laughter.
When no one’s looking, she reaches over and snatches a piece of cheese from my plate.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” I reply quietly with a joking tone, “get your own.”
She’s wearing an adorable grin as she pops the Brie in her mouth and chases it with a sip of wine.
“Okay, seriously, we should both mingle so it doesn’t look suspicious.”
My shoulders deflate as I glance around the yard, absolutely no one of interest sticking out to me. “I don’t want to. I hung out with you at the last party.”
“Exactly,” she replies. “It’s starting to look like something is going on between us.”
“Something is going on between us,” I reply, and that makes her pause, glaring at me with intensity. I can’t tell if that made her nervous or mad. Since I’m not looking for any more punishment right now, I hold my hands up in surrender. “Yes, ma’am.”
With that, I reluctantly leave her standing against the fence and make my way over to the food table. My dad clearly didn’t invite any relatives, not that I would want to talk to any of them anyway. And since he’s too engrossed in watching his bride-to-be get spoiled rotten, I do a solo meander around the crowd. I wave at Sophie, who is sitting next to her mom, helping take photos and looking as if she’s being held hostage. She looks as desperate to ditch this soiree as I am.
Maybe once this present business is through, she and I can escape. I’m sure she’d rather check out the new merch at the comic book store than be here. I realize I’ve barely seen her since I started working at Maggie’s. Apparently, she got a new ride to D&D night…and I can’t say I’m surprised. I just hope it’s not that wizard dickhead.
“Beau?” A feminine voice says from behind me, and I turn to face a woman about my age with long brown hair and a loose-fitting dress.
I smile politely at her, and although she looks mildly familiar, I couldn’t place her face if you held a knife to my throat.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” She smiles brightly, showing off white teeth and fluttering her thick lashes.
“I’m sorry…” I reply apologetically.
“It’s okay. I’m Charlie’s cousin. We met once at her birthday party when you two were dating.”
“Oh yeah. Courtney?” I ask.
“Caitlin.”
“Shit. I’m sorry,” I say with a laugh. “It’s been a long time.”
She giggles, tilting her head and jutting her hip out as she bites her lip. “So how have you been?”
“Um…” I scratch the back of my neck. How the fuck do I answer that?
“I’m sorry…stupid question.” Her smile dissipates as her eyes dance their way over to Charlie and my dad.
“Yeah,” I reply awkwardly.
“That must have been hard to get used to.”