The One Left Behind (The One Series) (45 page)

“Well, since you brought it up,” Colby says as she pulls out penis straws.

All the girls giggle and I can do nothing but join in. I finally catch my breath and say, “Okay, I will use the straw, but I am not using this cup. It stays in the limo.” I chuck it across the seats to the other side hoping it’ll be forgotten.

I have no idea where we are going. Everyone wanted tonight to be a surprise and I was fine with that. I have a feeling the less I know the better, especially with these group of girls. We pull up to another hotel and am about to ask if we are going to gamble a little when the driver opens the door. The first thing I see is a sign for the hotel’s main attraction.

A male revue show.

I should have known. I chug my glass of champagne before getting out of the limo. I have a feeling I’m going to need it if I have any hope of being able to walk into that place. Once we enter the hotel we make our way through it until we get to the doors leading to the entrance of the show. There’s what looks like a ticket booth outside the doors with a man working behind the glass.

“Hi, my name is Colby and we have a table reserved for a bachelorette party.” The guy looks at his list and leads us inside to our table. Of course, it is in the front, dead center of the stage. The girls make me sit in the middle of the table and we order a round of drinks. I tell the server to keep them coming. I don’t know how long this show is, but I’m not going to get through it with a straight face being sober.

The lights dim and the men come on stage to start their act. I have to say, these men can dance. A few of their moves are so suggestive I think I might have blushed. They are all in great shape too. But I guess you would have to be if you’re stripping. They do a bunch of group dances and then they start to do solo dances. They each have a theme and some of them are so corny it’s hysterical. The host of the show comes on the stage as the dancers follow behind him in their new outfits.

“Now ladies. This is the fun part of the show! Earlier we had some forms up front for you to fill out to be participants in our show. We’re going to go ahead and call you ladies up, so don’t be shy when your name is called and come see if you can help these men out with their acts,” he says as he wiggles his eyebrows and does a little pelvic thrust for the crowd. The other women go crazy and I bury my face in embarrassment for them.

The realization of being called up there makes me break out in a sweat. I didn’t see the girls fill out any forms, so that’s a good sign, but I wouldn’t put anything past them. I’m torn away from my mental freak out as I watch a lady well into her 70s get up on stage and frantically wave around dollar bills. I hope this doesn’t cause her to have a heart attack.

I’m too busy laughing at the woman to notice anything else going on until the host says, “Now, I understand we have a bachelorette party here.” I immediately stop laughing as my face drops and slowly look over at Colby. I give her my best
please tell me you didn’t
look. She has a huge smile on her face and I know I am so screwed. “Men, can you please escort Miss Addison Ramsey and her party to the stage?” The spot light comes down on our table and I am mortified. I want to hide under the table and die. I can’t believe the girls did this to me. I’m going to kill them.

The guys pick us up and carry us onto the stage as the crowd of women cheer them on. They place us down into seats that are set up on the stage. The music starts and the men begin their raunchy dances. They are all facing away from us toward the crowd. Okay, maybe this won’t be so bad and they won’t grind all up on us. Suddenly, the men all turn around and give their full attention to us. The tall man starts to come toward my direction. His head is tilted down and he’s looking at me through his eyelashes. He looks like he’s on the prowl ready to eat me up. I’m petrified. I chance a glance at Colby who is crying from laughing so hard.

“I’m so going to kill you!” I yell to her.

I turn around and face my predator as he gives me a lap dance. I can honestly say this is the first time I’d been on the receiving end of a lap dance. The guy grinds himself into my lap and is rolling his stomach onto my body. I am not prepared for what happens next. The man lifts me out of my seat from behind and has my legs wrapped around his waist while he starts bouncing me up and down. I look to my left and right and see all the other girls getting the same thing done to them. Morgan is waving her hand in the air like she is a damn cowboy. That girl is nuts. The dancer finally puts me down in my seat and the music comes to an end. He leans forward and says, “Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Hopefully we didn’t scare you too much here.” He gives a lopsided grin before chuckling in a low, deep manner.

When we leave the show we decide it’s best not to gamble while drunk, so we hit the dance club instead. I am dancing with the girls when I feel someone staring at me. I look around and see a pair of intense brown eyes watching me dance. He gets up and approaches me.

Roughly grabbing my waist, Pierce pulls me into him and starts dancing. “What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Not happy to see me?”

“No, I am. It’s just how did you know we were here?”

“Lexi text Garrick and told him you guys were coming to dance so we came to join you guys. Plus, I wanted to see you in that dress. But now that I have seen you in it, I want to get you out of it.” Pierce kisses me in the middle of the dance floor in a way that promises amazing things in the near future. “Want to get out of here?” he says into my ear in a husky voice

“Can we leave?” I bite my lower lip.

“It’s our parties. We can do whatever we want, and right now I want to do you.” He bites and tugs on my earlobe which is all the convincing I need.

“Let’s go.” I give a wave and mouth “Bye” to Colby.

We take the guys’ limo back to the hotel. Once we get back, Pierce makes good on his threat to take me out of my dress.

