Page 16 of Shortcake
I rolled my eyes. “Your comebacks suckmore.”
At this point, one of his friends, the guy I’d recognized as the groom in the bachelor party, stepped forward, grabbing his arm. “Dude, Jay, let’s just go.”
“You should listen to your friend,Jay.” I said.
Jay looked down at Stephanie. “Come on, baby… let’s get out of here.”
Technically, if she wanted to leave with him, I wasn’t sure there was anything I could do about that. Thank Christ, she answered with, “Mmmmph, no. I want my bed.” Her head dropped onto her arm.
“Fine,” Jay growled, throwing his hands up. “You want to stay here with your fairy godmother, be my guest.”
“Bippity-boppity, mother fucker,” I sang with a little wave of my fingers.
The groom leaned in, patting Jay on the shoulder, giving me an apologetic look. “Sorry about him. He’s had too much to drink. We’re going.”
I didn’t say a word, simply scowled at them until they had piled out the door, Keith shepherding them the whole way. Once they were out, he locked it behind them.
Enzo rushed over to me and we both knelt beside Stephanie. “You have a gun?” Enzo asked.
“Of course not,” I shot her a look. “But they didn’t know that.”
Gently, I shook Stephanie’s arm, trying to wake her up. “Stephanie? Wake up, babe. Can you tell me where you’re staying?”
I’d literally drive her to her hotel myself if I knew where she was going.
She groaned, and not opening her eyes said, “Home. I want home.”
“Right. Can you tell me where home is?”
“Park Slope,” she murmured.
“Park Slope?” I repeated, looking at Enzo for help. “Like… Brooklyn?”
“Brooklyn,” Stephanie whispered, then promptly fell back asleep.
“Great. Now what do we do?” I flopped back to sit in the chair beside the fully passed out patron.
“Good lord,” Enzo said. “How many did she have?”
“Only three,” I answered, then noticed the barely touched third drink on the table next to her. “Actually, more like two. Look, she barely had any of the third.”
“Damn,” Enzo said. “Girl can’t hold her liquor.”
I bit my lip. “Or maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
I cringed, not wanting to say it. “Ormaybethose guys slipped something in her drink.” I tried to keep an eye on them all night, but I couldn’t watch them constantly.
“Oh my God! Do you think?” Enzo placed a hand on Stephanie's shoulder and I pinched my fingers against the budding headache pulsing beneath my eyebrows.
Keith came over, hands on hips. “They were pretty rowdy. But most of the guys in that party were just trying to have fun with their buddy before he got hitched.”
“Yeah, but it only takes one asshole in that bunch. Even if justoneof them had some bad intentions…” I trailed off. I didn’t want to even think about it. Thank God I’d been watching Stephanie the little bit that I had been.
“What do we do now?” Enzo asked.
Good question. “If she’s from Brooklyn, then she must be here on vacation. Maybe there’s a room key in her purse?”
