Coming Home(27)

“Bye,” she managed.

“Wait, Leah?” he said abruptly.

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t…I…” He exhaled again before he said, “I’m sorry.”

“Okay,” she murmured, wishing she could come up with something else to say besides that stupid word.

“Bye,” he said and ended the call.

Leah pulled the phone from her ear and tossed it on the table before she walked through her living room, collapsing on the couch with a huff as she dropped her head back and blinked up at the ceiling.

What the hell just happened?





“Excuse me,” Robyn said, tapping the overweight bearded man on his shoulder. He turned, clearly amused as he looked her up and down. She was wearing a white tank top with the phrase “I’m the Bachelorette” scrawled in pink lettering across the front. On the back was the phrase “Grab my ass before it’s too late!” She wore a veil pinned into her blond curls, and much to her dismay, she was wearing a large penis necklace, a red strobe light flashing in its head.

Leah made a mental note to forbid Holly from planning any party of hers for the rest of their lives.

“Clearly, I’m getting married soon,” Robyn said to the man, gesturing at herself with her half-empty drink. “And I’m a virgin bride. So I was just wondering if you could give me some pointers, or maybe tell me what to expect?”

Leah bit her lip and looked down; as her shoulders began to shake with the force of her stifled laughter, she turned and walked back toward the table where the rest of the raucous bridal party sat.

“Guys, this is so mean. Let’s cut her a break.”

“No way,” Robyn’s sister said. “She did this to me at my bachelorette party. Payback’s a bitch.” She held up the list she was holding, scanning it intently. It was a bachelorette scavenger hunt of sorts. Robyn had to complete a bunch of tasks before the end of the night, one more humiliating than the next. Her sister took the pen out of her back pocket and removed the cap with her teeth, checking off the box next to number seven: “Pretend you’re a virgin and ask a random guy for advice re: the wedding night.”

Leah sat down next to Holly, who held up her drink. She smiled, leaning over to clink her Cosmo against it before she drained the rest of it. On top of the shots they had taken earlier, she was slowly but surely making the transition from buzzed to drunk.

Robyn approached the table, her quintessential inebriated smile in place.

“Okay, so Herb,” she said, gesturing over her shoulder, “said not to be shy, and that I shouldn’t worry if it hurts because it will get better. Oh, and he also said I shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with the balls.”

The entire table cracked up as Robyn shrugged, drinking the rest of her appletini before she sat down on Leah’s lap and rested her head against Leah’s.

“Uh oh! The bachelorette needs a drink! I’m on it,” said Robyn’s old college roommate, and she jumped up and made her way over to the bar.

“Hey,” Holly said, leaning over to them. “Do you realize that in twenty minutes, it will be the year you’re getting married?”

“Peace out, single life!” Robyn shouted, holding two fingers up and waving them in the face of a man who walked past them.

“Peace out to the idea of her not puking tonight,” Holly said to Leah, and they both laughed.

“Alright, girlies,” Robyn’s cousin sing-songed as she approached the table, “I brought us some goodies!”