The Edge of Tonight

“This is some of the worst fucking music I’ve ever heard, and not just for a wedding.” I was sitting at a bistro table, my back to the bar and watching the dance floor. I faced forward at the table, surprised that someone had sat down with me and was actually making conversation.

“I was literally just thinking the same thing,” I had to practically shout to him. He was handsome, with straightened, short brown hair and brilliant brown eyes hidden by almost laughably thick eyebrows. “I swear, if he plays Uptown Funk, I might cry.”

“Hey, don’t knock the funk,” he replied with a laugh. “I put in a request for the DJ to play Funky Town over an hour ago. I’m still waiting.”

“I doubt you’ll hear it,” I responded, crossing my legs and shaking my head. “I’m pretty sure Morgan told him to not take any requests.”

“Ah, so you know the bride then?” the guy asked, raising one of his stupid eyebrows.

I nodded and rolled my eyes. “Regretfully.”

I hadn’t even wanted to come to this stupid fucking wedding. Morgan was my step-sister – ex-step-sister, actually – and when I’d received the invitation weeks ago, I’d immediately wanted to chuck it in the trash, but I had nothing against her father, my ex-step-father, and felt it’d be rude to not go. By the time I’d reached the church earlier in the day, I was immediately regretting the decision. I knew next to no one, and when I’d congratulated her and her new husband Forrest when the reception had started, she’d completely ignored me. Bitch.

She’d also stuck me at the reject table of guests and seated me next to a guy named Gary, whose tie was too short and had very clammy hands. He’d asked me to slow dance earlier in the evening, and for whatever reason, I’d accepted. He kept pulling me closer as I tried to keep my distance, and kept looking down at me like he wanted to kiss me, so I’d kept turning my head away from him, praying that the DJ would end the stupid song. When the song was over, he’d asked me for a hug, which I begrudgingly gave him, and then walked away before he could say anything else to me.

“I’m guessing you don’t get along then,” the guy said.

“Nope,” I told him. “We used to be step-sisters. We’ve literally never gotten along a single day in our lives.”

“So how’d you end up at this shit show?” he questioned. He stirred his drink absent-mindedly, looking between me and the dance floor. God, please don’t let another creep ask me to dance.

I shrugged. “I was trying to be polite, but apparently she’s not interested in that, even though the divorce was, like, a decade ago. So who do you know, Forrest or Morgan?”

“Neither,” he answered, shaking his head. “My best friend Jack is Forrest’s cousin, and I came as his plus one so that he wouldn’t go out of his mind from boredom.”

“Seriously? He got a plus one?” I asked incredulously. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d been one of the only people to not get one. “I didn’t even get a fucking plus one.”

“Guess she really hates you.” I couldn’t tell if the guy was joking or not, so I half-smiled and nodded. He stuck his hand out to me, finally introducing himself. “I’m Alex, by the way.”

“I’m Eve,” I told him, shaking his outstretched hand.

“Pretty name,” he commented. The music started to slow again, and he gestured to the dance floor. “So do you want to dance?”

I cringed inside. I definitely didn’t want to dance, especially if this was going to end up being another Gary situation, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him no, so I faked a smile. “Sure.”

We joined hands (thank God his weren’t cold and clammy) and I followed him to the dance floor. Alex glared at the DJ as we walked by. “I’d fight that guy.”

It wasn’t something you typically heard out of a guy right before you were about to slow dance, so I laughed genuinely for the first time all night. “I’d pay to see it.”

I put one hand on Alex’s shoulder and kept holding his hand with the other, as he rested his on the small of my back (thankfully not too low as Gary had done earlier in the night). We turned and swayed together slowly, and he made no attempt to pull me uncomfortably close to him, nor did he stare at me creepily. The closest he got to any unnecessary contact was leaning down so that he could make sarcastic comments about other couples in my ear, which I’d chuckled at.

Before I knew it, the slow dance was over and the music was starting to pick up again.

“We can sit back down if you want,” Alex offered, though he hadn’t moved his hands yet.

