Page 99 of Lyrical

I gave her a hug and got squashed in the process. “It was so nice to meet you, Diane. Good luck.”

“Thanks. It was great meeting you too. I look forward to hearing from you. Call anytime. I mean that—I’m sure I’ll need it more than you.”

“Okay.” I laughed. “I’ll make it sooner rather than later.”

I turned back to see Cassie’s face morphing into a bunch of inquiries I didn’t care to answer. “So, back at the table… Perry wasn’t just teasing you?” Her jaw unhinged further. “Are you… are you trying to get pregnant?” The last part came out more like a whisper.

I gave her my best shocked expression. “Of course not, Cassie.”

Whether she believed me or not, that was all she needed to know. Like I was going to confide one teensy tidbit of information to her. I hadn’t even told Perry what I was seriously considering.

Wow.I suddenly felt a little faint.I am strongly considering having a baby with Chase.

Holy fuck.

I pushed that realization aside for another day, and we entered the hotel bar. The place was swarming with screaming women. It looked like we weren’t the only ones having a bachelorette party, although theirs was the more standard debauchery variety. A penis balloon floated by me, the tip coated with what appeared to be whipped cream. Another round of screams and I looked over to see a man lying across the couch with the whole party piled on top. Thankfully, it wasn’t a family lounge.

Cassie laughed when a pair of boxers sailed through the air. “Now that’s more how I expected our night to go after the show.”

Hmm. “Is that what you were hoping?”

“Oh, God, no. I’m glad things turned out how they did. I’ve just been to so many of these things, and they’re all the same. I thought it was expected.”

I questioned how many she could’ve possibly been to at her young age, but didn’t make any snide comments.You can catch more flies with honey, Jillian.We snagged two open stools in the middle of the bar and crammed ourselves in.

“Which leads me to a little confession,” she said. I gave her my full attention. “Well, not so much a confession as a good intention gone unwanted.”

“I am not following whatsoever. Does this have to do with Daniel?”

“Oh no. I’ll get to that in a sec. But, um….” She bit her bottom lip and crinkled her forehead. As much as it would crinkle for a twenty-three-year-old. “Do you think any of the other girls would appreciate a male stripper or two?”

“What?”

“You see, I was trying to do something nice for Perry, something fun, because I thought this was going to be your typical party. So, I hired a couple strippers to come out here tonight.”

“Perry’s not into that, Cassie.”

“I know that now, but I didn’t at the time. It’s too late to cancel, and there’re probably already on their way.”

I let out a long breath. “You could always send them over to that party.” I pointed to the group lining up to do body shots. “I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t turn anything down.”

“Okay, great idea.”

The bartender stopped over, and Cassie ordered a hard soda, me a straight cranberry juice. I suddenly felt bad about just ordering plain water if I was taking up valuable space at the bar.

“You wanted to talk?” I said, wanting to get this show on the road.

“Yes. I… I just want us to get along, if only for Daniel’s sake. I know you don’t trust me and that’s my fault. I was such a bitch to you before, and I’m so sorry about that. You never did anything to me, and you didn’t deserve it. It was a case of irrational jealousy, and I hope you’ll forgive me.”

She paused when our drinks were set in front of us. I took a sip, squelching down the dinner coming up the opposite direction. Did I think her sincere? Hell no. But she had piqued my curiosity sky high.

“Can you explain the whole ‘pretending to be someone you’re not’ bit?”

She dropped her head in her hands. “Ugh, so embarrassing. I tended to act that way in high school when I was interested in a guy. I know, I know… the stereotypical dumb blonde and it’s really insulting. But it worked, at least for the guys I liked.”

“That’s not Daniel.” So why was he buying into it? I guess it all boiled down to inexperience. He’d had girlfriends before but obviously nothing too serious.

“No, Daniel is one of the most intelligent men I’ve ever known. And super sweet and caring and family-oriented and successful and… I could go on and on. But he’s also very intimidating. It’s easy to feel like I’m not good enough around him sometimes. Like it’s hard to live up to what I feel he should have in a girlfriend: Someone as equally good as him.

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