I stepped off the elevator and made my way down the hallway. The sound of music blaring got louder and louder as I got closer to Bee’s apartment. I stopped outside her door and knocked. The door flew open.
“Welcome to your bachelorette party!” Bee screamed. “It’s about time you got here.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me into her apartment. “I was starting to think Mason forgot to call you.”
Bee, Kendra, Marie, and Melissa were all decked out in sparkly dresses and looked super excited. And maybe a little intoxicated. Melissa was even smiling at me, which was a good sign.
“You’re two shots behind,” Kendra said.
“This is really nice of you guys, but I don’t really want a bachelorette party,” I said and stood in the doorway. “Can’t we just stay in and watch a movie or something?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kendra said and brought two shot glasses over to me. “Besides, it’s too late. We’ve already planned the whole thing.”
I looked down at the two shot glasses she had shoved into my hands.
“Come on,” Marie said. “With everything we have planned, you’re going to need that.”
Oh God.
“Don’t be such a party pooper,” Melissa said and gave me another smile. She used to say stuff like that to me all the time in college. It was nice that she was finally talking to me again. I didn’t want to fight with her. All I really wanted was to be curled up in my bed back home, though. I sighed and downed one shot and then the next.
“First things first,” Bee said. “Put this on.” She grabbed the shot glasses from me and handed me a sparkly dress.
James didn’t like when I wore stuff like this. At least, in public.
“Melissa picked it out for you. So you know it’s going to fit perfectly. Go change.”
“Can’t I just wear what I have on?” I was wearing jean shorts and a baggy t-shirt.
Kendra laughed. “Absolutely not. Get to it. We have a huge list. It’s going to take us all night to get through all this stuff.”
Maybe this was exactly what I needed. I wanted to have fun tonight and forget about everything that had been going on. That probably wasn’t possible though. I walked down the hallway and into the bathroom. The dress was tight and ended right below my ass. My boobs weren’t big, but this dress made them look huge. I looked like a total slut. Luckily I was wearing flip flops. Heels would have tipped the scales to making me look more like a hooker. I didn’t dwell on the fact that my eyes were still red from going in and out of hysterical crying fits all day.
“There’s a pair of shoes out here for you to wear too!” one of the girls yelled from the other room.
Shit. I walked back out into the kitchen and looked down at the stilettos they wanted me to wear. “What are we doing exactly? Are we going to be walking a lot? I think I’ll just stick with these shoes.”
“You can’t wear a dress like that with flip flops,” Melissa said.
“And everyone’s going to be looking at you, because you’re the girl of the hour.” Bee pulled a pink sash over me and added a sparkly tiara to the top of my head.
I looked down at the sash. It had ‘bachelorette’ written across it in a fancy font. I could feel my face turning red.
Marie clapped her hands. “You look perfectly embarrassed. Penis cookie?”
“What now?”
Marie held a plate of cookies shaped like penises in front of my face.
I started laughing. “No, I’m good right now. Thanks, though. They’re very anatomically correct, huh?”
“Thanks, I made them myself,” Marie said. “I’ll bring a few with us. Let’s get going.”
“Really, no movie?”
Bee laughed and hooked her arm through mine. “Trust me, this is going to be so much better. We can watch a movie tomorrow while we’re working through these hangovers.”
***
“So, you need to ask a random guy to buy you a drink,” Marie said as she looked down at a list she had.
“Can I see that?” I tried to snatch it from her, but she moved it away too quickly.
“How about him?” Kendra said and pointed to a guy at the bar. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. His hair was shaggy. It looked like he belonged at the beach instead of in a bar in New York. He was probably a tourist. Which meant he wouldn’t want to pay for a drink that was way too expensive for a girl he didn’t know.
“He looks like a tourist.”
Melissa laughed. “So? That means he’s here to get laid. He’ll definitely buy you a drink.”
“I don’t want to lead him on.”
“You aren’t. You’re wearing a freaking sash that says you’re getting married any day. You’re fine. Go ask him.”
Bee gave my shoulder a little nudge. “You aren’t going home until you do everything on that list. You might as well get it over with.”
This was going to be mortifying. I slid off my bar stool and walked over to him. I leaned on the counter next to him. “Hey,” I said. My voice sounded nervous and not flirtatious at all.
He turned away from the guy he was talking to. “Hey.” He looked down at my sash and smiled at me. “One more crazy night, huh?”
“Not exactly. Look, so my friends over there…”
He looked over my shoulder.
“No, don’t look.” I grabbed his arm.
He laughed. “Okay, not looking.”
“Well, they have this list of things I have to do, and one of them is to ask a stranger to buy me a drink. But I know you don’t want to do that. So, you can tell me when they aren’t looking and I’ll slip you ten dollars. And could you just order me a drink with that? Then I can go back there and pretend you bought me a drink?”
The more I spoke, the bigger his smile got. “I don’t know, their eyes are glued on you. You might not get an opportunity.”
“Crap. They’re looking right now?”
“Mhm. So maybe it’s easier if I just buy you a drink.” He lifted up his arm to call over the bartender.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Isn’t that why you came over?”
“Kind of. But I was just going to pretend…”
He laughed again, drowning out my words. “You know, you could have just asked me to buy you a drink. I didn’t need the whole story. All a beautiful woman like you needed to do was say you were thirsty. The whole bar would be buying you drinks all night long.”