Learning the Ropes (5 page)

Resigning herself to the fact that the only way to stop the noise was to answer the phone, Rory leaned over and snagged it. Seeing that Mac was the person who was making it her mission to destroy Rory’s silence, she didn’t bother with courtesy or phone etiquette.

“What?”

Mac laughed in her ear. “Well, well, well. I didn’t think it could possibly be true when John came home and told me that you had been spotted totally hammered at The Lucky Stripe. But apparently I can be wrong.”

“Did you call to
heckle
me?” Rory tried to make her voice sound dangerous but she suspected it was more pathetic than threatening. Mac might have been more cowed if she had been in the room. Then she would have seen that the threat of getting vomited on was a very real one indeed.

“Sort of. I called to confirm John’s story, heckle you if it was true, invite you to a party, and ask you a favor.”

Rory sighed and rubbed her eyes. “That’s quite a to-do list. I’m not sure I’m up to any of it to be honest.”

“What if I promised to drop the heckling and told you that the confirmation was already completed?” Mac asked.

“So what does that leave me with?” Rory struggled to push her hair out of her face. A shower would probably go a long way towards making her feel more human. Her hair smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke, which always turned her stomach a little. She didn’t even want to think about what the rest of her probably smelled like. A distillery, no doubt.

“A party and a favor. A party favor.” Mac giggled at her joke and didn’t seem bothered when Rory didn’t join in.

“What kind of party favor?”

“John and I are having an impromptu party at his house. Kind of a backyard barbecue thing. That’s the party and of course you have to come.”

Rory groaned and started to shake her head before realizing that a) Mac couldn’t see her and b) her head was in danger of falling from her neck completely. “Impromptu as in next weekend and you’re just calling to let me know because you don’t have the Emily Post recommended six weeks to send out invitations?”

“Impromptu as in about four hours.” Mac seemed to be trying for an apologetic tone of voice, but she was only making it as far as insanely chipper to Rory’s abused head. “We’re spontaneous people around here. And, besides, I know that I haven’t exactly been the best friend lately. I’ve been kind of wrapped up in John and I want to make up for that. Please come to the party, Rory.”

Rory remained silent for a few seconds to see if playing dead would get her anywhere. That idea came to an abrupt end when Mac used the whiniest voice in her arsenal to turn the word “please” into a drawn-out attack.

“Fine, fine! I’ll come to your stupid party. But don’t expect me to be pretty or witty.”

“Or bright? You’re really taking some of your best attributes off of the table here but I’m willing to take you however I can get you. Which leads me to the ‘favor’ in ‘party favor.’”

“So not only are you using guilt to force me into the world when I don’t want to go, but now I have to actively
participate
, too?” Rory used her righteous indignation to force herself to swing her legs off the side of the bed. While the motion set her head spinning again, it wasn’t for as long a time as it had spun before, and the rest of her seemed to be in working order.

“Actually this is more of a favor for Celeste, even though I’m the one asking it. No one has been able to get hold of her since girls’ night. Do you think you could stop by her place on the way to the party? See if she’s okay and then force her to come with you. I know you don’t feel well but she’s just down the street from you.”

Rory shook her head in disbelief and then wished that she hadn’t. “Now you’re asking me to be an accessory to dragging other people to your party. Not only have you been MIA since you started dating John, but you’re ballsy, too.”

“Rory, that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Mac said.

Rory rolled her eyes as she realized that Mac was determined to have them all at her barbecue and that nothing was going to dampen her spirits. Misery may love company, but only if that company wasn’t sickeningly in love. She would have been happy just to be left on her own. Apparently that wasn’t on the agenda for today though.

She was going to have to attend the party, with Celeste no doubt kicking and screaming behind her for good measure. The things she did for her friends. If the thought to decline had crossed her mind, Mac had effectively destroyed it with her apology. This party apparently meant a lot to her friend and she was going to have to drag her hung-over self out into the sunlight. She was going to stick to her earlier decision though. She would make no effort to be pretty or witty or bright. In fact, she was going to try her best to be invisible.

