‘You stick your poles inside me. You tie me down to get me up. I get wet before you do. What am I?’ asked Jamie.
‘Tent!’ Rose shouted. She kept getting the answers right, which meant she kept choosing who had to drink a shot. She gave the first one to Fran and then, not wanting to risk someone bitching about her later, decided to spread them evenly between the group. Eventually, Johnny and Jamie began to sigh when she kept getting the answers right. So Rose stopped guessing, even though she knew the answer to every single riddle that followed.
Finally, there was just one game left. They were allocated a twenty-minute break before it began.
Rose had managed to sober up since ‘Mr and Mrs’, having got away with drinking sparkling water masquerading as a G&T for the last few hours.
‘Cigarette?’ asked Lizzie, waving her green bag of tobacco in Rose’s face.
‘God, yes. Do we have time?’ Rose replied.
Lizzie looked over at Jessie, who appeared to be babysitting Nikki, who was counting Jamie’s abs.
‘Yes, I think we’re fine,’ said Lizzie, heading towards the balcony.
The grounds looked eery in the dark. Rose couldn’t remember the last time she’d looked out of a window and saw nothing but pitch black. It made everything seem vaster, more threatening. Like if you stepped outside, the night would swallow you whole.
‘What time is it?’ Rose asked Lizzie.
‘Fuck knows. This has been going on for hours.’
‘Grace said hens aren’t usually like this.’
Lizzie laughed. ‘It’s a hen do. Of course it’s supposed to be like this.’
‘Jamie and Johnny just seem a bit much.’
‘Well, probably because they both want to fuck you,’ Lizzie said, making Os with her smoke.
‘I hope not.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t want to fuck either of them.’
‘So don’t.’
‘Yeah,’ Rose nodded.
‘I’d fuck one of them,’ Lizzie said. ‘Maybe both, actually.’
‘Which one?’
‘Either to be honest. It’s been so long since I had someone pump me.’
Rose laughed. ‘Pump you?’
‘Yeah, you know. Just really fuck you. Throw you around. Wrap your legs around them. Put their hand on your throat, choking you until you come all over them. Ugh. God, I’m getting horny just thinking about it.’
Rose felt her face flush.
‘Oh, I know what I wanted to ask you about,’ Lizzie continued, relighting her cigarette. ‘What was the deal with your phone?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know, when Tessa grabbed it and then gave it back to you, like she’d seen a naked selfie or something.’
Rose paused, deliberating how to handle this.
‘It was nothing,’ she replied. ‘I just don’t like people looking through my phone.’
‘Was it a naked selfie?’ Lizzie asked, eyes wide.
Rose decided it was best to nod and smile.
‘Ha, love that for you. Right, let’s go flirt with some naked butlers.’
‘Okay, ladies,’ boomed Johnny, looking around the room, eyes fixing on Rose when she entered.
‘Now, we’ve been keeping things pretty tame around here so far,’ he laughed. ‘But it’s time to take things up a notch!’
Everyone cheered, their voices loose and encouraging.
‘First off, I want all of you to drink a shot of tequila,’ added Johnny.
Jamie came around with a bottle, pouring shots into the mini shot cups everyone had been told to keep near them at all times. Rose shuddered when she saw Jamie wink at Ruby as he topped up her cup.
‘Okay! So this game is called sex positions,’ said Johnny. More cheering. Rose felt something shifting around deep inside her stomach.
