I realized that almost immediately, because his attention was fixated on Hunter. This was all about him.
“Oh.” I exhaled heavily, realization dawning. “I get it now.”
“What do you get?” Tristan asked, jerking his eyes to me. He looked ready to throw down, which I found interesting ... and mildly distressing. Monica also seemed to sense trouble. She’d begun tugging on Hunter’s arm in an effort to snag his attention.
“I get that ... Alice has my beer.” I was on my feet as fast as I could manage and swooped toward Alice. She seemed surprised by my excited approach. “Thanks so much.” I sucked from the cup, trying not to make a face at the taste of the beer. “Is this Milwaukee’s Best?”
Hunter smirked. “We’re classy. What can I say?”
“It’s terrible, but beggars can’t be choosers,” Alice said, taking the seat I’d just vacated without asking. “What are we talking about?”
“Stormy was going to tell us what she got. She said ‘I get it now,’ but didn’t say what it was that she got,” Tristan prodded.
“Like anyone cares,” Monica muttered, staring into the distance.
Hunter slid her a dark look but said nothing. I was looking for an escape. I caught sight of Bobby.
“I see someone I need to talk to.” I flashed a smile at Monica while steadfastly ignoring Tristan. “It was great seeing you again, Monica. You look really lovely.” With that, I spun on my heel and took off in the opposite direction, leaving Alice to clean up my mess. I knew she would complain about it when next we crossed paths, but I didn’t care. Getting away from Tristan was the most important thing on my immediate to-do list. I could only hope he would find someone else to focus on in my absence.
Bobby was tipsy when I caught up to him.
“Hey.”
He jolted at the sound of my voice, almost tipping over with a clumsy turn. “Um ... hi. Do I know you?”
It wasn’t the greeting I expected, but it was an opening. “Stormy Morgan. We went to high school together. You were a year ahead of me.”
“Oh, right.” Bobby nodded, as if he recognized me, but the vacant expression in his eyes told me that I was just one of many faces he couldn’t put a name to this evening.
“You should probably sit down.” I grabbed Bobby’s arm and led him to a fallen tree, pushing his shoulders so that he sat. “I wonder if they bring water out here.” I was talking more to myself than him, but he answered.
“Water?” He made a face. “Who wants water?”
“I think you should have some water.”
“I think I need some beer.” He made to stand but fell backward with a grunt as he hit the ground.
This wasn’t how I saw the evening going.
“What were you thinking?” Alice hissed as she appeared out of nowhere, making me jump.
I looked over her shoulder to make sure Tristan hadn’t followed. Thankfully, she was alone. “I’m not sure what you mean,” I lied easily.
“Oh, don’t even.” She narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “You know exactly what you did.”
“I’m sure you’re mistaken.” I moved around to the other side of the tree and stood over Bobby, who had given up trying to right himself. He remained stretched out on the ground, his legs still propped up on the tree, staring at the darkening sky.
“Sunsets are really pretty,” he noted, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “You’re really pretty, too, Sally.”
“Stormy,” I corrected, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Is he already drunk?” Alice asked, moving to my side. She seemed to have forgotten she was angry at me in the wake of Bobby’s graceful showing.
“Apparently so, but I don’t see how that’s possible. The party barely started twenty minutes ago.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have the best reputation.” Alice hunkered down and pressed her finger to the spot between Bobby’s eyebrows, laughing at the way his eyes crossed as he tried to see what she was doing. “This is fun.”
That was so not the word I would use to describe what was happening. “We need to sober him up if we expect to get information out of him.” I would never talk about someone directly in front of them — that’s just bad manners — but it was obvious Bobby wouldn’t remember anything we’d said. He was five quiet minutes away from passing out.
“I thought we wanted him drunk so he would talk,” Alice argued.
“There’s drunk and there’s drunk.” I inclined