“He’s not bad looking.”
I made a gagging noise. “Sure. If you like date rapists. Blackout drunk doesn’t equate to consent. And he made it sound like I owed him something.” I shuddered.
“From his perspective, you did steal his shirt.”
“He got that back.”
“True. So what are you going to do? Is it too soon to leave?”
I looked at my watch. “Yeah, Megan would be upset.”
“Can you say you’re sick? Or that I had an emergency?”
“I doubt she’d buy that your camel bit you.”
Becca laughed. “The Mummy was on TV. It was the best I could come up with under pressure.”
I rolled my eyes. “No,” I said eventually. “I’ll be a big girl. I’ll just do everything I can to avoid him.”
“On the bright side, at least you know who you’re avoiding now!”
“True. Thanks, Bec.”
“Anytime. Call me back if you need another emergency because the mummy might attack me next.”
I laughed and told her to stay out of his tomb. She said she made no promises and went back to her movie. Taking a sip of my martini, I leaned against the railing of the deck, trying to make out the features of Megan and Tim’s new backyard through the darkness.
“Justin still giving you trouble?” a voice asked out of the darkness.
I jumped and dropped my glass, a tinkling sound echoing below me where it shattered on the patio.
“Shit!” I exclaimed, and the owner of the voice rushed over and into focus.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”
“You didn’t scare me. But Megan’s going to be upset I broke a glass.”
He shrugged. “Eh, it gives her an excuse to register for new ones.”
I squinted at him, backlit against the kitchen windows. “Alex?” I asked. He was the groomsman who had been checking out the bookcase when I arrived at the party.
He nodded. “I am sorry though. I wasn’t eavesdropping. At least I wasn’t trying to. I was already here when you came out.”
I was still startled, but my heartbeat was starting to regulate again. “It’s okay. What were you doing out here? It’s cold.”
He looked down. “I had an emergency of my own.”
“Did your friend get bitten by a camel to save you from a total sketch ball too?”
“Um, not exactly.” He hesitated. “My dad had a heart attack a few weeks ago and he was having chest pains today.”
“Oh no. I’m so sorry. Is he okay?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah, but when I got a call from my sister, it freaked me out, so I came out here to take it. He’s fine, but I needed a minute before I went back in. When I saw her name on the caller ID, I just thought—you know.” He smiled at me tightly. “And then your poor friend was suffering from a severe camel bite, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
I laughed. “I’m such an ass.”
“Nah, I get it. Justin was all over you at the engagement party too.”
I winced. “That was not my finest hour.”
“Really? You’re not always mainlining martinis and wine?” He leaned way over the deck railing pretending to look below him. “I see glass down there; I don’t see any liquid.”
I scrunched up my nose. “I had an excuse.”
“Then? Or tonight?”
“Both. I’m blaming you for the broken glass. If you hadn’t jumped out at me like something from a horror movie, I wouldn’t have dropped the glass. But at the engagement party, I was—let’s call it having an existential crisis.”
He laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling warmly. “An existential crisis? I think I’m going to need a judge’s ruling on that one.”
With an embellished sigh, I recounted the series of events that led to my fall from vermouth to chardonnay that night.
“Why didn’t you just say no to being in a couple of the weddings?”
“Well, I can’t to the family ones, and I had already accepted the other three when my brother and sister got engaged.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like you’re the one getting married. Who cares if you’re a bridesmaid?”
I rolled my eyes. “It doesn’t work like that with girls.”
“I guess not. I just have to keep Tim from doing anything too gross at the bachelor party and then show up on time in a tux.”
“Lucky.”
There was a pause. It wasn’t uncomfortable specifically, but neither of us had anything more to say. And without a drink in my hand, I had no props to work with. I turned and peered over the railing again. “So what should we do about this broken glass situation? Clean it up or pretend we know nothing about it?”