She had to promise Mac three more times that she would be there and that she would do everything in her power to make Celeste be there too before she could hang up the phone. After that it took twenty minutes for her to psych herself up enough to limp to the shower. She did feel infinitely more normal afterwards though and was strong enough to grab a package of cheese crackers and a soda from the refrigerator. She sat on the sofa and channel-surfed while her hair air-dried, not yet up to the sound of a hair dryer in her ear.

She tried to call Celeste a couple of times but was never able to get her on the phone. Which was very unusual. She wasn’t worried yet, but she began to see the wisdom in stopping by her friend’s apartment to check on her. The added bonus was being able to drag her to Mac’s party as a partner in wallflower crime.

Finally, she felt steady enough to throw on an old pair of jeans and a T-shirt that proudly proclaimed the high school at which she worked #1. The best she could do with her hair was a sloppy ponytail. She briefly entertained the idea that she should work a little bit more at her appearance. After all, a party given by Mac
and
John was sure to be populated with some of his single friends. And no matter how much alcohol she drank, failing her quiz and her friends’ talk about her needing someone to practice with was never far from her mind. A glance at the clock showed that today wasn’t the day to start her quest to find a practice partner. She needed to get to Celeste’s soon.

After gathering her purse, keys, and a bottle of water for good measure, Rory headed down the stairs and out to the driveway where her car was normally parked. Where it wasn’t parked today. A glance down the street showed that her car wasn’t anywhere in sight. Her first thought was relief. Good for Drunk Rory for not drinking and driving. Leaving her car at the bar was probably the only smart thing she had done the night before. She would never have forgiven herself if she had injured someone else in a needless accident.

But how had she gotten home?

Oh—dear—God. Pictures from the night before swam before her eyes. The strange guys at the bar buying her drinks. Noah and John sitting at their table. Noah leaning over her and strapping her seat belt on. Noah telling her that he had wanted her way back when. Noah turning her down when
she propositioned him
.

Rory groaned and put her hand out for support, catching it on the rough bark of a tree. Drunk Rory was a good-for-nothing hussy! Noah had done everything for her last night. He had made sure she got home safely. She remembered him gently prodding her to drink more water. No doubt he had left the pain pills and water by her bedside. Oh, and not to forget that he had rejected her drunken advances. If ever there was a situation for which the phrase, “Wanting to sink into a hole in the ground” had been invented, this was it.

She and Noah were adversaries, weren’t they? Even though he had proved to be nice and gentlemanly last night, in the light of day he would probably tease her no end and make sure everyone knew how pathetic she was. The thought alone brought her the closest to throwing up she had been all day and that was saying something. And he was probably going to the party today. All of their friends would be conveniently assembled for him to regale them with the story of stuffy Rory falling in at the deep end.

The only chance she had was to beat him to the party and beg him to keep quiet. She didn’t know if it would do any good but she had to try. Without a car and no way to reach Celeste, Rory did the next best thing and started walking towards her friend’s apartment. Luckily the day was cool and the street was shady. And Rory was much too preoccupied with what she was going to say to Noah to convince him to keep her secrets, to be mindful of her hangover.

And, thank goodness, she seemed to be over the worst of it because when she reached Celeste’s apartment her friend didn’t seem inclined to take it easy on her. Celeste had been out of touch because her phone had been turned off while she and Grant shared some alone time. The bar had been busy lately, with various sports seasons kicking into gear, and the two missed each other. Although Rory thought they were very cute, she was less than thrilled when she had to sit through their long goodbye. Celeste was a quick rebound though, and was ready for a party after only a minimum of begging on Rory’s part.

Rory also admitted that she needed a ride to The Lucky Stripe to retrieve her car. Celeste took great delight on the ride over in getting all of the scandalous details of Rory’s night of excess. Well, what Celeste believed to be all of the scandalous details. Rory left out the part about Noah altogether and claimed to have taken a cab home.

