After dancing with her girlfriends to Lady Gaga, Catherine collapsed into the wooden chair and gulped down half her ice water. Oops. That was her rum and coke.
“I don’t know if I could be any happier for you, Cat.” Celeste wrapped an arm around her and clinked her glass with Cat’s.
Cat beamed. “Thanks, Cel. You’re not just saying that because you’re my maid of honor?”
“Nope,” Celeste said, sending a little spray when pronouncing the “P”. “Now, a toast. To the most beautiful bride in all of Travis County.” Her blonde bestie lifted a shot of Bazooka Joe from the selection the waitress had just delivered.
All twelve reached for the fun blue drinks.
“Here, here,” Bethany said, her big, almond-shaped eyes sparkling.
All Cat’s friends plus her bridesmaids—Cel, Riley, Lori, Julie, and Bethany—joined in.
The concoction went down in a yummy stream—so good she’d lost count how many she’d had. Cat reached for her ice water, double-checking before she took a swig.
“Oh, my request! Let’s go, girls.” Lori popped out of her chair, her red curls bouncing in the process.
The beginning of “Jack & Diane” by John Mellencamp blasted over the speakers of the dance club/bar in downtown Austin. Cat’s friends had planned the best bachelorette party a girl could ask for—the veil, the scavenger hunt, dinner, drinks at every bar. No detail left unnoticed. In fact, Riley had run into an ex-boyfriend and promised him a blow job in the back hall if he’d buy them a round. After he’d dropped off tequila shots, Riley’s smile twinkled like her diamond-stud earrings, and she’d disappeared for a few minutes. Cat wished she could be as bold.
Cat wobbled when she stood and chuckled. Her fiancé’s name was Jack, and her middle name was Diane—Catherine Diane. The tune was like their theme song.
Carving out space on the dance floor, the twelve women let loose. Arms flying, hair swinging, and voices shaking—they sang along. Cat pushed her play veil back into position.
A deep voice sounded behind her. “Can I help you with that?”
Cat spun around to find a sorta cute blond smiling down at her. He had a build similar to Jack, maybe a little taller, and his shoulder-length hair was tucked behind his ears. But his smile did nothing for Cat. When Jack smiled, butterflies took flight in her stomach. Every single time.
“Nope.” She swayed, still fussing with her darn veil, and the blond put his hands on her hips to balance her.
“Sweetheart, you look like you’re having all kinds of fun. Your groom is one lucky man. Mind if I dance with you?”
She grinned from ear to ear hearing reference to Jack. “He is.” She nodded and felt a rush of dizziness again. “And you can dance with me, as long as you don’t get any ideas.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Promise.”
They danced through the next three songs, and only twice did the blond need to grab her hips to stabilize her.
“I need water,” she called to her girls and waved to the blond. Five of them followed her back to the table where she finished off her glass. She retrieved her phone from her mini purse to shoot off a text to her sweetie.
“What are you doing?” Celeste leaned in.
“Texting Jack.”
“You really are smitten.”
She looked up and sighed. “Celeste, how did I get so lucky? My world revolves around this man, and I couldn’t be happier. Jack’s different. I’m done with the losers.” After about two years together, Cat had learned how caring and generous Jack was. He would always open the door for her and offer to pick up groceries from the store so she didn’t have to shop.
Celeste grinned and sent her a wink.
She finished her text and reread it.
Hello my handsome fiancé. I’m having a wonderful time, but I’m thinking it could be even better if I dropped by tonight to do naughty things to you.
She giggled and hit send. Where did this gutsiness come from? The alcohol made her do it.
“Okay, next on the scavenger list,” Lori announced as she unfolded the sheet of paper.
Her girls had made a list of things she had to do that night, like dance with a guy who was also named Jack, have a guy give her his underwear, kiss a bald man’s head leaving a lipstick mark, and the list went on. She was about half-way through.
“Oh, you can do this one,” Bethany pointed to number five: draw a tattoo on a bartender or bouncer.
Riley handed her a black marker from her purse while Cat scanned the room. The bartenders were slammed at the bar, and there wasn’t a bouncer in sight, not that her double vision was reliable right then.
“Does a DJ count?”
The ladies looked at each other, silently taking a vote. “Yes,” Celeste announced.
Cat carefully stood and made her way to the DJ booth. Don’t fall, and speak clearly.
“Hey.”
The DJ pulled his headset back from one ear. “Hey, pretty lady. Wanna hear a song?”
“No. I need to do a task.”
“A task?” His eyes narrowed.
“Yeah. I have a list of things to do for my bachelorette party, and one of them is to draw a tattoo on the DJ.” She wiggled the pen in her hand. “Will you let me?”
He stared at her for a beat. “What’s your name?”
“Cat.”
“Okay. Come up here.”
She climbed the two steps as he held open the booth gate.
“Gimme a second.” He put his headset back in place and pressed some buttons on his control panel. When the song ended, he clicked on the microphone. “Okay, you party fiends. In the house, we have Cat, our bride-to-be. Everyone give it up for Cat.”
The crowd went wild with applause and hoots. Her girls beamed at her in the spotlight.
Geez! She hated the attention. You can do this, Cat.
“She has a list of things she needs to accomplish tonight. One is to draw a tattoo on the DJ.”
Her smile fell. She hadn’t thought about what she was going to draw.
“So, yours truly is going to be her willing-and-able victim.” More hoots and hollers. “The question is, where do I get my tattoo? My arm? My stomach? Or maybe my ass?”
The crowd went positively wild.
Shit! He wouldn’t. Holy crap!
“Now, calm down. I don’t want to lose my job, so pretty lady, stomach it is.” The DJ leaned forward to the control panel to play the instrumental piece from the Jeopardy game show. Then, he lifted his shirt to reveal a reasonably taut stomach with very little hair. “Okay, sweetheart, have at it.”
Her brain couldn’t fire on all cylinders. There was only one thing that came to her mind. “Here goes.”
Cat knew the image well, although the marker didn’t allow for much detail work, not like her charcoals. She took about two minutes and felt the DJ getting impatient. She finished quickly and wrote a caption.
The man tipped his head down to his stomach, and his mouth dropped open.
From the applause and laughter, the crowd seemed to love her work.
It wasn’t her best by any means but with such limited time… She winked at her portrait of Jack, gave her thank you to the DJ, and returned to the table of her exuberant friends.