Page 55 of Belle Amour
“Don't mind her; she prefers big cities,” Eleanor said quickly. “Thank you!” She took her mother by the arm and steered her back to their table in the back of the cafe. “Maybe we should get some coffee into you, Mother.” She giggled as she sat beside her.
“I think we should all have some coffee.” Mirabelle laughed. “It's not even eight-thirty, and we're all nicely sauced.”
“If I have coffee, I won't sleep.” Francesca protested. “I think we should go back to that karaoke bar and have our husbands join us.”
“I agree.” Lila stood up as the door opened and Jillian’s team came in. “Let's go.”
Caroline laughed and grabbed her hand, pulling her back into her seat. “You're such a lightweight!”
“It's because I'm tiny!” Lila argued as they laughed at her. Mirabelle saw Jillian look over at them quizzically and realized they were probably being much louder than they intended.
“Are you guys drunk?” Jillian came over, looking tired and grumpy as her teammates went to check in with the organizer.
“We're a little tipsy.” Lila chirped, putting her chin in her hand and smiling at Jillian brightly. “We sang karaoke.”
“We tried our best, but we aren't from here, so we only got five of the clues and four pictures. So we found a bar and had a drink for every clue we couldn't figure out.” Mirabelle shrugged a little sheepishly. “There are a lot of bars here.”
Jillian looked like she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. “God, I wish we'd joined up with you; we spent two and half hours walking all over Ann Arbor.”
“We didn't leave the downtown area.” Eleanor looked confused. “How far away were the spots?”
“The furthest one we didn't bother to get. It’s in a field just south of town.” Jillian was clearly very upset now. “I would have been happier going to the game.” She watched as the cheerleaders came in, looking exhausted and cranky.
“I can't believe she made all of us walk while her team got to use a car.” One of them said, clearly pissed off that she had walked.
“Danica, there are three pregnant women on her team; let it go.” Another said, frustration dripping from every word, making it clear Danica had been complaining about it for a while.
“No. She insisted we all walk, remember?” Danica glared at her. “If she got to drive, we all should have.”
Jillian blew out a breath and rolled her eyes. “Here we go.” She muttered and then raised her voice. “If she got to drive, where is she?”
Danica spun around and nodded in acknowledgement when she saw it was Jillian talking to her. “Oh, they went shopping at Nickels Arcade. We ran into them; it was our last stop. They were surrounded by shopping bags and eating chocolates outside the chocolate store.”
“Ohhh,” Eleanor murmured. “The nickel and dime clue, of course.”
Caroline and Mirabelle's eyes met, and they both started to giggle. “What's so funny?” Danica demanded, her frustration boiling over as she came over to them, walking rather aggressively.
“Nothing.” Mirabelle snorted and started to laugh harder, holding up her hands. “It’s not you, I swear.”
“Don't mind them; they decided to find bars instead of clues,” Jillian said quickly, putting a stop to the argument before it got started.
“They had the right idea.” Danica snapped, then she paused, looking Mirabelle over. “Wait, aren't you Eddie's ex-wife?”
“I am.” Mirabelle nodded, still giggling.
“After what you did to them, you actually came to their wedding?” Danica raised her eyebrow. “Gotta say you got guts, girl. Casey has been practically foaming at the mouth since you got here.”
“You'd almost think you haven't gotten the full story,” Mirabelle smiled and pulled her hair down out of its ponytail, rubbing her scalp. “Why would they invite me if what Bast and I did to them was so terrible?”
Danica looked around. Jillian's team were looking gleeful, watching the show silently, and Eddie's family was drunkenly shushing each other. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the full story?”
“Well, I don't want to drag them through the dirt...” Mirabelle dragged it out as Caroline and Lila burst into giggles again, and Francesca waved her hands, trying to get them to stop while giggling herself, and Eleanor tried to get everyone under control.
“They've dragged you.” Danica raised an eyebrow. Mirabelle's phone chimed, and she read the text from Bastian. A huge smile crossed her face when she saw that Bastian and Benji had finished the plan.
“Yeah, I've heard.” She looked back up at Danica, still grinning. “Let’s just say it was going on for a lot longer than they’ve been telling everyone it did.”
Danica blinked in surprise and then narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Seriously?”