Page 30 of Old Acquaintances

“Nice to meet you.” Her voice is high-pitched and soft. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Me too. About you.” I try to recall what I know but I’m distracted by the giant rock on her hand. “You’re a kindergarten teacher, right?”

“At a Christian school,” she completes.

“How nice.”

I don’t think Johnny added that bit. I do an awful lot of swearing, and I was just half-naked in the car with her fiancé, all things I think Jen may be opposed to. Between that, my slight infatuation with Ritchie and my war against Tucker, this week may be a little less of an easy breezy birthday party than I expected.

Johnny stands close to her, his arm on her shoulder, a look of pride on his face. Jen, however, doesn’t seem relaxed.

She says suddenly, “You’re very pretty.”

I open my mouth to thank her when Johnny jumps in to say, “No, she’snot.” He waves a hand, avoiding my eye.

I snap my head back. What did he just say?

“Yeah, she is.” Jen tucks into herself.

From behind me, Tucker tells Jen, “She’s not that pretty, you’re just distracted by her breasts.” His hand lands on my right butt cheek and squeezes. “Her ass is nothing.”

I smack his hand away and when I turn around, he palms the other cheek and says, “See?”

I bite, “Get your hands off my ass - uh, my, uh butt - bottom, my back - mybeehind.”

Tucker’s face broadens into a smile. Wyatt covers his mouth and his shoulders heave. Ritchie turns around, and Callie bites her lip, staring at the ceiling.

I turn away from them all and say to Jen, “I’m sorry about all ofthat. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Tucker by the way.” He reaches a hand out and shakes hers. He even does a smarmy little wink.

Jen’s eyes ping-pong between the two of us. Hattie’s words ring through my ears.

She wouldn’t think anything was going on with you and Johnny if Tucker was there.

Serena claps her hands. “So now that introductions are outof the way, we were thinking we should just Band-Aid the next bit.”

Wyatt says, “Serena, did you listen to anything we talked about last night?”

I search their faces asking, “So your little conspiratorial looks weren’t about…introductions.”

“Nope.” She shakes her head and downs her champagne. She looks at my full glass. “You’re probably going to want to chug that real quick.”

Ritchie speaks up, “I thought we were going to ease them into it?”

“Into what?” Tucker asks.

“Why do I need to be buzzed for this?” I watch as Serena picks up my bag.

“I think it’s better this way so we can go ahead and get the party started,” she says.

Wyatt argues, “Why is she always the one in charge?”

“Because I’m a Capricorn rising.”

He argues, “That doesn’t give you free rein to tell everyone what to do. I thought we were living in an autonomous collective.”

Serena’s curls bounce as she whips her head around. “Do you even know what that means, Wyatt?”

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