Eden was as surprised as anyone to find herself having a good time at Mara Kennedy’s bachelorette party. She’d arrived with extreme misgivings. Not only did she barely know anyone, but Mara Kennedy looked like every mean girl who’d gone to Franklin Grammar. If Andy hadn’t been going along, she wouldn’t have made the attempt, but she was glad she had. For one thing, the party was on a luxury yacht with all the soft-shell crab and pineapple juice a girl could want. For another, Mara Kennedy turned out to be a total sweetheart, handing her lobster rolls and asking about her music.

Now she was laughing in the sun with Mara, Andy, and his fiancé Chase while Beth, another of Mara’s friends, told a story about a guy who’d asked her to mail him a jar of her pee.

“… So, I DM’d him back.” Beth clutched her chest, her face red with suppressed laughter. “… And I asked him what he wanted me to drink beforehand. And like how hydrated my piss should be. Golden brown? Clear? Buttercup yellow?”

Mara shrieked, waving a hand in her face. “Stop!”

“He told me he wanted me to stay off fluids, so it’d be the colour of like, old coffee and—”

“Enough, thanks,” Chase said in his brisk American accent. “I can’t hear these things, okay?”

Beth pouted. “I didn’t actually do it.”

“Thank Christ.”

“You should have kept negotiating,” Eden said. “Seen how high he was willing to go.”

Beth smiled. She was pretty with dark red hair and a light dusting of freckles. “You’re Willow’s girlfriend, yeah?”

“I… Yeah.” She realised that sounded pathetic. “Sorry, it’s still new.”

To the rest of the world, she and Willow had been dating for months but it had only been two terrifying weeks since they’d made everything official. For the first time since high school, she had a real boyfriend.

“I like Willow,” Beth said.

Mara smiled. “Everyone likes Willow.”

“Yeah, but I feel a special kinship with him. He’s a sexy redhead. We’re a protected species.”

Eden laughed. “Maybe you guys should get together?”

“No, we need to multiply beyond our own kind. He is gorgeous though.”

“Really?” Chase glanced apologetically at her. “Sorry.”

Eden raised her hands. “Hey, I think he’s a babe.”

“He is,” Beth insisted. “He could get it. Although you’re an absolute smoke show. Let me talk to Byron. See if we can sort something out.”

She grinned to let Eden know she was joking. Eden smiled. “Well let me know what you come up with. Willow and I haven’t talked swinging yet, but we could…”

Mara tapped her chin. “I couldn’t let anyone else be with Derek… Except maybe you, Beth.”

“Me?” Beth pressed her hands to her chest. “I’m flattered, but no fucking way. It would be like MMA.”

“Like dogs fighting,” Andy agreed.