Page 123 of All This Time

The women of the party eagerly line up to be the first ones blindfolded, but one woman in particular hangs back.

Good girl.

Tori comes up next to us, her cheeks flushed, presumably from the alcohol she’s consumed. She wraps her arms around Elliot’s waist, and looks up at him with pouty lips. “I don’t like the idea of women pinning your junk.”

He dips his mouth to hers, coaxing her lips open with his tongue, like we’re not all standing right here. The rest of us look away until he resurfaces. “Don’t worry, baby. You’re the only one that gets the real thing.”

Tori giggles. “Good.” The sound of ringing pulls her from their moment. When she retrieves her phone from her pocket, she groans.

Elliot’s jovial mood instantly sours. “Seriously? He can’t leave you alone for one night?”

“Let me just see what he wants.” Tori answers the phone and disappears down the hall.

Elliot drains the rest of his beer as I clear my throat. “Who was that?”

“Her fucking boss, man. I swear, he can’t fucking blink without her help. I can’t wait until she quits working for him.”

I pat him on the back. “Soon, man.”

“Yeah, I know.” Shaking off his irritation, he rubs his hands together, plastering his goofy smile back on his lips. “All right. Which one of you am I going to try to ‘pin’ first?”

Henley holds his hand out toward the games. “You’re going to participate in this?”

“Contrary to how I feel about your sister and her asinine ideas most days, I think this is one of her best.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that, or you’ll never live it down,” Henley says.

Elliot teeters his head back and forth. “Good point. Maybe I shouldn’t play.” Then he turns to me. “Are you gonna take a stab at this?”

“Fuck no.”

“Dear God, there’s more,” Henley mutters as Carolina comes waltzing into the room, pushing a rather large cake on a rolling cart before I can escape.

Stepping up to her, I peer at the cake. “Carolina, what the fuck is that?”

Smirking, she stops at the buffet table, lifting the cardboard slab from the cart and sliding it onto the table. “Ask Dilynne to explain. I’m just the delivery person.”

My head spins to find Dilynne tiptoeing over to the table. “Ah! It’s here!”

Laney steps up to the table, examining the cake as well. “Dilynne Marie Clark. You didn’t! You were just supposed to come up with a game.”

“Well, I got another idea and couldn’t resist.” Dilynne loses all composure as she grips her stomach, laughing above the noise of theroom full of people. “Oh my God! Carolina, you just made all my dreams come true.”

Carolina takes a dramatic bow. “Glad to be of service. Y’all enjoy. And remember, there’s cream filling.” With a wink, she pushes her cart back out the way she came.

Rhonan shakes his head. “Cream filling. How appropriate.”

Elliot walks over to check out the cake for himself, but when he sees the penis-shaped cake with his and Tori’s pictures on the testicles, his smile from before evaporates.

“What the actual fuck?”

“Hey. This is for the ladies. At a bachelorette party, there would normally be a phallic-shaped cake. I just decided to make it special and put your faces on it.”

Elliot glares at Dilynne. “You’re deranged.”

“Well, if you didn’t want my input, you shouldn’t have invited me.” Peering around the room, she yells, “Who wants to cut the penis?”

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I say, turning to the other guys. “Can someone watch Elliot and Dilynne, please? Especially when the knife comes out?”