Chapter 43
Forty-Three
ADDIE
“Ads, you really need to fix your face.” Rachel dropped into the seat next to me, pushing a plate of cake in my direction. There were three cakes at this shindig because if a Harris or a Henry threw a party, then they were always going to provide options.
The cake that Rachel put in front of me was a piece of caterpillar cake that I had every year of my life at some stage in the week of my birthday until I went to Montreal, where I shifted to buying a singular cupcake.
I broke a piece of chocolate icing off my cake and hummed in approval. It tasted like my childhood. “What are you talking about?” I asked once the wave of nostalgia passed through me.
“I’m talking about the fact that you are looking very longingly at your current fuck buddy, which is unusual for you. Something you want to talk about?”
I broke off another piece of cake. “Depends, you want to talk about your fake boyfriend and how cuddly you two were looking even though The Dick is nowhere to be seen?”
She actually looked radiant around him. Easy. Confident.
“There is nothing going on between us. We’re covering our bases. Social media exists, you know. Besides, he is basically family now.”
She was lying. Rachel broke out in red patches when she lied, and they were starting to bloom along her chest and up her neck.
“There is nothing to talk about on my side either. Still just—” I caught Eli in my peripheral, getting swept up on the makeshift dance floor in the arms of one of my cousins, Steffy.
Steffy and I were ten months apart in age.
If my uncle didn’t live so far away, we probably would have been quite close.
As it was, we mostly only ever saw each other at big events where people liked to coo about how similar the two of us were.
We both had green eyes, and our dads shared DNA.
That was where the similarities began and ended.
She had the kind of blonde hair that people spend hundreds on to maintain, but it just grew out of her head like that. She was above average height, but nowhere near as tall as me. The fair skin of her nose had a dusting of freckles.
I watched as her arms looped around Eli’s neck and his hands settled on her waist. Their hips were nearly touching as they swayed slowly to the music.
They looked good together. Like matching puzzle pieces.
The chocolate cake in my mouth started to taste sour.
“I really wanna know how you’re gonna play this one.” Rachel’s voice was a whisper in my ear.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snapped. My eyes didn’t leave Eli and Steffy.
“You’re jealous.”
“I’m not jealous,” I replied. Too quickly. Too harshly.
“Uh-huh. You’re playing with—” Rachel trailed off this time. Her eyes narrowed. I followed her gaze and found Steffy’s sister, Tabitha, exuding flirtatious vibes with the youngest Bounds brother.
I didn’t even have it in me to feel smug about it because I heard the deep, throaty laugh of my flatmate cut through the music, only to find him smiling down at my cousin.
She was batting her eyelashes at him, a toss of her long blonde hair off her shoulder to reveal her neck, a quick lip bite to draw attention.
I looked beyond the dance floor full of bodies and saw Xander. He was in charge of the music tonight.
He was also very open to suggestions, and well, it was my birthday.
“Do you reckon they’ve got mics we can use?” I asked. Rachel took her eyes off the dance floor and glared at me.
“Why, you gonna break that up by making us all endure speeches?” She spat the words ‘speeches’ like it was a dirty word.
“Not quite. But think of something else we could do. Together.”
Rachel looked confused for a moment, and then it dawned on her.
She stood up and held out her hand. I took it.
Forcing people to watch you sing ‘Defying Gravity’ in the middle of a party is probably the wankiest thing a person could do. Birthday or not.
But the thing about the five of us was that we went to bat for one another, no questions asked.
So when Rachel sang the first line into one of the microphones that Xander found, it didn’t take very long for Clo, Lucy, and Becky to decide they were going to join in.
As Clara came next to me to share my microphone, I saw her clock Tabitha’s proximity to her almost brother-in-law, and it dawned on her why Rachel had started this impromptu performance.
I felt an inordinate amount of relief that I just looked like a supportive person and wouldn’t have to explain anything else about this whole song and dance. Like how I was the one to orchestrate it.
Which was working because Tabitha had been abandoned.
And so had Steffy by the time Clo and I reached the final note of the song.
We all took exaggerated bows when it was over, and I felt an overwhelming rush of emotion as the five of us bundled into a group hug.
Something inside me felt like it had clicked back into place.
I felt like I was part of the fold again with my sisters.
They’d all rallied to support Rachel (and, unknowingly, me), and I had been a part of it.
Plus, it took a lot to be able to do a perfect five-part harmony immediately, and we only knew how to do it because that was how we spent our teen years.
As we left the stage, Xander resumed the music. Although it was more of a jump up and down vibe than an up close and personal swaying one.
“That was fun. But very random. You couldn’t think of a more inconspicuous way to break it up, macaroon?” Clara asked, her arm looping around my shoulders.
I shrugged and glanced over at Rachel, keeping the charade up. “Not one that got her out of her head as well.”
She nodded slowly. “I’m gonna get a drink, you want one?”
“Nah, I’m good, macaron,” I answered. Clara squeezed me against her side quickly, and then she let me go.
As her arm slipped off me, I felt a hand settle on my lower back. I sank into the touch.
“I’m finally going to ask, what is up with the macaroon, macaron thing?” Eli’s voice was soft in my ear.
I smiled and turned my head. “We got into an argument about which one was right when we were kids. Embarrassingly, for someone whose first language is French, I was convinced it was macaroon and was proven wrong. The nicknames have stuck ever since.”
“It’s cute.” He paused, then gestured at the spot we were just on. “I didn’t know you could sing like that.”
“I do all my best singing when you’re not home,” I teased.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Steffy starting to make her way over to where we were standing.
I turned my head away from Eli and did a sweep of the room.
Firstly, to see where key family members were.
Most of them were by the bar, lost in their own conversations.
Secondly, to see if there was somewhere Eli and I could sneak off to, struck by an overwhelming desire to claim him as mine.
I was about to decide that we might have to find another bathroom when I saw a curtained-off area.
I removed Eli’s hand from my back and laced his fingers with mine. With one final look at where my family were, I started for it. Eli paused for a moment, but he followed, matching my hurried pace.
I pulled back the curtain to reveal a decent-sized alcove. I tugged us into it and pulled the curtain closed.