I didn’t open my eyes and did a body scan, feeling for extra heat, the weight of an arm on me.
Nothing.
I opened my eyes and saw Boo staring at me. “Meow,” Boo said.
I slept on my side in the middle of the bed. Even though it was a big bed it wouldn’t give Vance much room to sleep and not touch me if I was in the middle.
Still, I turned to my back and twisted my head to look.
No one there.
Boo walked on my chest, sat down and stared at me. “Me… ow,” he repeated.
My answering machine clicked on.
“In a second, Boo,” I whispered, waiting for a voice to give a message and hating myself because I was holding my breath.
The voice came.
It wasn’t Vance. It was Ally.
“Girl, wake up. We’re all doing mimosas and eggs benedict. Dozens. Meeting in an hour. Be prepared, Tod’s bringing the Wedding Planner Book. It might get hairy.” She paused. “By the way, ‘in an hour’ means nine thirty.”
I listened to her disconnect.
I laid there, stared at the ceiling and stroked Boo. Boo liked breakfast but he liked stroking better so he settled in and waited.
I wondered if I could do mimosas and eggs benedict with a gaggle of Vance’s friends. I wondered how, if I did do mimosas and eggs benedict, I would go back to a normal life. I wondered what the Wedding Planner Book was.
I curled my arm around Boo, threw back the covers and Boo and I slid off the bed.
I got Boo breakfast.
Then I got ready for Dozens.
* * * * *
After another boring, useless, action-free night of patrol, Luke and I walked up to my house.
I told him he could just take off but he insisted on walking me up to the door.
I’d had another shit day, no calls, no space invasions, no nothing from Vance.
I shouldn’t be surprised. I did break up with him and I wasn’t playing games.
Still, I didn’t expect him to give up so easily.
* * * * *
I found out at breakfast that Tod had declared himself Indy and Lee’s official wedding planner and thus had created The Wedding Planner Book. Indy hadn’t actually made this officially official but was letting Tod live the dream.
For some reason though, throughout breakfast, Tod argued with Roxie (not Indy) about all things wedding. This argument took the form of Tod saying what was going to happen and Roxie saying whatever Tod said was going to happen wasn’t going to happen with a lot of, “We’ve been here before, Tod.”
Indy ignored them and gabbed with the rest of us about her and Lee’s plans to go to Lee’s cabin in Grand Lake for Thanksgiving; whether something big was going to happen between Tex and Jet’s mom (apparently, Tex was Roxie’s uncle and that would make Jet and Roxie related by marriage, I was learning this was an incestuous group); and a lengthy discussion about Luke and my conversation last night.
Indy confirmed that all the guys on the team knew about my cherry popping.
At this news I ordered another mimosa.