Page 72 of Kiss the Bride

“I’m not going to shoot any animals.”

“With your camera. We keep going until we have the perfect photo of each of the big five.”

I finished university but never traveled to South Africa. It hadn’t seemed right without Hunter.

“Hunter and I broke up a long time ago.” I refuse to defend Hunter without talking to him and hearing what he has to say. I don’t want to believe that our post-graduation holiday had been a lie. I don’t want to believe Mitchel, but what if … no. I need to hear it from Hunter.

“Looks like he’s wanting to start things up again.” Mitch has the same patronizing look that his father saves for his mother. How did I not see it, before? “Tell me you’re not going to be a silly girl and fall for his lies? He broke your heart once, and he’ll do it again.”

“And you didn’t?”

“Babe, I never kicked you to the curb like you were a stray dog. I wanted to marry you. I still want to marry you. This whole Lina shit was the wake-up call I needed.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you need a wake-up call? Why wasn’t I enough?”

“I don’t know, but we’ve got an appointment with a couple’s counselor as soon as we get back from our honeymoon. Olivia, babe. We deserve to find out how to make this work.”

“Why?”

I can’t stop asking the same question. Luckily, Mitchel is so full of his own conversation and thoughts, he doesn’t care.

He hasn’t asked how I feel or felt. Walking in and seeing them, I’d felt more than hurt. Betrayed. Utterly humiliated. After canceling the wedding, I’ve never been so embarrassed, not only for me but for my parents. They’d overcome all their reservations about Mitchel and hatred for each other to come together in support. Telling them, thank goodness for Hunter. He’d been my rock as I tried to find a tomorrow alone and without the man I’d once loved. Should still have loved despitethe hurt. I’d been grieving for a future, angry that the decision had been so brutally made without me. I felt a lot of things about Mitch’s cheating, but he doesn’t know and doesn’t care.

“Olivia. I love you. I want us to fight our way through it, but you need to meet me halfway.”

“Oh?”

“This thing with Hunter. I can forgive you, but he has to go. From here and from our lives.”

“Why?” I keep my face blank, hiding my anger—Mitch thinks he needs to forgive me for Hunter? There’s nothing to forgive. I broke up with Mitch. Hunter refused to let me touch him until we both knew I wasn’t using him as a rebound. He’s never stopped loving me. Part of me never stopped loving him. There’s nothing wrong about Hunter and me, and if Mitch can’t see that, I can’t help him. I don’t want to help him.

So why not close him down, tell him to fuck off on the next helicopter out of here, and go back to Hunter? The answer is simple: I owe it to myself to see how this plays out. How much can Mitch grovel, and at what point will Hunter fight for us?

“Because I’m never gonna trust him around you. A mate doesn’t do this to another mate.”

“You did it to Pete.”

“That was different. Pete and Lina were never serious.”

I know differently. Pete had gotten Lina a ring, and now all she’s going to remember is the receipt and price tag. “Still, they’d been together for a while.”

“Yeah, it was a dick move, and Pete should never trust me with Lina again. But we need to end this thing with Hunter.”

“What do you think I should do?”

“Oh, sweetheart, I wouldn’t ask you to do it.” Mitchel is fully suave salesman. “Just say the word, and I’ll have him on the next flight back to the mainland. I’ll remind our friends that weare solid but suggest they don’t invite Hunter to anything we are going to. Ever.”

“You want me to give up my best friend?”

“Sweetheart,” his voice has never sounded so patronizing, or is it that this is the first time I’ve noticed? “Anyone who took advantage of you the way he’s done isn’t a friend.”

Mitchel tries to convince me to go back to his villa so we can talk in private, but I refuse to leave. It’s not that I’m scared to be alone with him. I just don’t want to go anywhere with him. There is no longer a connection—emotionally or physically. Had there ever been a connection, or had I been so willing to pretend to myself that I was over Hunter that I’d conjured up feelings for his best friend?

The afternoon crowd starts to arrive, and I receive more than a couple of stares from people who’d been on the beach, supporting me when I burned my wedding dress. Other people accepted that Hunter and I as a couple and can’t hide their curiosity about me being here with Mitch.

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