“Sure do.”
“Terrific!” she said. “Our house is a little ways down the beach. You want to take us home?”
“Are you kidding?” he said. “That's like so… Wait-just let me go tell the guys. Don't go anywhere.” He dashed off.
“What are you
“It's easier than calling a cab,” Kathleen said.
“No, it's not. All a cab driver expects is money.”
“Well, these guys won't get even that.”
“So we're going back to the house now?” Lucy said, confused. “To sleep?”
“No.” Kathleen tossed the umbrella on the table and gathered up her purse as the men eagerly approached them. “To knit and talk.”
They all packed into the guys’ small Volkswagen convertible- three of them in front, four in the back. The girls were sitting on top of their hosts, who didn't seem to mind it at all. “Excuse me,” Lucy told one of them. “My ass seems to be inserting itself into your hand. One of us should probably be doing something to fix that situation.” The guy turned red and adjusted his hands accordingly.
When the driver-the guy who had come up to them at the restaurant and whose name, they had since learned, was Sanjesh-pulled up to the house, he gave a low whistle of appreciation. “This is yours? Sweet!”
“Well, not ours exactly,” Lucy said. She opened the door and basically fell out of the car, then stumbled into an upright position. Kathleen and Sari also slipped out quickly. “It belongs to Kathleen's fiance.”
“Who's Kathleen?”
“She is,” Sari said, pointing.
“Oh, man,” said Sanjesh. He had turned the car off, and he and his friends were all getting out. “You didn't tell us you were engaged.”
“Sorry,” Kathleen said. “I guess I forgot. Thanks for the ride, boys. Don't feel you need to walk us to the door. We can find our way.” She and the other girls moved forward.
Sanjesh froze. “Aren't you going to invite us in?”
Kathleen considered briefly. Then she shook her head. “Nope.”
She, Sari, and Lucy scurried up to the door and threw themselves inside, slamming the door shut behind them. They burst into incontrollable giggles.
“Hey!” A door opened on the floor above and they all tilted their heads to see up the stairway to the landing, where Kevin appeared in a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. “There you are,” he said. “Welcome back. Do you need me to take care of the cab driver?” He came down the rest of the stairs.
“No cab,” Kathleen said. “Some nice young men gave us a lift.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
“I’m guessing you're not angry,” she said and collapsed into fresh giggles.
“You guys got a little drunk, huh?” he said.
“What makes you say that?” Lucy asked, with a snort of laughter.
“Just a lucky guess. How ‘bout we all go to bed now? Get a good night's sleep, wake up all bright and cheerful for our wedding day? Our wedding day.” He shook his head. “It still sounds unreal.”
“You go to bed,” Kathleen said. “I want to stay up with the girls. We're going to knit.”
“You want to knit right now?” he said. “It's past one.”
“That's what all brides do on their wedding nights,” Sari said. “They knit. It's kind of an old tradition.”
“Only the men aren't supposed to know about it,” Lucy said. “That's why you've probably never heard about it before.”
“Really,” said Kevin, with a broad grin that meant he knew he was being made fun of and was prepared to be a good sport about it. “Well, don't let me stand in your way. Just do me a favor and don't drink any more tonight, will you? You're all starting to scare me.”
“He says we're scaring him,” Kathleen said to the girls. “And yet he doesn't seem scared, does he? Or nervous, or anything? That's my guy!”
“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Kevin said. “Which must mean it's past my bedtime. Good night, girls.” He started back up the stairs.
“Oops,” said Kathleen. “My knitting's in the bedroom. Let me just grab it and I’ll meet you guys back in your room.” She joined him oh the stairs.
Sari and Lucy stumbled their way across the house to the room they were sharing. It was a huge guest bedroom suite, with a king-size bed, a marble-floored bathroom, and a lanai that, because the house was built on a cliff, had a stunning view of the ocean.
Sari closed the door behind them and turned to Lucy. “We have to stop this wedding,” she said.
“You're drunk,” Lucy said. “Me, too.” She collapsed down on the bed.
“I know,” Sari said. “But I mean it. She doesn't love him.”
“Big deal.” Lucy rolled onto her back and closed her eyes.
“She can't get married-it would be a huge mistake.”
“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Lucy said sleepily.
“Will you please take this seriously?”
“Fine.” Lucy sat up and leaned back against the headboard. Sari sat down on an upholstered chair facing her. “Even if it is a mistake,” Lucy said, “what difference does it make in the long run? They'll just get divorced. No big deal. Maybe she'll even get some money out of it.”
“It's depressing to get divorced,” Sari said. “I see divorced people all the time, and it's like this emotional tattoo you can't ever get rid of. And if she takes his money, then she becomes the kind of girl who marries rich guys and takes their money and I don't want Kathleen to become that.”
“Why don't you think she loves him? She said she did. And he's a nice guy.”
“He's nice enough. But there's no spark. He's…” She groped. “He's spark-less. Kathleen sparkles and he's spark-less. That's a huge difference.”
“Just one
“Please, Lucy, help me. We have to try at least, or we'll never forgive ourselves.”
“We can't,” Lucy said.
“Sure, we can. I mean, she listens to us-”
“No, I mean, we could maybe change Kathleen's mind, but it would be wrong. The guy bought us plane tickets to Hawaii, Sari. He put us up at his house. We'd be repaying him by ruining his life. That's fucked up. As am I, by the way.”
“No, wait-I have an argument to that.”
“What?”
“Shit, I forgot it.” Sari banged her hand on the side of the chair. “Oh, no, there it is again. I knew I had one. Kevin's better off losing Kathleen now, before he's committed his whole heart and bank account to a marriage that won't work. We're doing him a favor.”
“It doesn't feel like we're doing him a favor.”
“Well, we are. And we'll know it even if he doesn't.” There were footsteps outside their door. “Quick,” Sari said. “Get your knitting out!” They both pounced on their knitting bags, pulled out their work, dived into chairs, and propped fake smiles on their faces.
Kathleen opened the door. “Hey,” she said. “Room for one more?”
“Pull up a bed,” Sari said.
Kathleen kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed, where she hiked her dress up above her thighs so she could sit cross-legged. She pulled out her knitting. “Kevin wanted to have sex,” she said, as she detangled the yarns and straightened out the work she'd done.
“Did you?” Lucy asked.
“How fast do you think I can do it? No, I told him I’d rather hang out with you guys. We have years of matrimonial screwing ahead of us, right?”
“Right,” Sari said with a meaningful glance at Lucy. “Years and years with the same guy every night. Just the one guy forever more.”
