Page 76 of Fly's Path

I’ve been staring at it forever, trying to figure out how to respond without sounding pathetic.

What do I do?

He’s going to think you’re ignoring him.

No, he’s not. He’ll think what any normal, sane person would think: that you’re busy. Which you are.

Well, if having fun with friends is busy. And giggling is busy.

I needed this silliness in my life so much. It’s going to make going back home even harder, but I’ll worry about that when it happens.

“So, what are we going to do for Dylan’s bachelorette party?” Mindy lifts her glass off the table. “We can’t ignore this momentous occasion.”

“No one say a strip club, because the only ones I want to see taking off their clothes are those bikers.” Savie swirls her straw around in her drink.

It’s fair. Those men are fine…including Fly. Now is not the time to imagine him with his shirt off. “Why do we have to do something raunchy? What about a girls’ night in?”

“I love that idea,” Piper grins.

“What about a murder mystery night in? We all get to be characters in a story. And we need to figure out who did it. We could ask some of the guys to play along as characters,” Garnet throws in offhandedly.

“I love that idea. We could do it at Winnie’s place.” Cordelia leans in and whispers, “It would be the perfect spooky backdrop.”

“My place isn’t spooky—”

“Yes, it is,” Mindy and Cordelia say in unison.

“Old castles do set a certain tone. And with all the people who were killed there—”

“Ottilie, you aren’t helping.”

“I didn’t hear that last part.” Leonie smirks as she reaches for another scone. “But they’re right. It would be a blast running through your house doing a murder mystery.”

“There aren’t any bodies in my house.” Winnie lifts a tea sandwich to her lips. “Anymore. And that sounds good to me. But everyone needs to wear a tracker in case they get lost.”

Get lost? How big is Winnie’s house? Are they serious about it being a castle?

“When can we do this? There’s hardly any time.” Dahlia is the voice of reason, it seems.

“What about this weekend?” Mindy grabs a cluster of grapes off a tray. “We could get the costumes tomorrow. We’re all in town.”

A weekend event?

“Saturday morning for brunch? Then we’ll finish Sunday evening or when someone solves the mystery and reveals the killer.” Ottilie lifts the pen she always seems to have with her. “But who is going to make sure no one cheats? We can’t get one of those games because all you would have to do is look up the answer.”

“Um…I might have the solution for that.” Garnet raises her glass instead of her hand. “I wrote one a long time ago. Just for the fun of it. We could use that one. I’ll jot down character cards for everyone. But we’ll need a lot of male players for it to work.”

“On it.” Mindy and Dylan say at the same time.

Will Fly join in the festivities? I hope so.

Just text him back with something. Even if you can’t be honest, say something.

Sheri

My favorite drink is chocolate milk.

See? There, that wasn’t hard.