Baking and Babies (Chocoholics #3)(50)

“You’re lucky mom and Aunt Claire haven’t come back yet from apologizing to the strippers and aren’t witnessing this right now,” she mutters.

“Why aren’t you out there with them?” Ava asks, coming up beside us. “You’re the one who puked all over the poor guy’s stomach.”

Charlotte rolls her eyes and puts her hands on her hips. “I already apologized to him and offered to pay for a new thong. He was just so greasy and he kept slapping his flaccid junk against my knee, and it reminded me of bologna and I couldn’t help it.”

Luckily Charlotte was able to play off her stripper-inducing puke by batting her eyelashes and giggling about being soooooo drunk. I had already snuck into the bathroom for the tenth time to take a shot by the time the three hip-thrusting, dick-dangling men showed up so watching her vomit made me run right to the bathroom and purge the demons. Everyone had a good laugh about how my “baby” didn’t like strippers.

“WOOOHOOO bring back the naked men! Charlotte, why aren’t you drinking?!” Grandma Madelyn yells, dancing her way past us and sloshing her drink all over the floor.

Charlotte holds up her flask of water and takes a sip, which makes Grandma throw her arms up in the air and shout again, throwing the contents of her drink all over the wall in front of her.

“Jesus, who knew Grandma was like a Gremlin? You feed her booze after midnight and she turns into crazy drunk monster,” Charlotte mutters.

“So, did you text Marco? What did you say?” Ava asks, looking away from grandma as she gets up on the coffee table and starts thrusting her hips to the loud music blaring through the sound system in the living room.

“I said I’d like a spot of tea while I get snookered,” I giggle.

“Why do you have a British accent? Charlotte, why does she have a British accent?” Ava asks, looking away from me to question our sober sister.

Charlotte shrugs. “It appears our sister turns British when she gets drunk.”

“Oh, are you guys talking about foreign languages?” Aunt Jenny asks as she stumbles over to us, drinking the last bit of martini from her glass before smacking it down on the bar behind me.

“I don’t get why we can’t just all speak American,” She complains. “You’ve got British and Alaskan and Canadian and Texan…why do we need all these different languages mucking everything up?”

Charlotte puts her arm around Aunt Jenny and gives her a squeeze. “Oh, Aunt Jenny. You always know how to make me feel like the smartest person in the room.”

Aunt Jenny beams at Charlotte and gives her a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “I love you too, Charlotte!”

The three of us watch her stumble over to Grandma and get on top of the coffee table with her.

“Alright, back to the important matter at hand,” Ava says, turning back to face me. “What did you say to Marco? Did you text him what I told you to?”

I pull my phone out of my back pocket and hand it to her without a word. She presses a few buttons and her eyes widen in shock.

“You asked him for a picture of his penis?!” she shouts.

“I tried to do what you said and tell him to come up here because I got us a hotel room, but I couldn’t figure out how to type all those words,” I tell her with a shrug.

“Did he send the picture? Let me see!”

Charlotte leans over Ava’s shoulder and we both stare at her.

“What? I’m getting married, I’m not dead. Marco is hot and I’m sure he has an equally hot penis,” Charlotte explains.

“Sorry, no Italian sausage for you tonight, Char. But he did send a close-up picture of a bloody lip, which is a little confusing,” Ava tells us, turning the phone around for me to see.

“Shit. Did dad beat up his face?!” I yell, trying not to sway so I can get a better look at the photo. “Oh, no. His poor, pretty face. I really like that face.”

Ava turns the phone back around and starts rapidly punching buttons.

“What are you doing? Are you telling him to send the picture penis again?” I ask, leaning forward to see what she’s typing.

“Forget about the penis picture, you drunk slut. I’m doing what you were supposed to do and telling him to come up to the hotel.”

My phone makes a whooshing sound, signaling that she sent it. She sets it down on the counter and walks around the bar, grabbing a glass from one of the cupboards and filling it up with water. She slides it across the counter to me and points at it.

“Chug it. Time to sober up, bitch.”

I grab the glass and drink, half of it dribbling down my chin.

“I don’t think this is a good idea. Should she really try and seduce him when she’s drunk?” Charlotte asks as I slam the empty glass down and ask for a refill.

“She needs to be a little drunk or she’ll chicken out. Some liquid courage is always good the first time you touch a penis,” Ava announces, sliding another full glass of water towards me.

“Hey, I’ve touched a penis before. It was the size of a piece of Pez candy, but it was still a living, breathing penis,” I inform them, bringing the glass up to my mouth.

“That doesn’t count. Quinn yanked your hand away as soon as you touched it. Haven’t I always told you guys that it’s never a good idea to have sex with a virgin?” Ava sighs. “They’re so wound up with years of pent-up sperm they’ll blow their load if the wind changes direction. Always go with someone who has experience.”