“Yeah, I think I’ve had enough dancing for one night,” I admitted, as I really wasn’t much of a dancer, especially when it came to fast songs. He didn’t seem disappointed by this one bit.

“Okay,” he agreed easily. We reclaimed our table and he took a sip of his drink, finishing it off. “I’m gonna grab another. You want anything?”

“I’m good,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m driving, so that probably wouldn’t be a great idea.” Even though I’d been twenty-one for several months, I wasn’t planning on taking advantage of it tonight.

“Gotta be responsible,” Alex said and winked, heading off to the bar.

I took the opportunity to check my phone, praying that I’d get a message to return home. Spending eight hours of the day completely miserable was way too much. To my disappointment, there was nothing. I sighed and put my phone back in my purse, trying to figure out a good excuse to leave early. Lost in thought, I was startled when someone knocked into me, spilling something cold down the back of my dress. “That did not just fucking happen.”

“Jesus, I am so sorry.” I turned around to look at the offender, a tall, lanky guy with black hair that was sticking almost straight up, and it looked like he had a streak going through it. “I definitely did not mean to do that.” He pulled napkins out of seemingly nowhere and started patting the back of my neck and down my back with them, trying to soak up some of the liquid.

“Please don’t,” I protested, moving forward a little and arching my back slightly. “It’s fine, it’ll dry, thanks.”

“Jack, what the hell did you do?” I heard Alex’s voice. The name sounded familiar and I put two and two together. Apparently the clumsy dude was Alex’s best friend that he’d mentioned earlier. “Did you spill on her?”

“I tripped!” Jack protested, finally easing up on touching me with napkins. “I apologized.”

Alex looked at me, almost as if he was seeking confirmation, so I shrugged and nodded. “He did.”

He turned his attention away from me and back to his friend. “I thought you weren’t drinking tonight.”

“I thought you weren’t drinking tonight,” Jack replied in an accusatory tone, eyeing the drink in Alex’s hand. “You said you were gonna be the designated driver.”

“No, I did it last time,” Alex protested. “It was your turn tonight.”

“But it’s my cousin’s wedding, I should be the one who gets to drink.”

Good lord, their bickering was going to give me a headache. Besides, they could have easily solved the problem with an Uber. Between their arguing, the awful music, and my now damp dress, I was more than ready to go home. I cleared my throat loudly, grabbed my purse, and pushed away from the table. “Well, boys, it’s been swell, but I’m heading out.”

“Hey, hold on one second,” Alex requested, putting a finger up to shut Jack up. “Do you think you could maybe give us rides home?”

I inwardly sighed. No, I didn’t want to have two guys I didn’t really know alone in my car with me, especially when I didn’t know where they lived. For all I knew, they lived in a bad part of town, and I’d probably get shot on the drive back. I wanted to go home, curl up in pajamas, and get as much sleep as I possibly could.

As if he could sense I was about to reject him, Alex flashed me some pathetic, brown puppy dog eyes. “Please? I’d really like to make it home safe.”

“I’ll drive you if you’re ready to leave right now,” I finally relented, hoping I wouldn’t end up regretting this.

“Let’s go,” Jack said, tossing his half-empty drink over his shoulder, spilling it all over the carpeting. “This wedding blows.”

Instead of following Jack’s lead, Alex set his drink down at the table and shook his head, mumbling, “Idiot.”

They grabbed their suit coats and followed me outside to my car. I’d ended up with a spot near the back of the lot since I’d arrived slightly late to the reception. I’d gotten hungry during the time in between and the restaurant I’d ended up at was more crowded than I’d expected, so it set back the whole schedule I’d planned out.

“Nice car,” Alex commented, climbing into my passenger seat while Jack climbed in behind me, leaving me thankful that he hadn’t picked the side with the booster seat. I was expecting one of the boys to ask about it, though they didn’t.

I turned the car on, letting Lana Del Rey’s Honeymoon album start playing. I looked between Alex and Jack. “Okay, so who am I taking home first, and where am I going?”

