Still not into you - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,31

I want to keep it from Hudson. We’re not really together anymore.

Dylan and I walk out of the room with hung heads. I’m actually tiptoeing. I hope that everyone is still asleep. Unfortunately, they’re not. There’s a room service cart in the middle of the room and everyone’s having breakfast.

“Wow, look who’s up!” Juliet announces to the whole room. Tanner stops pouring his cup of coffee. Tea looks up from her magazine.

“Hey.” I smile and wave. “Morning.”

Without saying a word, I walk over to the open box of donuts and grab one with cherry filling spilling out of its side. Sugar isn’t the best way to start the day, but I need a pick-me-up. A big one.

“So…how does it feel?” Tea asks.

Dylan and I look at each other. He has a confused look on his face. I’m equally perplexed.

“What?” he asks.

Okay, so maybe we had slept together, even though neither of us remembers. How is this their business exactly? It’s not, but it doesn’t stop them from gossiping. I hate to admit it, but if Dylan and Tea slept together, I’d be all over it as well.

“I can’t believe you two did that last night.” Tea shakes her head. She has a mischievous smile on her face.

“We don’t remember a thing,” I finally admit. “Why were we sleeping in that room anyway? Wasn’t that supposed to be your room?”

“Yes, but after what happened…we just thought it would be more appropriate,” Tea says with a shrug.

Why is she being so mysterious?

“What happened?” I ask. I search all of my memories from last night in an effort to find one that would explain this, but nothing comes to mind.

“Wait a second!” Juliet says, getting excited. Her eyes light up and she gets a big grin on her face. “Wait a second!”

I hate how dramatic she can be sometimes. How animated.

“Are you two really, and I mean really, telling us that you don’t remember what happened last night?”

Dylan and I exchange looks. We both shrug and shake our heads.

“No,” I mumble. “Not really.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Juliet asks.

“Um,” I say. “Walking around the casino, going up some stairs somewhere, drinking. A lot.”

“And you?” Juliet turns to Dylan.

“Not much else,” he says. “I don’t even remember going up any stairs.”

“Oh. My. God!” Juliet shrieks and jumps up and down. “Oh. My. God!”

“What?” I ask. “What’s going on?”

Tea joins in Juliet’s excitement, but Tanner just stands back a little. He doesn’t shriek or jump, but he does flash me a smile. Clearly, our lack of memory is bringing everyone a great deal of joy.

“Oh, c’mon, just tell us. What happened?” Dylan says, grabbing a bagel. He starts lathering it with a generous amount of cream cheese. “What’s the big deal?”

“Okay, okay,” Juliet says, taking a big sigh. She’s trying to calm herself down. We wait. “Okay. I can do this,” she says and then bursts out laughing.

“C’mon!” I say. I’m losing my patience and I’m not really in the mood anyway. It’s way too bright in this room. My head is pounding. My mouth is dry. I’m already regretting eating half the donut, even though I continue to take additional bites.

“Okay,” Juliet says. “You know what you did last night?”

“No!” Dylan and I say in unison. We’re both growing more and more impatient with every second.

“Well, let me tell you,” she says, clearly milking the moment. She should be an actress, I decide. She has epic timing. “What you two did last night was…get married!”

Dylan drops his bagel to the floor. It falls with the cream cheese side down. I start to choke and cough. Tea hands me a cup of water. I manage to get a few sips in.

“What?” I ask when I finally get some air. “What?”

“You got married,” Juliet says again. Quietly this time. The tone of her voice is serious, but it feels like a joke.

“What do you mean?” I ask. “No, that can’t be. We didn’t actually get married. It was just a joke. Please, tell me it’s a joke.”

While I have the tendency to talk and say everything that comes to mind in times of stress, Dylan, apparently, has a completely different tendency. I turn to him for some support in this, but he just stares at the wall. As if he’s frozen. Like a statue.

“Dylan.” I pull on his shirt. “We didn’t get married. Right?”

A moment later, he comes back to reality.

“No, we couldn’t have,” he whispers.

“Well, you did,” Juliet says. Her certainty frightens me.

Tea comes