Page 61 of It's Complicated

And dare I say that for the first time in my life I’m almost relieved Aiden is getting married. If he were still single, me dating Jace would rock our dynamics, making our three-way friendship weird, I suppose, unbalanced. But these days, Aiden hardly goes anywhere without Kirsten and, even if she’ll never be part of the group, him having a wife will oddly balance things out if Jace and I keep dating.

And if we don’t… my heart pangs. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t see a scenario where we don’t end up together, at least not at the pace my feelings are catching up to Jace’s.

Anyway, for the bachelor party, we’re leaving straight from the office tomorrow afternoon and heading to O’Hare to catch a plane to New Orleans—which means temperatures at least thirty degrees warmer.

I open a suitcase on the bed and turn to my closet, considering what to pack.

My new little black dress is a given, and I won’t even need to wear tights with it in the mild southern weather. But I’d better pair the dress with flats. We’re going to stroll bar to bar and I wouldn’t last an hour walking in my new silver pumps.

I pull the dress from the hanger and fold it. But when I turn to put it in the suitcase, I find it full of cats. Leia has one side all to herself, while the other three have squeezed in the other half.

“What are you doing in my suitcase?”

The cats look up at me with big, round, innocent eyes.

“We already talked about this. Suitcases aren’t for kitties.”

I really hope they didn’t bring me one of their special gifts—the last time I went on a trip I opened my suitcase to a dreadful smell of decay and rot, only to find a dead sparrow hidden among my clothes. I had to throw away most of what I had packed and buy new stuff. Aiden and Jace never let me hear the end of it.

Leia twitches her whiskers and stretches to the length of the suitcase.

I sigh. I pick up Ben and Chewie and drop them in the hall outside my room. Han Solo is next. But when I go back to move Leia, Ben has returned, and the other two are already jumping back on the bed.

I need a decoy and a little reverse psychology. “It’s okay, you can stay, I’m going to use a different suitcase.”

I grab a larger one that’s too big for a weekend trip and open it in the hall. The cats ignore me at first, but as I fold dirty laundry into the case, their heads turn my way. Ben is the first tocome. The silver tabby jumps into the bait suitcase, kneads the dirty laundry, and then goes to sleep.

The others follow suit, all except for Leia. Still in my trolley, she’s staring at me with a challenge written all over her green eyes.

“Really?”She seems to want to tell me.“You might trick those simpletons with your fake luggage, but you can’t fool me.”

I go to the bed and pick her up. “Sorry, Smarty Paws, you have to go, too.”

I drop her in the suitcase with the others and close the bedroom door. I don’t reopen it until my actual bag is closed and zipped. No stinky surprises this time. When I check on them again, all the cats are curled up and asleep. I guess dirty laundry is a pretty comfortable mattress.

As the doorbell rings, I tip-toe past them and down the stairs.

I hop down the last few steps and fling the door open to find Jace on the other side, holding takeout pizza boxes. We didn’t have plans to see each other tonight, but this, contrary to dead birds, is the kind of surprise I like.

Jace’s smile is a killer—crooked, sexy, gets me every single time—as he says, “I thought we’d get one last deep dish before we head to a foreign land.”

“I’m so glad you’re here. I’m starving.”

Jace raises an eyebrow questioningly.

“I got derailed packing against the cats.” I wave the affirmation off to say it’s not important and relieve Jace of the pizza boxes. I drop them onto a pile of books and pull my boyfriend into the house and in for a long kiss.

“Were you starving for food or for me?” Jace asks when I finally let him go.

“Both, Mr. I Couldn’t Spend One Night Away From My Girlfriend.”

Jace shrugs, cocky. “It’s not you, I only came for your Netflix.”

I smile, not even sure he’s kidding. In the past week, I got him addicted to the fake-dating trope. We watchedThe Wedding Date,The Proposal,To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before,10 Things I Hate About You, andPretty Woman.

Shaking my head, I recoup the pizza boxes from the book tower and move into the kitchen.

“Are you all packed?” I ask as I take out paper napkins and two glasses from the cabinets.

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