*Lokela

Someone grabbed him right before he crossed the threshold to the kitchen.

The scent of strawberries and vodka hit him an instant before a head of blond hair came into view. Arms squeezed him.

"Lokela's here, everybody!" Ray shouted, dragging him back to the lanai. "And he brought a sacrifice to the goddess!"

She took his tequila to wave over her head and replaced it with a shot of vodka and three strawberries impaled on a toothpick.

Miller slapped his back. "Drink!"

The guys started chanting for him to drink. He had no idea what was going on, except that somehow Ray had transformed her heartbreak into a house party. He tossed the vodka back.

"You are supposed to eat the strawberries now. I made them as a garnish, but they didn't fit in the shot glasses." Ray demonstrated by putting a line of them in her mouth. Her lips closed around their red lusciousness.

His knees nearly gave out. He shook his head. A little vodka shouldn't affect him like that. She was laughing and trying to put his toothpick berries in his mouth, but he waved her off. Too much attention from her would kill him at this rate.

"What took you so long?" Miller asked as Ray danced off with Hugh as Travis strummed an island tune on his ukulele. "I assume you heard the good news if you showed up with a bottle to celebrate."

"I was there. I might have even nudged the guilty party in the right direction."

"Convenient."

Lokela scoffed. "Necessary. He might be a friend, but he's messing around with some chic back home to pass the time, while telling Ray she's the one. I couldn't let it slide."

"Indeed. And now she's single. And celebrating. And you live on the same floor," Miller said. "She's had a couple of shots. I think now would be the time to—"

"I'm going to interrupt you right there," a woman's voice said at their elbows. They jumped.

Naia stood behind them, hands on her hips, expression dripping with anger. "Is that how it goes around here? Get a girl a drunk and take advantage of the situation?"

"You're Ray's friend Naia," Miller said. "You're here as protection."

She nodded. "Ding, ding, ding. You are smarter than you look."

"Well, you don't know me, so I will inform you now that that is not the way things go around here."

She narrowed her eyes. "I hope so. But I've come prepared just in case. I know a thing or two about break-ups and heart-aches, and how guy friends are always there to offer their moral supportz." From her purse, she pulled a spiraled kid leash in hot pink.

"You have got to be joking," Miller said, rolling his eyes. "What do you think is going to happen to Ray in our backyard? No one is going to kidnap anyone, I promise."

"You might be surprised to hear this, but not everything is about you." She gave Lokela a pointed glare.

His face, which was already heating up from the memory of Naia barging in on him and Ray kissing, steamed up even more. He fanned his shirt, pretending to be hot from his ride home. As she waved to Ray to say hello, she took another kid leash from her bag, this time in blue, and as he watched, incredulous, she put both ends on Ray's wrists and then attached herself and Doug to both sides.

Ray was going to be chaperoned at this house party, and he knew it was because Naia didn't trust him.

Of all the...

He needed that tequila. Now.

His phone swung heavy in his pocket. At any moment, Zach could decide to bring him down by telling Ray about his part in writing the letter and poem. He paused. She was sitting by the barbeque pit between Naia and Doug while Travis was performing for them.

He needed to tell her. Now.

But for that, he also needed the tequila. He smacked Miller's chest. "You up for some more shots? We have limes, don't we?"

Ten minutes later, he was making his move. He had to get Ray alone to tell her what he had done, before either of them was too drunk to make it mean something.

***

*Ray

Ray had never felt so surrounded by friends and lifted up in her life. She was literally hooked to both Naia and Doug by springy leashes on both her wrists. The whole house was in the back yard to help her get over the break-up.

By nine in the evening, she was bawling in the bathroom with Naia, Travis, and Hugh sitting with her on the floor, while Trevor watched on from the doorway. Doug had unhooked his leash temporarily to fix her a fruit salad, which she was convinced would make her feel better.

Zach had convinced her that he loved her. She had been dreaming and waiting for weeks, wondering how it would be when they could finally be together as a couple. Finally alone together...

And she really, really, needed to be alone with him.

Well, not him.

A fresh batch of tears had her sobbing into a towel. Not him, because it was a pack of lies. Everything he had said. Or, written. Part of what bothered her the most, was that she still didn't understand who he truly was. The guy who sent happy face emoji's and said, I love you so much, babe, I'm going crazy. I can't wait to see you again for real, or who wrote I question who I am when I am next to you, dazzled by you, drowning in you.

