Page 65 of That Secret Something

Rebecca’s idea, of course. She’d said she couldn’t let her sister marry without one. She’d thought the whole thing hilarious. Now if she didn’t hurry up, she was going to miss the whole debacle. And I was going to murder her for convincing me it was a good idea.

“Woo! Stripper!” Lily reiterated, throwing up her arms to the loud music pumping through the speaker.

My neighbours were going to hate me.

The front door opened, and everyone groaned when they realised it wasn’t a huge hunk of a man ready to dance for them.

I ran up to Rebecca. “Where have you been?”

She glanced about her with wide eyes. “Wow. The party really got started, huh?”

“Yes. And you need to try and get them to eat and sober up.” I tried to manoeuvre her into the kitchen area, but she just smiled at me. “What?” I said.

“Have I told you today just how adorable and cute you are?”

I hated the way my stomach fluttered. Damn that woman and her disarming tactics. “Stop. I need you to focus.”

“Yes, boss.” Her mouth pulled up into that heart-stopping grin before she announced to the party that the cake was here and pushed her way through.

I followed her, already feeling more at ease in her presence. A small group gathered around her, eager to take a peek under the cardboard lid. She conversed with them easily, a quality I’d always admired about her. Then she spun round to me, catching me in the middle of checking her out.

She grinned—definitely not missing it. “Have you got more plates?”

I looked over at the now empty food spread and the matching empty stack where the plates should be. Where’d they all gone? Surely they couldn’t have used all of them.

A loud crash drew my attention to the living room. Four women were piled on top of each other, shrieking and laughing. I spotted the remaining paper plates scattered on the floor.

“What are you doing with these?” I asked, as one of the women pushed her dark hair back from her face.

“Drunken stepping stones! If you can’t make it across, you drink.” She cackled and rolled over, showing her red thong to the whole world.

Oh god.

I dashed back to Rebecca. “I’m going to nip to the shop to get more plates. Please make sure nobody breaks anything.”

“Why don’t you just use the normal plates for the cake?”

“No! They were my grandma’s. I really don’t want anything happening to them. Promise?”

She nodded. “Promise. I’ll guard them with my life.” Then she leaned in for a kiss but stopped herself halfway. We both lingered for a moment, but I doubted anybody saw with all the commotion going on.

“I won’t be long.” I scampered out of the door, feeling heat rush my cheeks. Whether it was from Rebecca or the start of an almighty meltdown brewing, I wasn’t sure.

Down the road and inside the shop, I picked up the first stack of biodegradable plates I could find and hurried to the checkout, crashing headfirst into somebody.

“Oh god, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” I bent down to pick up my things and stopped when I recognised a pair of bright red shoes. Only one man I knew could pull those off. “Tyler, what are you doing here?”

He raised his wild ginger eyebrows. “What are you doing here, more like? The big party must be crumbling, missing its host.”

“Oh… Yeah, I just needed to get some more plates.”

His gaze dropped to what I was clutching, and he nodded. “How very Jess of you. Pausing the party to get more dinnerware.”

“You know me. Happy plates, happy guests.” What? I laughed. Maybe I’d finally lost it.

“How’s it going, anyway? Good, I assume, from the string of nonsense Lily has been texting me.” He smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes.

“Yeah, the party’s going alright. I should’ve known how it would go when Lily’s boss brought her a hamper stocked full of prosecco.”

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