"She is not single.” Manning pushes me away from her, making us laugh.
"Ignore him," Evelyn says. "Your house is beautiful."
"Thank you," I reply and we walk into the family room. Balloons are in the corners. I look over at the kitchen seeing two chefs cooking as five servers walk with trays over to us.
Geraldo sees me and comes in. "Welcome," he says. "Your guests are outside."
I nod at him and wait for Manning and Evelyn to head out before following them. The lights are on low and so are the pool lights, giving the night a glow. Music plays out of the speakers and there are little tables set up everywhere so people can sit. Two bars are set up on either side, one of them with guys already in front of it.
I walk up to them. "Thanks for coming," I say and they smile and shake my hand.
"Can I have a whiskey?" I ask the bartender and look at the napkins and laugh.
Just divorced, free at last.
"This is crazy," I hear from behind me and see Candace there. "I love it."
"Hey." I smile, bending and kissing her cheek.
"I can’t believe you are throwing this party without your family," she teases, and I laugh as Ralph comes up behind her.
"The free man," he says, slapping my shoulder. "Look at those balloons." He points at the yard where more balloons are there
Single and ready to mingle.
She’s insane, I think to myself.
"I heard we are doing shots." I turn to see Layla standing there with Miller. "Can we get shots?"
Miller groans from beside her. "We said early night."
"You are free to leave," she tells him as she grabs a shot and hands one to Candace and then one to me. Ralph grabs one and then Miller caves and grabs one.
"Going, going, gone," Candace says and I take the shot and grimace.
"Shots suck.” Miller does the same face Candace just did, setting down his glass.
"You," Candace says, pointing at me. "Go mingle."
I roll my eyes, turning and seeing that more people have showed up. The guys come to me and all slap me on the back. "Another single one to the pond," one says and I want to shake my head and then I turn and see her out of the corner of my eye. Her hair is down to her waist and curled as she laughs with Geraldo. All I can see is legs, her pink skirt is mid-thigh and when she turns to talk to someone else I see that she is wearing a long-sleeve lace top, but it falls right before the top of her skirt so you can see some skin. She must sense me looking at her because she turns and looks at me, smiling big.
She walks over to me, her pink purse in her hand and her shoes have one strap around the toes, one in the middle of her foot, and one around her ankle. Fuck, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her look so fucking beautiful. "There he is," she says as she gets closer to me. "The man of the hour." Her chest presses into mine, my hand coming up and holding her waist as she kisses my cheek. "You look smashing. Love the outfit." She steps away and all I can do is look at her. "Look at how awesome this is." She turns as my hand falls from her, and I have this need to put it back up. What the fuck was in that shot?
"Mr. Divorced AF," Nico says and I look over to see him and Becca coming out. "This is fantastic."
I laugh and take a gulp of my whiskey. "Trust me, it was all her." I point at Erika who bats her eyes.
A waiter comes over and he has shots of tequilla on the tray, a slice of lime on top. "Tequilla," Erika coos and looks over at me. "You owe me a shot." She puts her purse under her arm as she grabs two shots. Handing one to Becca and then Nico and then takes two more for us.
"I haven’t done tequila shots since Mexico," Becca states. "That was a good time."
"To brighter days." Erika puts her glass up and licks the rim of the glass and then downs it and sucks the lime. "Smooth."
"Gross," I grouse when I do my own. "I don’t get it." I grab something to eat from one of the waiters who comes by. Everyone is talking to each other and having the best time. Laughter fills the backyard and I look around, admitting to myself it was a good idea.
People come up to me all night long and we laugh and tell stories, the whole time Erika is not far from my side. The cake comes out with a ball and chain that says I’m free.