Page 51 of Belle Amour

Her phone chimed with Bastian’s unique notification sound, and she pulled it out to check his text message as the waitress brought them their meals.

Play nice, Bunny; we have a plan.

Seeing those words on her screen made her heart flutter. Bastian, with a plan, was very dangerous. Being on Bastian's good side was incredible. He was loving, loyal, and caring to afault and made sure you knew how important to him you were. Crossing him and the people he cared about, however, went one of two ways. He either cut you out entirely, and you ceased to exist to him, like with his parents, or he destroyed you without remorse. She did not doubt that whatever his plan was to get back at Casey for even thinking about humiliating or hurting Mirabelle made what he did to Eddie in the divorce look like child's play. She smirked and looked up at the others. “Bastian and the guys have a plan.”

Chapter Thirty-Four: Solving Clues

Mirabelle, Francesca, Eleanor, Caroline, and Lila were tossing out ideas on how to get a hold of the keychain as they ate. The best they came up with was to steal her purse or crash into her “accidentally” and hope they could sneak the keys out of it. “Maybe we can make her cry?” Lila said after a few minutes of quiet as they all thought. “And while everyone is consoling her, one of us sneaks the keychain out of her purse.”

“That might work. She's very emotional.” Eleanor said thoughtfully. “Are we going with happy, sad, or angry tears?”

“All of the above?” Lila snickered, clearly enjoying the idea of doing something to make Casey freak out. “It's whatever works at this point.”

“Guys, it's not a big deal if we don't get it,” Mirabelle reassured them. “I trust Bast; if he says he has a plan, he's taken into account that we may not get it. It was mostly so I could see what she meant by nudes.”

Eleanor suddenly sat up straight as comprehension dawned on her face and reached out to grip Mirabelle's arm. “Our boudoir sessions!”

“Those aren't nudes,” Mirabelle scoffed. “They don't show anything, and I made sure to take them with me. There wasn'ta digital copy, and I never gave them to Eddie.” She never even considered the pictures taken by Eleanor’s friend the year before she left Eddie. They were tastefully done, and while she was naked for some of the shots, they didn’t show anything.

“What are you two talking about?” Francesca asked, looking between them in confusion as Caroline and Lila raised their eyebrows in surprise.

“A friend of mine is a photographer and does artistic boudoir shots,” Eleanor explained, a hint of a blush on her cheeks as she spoke. “He needed some models, and Mirabelle and I volunteered. He gave us albums with twelve by eighteen prints in them as a thank-you for doing it after, and I gave mine to Robert for Valentine's Day. He loved them and hung them up in his home office.”

“I kept mine. I had planned to give them to Eddie for Valentine’s Day as well, but he “forgot” all about it that year, so I pretended that I did too.” Mirabelle shrugged. “He found the album a few weeks later while looking for something in my office and asked about it. I told him I had planned on giving it to him, but since he decided I wasn't worth even a card, he didn't deserve my gift for him, and I locked it in my desk.”

“How did he respond to that?” Caroline asked her face a mask of disapproval.

“He got angry with me for not reminding him it was Valentine’s Day. I pointed out that he had a calendar that he checks several times a day at work and refused to back down, so he tried to apologize with flowers and taking me out to dinner at an expensive sushi place, completely forgetting I hate seafood in any form.” Mirabelle wrinkled her nose at the memory. “Then he got upset that I wasn’t happy that he at least tried to make it up to me. I mean, who forgets four years into a relationship that your spouse gags at the smell of fish?”

“But they were uploaded onto Enrico’s website. Eddie could have screenshotted or downloaded them from there.” Eleanor interrupted, determined to keep them on track about the photographs.

“Then Casey would have to do a ton of Photoshop to them for me to be embarrassed.” Mirabelle chuckled, shaking her head. “I've never felt so beautiful and feminine as I did having those pictures taken and seeing the results.”

“Really?” Lila asked, twisting a strand of hair around her finger with a grin.

“I have to agree with her.” Eleanor smiled, still looking a little embarrassed that she was having this conversation with her family. “Enrico is a genius with a camera and the female form. I’ve been considering asking him to do another shoot with me.”

“I'd be down for that!” Mirabelle brightened up considerably at the thought of doing another boudoir shoot with Enrico. “Bastian would be thrilled if I gave him boudoir pictures.”

“Uh. Count me in.” Lila raised her hand, grinning. “Benji wouldn’t know what to do with himself if I gave him pictures like that.”

“Me too.” Caroline nodded, chuckling. “Peter would lose his mind.”

“Me as well,” Francesca added, making the other four women stare at her in shock. “What? If it made you and Maribelle feel that way, I also want to. Plus, I think it would delight your father.”

“The pole dancing lesson promise has turned my mother into an exhibitionist!” Eleanor chuckled, clapping delightedly.“I'll reach out to Enrico and let him know. We might have to pay, but we'd get the friends and family discount.”

“Pole dancing -” Lila started to say, but she was interrupted by a woman in her mid-twenties who stood up and clapped her hands loudly.

“Excuse me, everyone!” She waited as the conversations petered out, and everyone looked at her expectantly. “If you check the app, you'll see that your clues have been uploaded. Remember, for a picture to count, all your teammates must be in it. I have some selfie sticks here if you need to purchase one before you leave; they make it much easier. Remember, don't search for the answers; it takes away from the fun for everyone, and the point is to get you out to see parts of Ann Arbor you might not normally see. You have three hours and the time starts... Now!”

All around them, people were pulling out their phones and huddling around to read the clues. They all looked at one another, and Mirabelle grinned. “Well, let's see how many bars we're going to.”

Eleanor chuckled. “Alright. The first clue is “Entrances for the “Wee Folk.” I don't think that's very politically correct.” She frowned. “Why would they have separate entrances for little people?”

Caroline burst into laughter. “Wee folks are fairies or elves. I think we're looking for fairy doors.”

“Ah. that makes more sense.” Eleanor grinned as a faint blush crossed her cheeks.

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