Understanding flashed through her brain. She sat straight upright and yelled, "He doesn't know who he is, so how the hell could he think he loves me?"

"That's right, Ray! What a dweeb!" Hugh shouted, raising his beer.

"He doesn't love you, honey, that's the thing," Naia agreed.

"And if he expects you to wait for him to come back and make it up to you, he's dumber than my bunny rabbit, Floppy, who used to try and mate with the food dish," Trevor said, from the doorway. He crossed his arms, making his manboobs pop.

Ray pointed at him. "So dumb. Unbelieverably dumber than that rabbit, Floopy. Floppy. Your rabbit!"

"That's right, Ray," Hugh shouted again.

She squinted at them all. Was she drunk? Were they drunk? Was she planning on doing something she would regret? She took another long swing of fruity tequila sunrise.

Maybe. Just maybe.

"Where the is Lokela?" she asked, suddenly realizing he was missing. "He was here, err outside, all night, and wanted to talk to me. Me, like me. Where did he go?"

Naia shrugged. "Gone. Poof."

"But he lives..." She paused, trying to remember. "He's like down the hall, how far away could he be?"

"These are the mysteries that will haunt us all our lives, Ray. Where are the men who wanted to talk to us?"

"I think he's next door," Trevor said, waving down the hall.

"Is terrible. We'll never know," Ray said. She squinted at Naia. "You are so beautiful. Have I ever told you how beautiful you—you are? With your black hair that's so shiny and your big eyes, and you have, like you have perky breasts." She made a cupping motion around her own boobs. "I think it's so lovely."

"Oh, my god. You have perky breasts, too!" Naia cried.

Both Travis and Hugh stood up. "I have to go now," Travis said and Hugh nodded vigorously in agreement. "Time for another beer, but outside."

"Right behind you," Trevor said.

"I think I need to lie down. Or lay down," Ray said. "Is it lie or lay?"

Naia helped her unsteadily to her feet and they stumbled to the door.

Miller was in the hall talking to Doug. The guys had to move to the wall as the girls squeezed past them, and Doug handed her the fruit salad.

"I was just talking to Felipe," Miller said. "The party is over or we'll get the police called on us. Apparently, the neighbors are tired of our outdoor get-togethers. So no more noise."

"Are you always this nice or just when you're at home having a party?" Naia asked.

"He's always nice. That one. That's Miller time!" Ray yelled from her room. She dropped onto the bed.

"Hear that?" Miller asked. He propped an arm on the doorframe above Naia's head. "I'm always nice."

"Then why haven't noticed it, yet?" She shut the door on him.

Ray fell asleep almost instantly. Near midnight, though, according to her alarm clock, she woke up, needing a drink of water.

Naia was gone—the mattress they had put on the floor was empty. Also getting a drink of water? Or off doing something else? Ray tiptoed from her room into the dark hall and down the stairs. There was a rustling noise from Miller's room and hushed laughter.

Ah-ha.

She drank an entire glass of cold water and then rubbed the cool side of the glass on her hot forehead. She had very bad ideas, and no one to talk her out of them. That didn't mean she had the courage to do anything about it, though. She stared at the sliding door to the lanai, wishing she wasn't such a chicken.

Why couldn't she be more like Naia? Fearless?

She set the glass on her coaster to use again later. He would already be asleep anyway. She made her way, still in the dark to the bottom of the stairs. Her toe hit the first step and she gasped in pain. Hopping, she tried to turn around to sit on the stairs.

A hand caught ahold of her.

She started to scream.

"Ray, it's me," Lokela said. "Are you all right?"

"It's you," she breathed. She tested her foot on the floor. Nothing seemed broken. Lokela's arm was around her waist. "I was looking for you last night before I went to bed. This night, I mean. A few hours ago."

"I was here."

"I have something really crazy and wild I would like to ask you, but will you promise first not to take it the wrong way?"

"Crazy like ice-cream crazy?" he asked. "How could I take that the wrong way?"

"No. Crazy, like doing something together. For the first time for me." She took a deep breath, hesitating, then blurted out, "Would you be willing to be my first sexual partner? And by that, I mean have sex with me?"

She sensed his spine stiffen as he inhaled sharply. Then silence for at least a heartbeat that felt like several hours.

"I'm sorry," he said, voice husky, "but Ray, that's the tequila talking. You are still very drunk."

*** Oh my. Is he really going to refuse this request...? ***