The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 96

After dessert, Shawn made a suggestion to the small group of friends we were sitting with. "Does anyone want to come back to my place? We could have drinks and hang out. It's not even that cold, so I can crank up the fire pit and we could sit on the patio."

The two other couples agreed enthusiastically to this plan. Shawn and I got to his condo before everyone else, so I quickly changed into something more comfortable while he gathered blankets to take outside.

"Do you have enough booze on hand?" I asked.

"I have a ton of liquor and wine, and maybe ten beers. We'll have to make do with that."

Brian and Meg arrived first, but Fallon and Briya weren't far behind. After getting drinks, we went out to the comfy outdoor living area and each couple took a loveseat or chair to cuddle up on under a blanket. Shawn lit the gas fire pit and got some music playing on the Bluetooth speaker.

Brian took a swig of his bourbon and asked me, "How are you doing? It's great that the trial ended the way it did, but you looked uncomfortable during most of it."

"It was hard. I'm glad my memory came back, but now that I remember, I'm having to process the fact that I was assaulted. Obviously I knew I'd been attacked, but being told about it isn't the same as recalling what it felt like. I had an emergency therapy session this week to help me with that."

Shawn pulled me closer to him and kissed the top of my head. "I don't like seeing you struggle."

"I'll be fine. It's been an intense month between you coming home, Halloween, my birthday, and the trial. I need to decompress, but it's almost Christmas so that won't be easy."

"You need a vacation!" Briya asserted.

"We planned a trip to Hawaii yesterday," Shawn told the group. "We're going for two weeks at the beginning of January."

"I think you could use a getaway before then," Fallon said. "Briya and I were looking at renting a cabin for a long weekend, but it was too expensive for the two of us. What if we did it as a group?"

"Oh my god!" her girlfriend exclaimed. "That would be so much fun!"

Brian and Meg looked at each other before she said, "I think that sounds great. We'd actually talked about wanting to go to the Muskoka area since it's apparently beautiful in the winter."

"What do you think, hun?" Shawn asked me.

"I love the idea!"

Fallon took out her phone and after scrolling through dozens of options, she found a place to rent that had three bedrooms. It was built in 2020, so it was modern and very nicely equipped. She sent everyone the link to look at it, and we all agreed that it was lovely.

"I'll take care of the rental," Shawn offered. "Consider it a thank you for being so supportive of me and Lucy."

Within minutes, the cabin was secured for the second weekend in December, and we started talking about the food we'd make and the various activities we could do. I said I'd bring my Nintendo Switch so that we could play video games, and Meg offered to bring Monopoly and Clue. Brian volunteered to get some games that went well with drinking, like Cards Against Humanity.

"We should play a game now," Briya suggested. "Do you have any, Shawn?"

"I might have something in the closet by door. Lemme go check."

I got up and followed him inside so that I could refill my glass of wine. Once I'd done that, I found him pulling things off the highest closet shelf. "I don't have anything that we can play sitting outside," he said glumly.