Page 56 of The Great Dating Fake Off
“Bridal body shots?” Gia yells.
“Hell yeah.” Sergio squats and circles his arms around her thighs. “Need me to be your pickup truck?”
“Fine, but I’m not going to your room tonight.” She holds on to his shoulders. “I just really like free rides.”
“And that’s exactly what you’d find in my room.”
She hits his back. “Andale!”
They jog behind Enzo and his bride.
Nora’s shoulders sag in relief. “Saved by the Enzo.”
But for how long?
Alessia fixes whatever is wrong with my hair. “If anyone tries to get us to kiss, you have my consent to throw me over your shoulder and haul me into traffic.”
“Very romantic.” I nod toward the busy bar. “Come on, I’d hate to miss watching Sergio take a body shot off his cousin’s bride.”
Benji’s face morphs with disgust. “Have fun with that. I’ll stay here with the bull.”
Amusement dances in Alessia’s eyes. “You and Nora go ahead. I’m going to hang back and get to know my future sort of brother-in-law.”
…
As Gia lifts a shot glass from Ro’s cleavage with her teeth and throws it back hands-free, Ro pats her pocket. “Who’s texting me? All my people are here.”
“And your people can party,” Nora notes, her voice drowned out by the house music and the tip bell jangling.
“This is just a regular Friday for us.” Enzo hooks a finger around Ro’s sash and pulls her away from Gia. “I just don’t usually invite people when I take shots from her tits.”
“Enzo. Hush.” Ro lifts her phone high to read it. “Why is my mother texting me about Italian wedding tradition?”
“No Mamma V tonight!” Gia snatches her phone and fumbles it, sending it sailing to the ground. Enzo hurries to pick it up and pocket it. When he stands back up, he sways like a house of cards.
They’re going to pass out if I don’t step in. What did Nora call me? Party dad?
Time to parent.
“We’re all well on our way to wasted,” I tell the group. “Maybe we should take a thirty-minute break—”
“No resting!” Sergio cries. “This is a bachelor party. We’re supposed to shut this place down. Gia, what’re we drinking?”
No one is listening, but I answer anyway. “Water would be my recommendation.”
Nora tugs me a step backward by the elbow. We stand side by side as we watch the madness. “Nice try. There’s no fighting this. Just let it happen.”
“But if I don’t hydrate them, no one will. They’ll wake up hungover as hell.”
Her eyes twinkle as she smirks. “What happened to let them have their fun?”
It’s too loud not to get closer to her for this conversation. Our arms fall flush. “I underestimated how much fun they were physically capable of having on this side of thirty.”
“Thirty is the new twenty.” She hip bumps me. “I bet you partied your butt off at twenty. Slutty baseball boy style.”
“Slutty baseball boy?”
“At every school I’ve ever been in, especially in the south where we spent a lot of time, the baseball boys were secretly the sluttiest ones of all. Football players? Nah, there were too many eyes on them. Basketball and soccer? They had their fun. But baseball? They acted like goody-two-shoes with their yes ma’ams and hats and innocent demeanor. But they got more action than a John Wick movie.”