I’M BROWSING THE internet for wedding gift ideas and keep coming up empty. I never thought I’d be sitting here buying a wedding gift for Addison since I had every intention of opening all of our gifts together. To say that this is hard would be an understatement. I call Charlotte to see if she has any brilliant ideas. She’s met them before and she seems good at winging things, so maybe she can help me.

She picks up the phone, “Whatcha need, Colin? Don’t you know I’m busy?” I can hear the sarcasm in her voice so I don’t feel bad interrupting her “busy” day.

“Sorry, did I catch you cleaning your toilets again?”

“Very funny. For your information I was about to perform the daunting task of cleaning my oven.”

“Geez, you are always cleaning. Your house must sparkle.”

“Eh, it’s something to pass the time. So, what’s up? I assume you didn’t call to check up on my cleaning skills.”

“I was calling to see if you had any brilliant gift ideas for Addison and Pierce’s wedding. I’ve been online searching for probably an hour and can’t find anything.”

“I can see how that would be difficult—buying a gift for your ex-fiancé and all. Hmmm, let me see. Have you gone to Things Remembered?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Well it’s this place that engraves any and everything. People love that kind of stuff for their wedding.”

“I thought about that, but what would I get them engraved? They really don’t need anything for the house.”

“Gosh, must I do everything. I’ll be ready in 20 minutes. Come pick me up and we’ll go together.”

“You’re a little awesome.” I’m very relieved that she’s willing to help me. A small smile comes to my face as I think about her kindness and how she’s always helping me with these awkward things.

“Yeah, yeah. Remind me of that when you’re bringing me a coffee
and
a bagel on Monday morning.”

I laugh at her. “I think I can make it happen.”

“And I don’t want regular cream cheese either. I want the strawberry kind.”

“I got it. Go get ready. I’m leaving now.”

I get in my car feeling more optimistic about the whole gift thing. I think it was starting to cause me anxiety. I don’t want them to think I am being an ass or don’t care. I’m happy for them and will be there to support my friend.

I pick up Charlotte and we head over to the mall. She has me cracking up the whole way there singing to 80s power ballads the entire ride. Gotta love Sirius Radio. I’m actually surprised that she knows all the songs since she wasn’t exactly old enough to remember any of them in their hay day, not that I was either. Apparently, her dad is a huge fan and she grew up listening to it. Can’t say I expected that with the Leave it to Beaver picture she painted of her family.

We walk through the mall and locate the store. “Oh, I’ve seen this store before. I guess I just never paid attention to the name,” I say to her as we walk in.

“Well, look around and see if anything catches your eye. You know them better than I do.” She pauses and waits for me to lead the way.

“You know Pierce just as well as me,” I mumble.

“You know Addison. And I’m sure anything you get they’ll appreciate. They didn’t strike me as the snooty couple that would turn their nose up at a gift. Especially since you’re putting so much thought into it.”

She’s right. Addison would like anything, or at least pretend to, and Pierce is polite enough not to bash the gift if he hates it.

There are all kinds of things for home décor. Door knocker, every type of glassware you could imagine, coasters, picture frames. I don’t know which to settle on, so I picked up a couple things. I got them a picture frame for the bookcase I noticed they had in the formal sitting room. I thought it’d be nice to put a picture from the wedding in there. I have them engrave it:

I also get a whiskey decanter for the wet bar they have. On it is engraved

I hope they don’t think my gifts were cop outs and not thoughtful. I wanted them to see that I was sincere in my gesture. I expressed my worries to Charlotte. Her response was, “Who gives a shit if they don’t like it? They should be appreciative that you went out and had gifts personalized for them. But, in all honesty, I think they’ll like it. They’re sweet gestures.”

Once again, she helped put my mind at ease.

We’re in the car on the way back to her place and it’s really quiet. Not an awkward silence, but no one is talking. After a while, she finally speaks up.

“I hate to pry, but how are you doing with all of this? I know it can’t be easy to see your ex marry someone else. In fact, I’m impressed you guys are still friends. Most people don’t work like that. I’m not friends with any of my exes.”

I feel comfortable around her so I guess this is a good time to come clean about what happened exactly. “In a way, I think what really happened to us is harder than if it was an agreed upon separation.”

“What do you mean? She wanted to break up and you didn’t?” I look at her and her brows are furrowed in confusion. She doesn’t get it, not yet.

“Not exactly. Not long after we were engaged we got hit by a drunk driver who ran a red light. It flipped the car and everything. My injuries were very minimal, but Addison suffered from some brain trauma. She still doesn’t remember ever being engaged to me. She had no recollection of who I was. She didn’t remember Jeremy either, but I guess that makes sense because she met us both at the same time. She called off the engagement while she tried to get her head sorted out. I supported that decision. I thought if we didn’t push it, it would come back to her naturally. Then she met Pierce and her memory still hasn’t resurfaced. So here I sit, with a wedding gift in my back seat for a fiancé that still doesn’t remember who I was to her.”