After extracting Celeste’s promise to meet up at Mac’s, Rory used the drive over to practice what she would say to Noah, while rather optimistically attributing the fluttering that was going on in her stomach to hangover symptoms, and not the thought of seeing him without her beer goggles. She couldn’t remember much about what they had talked about, but she knew that she had at the very least told him that she liked the way he smelled. Oh yeah, and that she wanted to have sex with him.

Rory shook her head to dislodge the thought and parked carefully at the end of the street for a quick getaway if necessary. She didn’t want to have to ask people to move their cars to let her out if retreat proved a better strategy than begging. She hooked up with Celeste to head through the gate to John’s backyard.

The party was in full swing. For an impromptu gathering, there was a pretty large group of familiar faces. And even some people that she didn’t know. The grill was smoking, the music was cranked up, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. If she hadn’t been so busy scanning the crowd for Noah at all times she might have even been glad she’d come.

Mac was thrilled that they had showed up and even Brianna had made an appearance although she had quickly slipped in with a group that was listening to a ball game on the radio. Rory contented herself with catching up with a few friends she didn’t see often, while Celeste made charming chitchat and tried to get Rory to talk to some guys. Eventually her friend had given up and retreated to eat a hamburger and point out all of the missed male opportunities to Rory.

Normally Rory would have made a joke about not being blind and being able to see what the eye candy selection looked like, but the truth was she hadn’t looked. She’d been so consumed with watching for Noah that she hadn’t made note of the tall, dark and handsome guy playing cards at the deck table or the guy with the great blue eyes who was helping John with grill duty. Grill guy had even flirted with Rory a little bit but she had been too intent on trying to take John to one side to ask him if Noah was coming. John had just grinned at her and said that he had told his friend about the get-together but wasn’t sure if he would be attending.

After that, all she had wanted was to get away from John’s too-knowing smile and she hadn’t had a chance to talk to grill guy again. Maybe Noah wasn’t even coming to the party. Rory told herself the only reason she was disappointed was that she would have to track him down someplace else. It wasn’t because she was eager to see him and deduce if there was any change to their relationship after the night before.

After twenty minutes of showing more interest in her hamburger than in the guys Celeste was pointing out, her friend decided to move on to more talkative company. Rory headed over to Mac at the drinks table and tried to be casual.

“This is a great party. I’m glad you browbeat me into coming.”

“Oh, ha, ha. I see you followed through on your threat to be neither pretty or witty,” Mac sassed.

“You know how I feel about idle threats. They undermine the whole threat foundation. Anyway, it seems like everyone is here today.” Rory began consolidating the stacks of unused cups just for something to do.

Mac looked around in appreciation. “Yeah, I think the turnout really has more to do with the weather than it does our awesome party skills, but I’ll take the credit for it either way. Actually, someone was asking me about you earlier.”

Rory stiffened. “Who? Who was asking you about me?” She could tell that she had come on too strong when Mac cast her a puzzled look.

“I’m not sure. Let me think about it for a little while. I’m sure it will come to me.”

Rory stopped fiddling with the cups and stared at her friend. “Uh, Rory you don’t expect me to come up with it while you’re staring at me like you’re a serial killer do you?” When Rory just shrugged but didn’t look away, Mac picked up an empty ice bucket. “Here. We’re low on ice, why don’t you go refill that in the kitchen while I rack my brains out here?”

She would have preferred to make sure Mac stayed on task with figuring out who had asked about her, but Rory took the bucket and headed inside. She would have seen if Noah had walked in at some point, wouldn’t she? There was no way he was the one who had asked Mac about her.

Rory made her way to the kitchen and was relieved to find the interior cool and quiet. Even though she wasn’t quite the mess she had been upon waking, she still had a few unfortunate symptoms left over from her night of debauchery. She hadn’t realized how much the bright sunlight was hurting her eyes until she reached the dim lighting in the kitchen. Opening the freezer door and sticking her head in for a few moments also helped to restore her calm.