They gave me directions to both of their places, and Jack’s house was the first stop. I felt a little awkward riding with the guys at first, but they filled the silence, mostly talking between themselves and occasionally including me.

“Wasn’t the food horrible?” Jack complained loudly. I didn’t know him well enough to know if this was his natural volume or not, but it didn’t seem to faze Alex.

“Dude, so bad,” he agreed, looking to me to agree. I simply nodded though I hadn’t had any of the food. It looked gross when I’d observed other people at my table eating. “I really don’t think that chicken was cooked.”

“What did you think about it…” Jack started to ask me, but then trailed off. “Holy shit, I don’t know your name.”

“Eve,” I replied, half-smiling and finally starting to relax. “And I didn’t eat the food, I got something before. I don’t trust Morgan’s judgment in food.”

“How do you know her?” Jack asked, leaning forward in his seat to talk more easily with Alex and me. He was a loud breather.

“Her dad used to be married to my mom,” I explained, hanging a left at the light. “So, we were step-sisters.”

“Are you close?” Jack asked.

“Dude, she didn’t even give Eve a plus one,” Alex chuckled.

“Are you serious?” Jack scoffed. “Can I just be like super blunt right now? Morgan is a mega twat. I’m not sure what Forrest sees in her.”

I couldn’t help but laugh loudly. “That’s the understatement of the century.”

In the time it took to take Jack home, we traded stories back and forth about Morgan’s bitchiness while Alex listened. Jack informed me of the first time he’d met Morgan at a Mexican restaurant, and she’d double-dipped her chips in the only salsa bowl, bitchily declaring it as hers. I told him stories about her always getting me in trouble for things when we were kids, even if the fault was hers. The most infamous incident was when she was running around in the living room and had somehow managed to knock down and break our TV. She flew out of the room immediately, bawling her stupid little eyes out about how “Eve broke the TV!” I’d been grounded for a month.

We finally got to Jack’s house and I dropped him off, waving goodbye and waiting until he’d gotten into his apartment complex until I pulled away. I asked Alex to remind me where he lived and we headed off that way, not too far from Jack’s.

“So do you babysit or something?” Alex asked suddenly.

“Uh, no, I don’t,” I answered, kind of surprised. I had no idea where that had come from. “Why?”

“The car seat,” he said, pointing over his shoulder. “I was just curious.”

“Oh.” I’d almost forgotten about that. “No, I don’t babysit. That’s for my daughter.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you had a kid,” Alex commented. “You definitely don’t look like you had a kid.” I rolled my eyes. “How old is he?”

“She’s about to turn four later this month,” I corrected him.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “What’s her name?”

“Aubree,” I replied. “You want to see a picture of her?”

“Sure,” Alex agreed. We were at a red light, so I pulled my phone out to show him my background and handed him the phone in time for the light to turn. “Aw, jeez, she’s a doll.”

“Isn’t she?” I beamed. Aubree was the light of my life, and though she was an accident, she was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I definitely wasn’t shy when agreeing with people when they called her cute. She was a perfect combination of her father and me, gifted with my dark blonde hair, his cheekbones, my green eyes, and his shy smile. “She’s adorable, and she’s a little chatterbox. She’s so funny. She pronounces purple like poo-poo. It cracks me right up.”

Alex laughed. “That’s awesome.”

“She knows her alphabet too,” I continued and then chuckled. “Well, for the most part anyway. She thinks it’s m, n, m, o, p and it’s so cute, I honestly don’t have the heart to tell her that’s wrong.” Alex didn’t respond to this, so I shook my head. “Sorry. I’m probably being one of those annoying moms who talks too much about her kid.”

“No, not at all,” Alex rushed and shook his head. “I just feel like an asshole for asking you to drive me home. You probably want to get back home and see your daughter, and your sitter’s probably getting pissed.”

“Nah, her dad’s watching her,” I told him. “They’re fine. Admittedly, I am pretty tired, but I’d also rather not have you or Jack or someone else dead in a ditch because you couldn’t find a ride and drove.”

“I would’ve probably just slept in my car,” he said. “Jack would have probably ended up passed out in the limo before Forrest and Morgan could leave in it. It’d probably ruin their wedding night and would've pissed Morgan off.”

