I shook my head. “No, not…I mean, at one point I thought they would, but no. Theyhaven’t.”
She nodded. “Then they’re into you. And this Teddy-bear chick...well, she, honestly, doesn’t sound like good news tome.”
I sighed. “Maybe if she’s out of the way then things will go back to normal,” Isaid.
“Do you think that’s possible? Getting her out of the way, I mean?” Lizzieasked.
I shrugged. “I hopeso.”
“Do you think you can just ask her to stop?” Lizzieclarified.
I lifted a brow. “No, we’ve never thought of that,” I commented sarcastically. “Grayson’s already talked to her and she replied with that by tracking me down while I was visiting mymom.”
“So, what are you planning then?” sheasked.
I sat forward, putting my elbows on the table as she tilted her head at me, waiting. “There’s an annual charity masquerade in Charleston next weekend,” I admitted. “She’s going to be there and we’re going to give her a taste of her ownmedicine.”
Lizzie frowned, dropping her hand away from her chin. “And just how are you going to dothat?”
“Well,” I said, “she’s been using underhanded, dirty tactics with us, so it’s time for a little payback. We want her to know that we’re not going to sit around and take it. We’re not going to let her bully us into submission. She wants Grayson to come back to her, but that won’t accomplish anything. We’re going to show up and showoff.”
She frowned. “What do youmean?”
“Well,” I started, “we’re going to show up and just kinda…I mean, we’re going to show her that we’re not scared ofher.”
“You’re calling her bluff?” Lizzieclarified.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Well, sorta… I mean, she’s not bluffing. She’s being serious. She’s followed through on all of her threats so far.” I frowned. “But I think she’s doing it because we haven’t really fought back, you know? Like she thinks she can get away with it because we’re not stoppingher.”
“I don’t know, Harlow. I don’t like the sound of this.” Lizzie shook her head, her brows furrowed inworry.
“I don’t know what else we can do, Lizzie,” I said a bit desperately. “If you have an idea, please, I’m all ears. I’m open-minded. I just need this to stop. I hope if we show up and basically prove that we’re not going to go away and we’re not going to cave in to her demands, she’ll back off or at the very least, rethink herstrategy.”
Lizzie shook her head. “Do you really want her to ‘rethink her strategy’?” she asked with her fingers raised in quotation marks. “This lady doesn’t seem all that stable, if you know what I mean.” Dropping one hand, Lizzie rotated her remaining hand, one finger out, in a circle next to herhead.
I grimaced, fingering the side of my cup. “I don’t know what else to do, Liz,” I admitted. “I mean, this seems like the best way to show her that we don’t care and not escalatethings.”
“Not escalate things?” She lifted an eyebrow at me. “If what you’re telling me is true, then she’ll probably do something eitherway.”
“What else am I supposed to do?” I asked. I really didn’t know. I was desperate. We’d already decided we were going,but…
Lizzie sighed as she looked me over, her eyes roving over my frown and my own obvious worry. “I don’t know what to tell you, Harlow. I’m just concerned that you’re getting into something you’re not sure about. I’m worried that this might hurt your relationship. One, with Grayson, but the others as well,maybe.”
That felt like an arrow straight to my heart. That was what I was worried about as well. Teddi wasn’t directly causing issues with the guys—not all of them anyway—but I could tell it was a strain on them as much as me. What if Grayson decided I wasn’t worth it? What if it made the others wonder if a relationship like this could really work? They were the ones to come up with it, yes, but… I felt like I’d been given everything I didn’t even know I wanted, and now it was slippingaway.
I bit my lip and looked down at my hands. “It’ll work out,” Isaid.
It hadto.
I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if itdidn’t.