Page 168 of Steps

“Yeah. It’s so good, babe. Have one.” I close thebottle and start rocking to the next song. “Is it just me or is the heat up toohigh? I’m getting hot.”

Varen rakes a hand through his hair and chortlesto himself. “Toya, those brownies are laced.”

“What?” A giggle bursts out of me for no reason.“Damn, I feel so… so good. You know? This is great. I’m sorry I get at youabout going out. We should do this more.”

“It’s the wine mixed with weed. It’ll wear offsoon.”

I scrunch up my face, confused. “But I don’t wantthis to wear off. I feel happy happy!” My smile wavers as Kelly comes waltzingby. “Hey!” I snap.

Varen swivels to see who I’m talking to. I point ather and warn, “Stay the hell away from my boyfriend, or I’ll fucking kill you.”

Her mouth drops. Varen spins back to me; browsraised in surprise.

She scoffs. “Relax, I don’t want your boyfriend.It was just fun.” She continues to her jacket, taking pills from the pocket.

“Ugh,” I hiss, annoyed.

Varen loops his arm around me. “Okay. Let’s goback to dancing. I enjoyed that.”

“All right.” My smile returns. “More wine first?”

“Nope.” Arm steady on me, he moves me to themiddle of the room, and we sway along to Ed Sheeran’sShape of You.Others join in. They play an extended mix.

Finn interrupts the music when it gets down to thefinal seconds.

Everyone starts to countdown. “Ten. Nine. Eight…”

“I love you,” Varen yells in the mix of the loudvoices, ignoring everything around us.

“I love you too,” I say on a giggle and kiss himuntil they reach one.

Cheers erupt in the room. “Happy New Year!”

“Happy New Year, babe,” I tell Varen once our lipsbreak apart. “2019 is going to be great.”

He simply smiles and kisses me once more.

Finn resumes up-tempo music, and everyone startsdancing. Somehow, I find myself barefoot, curls sweated out by the end of thenight. But I’ve enjoyed myself a lot.

42

Yes. I had fun. So much so I wake up with aterrible headache and no memory of getting undressed, much less crawling intobed.

The smell of eggs and toast permeates the air. Isquint across to the kitchen and croak out, “Hey.”

“Oh, morning.” Varen sets up a tray and brings itover. He sits at my side.

“God, babe, my head’s killing me.” I slowlystraighten and massage my temples, then make sure I still have on my braceletand ring.

“I can imagine.” He hands me an aspirin and water.

“Thank you. Oh my gosh, did I embarrass you? Iremember drinking too much wine and laughing like an idiot after eating a weedbrownie.” I pop an aspirin and drink water. My eyes widen as I recall a momentwith the brunette. “Um, did I tell your ex I’d kill her if she didn’t stay awayfrom you? Or was that a dream?”

He chortles. “No, that certainly wasn’t a dream.”

“Wow.” I bite into the toast. He’s spread jam onit for me, just the way I like it. “What else happened?”

“Nothing crazy. Promise. You mostly justdanced—twerked on me at times, which was rather fun.”

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