Page 76 of Love Among Vines

“Apple cider margaritas.” Gemma brandished a bag of limes.

“You’re really going to bastardize my culture like that?”

Gemma stared at Elena as she lit a cinnamon stick on fire. “It’s fall.”

“That’s fair,” Elena conceded. “I want the first one. I had to help extract something from a patient’s rectum today.”

“Uh oh,” Cindy said. “Another Coke bottle?”

“Worse. A Honeycrisp apple.”

Jade grimaced. “How festive.”

“If I had a dollar for every time I fell on a Honeycrisp apple in the shower,” Cindy said pensively.

Elena snorted.

“How can I help?” Jade asked.

Cindy waved a hot pad at her. “Just sit. You’re a guest.”

Gemma passed out margaritas. Smoking cinnamon sticks and springs of rosemary protruded from the rims.

“Uh, I’m going to have to retire in shame because you’re clearly the real artist here,” Jade said with an appreciative whiff.

“I will hire you to follow me around and compliment me all day,” Gemma said.

Jade smiled and took a sip of the margarita. Not too sweet, and not too sweaty-tasting from the tequila. It didn’t give her a tingle, but with any luck, it would give her the fortitude to tell the entire humiliating story.

“So,” Cindy said, pulling a bubbling pan of lasagna from the oven. “The tattoo.”

“Right. It all started in grad school.”

An hour later,the girls sprawled around the dining room table.

Penny and Branson were passed out on the living room floor, exhausted from a rousing game of tug.

“I’m sorry,” Gemma said. “I’m still stuck on the fact that both of them lied to your face for two years. And she was supposed to be your best friend.”

Jade picked up her margarita glass only to find it empty. “Yeah. The last time I checked, ‘screw your best friend’sboyfriend five seconds after her parents died’ was not included in the girl code.”

The other girls cringed.

“Sorry. Too far with the morbid humor?” Jade asked.

Cindy reached over and patted her on the hand. “You cope however you need to. I’m sorry everyone in your life is such an asshole.”

Elena leaned forward. “Sorry. I have to ask. What is Rett like in bed?” She held two fingers out in front of her and started indicating various lengths.

Gemma threw a balled-up napkin, which hit Elena in the face. “He’s our friend. That’s such a weird question.”

Elena threw it back at her. “Come on, like you haven’t been curious?”

Jade cleared her throat. “Sadly, I have no answers. Yet.”

“Really? Because I heard from Betty Lou that Scooter caught you guys in a…compromising position,” Elena said with eyebrows raised.

That had been all of two hours ago. Just how quickly did news travel in this town?

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