they begin to head back to the car

"Sure, that sounds great." Abbie took Jake's hand again. "If we go back to the steakhouse, we have to get the short ribs. A table near ours had them last night, and they looked so good!"

The pair of them wandered through the main ballroom to the other end and the doorway they had first come in. Jake's mind flashed to when they had first encountered Megan and Phoebe that morning. "God, it feels like a million years ago," he muttered.

"What does?" said Abbie.

"This morning. Megan and Phoebe."

"Mm," agreed Abbie. "The pantry." She was pleased to hear Jake mention the two women who had made such an exciting impact on them earlier in the day.

Jake nodded. "The pantry." He stopped in his place and sighed. "Sometimes I think back on the things I've done with you, and I think ... did I really do that? Has this been a dream?"

Abbie looked at him with a curious smile. "Does this not feel real to you?"

Jake looked at her, then around at the room. "I don't know. If I wasn't with you, I would one hundred percent doubt that I had done anything except show up at a semi-boring wedding brunch, eat some decent buffet food, and then wander out again."

"You mean, if you weren't with me, you wouldn't have gone into the pantry to mess around with that lovely lesbian couple earlier? And you wouldn't have wandered into the woods to fuck a French-Japanese fashion model and her stoner boyfriend?" Abbie burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing! Just ... I'm imagining you doing those things without me, and it's kind of adorable."

"Why? Because I couldn't do that on my own?"

"Well ... yes! That's actually exactly why!" Abbie giggled again and held both of Jake's hands. She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him sweetly. "And besides, I don't want to have missed out on these adventures, so I'm glad I was with you."