Page 73 of For Pleasure Or Worse

Maybe this was inevitable, like she’d said. I still wasn’t convinced that my intentions wereallmisguided. She was making me second-guess everything I’d done in the last six months while trying to save us from this exact thing happening. I’d sabotaged myself worrying about everyone else.

Approaching the bathroom door gently, I rapped my knuckles against it. “Tal, I’m sorry.”

There was silence, and I held my breath hoping she might come meet me on the other side. Leaning in, I pressed my ear to the wood. She was thinking about it. I knew she was. We were stronger than this.

A moment later the hair dryer thrummed to life and snapped my hopefulness in half. It was a tight fist squeezing around my lungs.

If she needed the space I would give it to her. Unhappily, but understandably. This wouldn’t last forever, but we would. I held onto that as I left her to get ready for the day, and slipped back downstairs alone.

chapter twenty-five

Mateo

“The girls left half an hour ago.”

Sam held his phone out, staring at the screen while my groomsmen and I waited at the edge of the villa driveway for our ride to pick us up. Try as I might to shake off the blow of the morning and pretend like everything was fine, the gallery of sorry looks when I came moping down the stairs said all they needed to.

“They’re determined.” Echo cracked his knuckles and did some calisthenic stretches on the scorching blacktop like we were running a marathon. The desert road was broad and pale, dust picking up with every shuffle of a step. “It’s cute they needed that little head start. I wonder which thing on the list they’re after first.”

I checked my own phone with a sigh: nothing from Natalia. I’d watched her from the window in her white mini dress and sparkly ankle boots and nearly choked on my saliva. It was so perfectly her, flirty and tiny, feathers on the short skirt that showed off her toned tan legs. The other four followed into a Suburban wearing different shades of pink, and the saving grace was that they’d be easy to pick out in a crowd looking like a pack of flamingos.

Pike came to stand beside me, slapping a silver flask against my chest. “Drink.”

My attention sliced toward him out of the corner of my eye and I took a generous swig without argument.

“It will blow over,” he assured me. “You have to man up and take your licks. Won’t be the last time.”

Wink shoved his phone into the back pocket of his tan slacks. “What happened, anyway? Everyone seemed great this morning, then Tally came downstairs like a tornado and I’d hate to be the man that got in the way of that storm. What did you do?”

“You wouldn’t survive it,” I grumbled. “She overheard a conversation I wasn’t ready to have with her yet.”

“I was trying to help.” Angelo shifted on his feet, fragments of pebbles and sand crunching beneath the rubber soles of his shoes. “For what it’s worth, we didn’t know she was being a little eavesdropper.”

“It’s her party, she’s allowed wherever she wants to be.” Angelo avoided my eyes, adjusting the collar of his shirt and plucking a string of lint off his chest. “Now I’m in hot water, and I’m not going to be able to think about anything but my impending groveling on the one day I didn’t think I would need to. Leaving the families in Florida for the weekend was supposed to leave the drama behind too, but look at that, it just follows me around.”

Wink shook my shoulder and wrapped an arm around me. I shrugged him off lazily. “You are strung tighter than a wire spool, man. Think about it this way. You and Tally are getting married, right? That’s happening. You’re deeply fucking in love with each other, and a little misunderstanding isn’t going to throw that away. You both need to let off steam and find your way back. Let’s do it the way we know best, which is getting drunk and scavenging. Friendly competition. I don’t know about you guys, but this is my bread and butter.”

“Hell yeah.” Echo nodded. In the distance tires popped over gravel and an SUV started down the long flat road toward us like a mirage, heat bouncing off the hood in waves.

I wasn’t operating in the present. All I could think about was hours from now talking to Natalia again, the days from now when we got home to confront my family, a month from now at our wedding, every year of the rest of my life and every moment that could be stressful: having kids, anniversaries, gatherings, vacations. My anxiety controlled me. I didn’t want it to control this day, either.

The boys stared at me apprehensively and I threw everything to the wayside and stole the flask of rum back from Pike, taking another long drag of the sweet liquor as the taste burned down my throat.

“Boy howdy.” Echo laughed. “The captain has boarded.”

Pike waved at the approaching car as it pulled up to the curb. “Come on, Cap. We’re going on a treasure hunt.”

We letout on a busy sidewalk and were immediately lost in a crowd of early afternoon partygoers and performing buskers. The wind whistling through the tall alleys between hotels and restaurants was a reprieve from the heat, but despite it, my neck was clammy with sweat as I put a palm to it and turned in circles, orienting myself with the street signs and landmarks.

I found myself looking for Tally, too. Just a glimpse of her in the crowd somewhere, standing beside the spouting marble fountain, ducking into a hotel lobby, her feathery dress and sweet laugh mixing in with honking car horns and the distant bass of a drum thumping. I’d recognize that sound anywhere.

There was no Natalia, but there was a very intoxicated mime tripping over himself attempting to stand inside a glass box.

“First stop is drinks,” Frankie suggested. “It’ll make embarrassing ourselves more appetizing and hopefully unmemorable.”

“All right, liquid courage,” Sam said. “I’ve benefited from it a time or two.”

Tyler scoffed, licking his lips. “We don’t need any help. The drinks are purely ambiance. Some of this shit on the list is a regular fucking day for me.”

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