“Maybe I should have left you guys in that case,” I joked, and he laughed.

The conversation dulled for a moment, but then Alex cleared his throat and asked, “So what’s the situation with Aubree’s dad anyway?”

“Complicated,” I answered vaguely. “It’s good, but complicated.” I didn’t feel like getting into it with Alex since that was entirely too long of a story to get through with the short drive we had left.

Luckily Alex let the subject drop and just asked me more questions about Aubree, like was she a good eater (yes, she ate everything), was she a crier as a baby (nope, she was pretty content), and if she was closer to me or her dad (she was a mommy’s girl all the way).

Within a few minutes, I was pulling up outside of Alex’s building, and I put the car in park, letting it idle while I waited for him to get out.

“So thanks for the ride home,” he said.

“You’re welcome.” I shrugged. “It was no big deal.”

“And thanks for the dance earlier, too,” he continued with a smile. “It was nice.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It was.”

He lingered in the car another moment, his hand holding on to the door handle. He started to exit and then stopped himself. “Okay, this is probably totally lame, but do you think I could get your number?”

I bit the inside of my cheek and shook my head a little. “You know, I don’t really think that’d be a great idea.” His face fell a little and I immediately felt bad. “It’s nothing personal. You can add me on Facebook though, if you want. I should be somewhere on Morgan or Forrest’s friends list.”

“I understand,” Alex nodded. “And yeah, I’ll definitely be sending you a request.” He got out of the car and paused again. “Thanks again for the ride.”

I gave him a small wave and he shut the door, turning to go inside. I checked for any traffic and pulled away, heading for home. By the time I got back, it was a little after eleven and I was dead on my feet. Why had I thought it was a good idea to wear such an uncomfortable pair of heels for an entire day? I got my key out of my purse, let myself inside, and locked the door behind me.

“Hey,” Nathan, Aubree’s father greeted me. He was sitting on the couch watching TV, drinking a glass of wine. “How was the wedding?”

“Long and stupid,” I replied. I crossed the room to sit next to him on the couch, removing my heels. “Remind me to never wear these again. They’re awful.”

He chuckled a little and then made a puzzled face, leaning in to smell me. “Why do you smell like you bathed in Jack Daniels?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “I got a drink spilled on me.” I put my feet up on the couch and leaned over to take his wine glass, taking a slightly longer swig than I should have before handing it back to him. “Trust me, you didn’t miss anything at the wedding. Forrest looked like Mr. Clean with his white suit and bald head, Morgan completely ignored me, the food was terrible, and the music was awful.”

“Damn, I’m really sorry I missed that one,” Nathan replied sarcastically. He handed me his glass of wine and then leaned forward to grab the bottle off the coffee table, topping me off. “Sounds like you need this more than I do.”

I took another sip and surveyed the family room for the first time since I’d sat down, processing the mess. Aubree’s toys were strewn across the floor, there were dress up clothes everywhere, and there was a half-eaten doughnut bite on the ground. I frowned. “Care to explain why it looks like Hurricane Aubree destroyed my family room?”

“Because Hurricane Aubree did blow through here,” he said and sighed, rubbing his eyes. “That child has more energy than the fucking sun. I just got her to go to sleep a little bit ago. I was planning on having this all cleaned up before you came back, I just wanted to relax for a few minutes first.”

“I feel it,” I said, swirling the wine in the glass. “Trust me; I go through the cleanup routine every day. Have you ever stepped on one of her Duplo blocks? Because that hurts like a bitch.”

“Yeah, actually I was going to the bathroom before and in the whole three minutes I was in there, she managed to set a bunch of them up outside the door,” he told me. “I totally wasn’t expecting that and managed to step on every single one of them. I’m pretty sure our daughter is an evil genius.”

“She gets that from me obviously.” I looked down at Nathan’s hand, which was streaked with hot pink nail polish. I started to laugh. “I guess that’s not all she gets from me.”

