Authors: R.S Burnett
Your daddy
P.S Your mom says hi.
I can’t and won’t stop smiling to myself, I gather up everything and put it all back in my purse, except the six tickets and make quick work of finishing my drink.
While I’ve been sat at the table the group at the bar has grown in size and now it consists of Tom, Cat, Kyle, Travis, Chris, Jen and Amber. I start heading towards them but Mason and Anne stop me on my way over.
“Did you read it dear?” Anne asks smiling kindly at me.
“Yes, did you know about it all?”
“No, only that he wrote a letter. I’m happy for you though” Mason answers for her. I give them both a quick hug and run/skip to the group at the bar grinning.
“And why are you so happy?” Travis asks pulling me into his side.
I look over at Cat and then up at Travis, everyone is watching me curiously.
“How does Vegas sound?” I ask
“Sound like a somewhere I wanna be”
“I got tickets!” I squeal.
“No fucking way, shut up!” He looks at me seriously trying to work out whether I am joking or not.
I nod up at him and hold up the tickets for him to see.
As soon as he has checked them he lifts me up and spins me around laughing.
Anne and Mason come over to see what we are so excited about.
They watch Travis and I laughing and spinning around for a few minutes.
“She got tickets to Vegas” Cat fills them in laughing with us.
“Really?” Mason asks looking longingly at the tickets still in my hand.
Travis puts me back on my feet and orders another round of drinks and shots.
“I have six tickets, he told me to gather up my friends and have a wild week away”
At hearing she’s coming with me Cat starts jumping on the spot, Travis and Tom high five, grinning at each other.
“Who’s the six for?” Amber asks eyeing the four of us who are celebrating.
“Well Jen obviously has the fifth and I’m not sure about the last one, I’d invite you but you’re pregnant and unable to drink so you wouldn’t be much fun” I shrug to lessen the bitchiness of my comment. “Chris could always come though” I smile to myself knowing she would rather Kyle come along than Chris.
Chris looks nervously at me and chances a quick glance at Amber but I catch it and tilt myself at him, raising an eyebrow. “Who knows what could occur. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas after all” I wink at him, his eyes widen slightly and Amber clears her throat.
“Hey, I though we changed that to what happens at Travis’s house stays in Travis’s house?” Travis pouts playfully at me.
“Doesn’t have the same ring to it” I kiss his cheek.
Mason chuckles to himself softly “I could always come with you”
I raise an eyebrow at him “Sure you could keep up with us? We do need to equal the numbers though, just in case any
affairs
were to happen we want partners”
“You better stay home then” Anne laughs at him.
“It’s not for another month anyway so I have plenty of time to find one more person”
“Can I speak to you in private please?” Chris asks me so I smile and follow him to the other end of the bar.
“What’s wrong?” I ask giving him an innocent look.
“Who told you?” he asks looking directly into my eyes.
“Told me what?”
“You know what, you have been dropping hints about it all night, who told you?”
“I don’t know what you mean Chris, you’re not feeling guilty for something are you?”
“I won’t feel guilty for loving someone” he snaps at me.
“Well maybe you should have fallen in love with your girlfriend and not a woman who is not far from walking down the aisle, with another man who just happens to be the ex-boyfriend of the girlfriend you were cheating on”
“I shouldn’t have cheated on you, you’re right but it just happened. Why do you think I ended it so abruptly? I know the timing was really bad but I knew you had people around you that could help you through your fathers death better than I could” I stop listening to him then and work out a few dates in my head. Anne has given me more information than I wanted about Ambers pregnancy but now it all starts falling into place. I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach.
“You two deserve each other” I shake my head at him and walk away.
“Lou, your pale” Mason says, everyone turns there attention to me.
“My dads fucking funeral” I hiss at him narrowing my eyes on Amber, understanding crosses his face and he wraps an arm around me turning me around as I take a step towards Amber.
“Dance with her” he says quickly passing me over Travis.
“Uh.. sure” Travis frowns at him but leads me to the dance floor while everyone watches me.
“What’s going on?” He asks looking down at me and pulling me up against him, I look over his shoulder at the group around the bar, Kyle, Mason and Cat are all watching me, Cat and Kyle are confused but Mason just looks worried.
“I don’t want to tell you” I turn my attention back to Travis and look up at him.
“You can tell me, you clearly need to tell someone” he says on a squeeze.
“I don’t want to put you in an awkward position” I sigh.
“Lou, just tell me”
“Amber isn’t pregnant with Kyle’s baby”
“She’s not pregnant?” he frowns not following.
“No she’s pregnant, it’s Chris’s”
“What?”
“When she moved into town, everyone was so concerned over me breaking her and Kyle’s relationship up that no one paid any attention to her. She has been having an affair with Chris, while I was with him. I didn’t know until this morning when Mason told me. They don’t know he knows and no one else does apart from me and now you. That’s why Chris broke things off with me, he says he loves her, anyway if you look at the dates, she conceived on the day of my fathers funeral so while Kyle and I were at the funeral and then the wake, her and Chris were making a baby”
“Shit” is all he says and pulls me closer against him.
