Page 6 of Her Embarrassed Bear Mate (Crescent Lake Bears #5)

SIX

Alix

After a few evenings of listening to her mum gush about Dirk, Alix was beyond relieved when she could escape on Friday night for her weekly ladies night.

She sipped her very tasty margarita on Aditi’s sofa and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

“I had the worst week at work,” Aditi announced as she settled on the other side of the sofa, tired rings around her dark brown eyes. “My supervisor is killing me with my shifts. It’s like she doesn't believe I need sleep?”

“Is that the same supervisor who steals your lunch?”

“No, that's a different one.” Aditi groaned loudly. “I hate being so low down the shit pyramid.”

Alix gave her friend a consoling little pat on the shoulder. “There, there, it’ll get better soon.”

Maria chuckled, sensibly not drinking margaritas. “At least you can still go to work. I’m just a fat whale that lies around the house all the time.”

“Because you’re growing a human being,” Alix pointed out.

“Or a shifter,” Maria muttered. “It’s a good thing they don’t come out like that. I don’t want a bear shooting out of my vagina.”

Aditi laughed. “Gross. Let’s talk about something that won’t make my stomach turn. Alix, how are you with your mum’s new engagement?”

“Oh don't get me started. She dragged me and Trixie all the way over to have some misguided family dinner with her new boyfriend and his children because, in his words, we’re all going to be a family!”

Aditi made a retching sound, as any good friend should. “Deluded. What were his children like?”

The image of Veronica imposed itself on Alix's brain and she felt her ears heat up. “They were… ok ay. He has three sons, one daughter. Can't say I paid much attention to the sons.”

“Oh-oh… hot step-sister alert?” Aditi teased, not knowing just how close she was to hitting the nail on the head.

Alix buried her face in her hands. “Remember a few days ago when I messaged you for an alibi?”

“Yes. What was all that about?”

“I went out drinking. And I met someone.”

“Okay…? I’m sensing a but.”

“We met in a bar, she seemed in a really shitty mood, I was in a shitty mood. One thing led to another, we went clubbing and ended up kissing.” Alix was well aware she was rambling and delaying what she really needed to say. She took another big gulp of her margarita for liquid courage. “We almost slept together.”

Aditi gave her a typical Aditi look, with one perfect eyebrow cocked and icy glint in her eyes. She suffered no fools. “I don’t see what this has to do with needing an alibi. It’s not like your mum is going to be upset that you had a little one-night-stand.”

“I almost slept with the hot step-sister. Emphasis on almost because I was so drunk, I couldn’t get it up. Metaphorically,” Alix blurted out. Under different circumstances, she would’ve been pleased that she’d made the unflusterable Aditi look so surprised, but it only drove home how awkward and absurd this situation was.

“No!” Aditi looked genuinely mortified. “You’re lying. No!”

Maria just cackled. “Oh, Alix…”

“That dinner was the most awkward night in my life. When I told Lena—” she promptly swallowed her sentence. “Sorry.”

Aditi smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Why are you apologising? I know you’re still hanging out with her. I don’t expect you to stop chatting just because Lena and I broke up. We were all friends first.”

Alix grimaced. “Still, I know it’s a sore spot.”

“I’m over her.” Aditi’s left eye twitched. She was lying and everyone knew she was lying.

“Alix, tell me more about your new step-sister,” Maria said tactfully.

“Don’t call her that.” Alix held out her empty glass for more margarita from the jug. “Her name is Veronica and she’s ridiculously gorgeous. Like, insane. Honestly, she’s up there with Aditi.”

“Stop.” Aditi scoffed, somehow genuinely oblivious to how beautiful she was just because she didn’t meet the typical beauty standards. But anyone with eyes could tell she was stunning with her flawless brown skin, elegant nose, and those soulful dark brown bambi eyes.

“I’m serious. Objectively, you could be a model.” Alix sighed thinking about Veronica and her magnetising gaze. “But Veronica is fiiiiine ! Smoking hot. I honestly thought I was going to combust on the spot when I saw her.”

Aditi snorted. “Wow, hello, smitten kitten. What did your mum say about all this?”

“I didn't tell her! How awkward would that be? By the way, mum, I slept with the daughter of your fiancé?" Alix got second-hand embarrassment for herself. "Veronica and I agreed to keep it a secret from everyone so don't tell your mum either because then she'll tell my mum.”

