Hundred and Forty-Three

VALERIA

One of Ivy's nurse friends from the hospital clapped her hand over her lips to keep in a giggle.

"Ssh!" said a friend of Vance who just had to be a bodyguard. His tall, muscled figure could be made for nothing else.

The man was smiling himself.

"Sorry," the giggler apologized as she smiled up at him.

I felt much like giggling myself, especially at the look I was already picturing on Ivy's face when she eventually realized Vance had brought a lot of his friends and her friends on their date.

"They are here," Dimitri whispered in my ear.

Dimitri's words were whispered back and forth between everyone.

"Remember everyone. Don't make a sound when they come in," someone said.

I looked straight ahead and saw Vance, lead Ivy by the hand into the private booth of the restaurant where we were all hiding.

"It's beautiful in here," Ivy said, looking around. "But it's rather dark, don't you think? Maybe a little more light will-"

She made a move to touch the light switch. I stiffened, drew