“I saw you two run off halfway through the party. You,” she points me, “disappeared and you,” she points at Jackson, “came back looking very…disheveled.”
I gasp incredulously as Jackson leans his head back with a laugh.
“Wait,” Pip interrupts leaning closer to the table. “This all happenedat the wedding?”
I rest my head in my hands as Anya responds with, “You have to hear this story. You’ll never believe it.”
I let Anya fill the girls in as I desperately try to sink into the table. Jackson and Danny have a quiet discussion about rugby that I try to listen in to (and contribute nothing to because I know nothing about rugby apart from how much I like Jackson’s shorts), but I constantly get pulled back in by Pip as they cackle at my misfortune. Eventually, I stumble into a confession about the months following the wedding until the first course is cleared away.
“I can’t believe this,” Pip finally exclaims, sitting back in her seat. “I’ve been dying for the details ever since I found out.”
Anya giggles. “Found out what?”
Pip waves her hand between Jackson and I. “This. I’ve known since like October, was it?” She looks to me as if I have any idea what she’s talking about. I glance up at Jackson but he’s just as confused as I am. “Uh?—”
“You sent me that live photo and it was obviously Jackson’s voice in the background.”
“Wait, what photo?”
“It records audio?”
“So Pip’s known for nearly two months and I only found out two weeks ago?”
“Here look.” Pip rustles in her bag and flashes me the photo I sent her in front of her ad.
“Don’t get my bump in it.Looks good, pretty girl,” our voices echo through the phone.
I gasp and Jackson soothes a hand over his beard. “I can’t believe it.”
“How have you kept that so quiet?”
“I figured you’d tell us when you were ready.”
Danny’s head is thrown back as he laughs. “How did youmiss that?” He looks between Jackson and I. “Why didn’t I get a picture?”
“You’re not on a taxi selling perfume.”
“Who did yours?” Danny asks his sister. “I want one now.”
“You want to be plastered across a London cab, so my best friend can accidentally out her secret relationship through a live picture she didn’t mean to send?” Anya asks wryly.
Danny waves his hand dismissively. “Semantics.”
“I did a cologne ad once as a teenager before I went over to LA,” Jackson admits as he takes a sip of his wine.
“You did?” I ask with a laugh. “When? And more importantly, is it on the internet?”
Anya’s fingers fly on the phone before she giggles. “Jackson, you didn’t.”
I gasp and scoot closer to my best friend. “Let me see!”
We all huddle around the table as we watch a younger, baby-faced Jackson as he runs through city streets with a gaggle of girls chasing him down, all thanks to the delicious scent ofPacific Spring.
He leans back in the booth, his arm slinging across the back. “And I’ve still got it.”
By the time the waiter brings the check at the end of the night, my cheeks hurt from laughing and I almost forget that we have to reverse the circus we had on the way in here.
“Car’s out front,” Danny says, reading his phone.