“I won't,” Aditi promised.

Alix complained a bit more about the evening while Aditi complained about her job and Maria grumbled about being pregnant. There was comfort and relief in sharing their frustrations, even if they weren't able to find solutions. It was just nice to know someone cared.

After Maria went home to rest, Aditi made another pitcher of margaritas. Alix happily poured herself another glass, glad to let her hair down after the stressful eventful week she had.

“I’m hungry. Do you want to order pizza?” Alix proposed.

Aditi shook her head. “I ordered pizza last night but I have leftovers from my mum in the fridge if that’ll do?”

“Ooh, yum. Did she make her saag paneer?”

“Yes, she knows it's your favourite.”

Alix got up and swayed towards the kitchen, slightly unsteady on her feet thanks to the margaritas. She grabbed bowls from the cupboard and shamelessly opened the fridge. There was a kind of comfort and familiarity that came from their mothers being friends and practically growing up in each other’s houses.

Sometimes, she thought of Aditi more as a sister than Trixie.

It wasn't that she didn't love her little sister but the big age difference meant they hadn't grown up together whereas Alix and Aditi had.

After they devoured the reheated food at the kitchen table, Alix felt sleepy and relaxed. She rested her head on the table, her mouth tingling ever so slightly from the food. Saag paneer wasn't spicy- spicy but as always, Alix had a few bites of the vindaloo and that had left her tongue burning.

They also had more margaritas which explained why they were downloading a dating app on Aditi's phone and picking out pictures for her profile. As beautiful as Aditi was in real life, she did not like taking photos and she wasn't good at it either. Or maybe photos just couldn't capture how gorgeous she was.

As they looked through Aditi's gallery, copious pictures of her and Lena filled the screen.

Alix glanced at Aditi, trying to work out how her friend was feeling about all this. The break-up wasn't super fresh but anyone would feel tender after ending a four-year relationship and a five-year friendship.

"Definitely not those," Aditi muttered, quickly swiping past the pictures with her ex only for more to appear. She sighed deeply. "I should delete these, I just haven't got around to it."

"You also don't have to. She was a big part of your life, you don't have to pretend it didn't happen," Alix said, feeling more forgiving and sentimental than while she was sober.

Finally, they found some good pictures of just Aditi and uploaded those to her profile. Alix helped with listing good qualities and then it was time to swipe. Since Aditi was a bear shifter, she was looking for kin and humans but there was no way to set that as a parameter in the app. Instead, they had to rely on limiting the search radius and hunt for clues in people's bios like emojis or code words.

"Too old," Aditi said, even though she chose the age limits. She continued swiping. "Too young. Too perky. Too macho. Too tall. Too short."

Alix rolled her eyes. "Come on, you're not giving anyone a chance. You're the one who wanted to try online dating."

"But none of them do it for me," Aditi complained, not even looking at the pictures as she swiped the people away.

"Stop!" Alix almost slapped the phone out of Aditi's hand. "Fuck, that's Veronica."

Now Aditi was interested. Her eyes shimmered like she just stumbled upon a treasure trove. "Oooooh. Hello, hot step-sister."

Alix swatted the back of Aditi's head. "Don't call her that!"

"She's cute," Aditi agreed as she flicked through the various pictures of Veronica. "Not my type, though."

"Thank the Goddess for that." Alix leaned closer so she could go through Veronica's profile. It did feel a bit dodgy that she was having a little stalk but she was drunk and she was curious.

From the various pictures, it was clear that Veronica hiked. Or liked to pretend she did. This was an online dating profile, everything was always embellished. There was an adorable picture of her with a cute black cat that made Alix's heart melt and a gorgeous shot of Veronica in a little red bikini that looked like it had come straight from the two-fold in a sexy magazine.

Alix fanned herself. "Told you. Smoking hot."

"You should make yourself a dating profile and match with her," Aditi advised, looking a lot more excited by that prospect than her own dating life.

"No! Were you not listening to the whole story? I need to stay the heck away from her," Alix said, her mind swirling with images of their night together and that horrible awkward dinner. The whole thing was like some sort of soap opera and she couldn't believe this was happening to her in real life.

In any case, she was determined to keep the whole thing a secret and not let anyone know how attractive she found Veronica. Especially not Veronica.