“Yes. Why? Got any better names?”
“Well, since you like collective names what about Bark?”
“No, Tash. No! Definitely not.”
“I know, what about Boaab?” she asked excitedly.
The rest of the girls and I scoffed at the horrid name. “Seriously, Tash? What the fuck?”
“BOAAB. Baby Of Alexis And Bryce. BOAAB. Shit, I’m smart.”
I screwed my face up. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Clearly, too much,” Lil interjected. I agreed.
I quickly scanned the room, looking for Bryce, Gareth, or both of them together. There was no sign of either. I did spot Carls in the middle of the lounge room though, clearly flirting as she spoke to Derek.
I grinned and then got a great idea. “Hey. Wanna help me stir up Carls? Bryce has me drinking non-alcoholic wine, and it’s depressing me. I need to punish someone. I owe Carls about a thousand paybacks, so she is my victim.”
The girls all smiled. “What did you have in mind?” Steph asked, while stealing one of my macaroons. I gave her the mother of all deathly looks which prompted her to gingerly place it back my hot little hand.
Shooting daggers at Steph one more time, I turned to Tash. “I need some songs about fires.” I gave her a mischievous grin, knowing full well my human-jukebox of a friend would come through for me.
After Tash rattled off a few ‘fiery’ songs, we were set to put our plan into action. Trying to keep a straight face and looking completely casual and inconspicuous, I slowly walked past Carly while softly singing “All Fired Up” by Pat Benatar. I stopped at the waiter who was only a meter from where Carls and Derek were standing, grabbed a glass of pink rose shit—or whatever it was called—then made my way back to the girls, singing the chorus slightly louder as I strolled past Carls. Tash then did the same thing, only her song of choice was “Light My Fire” by The Doors. As she made her way back to me, she raised her voice and danced while gently patting at her snatch, as if it was alight. I cracked up laughing and noticed Carly turn slightly in our direction with an unsure look on her face. I quickly looked down desperately fighting back the hysterics and trying not to make eye contact with her, knowing that if I did, I would crumble.
Phase two in the Let’s-get-Carls-all-fired-up game, consisted of all five of us walking over to the waiter and staying put, this now giving us the excuse to remain in Carly’s earshot so that we could continue to sing rather than walk away. As we stood in a circle with our drinks, I started us off by humming “Girl On Fire” by Alicia Keys. Tash joined in moments after and hummed along with me right up until the pause before the chorus. I nodded my head at her and the other girls then we all sang the lyrics in the chorus together, rather loudly.
Now, if you’re not familiar with the song, the chorus is what you would describe as a ‘belter’, meaning one: you have to be relatively good at singing—which we weren’t. And two: you needed to belt it out really loud—which we did. Needless to say, it got everyone’s attention—mainly due to the fact we sounded awful.
Before I knew it, Will had grabbed a couple of forks from a serving platter and started drumming the beat on the top of the bar, assisting our charade. I smiled at him as I laughed and continued to sing the song—I think the drum beat actually helped our tone. Carls had caught on to our game at that point and was pinching the bridge of her nose and screwing up her face. Derek just seemed highly amused at our apparent flash mob performance. This behaviour was not out of the ordinary for us girls, so after we had finished, we received a small round of applause then the room went back to its normal small talk chit chat.
I hadn’t noticed Bryce return until we had finished our sing-along. He was standing next to Jake looking pretty comfortable and relaxed. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist.
Jake shook his head at me. “Are you sure you want her to have your baby?” he asked Bryce, pointing toward me with his beer. “She’s slightly crazy.”
Bryce kissed my head. “I like crazy.”
I pulled away and gently elbowed him in the ribs. “Did you find Gareth?”
“No. He’s obviously taken off. I’ll speak with him tomorrow.” I shot him an apologetic look. “Alexis, it’s not your fault, so don’t.”
“What’s not her fault?” Jake asked.
“It’s nothing, Jake. Gareth is just not a fan of me and Bryce as a couple.”
“Why? Does he have a thing for you, Lexi?”
I scoffed. Um, no not me...the sexy father of my child, more like it. “It’s a long story Jake. I’ll fill you in another time.” Now was not the time to enlighten Jake that Gareth was Bryce’s mentally ill cousin who had an altering personality, one that was in love with Bryce and wanted me out of the picture. No, now is definitely not the time.