“Agreed.” I nod. “It was good to run into you, too,” I say, winking at him.I smile as I walk into the bar where I’m supposed to meet the girls. My eyes are glued to my phone as another message pops through. We’ve been messaging each other all day and I can’t get over what a nice guy he is. Totally not the type of person I’d have expected to reply to that ad.
I look up, waving when I spot Katie and Sasha sitting at a table, near the back of the crowded bar. It’s pretty busy, even for a Saturday.
“Why do you look so happy?” Sasha asks.
She narrows her eyes at me when I reach the table.
“No reason.” I shrug, my grin refusing to falter. “It’s a beautiful day and an even better night. What’s the not to be happy about?”
“Yes. She’s definitely acting weird.” Katie glares at me. “Are you are having sex?”
“No.” I snort. “I’m not like you. I don’t blush and go all giggly when I have sex.” I pause, long enough to smile at her. “Probably because I have it more than once a year.”
“Bitch,” Katie mutters. “And that’s totally incorrect now that I’m with Adam.” She smirks. I roll my eyes and sit down. “Oh, come on,” she adds when she realizes I’m not going to just spill. “You can’t keep anything a secret.”
“Oh, that’s rich, coming from the girl who told everyone about Mr. Salango when I told you not to,” I remind her.
“Wait, who’s Mr. Salango?” Sasha asks, reaching for another handful of chips.
“He was the guy who used to live next door to me,” I say with a laugh. “I caught him sniffing my mom’s panties.”
“While she was wearing them?” Sasha gasps, wide-eyed.
“What?” I burst out laughing. “Fuck no. They were clean, hanging on the clothesline, but it was fucking creepy all the same. I told Mom and we called the cops, who gave him a warning … Mom just wanted to put it past her, so I told Katie to keep it to herself. Anyway, the next day, the entire school knew.”
“You forgot to mention he was our science teacher.” Katie laughs. “I’m sorry, but everyone at that school deserved to know he was a creep.”
“Are you freaking serious?” Sasha asks. She makes a face. “Okay, let me get this straight,” she mutters, putting her hand up to silence us. “You’ve got your panty sniffing science teacher,” she begins, then she points to me, “one of your teachers’ propositioned you. And then the principal of the school was dismissed … for getting a student pregnant?”
“Yep.” I nod, holding back my laughter.
“That’s about right,” Katie agrees.
She looks from Katie to me, and then back to Katie, her eyes full of alarm. She shakes her head.
“What the hell kind of fucked-up school did you guys go to?”
I chuckle. She’s right. The number of deviant teachers at that school was pretty fucked-up. I’d forgotten about the Mr. Barkley incident. I can laugh about it now but him following me home that day freaked me out for weeks.
He tried to force his way inside my house, so I kicked him in the balls and called the cops. The next day, I signed up for martial arts classes, because I was fucked if I was going to find myself in that position again. He was so angry with me for leading him on, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I hadn’t done a single thing to make him think that I was into him. It turned out Katie’s cousin, Lily, thought it would be funny if she took my phone and sent him some racy text messages.
“Anyway, my point is, if I want something kept a secret, I don’t tell you,” I summarize, giving Katie a pointed look.
“Whatever.” Katie waves her hand. “You’re a thousand times worse than me because you go out of your way to announce things you’re not supposed to.”
“You mean like this?” I grin. I get up onto my seat and whistle to get everyone’s attention. “I’d like to let everyone know that Katie here used to shave her mustache when she was eleven.”
I laugh at the death stare Katie is shooting me then get off my seat. Sasha is in hysterics, along with half of the bar.
“You’re such a tool.” Sasha giggles. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Oh, like you wouldn’t have done the same thing if you were in my position,” she retorts, glaring at her. “Besides, let’s save the reminiscing for something useful.” She grins at us. “Like my wedding.”
My eyes widen. “You’re fucking engaged?” I hiss.
She giggles and holds her hand up, showing off the very sparkly, princess cut diamond ring. I jump off my seat and throw my arms around her, nearly knocking her clean off her chair.