At My Wit's End

Ch. 8 The Friends.

Carly's POV

"Do you have any 2's?" Jack asked me as he took a swig of his imported beer. Watney's reminded him of his English roots, so Violet paid extra to the guy at the local liquor store and had it shipped in for him every single month.

"Go fish," I replied back, checking my cards swiftly so that I could make a decision on which number to call for. I had a poker face so good that I didn't even know what I was thinking.

"Do you have any 7's?" I asked my opponent who sat across the table from me. Jack raised an eyebrow and sat there very still, Marshall watching us as he chuckled under his breath. I showed him my particular set of cards and he smiled before looking over and Jack to make a teasing face.

Jack held his breath for just a few seconds and finally...

"Ugh! It's like you're a mind reader! How in the world do you always know what I have?"

Jack tossed the card across the table at me in defeat before finishing off his nearly empty bottle of beer. "I'm the magician. I'm supposed to be good with cards."

"Don't hate the player, hate the game," I replied with a smirk before high fiving Marshall.

"That's my girl," he grinned as he placed a playfull kiss to my cheek.

Violet and Jack had invited us over to their apartment for a couples' night in. Of course, Violet had to cook a lavish dinner featuring food that I couldn't even pronounce. I knew it was all to impress Marshall, because most of the time, Vi, Jack, and I could settle for pizza and call it a day. We swigged on our beers and played cards as we waited for Violet to finish with the food.

"I'm sorry about my fiancé. She doesn't even take this much time to feed me.." Jack joked as he shuffled the cards.

"It's alright. I think it's really nice of her to go this far to make me feel welcomed and everything," Marshall replied in a sort of spaced out kind of way.

"I never really had this before, so it's a little weird for me," he said with a small chuckle. "A good weird."

I smiled at him and pressed a simple kiss to his temple.

"I'm going to go check on the chef. Anybody need anything while I'm up?"

Both guys shook their head no and continued to play with the cards as I made my way into the kitchen to check on Violet.

"I can smell you obsessing over this dinner from the dining room," I laughed as I watched her run around the small kitchen area.

"Thanks for reminding me," she smiled sarcastically, still piddling with the food on the stove. "Eminem is in my dining room and I'm cooking him dinner. Did you expect anything else?"

I laughed as I leaned against the wall next to the stove where my best friend was standing.

"He's not like that, Vi. Don't worry about that."

She finally grabbed the plates out from the cabinet to start plating the food. I grabbed two from her so that I could help her out.

"I haven't seen you this happy since you started dating Wyatt. He must really be something."

I put my plates down on the kitchen island and put my hands on my hips. I had actually forgot about the whole Wyatt incident a few days earlier.

"You forgot to mention that Bobby was diagnosed with cancer... How could you not tell me that?"

She sighed, "I thought it was best for you not to know. Carly, Wyatt broke your heart. I didn't think you wanted to hear about him or his family. I'm sorry."