Sadie and Lori were best friends from high school, and they grew up together. Lori was another daughter for Sadie’s mother. “Lori,” Saide’s mother ask each day, “will Lori be joining us for dinner?”

And they also got married with two best friends, Benjamin and Keith. They met with them in school. Sadie was sure that she would end up with Benjamin, but over time Keith won her heart, and Lori became sweetheart with Benjamin.

And now, they wanted to have a trip together for Keith’s birthday.. “Book a place, Sadie,” Lori said. “You do the accommodation, and Ben and I will do the food.”

Until the evening, things were great. They were all drinking, and towards the ends of the night Benjamin and Sadie were on the balcony alone.

Lori and Keith were doing karaoke inside. “You know, Sadie,” Benjamin started. “there’s something I’ve been working on for Lori.”

“Ben, what are you planning?” Sadie asked.

“It’s a surprise! But you’ll have to keep it a secret if I tell you. It’s been so hard hiding bottles from Lori…”

“What bottles?”

“Oh, you know,” Benjamin said, as he was under control of the alcohol.

Lori and Benjamin were not drinkers, as Lori’s father had struggled a lot with alcoholism. So she was not letting Benjamin to drink in home.

“What mischief are you two up to?” Lori approached to them. Then Benjamin changed the subject into a story of how they got stuch in an elevator with Keith.

“We just sat on the floor and waited,” Benjamin said.

“I know,” Lori said, “You told me this story the moment you got home.” Then Lori went inside.

Then Sadie talked with Keith while they were on their bed. “What should I do?”

“Do you think Ben was serious?” Keith asked, “He was pretty out of it.”

“Wouldn’t that just be him telling the truth?” Sadie asked. “More lubricated to the truth.”

“Sadie, if you’re worried about it, if you think that maybe you should speak to Lori. If anything happens, you’ll just blame yourself for knowing.”

On the next morning, Lori and Sadie went for a walk, and Sadie told her what Benjamin said yesterday evening.

“Are you sure?” she asked “Are you sure he said ‘bottles’?”

“Yes, but, listen, I’m just speculating. I wanted to tell you in case anything happened. I know how you feel about these things with your father around.”

“Ben has been secretive lately,” Lori then said. “But it cannot be what you think it is!”

After they returned, they packed their bags and left. Before drive back home, they went to a cafe for lunch.

On the next day, Lori texted to Sadie, “You saved my life. Call you later.”

Later, Lori called her, and she said that she left work early. “I just wanted to get home and dig around a bit. For bottles, or whatever, you know? I needed to find whatever Ben was hiding in our home.”

Then she smelled gas in their house.

“Can you imagine if I just came home and switched the stove on, Sadie?” Lori said. “Our home would have gone up in flames. Probably with us in it.”

“Did you find anything?” Sadie asked.

“I did,” Lori said. “They were behind the towels in the linen cupboard.”

“What were they?”

“They are bottles,” Lori said. “But they’re not alcohol.”

“Sadie,” Lorie said, “They are antique perfume bottles. Well, not all. There are a few perfume bottles, and there are other antique bottles. I’m not sure why Ben has those, but they’re worth a lot. There are tags on each of them.”

Sadie was confused. She was aware that Benjamin was into antşques, but she didn’t know that he was selling them for higher price.

“Lori, every bottle sold was a step closer to our dream. I wanted to surprise you with a trip to Paris for our anniversary. So, I bought those vintage bottles online and have been selling them off for a profit,” Benjamin said to Lori when she confronted him.

“And what about the perfume bottles?” Lori asked.

“They’re supposed to be the first present,” Benjamin smiled. “Paris was the second.”

“Maybe it’s just his way of showing his love,” Keith said when Sadie told him the story. “Lori does love her old movies.”

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