“Me!” Gabby says with a giggle and joins me. “This wine is pretty strong.”

“I hope you’re not driving home,” I reply with a smile.

“Nah, she’s staying with me tonight,” Van says and holds her glass out for more too. “We’ll call Uber.”

“Or Eli,” Gabby adds. “He can take us home when he takes Kate.”

“Yeah, that,” Van says and takes a sip of wine, then waves a hand. “Oh! I forgot! I brought food.” She runs into the back room, then comes back with a bag of chips and three containers full of different dips. “This will soak up some of the alcohol.”

“Good idea! I still have some paper plates back here somewhere,” Charly says as she disappears and comes back with a stack of plates and utensils.

For the next hour, we proceed to eat, drink and try on shoes. When all is said and done, I have four pairs picked out, but Van leads us all with six pairs.

“Now I need a man to impress with my new shoes,” Van says with a pout.

“You’re not ready for a man,” Charly says.

“How do you know what I’m ready for?” Van asks, slurring her words and pointing to Charly’s left. “Which one are you?”

“Over here.” Charly moves Van’s finger in front of her. “You told me you’re not ready.”

“I’m ready.” Van sniffs, her nose dripping from the hot jalapeño dip, and flips her dark hair over her shoulder. “I haven’t gotten laid in a long time, and maybe I just want to get laid. Laid.”

“How many times are you going to say laid?” Charly says and drains a bottle, not bothering to pour it into a glass.

Atta girl.

“I’ll say laid all day. Laid laid laid,” Van says and then snorts. “Some of you are getting laid. Even Callie is getting laid.”

All eyes suddenly turn to me. I look around, then simply drink the rest of my wine.

Oh God.

“You’re fucking Declan,” Kate says, pointing at me.

“Kind of,” I reply. God, I can’t feel my lips. What if they say stuff I don’t want them to? Dumb wine.

“You don’t kind of fuck, even I remember that,” Van says with a giggle.

“Well, I mean, she could be kind of,” Gabby says diplomatically. “I mean, maybe there’s just oral.”

“Oral doesn’t count?” I ask, surprised. “I thought it counted.”

“For the sake of right now,” Charly says and plops right down on the floor, “we’re gonna say it doesn’t count.”

“And please remember that he’s our brother, so we don’t want details, because ew,” Gabby adds.

“Um, well, um… yes.”

“Yes to what? Oral or everything?” Kate asks, leaning forward like she’s watching a riveting TV show.

“Everything,” I whisper. “Please don’t hate me.”

“Oh God,” Van says and waves me off. “We know that Declan has sex, but he doesn’t have sex with girls he actually likes. He’s a man-whore.”

“Savannah!” Kate cries and covers her face. “Don’t tell her that.”

“No, I know about his reputation,” I say with a shrug. “But he’s having sex with me, and he even takes me out on dates.”

All four women stare at me with glassy, round owl-eyes, blinking slowly.

“Wow,” Kate whispers. “So what are you gonna do?”

“Keep having sex with him?”

“No, like, after that,” Gabby says, petting a pair of suede boots.

“Sleep?”

“Okay, focus,” Kate says and takes me by the shoulders, looking me in the eye. “What is going to happen in the long term?”

“I don’t know,” I reply and frown. “That’s scary to think about.”

“Just be nice to him,” Gabby says. “Of all our guys, Declan is the most sensitive. It’s probably the artistic side of him.”

“I’m nice to him,” I reply. “I want to give him head, but he hasn’t given me a chance to yet.”

“Does he go downtown on you?” Charly asks.

“Hell yes. On pianos.”

“Wow,” they all reply in awe.

“Yeah. He has mad skills.”

“So, we’re a little drunk, and I really like you, but I have to say this part,” Kate says and pushes her red hair back over her shoulders. “Don’t be a bitch to him. Like, ever. Because we will kick your ass.”

“You’re pretty possessive for someone who isn’t related by blood.” I cock my hip out and brace my hand on it and try to look badass, but I’m pretty sure I’m failing.

“I like her,” Van says with a smile. “She has gumption.”

“I’m as close to blood-related to Declan as it gets,” Kate says and mirrors my stance. She looks more badass than I do, I’m sure. “I’ve known Declan for more than ten years, and he’s special to me.”

“Okay. Got it.”

“So don’t be a bitch.”

“But, what if it’s sometimes just in my nature to be a bitch, but it’s not on purpose?” I ask sincerely. “Because sometimes I just am.”

“That doesn’t count, because we all do that,” Charly says. “She’s talking about the on-purpose kind.”

“Oh good.” I sigh and smile. “I can do that.”

“I don’t want to stop drinking,” Van whines. “I feel good and I want to stay this way.”

“We can’t go bar hopping with a bunch of shoe boxes,” Gabby says.

“Leave them here and come pick them up tomorrow,” Charly says. “That’s easier.”

“We can go drink at my bar,” I offer without thinking. “On me.”

“You don’t have to give us free drinks,” Kate says.

“But if you really want to, who are we to argue? Let’s go!” Gabby grabs Van's and Charly’s hands and leads us out of the shop.

“Wait! I have to lock up!”

We wait for Charly to lock the door, and then the five of us stumble down the sidewalk to my bar, just three blocks over. When we file in and walk to the bar, Adam looks up and grins.

“Hello there, ladies.”

“Oh, you’re cute,” Van says and leans over the bar toward him, as if she’s going to tell him a secret. “I haven’t gotten laid in a long time, hot stuff.”

Adam laughs and pats her hand as Gabby tries to pull Van off the bar.

“I’m sorry to hear that. You’re too beautiful to not have all kinds of men knocking on your door.”

“Really cute,” Van says to Gabby and then giggles.

“Drinks are on us tonight,” I inform him and gesture toward the stairs to the roof. “We’re going up where it’s private.”

“I’ll have Jessica stay down here and I’ll go up and pour drinks for you guys,” he offers, and I simply nod and lead the girls upstairs.

“Oh, it’s so pretty up here,” Kate says, taking a deep breath. “Look! Café du Monde is right there! I want beignets.”

“Later,” Charly says and plops down in one of the plush couches. I turn on the gas fireplaces for light and heat and walk to the bar.

“Shall we keep drinking wine?” I ask.

“Shots first!” Gabby yells and runs to the bar just as Adam comes upstairs. “The hot guy can pour us shots.”

“The hot guy can,” Adam agrees and winks at her. “What’s your poison?”

“Tequila!” all of the girls exclaim at once, and before I know it, we’ve all had three shots and are nursing glasses of wine.

“We should totally drunk text the boys,” Kate says, pulling her phone out of her purse. “Eli will love it.”

“Good call!” Gabby says and pulls her phone out. “I’m telling Rhys that he needs to go downtown on me on a piano.”

I smirk and sip my wine, squirming a little in my seat as I remember the sex on the piano last weekend. Damn, Declan’s good at the getting laid stuff.

Too bad I’m not seeing him tonight.

“That good, huh?” Charly asks as she sits next to me.

“You have no idea,” I reply and clink my glass to hers.

“Been awhile for me too,” she says with a sigh. “Men suck. And sometimes you get hung up on them, and can’t have sex with someone new, and they still suck.”

“Are you hung up?” I ask, watching as Van takes her phone out of her pocket, and with her tongue between her teeth, punches out a text, then puts her phone away with a satisfied smile.

“Unfortunately,” Charly says. “Because men suck.”

“They sure can,” I reply. “Women can suck too.”

“I don’t swing that way,” Charly replies, then we both erupt into giggles.