Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
“Weird, right?” breezed the woman on the left. Her ivory gown matched her shockingly white hair. Why a young woman would choose to dye her hair all white, I didn’t know, but I did know it strangely suited her. “Because you graduated from Columbia too, Sue? Didn’t you?”
Oh. They’re those kinds of friends.
“Nope,” I dropped. “I actually graduated from Columbia-Southern Community College. Still in the city, but definitely not Ivy League.”
Their smirks melted away.
“I only hung around Columbia to chill with my besties”—I wiggled my fingers at them—“and sell the lie. A bit pathetic, for sure, but when you’re young, you think appearances are everything.” I beamed at them. “Thank goodness we’re above all of that now. Right, ladies?”
Button Nose’s jaw worked. She clearly wasn’t expecting me to come right out with it. “Well, yeah, of course we are,” she snapped. “We don’t have to worry about our appearance, especially since we’ve never been a customer of SueNaturals.”
“Oh my gods, thank goodness,” I cried, laughing my butt off. “Can you imagine telling people that you smeared bird shit all over your face? Super embarrassing.”
“We have nothing to be embarrassed about,” Pixie shrieked. “We’re not the ones who got caught selling the stuff. We heard you lost everything in the lawsuit— Sorry, make that lawsuits plural.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “I got my just desserts for sure. What a stupid, awful thing to do that was. I don’t even know what I was thinking, except that I let my obsession with becoming a super-successful girlboss get the best of me.
“But what matters to me now is my family and my friends, and remembering to never take advantage of either of them.” I lurched forward, making Button Nose squeak when I grasped her hands. “I was deeply pathetic and insecure back in college, but you guys didn’t care. Despite the fact that you likely saw right through me, you were amazing friends then, and you’re amazing friends now—coming here tonight to support and celebrate me even after all my legal trouble. Thank you, girls,” I gushed. “I literally could not survive without you.”
Button Nose, Pixie, and the Chic Ghost exchanged another look—this one shocked with a tinge of baffled.
“I... uh...” Button Nose started. “We... uh... I mean, of course we did know the whole time that you were pretending,” she blustered, nose hitting the air. “We just didn’t say anything because we wanted you to trust us enough to tell us yourself, Sue.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Chic Ghost put in. “You never had to keep it from us, honestly, Sue, what kind of snobs did you think we were? We love you, babe. We’re always here for you.”
Just like that, we were exchanging air kisses and promises to keep in touch.
I was waving goodbye when someone sidled up to me.
“Nicely done.” Courtney handed me a glass of wine. “Defused that whole situation without even knowing their names.”
“Yes,” I replied, keeping my voice low. “I am that good.”
Giggling, we downed our drinks, and got back to wiggling, jiggling, and dancing like it’d save the world.
“Mrs. Kim, please!” Sanders of Sanders and Sanderson blared. He wasn’t a guest of the party, but it seemed he only made it as far as the main road before he turned back—not able to be parted from his eight-million-dollar investment. “The gems aren’t welded on! All that jumping and shaking could knock them loose!”
“You better follow me around with a net, then, baby!” I threw my hands in the air, riding the beat like I was as drunk as I looked. “Whoo!”
“Are you actually trying to take off?” a dry voice asked. “Because those aren’t real wings, wife of mine.”
I twirled around, whipping said wings through the air and tearing distressed cries from Sanders and Davis. “Can’t know for sure unless I try.” I leaped into the air, flapping and waving my arms around.
“My goodness, woman,” Alex hissed. “So many people are looking at you. All of the people are looking at you!”
“Uh-oh,” I teased, shimmying closer. “I’m not embarrassing you, am I?”
“Please, don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I smirked like a loon. “Do... this!”
I burst into the chicken dance and just about made Sanders faint.
“Or... this!” I got my macarena on, unscrewing Alex’s jaw. “Or th—!”
“Enough.”
The world spun. The next thing I knew... my world was Alex.
Hands sliding around my waist, Alex held me tight to his chest—chasing all the giggles and sillies right out of me.
“If you want to dance so badly,” he gruffed, lips brushing the tip of my nose. “Dance with me.”
“Just a minute, Mr. Montgomery,” Davis and Sanders called over the music. “You have to maintain a distance of two feet at all times.”
“Can’t.” Alex trapped me in his shimmering, glacial pools. “Guess you’ll have to arrest me.”
Sanders looked at Davis like he expected him to do just that. And Davis tipped his head back, pleading with a deity above to explain how in the world he went from keeping the streets safe to preventing a man from dancing with his wife.