Page 88 of Time Served in New York
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JENN
“This has been on my bucket list for ages,” I told Blue as we studied the statue in front of us. I lifted my camera and took another picture and then moved to the side for a better angle.
“We should have the guys take some shots of us with the statue,” Blue suggested before she called out, “Brea, give your camera to one of the guys, and let’s pose with the statue.”
She handed her camera to Chef and joined us as we tried to figure out how to climb onto the statue.
“You know this story is just chock full of mental illness and drug abuse, right?” Preacher asked.
“Everyone knows that. It’s not one of your life-ruining theories,” I argued.
“The girl suffered from hallucinations, but did you know that some people wonder if it wasn’t really a description of what happens when you have a migraine?” That was one I hadn’t heard before, so I turned around and looked at Preacher and waited for him to continue. “Auditory and visual hallucinations can sometimes accompany severe migraines. Back in the day, opium was used to help cure headaches, which is most likely what that caterpillar was smoking in his hookah.”
“Really?”
“Yep. I’m not throwing out the whole drug-induced hallucination thing, but it could be him describing what happened while he had really severe head pain. He was known to have intense headaches pretty often.”
“How did I not know that?”
“Luckily, we’ve got Preacher here to give us all those unnecessary details,” Captain teased.
“Fuck you,” Preacher retorted as he flipped off our friend. “There are some other illnesses in it too. That rabbit had pretty bad anxiety, and the queen was a narcissist. The caterpillar was a drug addict, and the Mad Hatter was nuttier than a fruitcake.”
“Can we start calling you Fruitcake?” Captain asked. “You’re pretty goddamn nutty.”
“How does this look?” I called out, interrupting the impending argument.
“Looks good, babe,” Boss called out as he took out his phone. “Y’all smile!”
I smiled for the camera and waited as the guys all took pictures, and then we all made faces for a few shots before Blue started trying to figure out how to do a dirty pose with the rabbit and Brea climbed up to sit on Alice’s head.
The guys were laughing just as hard as we were, and after a few minutes, we finally got back down, ready for the warmth of the hotel and our various plans for the evening.
I walked between Frankie and Blue and behind Brea, Paula, and Matalie as we talked about what we wanted to do in the city before we left in the morning.
“We’re going on a date,” Brea told us. “I’m going to get all gussied up one more time, and then I’ll be ready to go home and get comfortable again.”
“Hook and I are having dinner with Zach and my brothers,” Paula told us. “Bernadette, are you guys going to hang out with the twins?”
“We are,” Bernadette answered. “Stamp went to their penthouse this morning and put some sauce on to simmer.”
“Christopher and I are going to have dinner with my brothers and their kids, but we should be done by nine if y’all want to hang out for a while,” Frankie suggested. “We should get a car and go over the Brooklyn Bridge while it’s dark so you can enjoy all the lights.”
“Oh, that sounds good!” I agreed.
“They’ll like that,” Paula agreed. “If we’re finished at Zach’s in time, I’ll come too.”
“We should invite Bug and Maylee,” I suggested.
“I talked to her this morning at breakfast, and she said that they were going to stick to their suite with Boo until we go home,” Bernadette told us.
“I’m going to sedate my girls to get them on the plane in the morning,” Pandora complained. “They’ve had so much fun with all the other teenagers that . . .”
“The boys,” Blue teased, and I heard Kitty growl from somewhere behind us.
“Yes, the boys, although they have made some really good friends in Ziggy and Relio’s girls too. They’re planning to stay in touch, and the girls have already asked if we can have them down in the summer.”