“You know, I didn’t get it at first, but Chris was pushing me to be friends with her after she’d been here about a week, and she went over to his house, I thought someone told her but now I think she knew I wasn’t living there but when I shared a taxi home with you three Kyle wanted to see my dad, before he knew he was ill. I tried saying no but she was insisting that he did. She knew!”
I stop dancing “It makes sense now, she knew all along, that’s why she was never concerned about the rumours of me wanting Kyle back, she knew why I was like I was because of my dad”
“Lou” Travis warns cautiously.
“She knew, all this time and she knew. I felt so guilty because Kyle was spending time with me, helping me through grieving my dads death and she knew. She knew because she was fucking my boyfriend!” The last part comes out as a growl.
“Lou, Louise! Look at me.” He grabs both my shoulders and I look up at him.
“You’re better than them, they are hurting people, everyone who loves them they have either hurt or about to hurt in the future. You’re so much better than that” he wraps his arms around me and squeezes me into a hug “Don’t let them get to you. Don’t let them have the power to hurt you”
“It’s hard not to” I sigh relaxing into him.
“You haven’t lost anything you were always too good for Chris anyway, everyone knew that”
“It’s going to break Kyle’s heart when he finds out. You can’t ell him though, she has to”
“I know.. don’t worry about Kyle, I’m working on him” he rubs his hand up and down my back reassuringly. “You ready to go back over there?”
“Do I have a choice?” I grumble making him chuckle softly.
We make our way back to the group who are all chatting and drinking the only person paying any attention to us is Cat but I smile at her reassuringly.
“I didn’t really see it before but you two sure do make one hot couple” she smiles at Travis and I.
We both smirk at each other.
“The sex is great” we tell her simultaneously then start laughing.
“Hardly ever make it to the bed” Travis tells her grinning.
“On tables, kitchen counters, the stairs, up against walls. Why do you think we were so late getting here?” I shake my head “It’s heavy stuff” I grin and burst out laughing at Anne’s horrified expression.
“Well I’m happy for you both” She tells us unsure.
“What? It’s not like I ever get naked in public” I tell her soberly but catch Mason smirking at my statement. “Well not often anyway” I wink at her.
“Wait, you mean you two...” Jen asks looking between me and Travis surprised and confused.
“Well if that kiss on the beach last night was anything to go by then I’d say they are” Amber tells her.
“So that’s why you stayed? You stayed for Travis” Jen asks turning her attention fully to me now.
“Uh... well” I look to Travis for help.
He wraps his arm around me and pulls me into his side. “We’re just going to see where it goes” he tells her, I keep my expression blank and watch as Cat raises an eyebrow at me and sending me an I-want-all-the-details-later look.
“I don’t believe you” Jen shakes her head us, I send Cat a look asking for her co-operation.
“Oh come on, you know what they are both like on their own, they are both the life of the party, to be honest I’m surprised it took this long for them to get together actually” she smiles at Jen.
“Uh yes well anyway...” Kyle says to no one in particular so we all look to him, he shifts on his feet looking uncomfortable.
I frown at him but he doesn’t meet my eyes.
“Was the best story I could think of” Travis whispers in my ear.
When I think about it, I suppose it wont hurt for people to think this, at least it will stop them thinking I really am going story and stop the wedding. So I lean up and kiss his cheek “I can pretend if you can” I whisper just below his ear.
He turns and places his hands on the bar either side of me, trapping me in and lowers his head to my ear so his stubble scrapes against my cheek “We could have some fun with his” he whispers against my neck and I can tell he’s grinning, the only person who can see my face and probably my horrified expression is Mason but he’s smirking at me, I narrow my eyes at him to which he grins.
Travis stands back up and turns his head to Cat, “Ready to get out of here?” he asks her and Tom, they both nod watching us amused and he steps back.
Mason steps forward to hug me.
“I know what he’s planning and I can’t stay I don’t like it because I love it, but you need to work on those acting skills girl” he whispers into my ear, when he pulls back I grin up at him. “I’ll come by to see you tomorrow, and not at Travis’s”
My grin turns into a shit eating grin when I realize he’s talking about my new place that I am yet to see.
“Come on I have a surprise you three” I tell Cat, Travis and Tom and lead them out to a taxi.
When the taxi pulls away we all stand on the footpath looking at the building in front of us amazed. I’m not sure how my father managed it but he has rendered us all speechless.
The house is raised off the ground with a small set of steps leading up to it. A wooden deck surrounds the whole outside of the one story wooden building.
I slowly make my way up the steps to the front door and use my key to unlock what will be my new home. As the door swings open the lights come on. My father has always been well off but now I can see how well off he was as I take in my surrounding.