Finally, they finished singing and two of the guys took a knee on either side of her, while the third loomed over the back of her chair.
In any other scenario, Beth might have thought she’d died and gone to heaven and would certainly have made the most of the situation. But a snooty, upper-class restaurant where they all stuck out like a sore thumb was not the place to be doing that.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, another, far more disturbing one replaced it. Oh god! They weren’t those ‘stripper with benefits’ type of guys, were they? Ansley had seen her bucket list and Beth wouldn’t put it past her to pull that kind of stunt.
She would legitimately die of humiliation if her friend tried something like that here, of all places, though.
Her cheeks were flaming, and Beth didn’t know where to rest her eyes. Her fingers tightened around the delicate stem of the champagne flute, and she downed the crisp bubbly in a couple of gulps.
One of the guys reached down his pants and Beth thought she might fall off the chair. Surely he wasn’t going to…
Would it be bad taste - worse taste - to pick up the champagne and just swig it from the bottle?
She breathed a sigh of relief when all he did was pluck out a small, red envelope and present it to her with a flourish.
She thanked him effusively, overcome with relief, that his clothes had stayed on. What few of them there were. And the very fact that she was thinking that and not dancing on the table encouraging him to get naked, just highlighted how boring her life had become.
Or more likely it was simply the environment. Nevertheless, she breathed a bit easier when they got to their feet, bent to kiss her - on the cheek - and retraced their steps back out again without an ounce of discomfort at the disapproving looks that were cast their way.
Easy for them since they were leaving.
Beth had yet to order. She had to tolerate this crowd for at least another hour.
“Open it then!” Ansley’s voice snapped Beth out of her dismay and preoccupation with the other diners and she was glad of the distraction.
Ansley was almost bouncing on her seat. Beth expected her to start clapping at any moment, she was so excited. It made her wary of what was coming next.
With a sigh, Beth picked up a knife from her place setting and slipped it under the seal, slicing it open carefully.
Fishing inside the envelope she pulled out several pieces of paper. The first one that caught her eye was an elegant antique gold colored ticket. She glanced at that first, trying to make sense of the gift while across the table from her Ansley looked like she was going to explode.
All access pass to Iniquity.
Well, that made her none the wiser. What was this place? Some kind of club?
She put the ticket down on the table and checked out another ticket. First class flights to the Caribbean. What the heck?
Her mouth opened on a small gasp. “What is this Ansley?” she asked.
“Open the final part!” Ansley exclaimed in a very unrestrained whisper.
Beth did as she was told, a slight tremor in her fingers as she unfolded the heavy piece of quality paper.
Scanning the contents, she slapped her hand over her mouth in disbelief and her eyes grew wide before she slowly raised them to look at her friend.
“Do you like it?” Ansley screeched, and this time Beth was so shocked that not even the low muttering of the other diners as they turned to look their way - again - fazed her.
“I… I,” Beth stuttered. “I don’t know what to say. This is…”
Apparently saying anything was unnecessary.
“I knew you’d love it!” Ansley trilled. “As soon as my good friend, Saul Stephens, mentioned this place I knew it would be perfect, so I went and set everything up for you. Plus, I’ve booked it over Valentine’s Day as I know how blue you always get then, so this will kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Isn’t it the best gift ever? And now you can cross something off your bucket list.”
Ansley talked nineteen to the dozen and Beth was glad that her friend was filling what might otherwise have been a very awkward silence. Because she really was lost for words, and Beth didn’t want to appear ungrateful.
Ansley chattered on, while Beth struggled to regain her equilibrium. She grabbed the champagne bottle and refilled her glass without waiting for a waiter to come and do it for her.
Luckily Ansley took that as a sign that Beth wanted to celebrate and pushed her glass across for a refill too.