Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
But the fairy tale isn’t really true, is it?
We’re pretending.
I must remember that.
The more time we spend together at the party, however, the more I seem to forget we’re faking. Petra spends another half hour with my grandmother, regaling her with stories about how we met, how we fell in love. I sit and listen like a lovesick idiot, picturing the lies Petra is weaving, as if they really happened. Wishing…they were true.
She’s nineteen.
You’re forgetting she’s nineteen.
And you’re just a job to her. She said exactly that, right before we walked into the party. Get your head out of the clouds.
seven
Petra
A couple of Barry’s cousins approach our group and attempt to hustle him over to the bar for a “family shot of whiskey.” He resists, clearly not wanting to leave me, but I pat his arm and encourage him to go. Little by little over the course of the night, he’s been loosening up. Smiling more easily. Cracking jokes. I love seeing him like this.
“I’ll stay here with Dolly,” I say. “But when you come back, I demand a dance.”
“You tell him, sweetie!” Dolly shouts, cradling her red wine.
We both watch Barry and his cousins cut through the crowd toward the bar
“Oh, my word, it does my heart a great service to see my boy happy,” Dolly sighs, smiling at me. “You’re obviously a major reason for that.”
“If not the whole reason,” I sniff.
She giggles. “I must say, I was very surprised to see he was dating someone so young. Considering the whole history with his mother.”
“Right,” I murmur, my antenna going up. “Well, like I said, I had to convince him…”
“She was so young when that smarmy, older man swept in and ruined her. Her whole life was ahead of her. Getting pregnant at eighteen was not part of her plan.” Dolly sighs while I struggle to put the pieces together. Barry’s mother got pregnant with him at eighteen? By an older man? “After Barry was born, she could never get back on track and she fell in with the wrong crowd. Drugs took hold of her. And wouldn’t you know, she never heard from Barry’s father ever again. Of course not. All those confessions of love were just to get what he wanted from a poor, unsuspecting girl.”
“Yes, that’s…it’s such a shame…” I manage, meeting Barry’s eyes across the room.
“Anyway, I was just surprised that Barry chose someone so young to settle down with.” Dolly rushes to add, “Although Barry is a standup man. Nothing like that jackass. Excuse my language, dear. It’s the wine.”
I laugh and give Dolly a side hug. “If you can’t get wine drunk at a wedding, where can you get drunk, right?” I tap my nail against her glass. “Are you going to finish that?”
“I don’t think I should!”
“I’ll take it off your hands.”
Dolly hoots as I take a big gulp. Then another.
Frankly, after Dolly’s revelation about Barry’s mother and the circumstances around his birth, a drink is exactly what I need. Is that the reason Barry is so adamant about not having sex with me? He must be so ashamed of himself for what we did in the bathroom.
I really, really don’t want to be something he’s ashamed of.
If he’s determined to be better than the man who got his mother pregnant, I should respect that. I should help him maintain his honor, instead of encouraging him to tarnish it.
With a lump in my throat, I watch Barry skirt through the crowd, back in my direction, his six-foot-six frame dwarfing everyone in his path. When he reaches my side, he eyeballs the red wine in my hand with stern disapproval, but he can’t admonish me in front of his grandmother who believes me to be twenty-three.
I take a dainty sip and purse my lips at him.
“The way you two look at each other reminds me of how I used to look at your grandfather, Barry. Like he was the only man in the room.”
Barry grunts, holding out his hand. “I guess we better dance, then.”
I bat my eyelashes. “You can do better than that.”
Dolly claps her hands together with joy.
Barry’s lips twitch, but his amusement slowly fades and indeed, he looks at me like I’m the only person in the room. “I’ll be miserable until I’m holding you, princess.”
Breathless, I take his offered hand.
I don’t even feel my feet as he guides me out onto the dance floor, and it has nothing to do with the wine. No, he’s the intoxicating one who pulls me close on the amber-lit dance floor, just as a slow song begins to play. I wrap my arms around his neck, which naturally brings me high on my tiptoes, his arms banding around me to bring me ultra close. “I thought you didn’t know how to dance,” I whisper, feeling weightless and tingly, the front of his suit pants rasping against my bare thighs.