Love and other Discord

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It was the least I could do.

Jenna walked over, tucking her sunglasses into the neckline of her dress. "Everything looks perfect, Rini."

Just as her lips brushed my cheek, I pulled away. "Where's Tyler and—"

"So we're not gonna talk about last night then, I take it?"

With a thud, I set the winged goddess down on a pedestal. "I don't think now is the best time, do you?"

"Then when, Rini? Straight after dinner, we're rehearsing the ceremony. Tomorrow's the wedding. Then I'm off to Greece for two weeks."

"For your honeymoon. With your husband," I clarified. I avoided Jenna's eyes by looking over her shoulder instead. "Who just walked in with his groomsmen."

"I heard you girls were up to no good last night." Tyler strolled over with his best man lumbering behind.

"Bad karaoke choices were definitely made," Jenna answered smoothly.

The best man snickered and clicked his tongue. "That's not all I heard."

Jenna shot me a look, but there was no way any of the bridesmaids would have known what happened in the lounge. That was just between me and Jenna and a gorgeous Ukrainian stripper named Anastasia.

"Lydia said yinz ended up at Honey's."

Fucking Lydia.

"We may have," Jenna tried to playfully tease, but it came out a little dry. "What's it to you?"

"Oh, nothing." Tyler shot her a toothy grin that turned my stomach. He walked up to Jenna and embraced her from behind. "Did you get a lap dance at Honey's, Honey?"

Jenna's eyes found mine again. "I uh, bought Rini one actually. It's been years since she's gotten any ass."

"Years?" I laughed in irritation.

"The divorce has been brutal on ya, babe. You just felt up that goddess statue over there."

"I—" But if my sexless, forever-tainted love life took the heat off of us, I could bear the embarrassment. And it seemed to have worked. Tyler looked less interested in grilling Jenna.

His hands slid off her as he took a step closer to me. "Imagine if we'd all ended up at the same strip club together?" He clapped me on the shoulder with a bellowing laugh.

"Ahh, yes," I mumbled. "Imagine that."

"I don't get it, Rini." Tyler squeezed my arm. "You're a gorgeous girl—Babe, I can say that, right? Of course I can. I'm engaged, not blind. You're gorgeous. You've got a decent job here at the museum..."

"A decent job." I almost laughed. I was the damn curator.

"...What's the problem?" Tyler asked.

"The problem?" This wasn't where I expected the conversation to go, but where to start? Thirty-five year old divorcees who would honestly rather talk to marble sculptures than most real people weren't exactly in high demand in the dating world. "I—"

"She's picky," Jenna jumped in to save me. "And she has every right to be. Irina could have any woman she wanted."

"I don't know about that." As genuine as Jenna had meant it, there was still something more behind her words, something only I seemed to notice. But I kept my eyes on the winged goddess to avoid drawing attention to the tension between us.

"My cousin's gay," James—or Jason or whatever the best man's name was—blurted out. "I could hook you up."

Tyler slapped his arm in excitement. "That's perfect. We still have an empty seat next to Rini tomorrow since—"

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