Only I wasn’t really friends with Sadie. I mean, I was, we liked each other, but it was a lie. Maybe I should have considered it more of a white lie. Like, “I really like your new haircut,” or “We should definitely catch up soon,” or all of Instagram.
Either Vance or Rick made a huge whooping sound and the entire table broke into laughter. They all definitely seemed to be feeling more than a little happy.
“We should get back over there to keep an eye on them,” I said and Camden nodded. I hurried back, not wanting to linger too close so that my body didn’t get any bright ideas.
I slid into the seat next to Krista and she said, “Ooh, the man you obsess over is here.”
“I don’t obsess,” I corrected her, speaking softly so that we wouldn’t be overheard. “I think about him the exact right amount.” Which was all the time, so maybe she was right about the obsession thing.
“Well, know that I’m here as your best friend. How do we play this thing tonight? Am I going for polite but cool toward him? Or super friendly? Do I make myself scarce? Or are we going to end up in jail tonight? You know I’m down for anything.”
This was why I loved her. “I’ll be fine.”
And I truly believed that right up until the moment Dan said, “We should do something fun. Play a drinking game.”
Mary-Ellen pounded on the table with her open palm and said, “No! We should play something even better. Like Truth or Dare!”
I wanted to say that was not really a game for adults, but then she added, “I’ll go first. Camden?” It was obvious what her dare was going to be, that she planned on manipulating this situation, and I couldn’t stop the jealousy that swelled up inside me. “I dare you to ki—”
“Wait!” Sadie interjected, cutting her off. “I’m the bride. Shouldn’t I get the first turn?” Her gaze turned toward me and I knew. I just knew. “Rachel! I dare you to kiss Camden!”
She was trying to protect her fiancé’s best friend, in her own way. I could recognize that, even if all the blood had left my head and pooled at my feet. She was doing her best to head off Mary-Ellen. Sadie turned to me, apologetic and pleading and more than a little drunk.
“Aren’t you supposed to give me a choice in the matter?” I asked, already knowing what was going to happen. “Don’t I get to decide whether I’m telling a truth or doing a dare?”
Dan was mumbling something, looking annoyed, but Sadie ignored him. I couldn’t look at Camden. I didn’t want to see his reaction. My pulse was already throbbing so loudly in my ears that I couldn’t think straight—if he had that smoldering “I want to kiss you” look in his eyes, there was no way I could resist him.
“Wait, I get to go first and do my dare,” Mary-Ellen insisted, zeroing in on Camden and missing all of Sadie’s very blatant cues.
“Did you not just hear me say that I’m the bride?” Sadie said, sounding both determined and apologetic. She was definitely trying to help keep Mary-Ellen far away from Camden, even if I didn’t like the way she’d gone about it. “You have to do it!”
“Rachel’s the shy type,” Krista offered. “She’ll need privacy.”
I’d never been more grateful for her. I’d get away from prying eyes, rationally explain to Camden why this was a bad idea, and everyone would be none the wiser.
“How do we know they won’t just lie about it?” Rick asked, obviously noting my slight sense of utter panic.
“Camden won’t,” Dan said.
“Rachel totally would,” Sadie said, making my panic increase a hundredfold. Was she about to break the NDA herself and upend everything we’d been working toward? It would be better for me to just get this over with than to have a drunken Sadie try to explain herself and put my business in danger.
“There’s a storage closet!” Mary-Ellen shrieked with excitement, seeming to forget that she had just wanted to be the one making out with him. “I saw it when the bartender was getting more champagne!”
At this point it seemed like everyone was a bit overexuberant and I was going to say as much, but Sadie had jumped up and grabbed both me and Camden by the wrists and was pulling us back toward the storage closet.
“Sadie, wait a second,” I tried. This was truly the stupidest thing that had ever happened to me. I attempted to pull my wrist out of her grasp, but she was surprisingly strong.
Mary-Ellen raced ahead, opening the door for us, and Sadie pushed us inside, shutting us in. “Don’t come back out until you’ve smooched!”