I worked as a cosmetologist, and apparently Aubree thought it was the coolest thing ever. Nathan had gotten her a little beauty studio for Christmas which she was absolutely in love with. She constantly played with it, brushing the hair of her dolls, putting clips in their hair, and sometimes trying to paint their nails which I’d protested at first but eventually given up on. When she got bored with dolls, she usually climbed behind me on the couch or sat me on the floor so she could mess with my hair. Apparently she’d subjected her father to the same treatment while I was gone.

I reached out and pulled a clip out of his hair. “You missed one.”

He ran his hand through his hair, trying to make sure there weren’t any more of them. “Thanks. I was pretty sure I had them all.”

I took his hand to study it, laughing about Aubree’s painting job. She somehow managed to get the polish completely up his fingers and onto his knuckles. “You know, she might not be going to cosmetology school, but she has a very promising future as an artist.”

He chuckled and pulled his hand back. “I’ve gotta get this shit off. I’ve been dying to do it for hours now, but I figured I’d wait until she fell asleep so I didn’t hurt her feelings.” He twisted the silver band on his left ring finger. “Unfortunately she got it all over my ring. Can I use nail polish remover to get that off?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ve got some jewelry cleaner in the bathroom somewhere,” I replied. “I’d just stick it in there overnight and pray for the best in the morning.”

“I’m just gonna go ahead and clean myself up now,” Nathan said. He stood up and headed towards the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

I thought about setting up Aubree’s blocks outside the door as a joke but decided against it. Instead, I set the wine glass down and went about my nightly routine of putting away Aubree’s toys. I tossed the blocks back in their designated box, her dress up clothes went back into her little closet, and her stuffed animals got tossed in their bin. By the time Nathan returned, the only thing left was the half-eaten doughnut hole.

“Oh, shit, you didn’t have to do that,” Nathan said. “I was about to clean everything up when I came out.”

“It’s fine,” I said and shook my head. I held up the doughnut hole. “Care to explain this though?”

“Oh, I gave her one when she was done with dinner and about halfway through, she decided she didn’t want that anymore,” he explained, smiling. “She tossed it over her shoulder, looked at me, and went ‘Ewww.’”

I laughed, tossing the doughnut hole into the trashcan. “Well, other than that, everything went okay?”

“Yeah,” Nathan nodded. “She cried a little when you left, but she got over it. We watched a couple of movies while she decided to go through little every single box of toys in this house, she ate some leftover nachos for dinner,” he paused to roll his eyes here, “she gave me a beautiful makeover, and we read a little before she went to bed. She fought sleep for a little while. I’m pretty sure she wanted to wait for you.”

“I would have been home sooner, but I had to play designated driver for a couple of guys,” I said.

Nathan shrugged and didn’t ask for any elaboration. “Well, she’ll see you in the morning for breakfast anyway. Scrambled eggs and toast sound okay?”

“Sounds awesome,” I said. For whatever reason, I couldn’t cook a Goddamn egg to save my life. I could make other stuff – roast chicken, roast beef, the damn Thanksgiving turkey – but not any form of eggs. Nathan had tried to show me years before when we were still in high school, but I’d set the heat for the pan way too high, and my eggs had ended up looking like grey, disgusting sweat socks. So because of my lack of egg cooking skills, it was always nice when Nathan was around to make breakfast.

I gave Nathan a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. “I’m exhausted though, so I’m gonna get this makeup off and head to bed.”

“I’ll be there in a bit,” he said and sat back down on the couch. “I just wanna finish this movie.”

I nodded, said goodnight, and headed to the bedroom. I slipped out of my dress and into my pajamas, stopping off in the bathroom to take out my jewelry and wash my face. When I was finished, I climbed into bed, checking my phone once more. I tapped into my Facebook app and saw I had two friend requests, one from Jack Barakat and the other from Alex Gaskarth. I clicked accept on both, though I hesitated slightly before accepting Alex’s. The guy was friendly enough, and definitely handsome, but something about him felt like a can of worms I just didn’t want to open.

I shook the thought from my mind and settled into bed, easily falling into a deep sleep.