Chapter Ten
Four Years Ago
Cancun, Mexico
The Wedding of Lily & Josh
“So why did you choose a combined bachelor/bachelorette party? How will Josh have strippers if we’re there?” I ask Lily, who still has the curling iron in her hair even though we were supposed to meet the guys at the bar twenty minutes ago.
“Because it’s fun, there will be no strippers, and we’re all friends. So why not?”
“Got it. I just hope this burrito I ate earlier doesn’t make another appearance soon.”
“What, you’re sick?”
“Not sick, yet, just… iffy.” I wasn’t going to tell her this at all and just hope it passed. Literally.
“Well, hold it together.”
When she’s finally ready we walk the few blocks from our hotel down to the bar where this magical event is to take place. I probably shouldn’t have worn heels this high for this much walking, but I hate looking an entire foot shorter than Jack.
“Wow! This place is busy!” People are spilling out of the front doors, laughing, drinking and just overall partying. “Come on.”
We push our way through the crowd and look around the busy bar for the rest of our party. Someone waving from the private balcony above grabs my attention, and I look up and see Evan.
“They’re up there.”
“Perfect! We wanted to get the balcony but weren’t sure we could at such short notice.” We squeeze through a crowd full of scantily-clad half-naked bodies towards the stairs, and the man guarding the VIP rope nods towards us without a word while letting us through.
“It’s so hot in here,” I yell to Lily over the music, following her to the top.
“It’s Mexico, Ems. It’s always hot.”
It’s so hot that I think my hair is sweating, but I continue up the stairs and hope there is air conditioning in the VIP room.
“Finally! What took you so long?” Jack greets me with a smile.
“Lily… She just had to look perfect.” I glance across the room at her and Josh already making out in a corner by themselves. “I’m not sure why we are having a party to watch them have sex in public. It’s kinda gross.”
“They’re not gonna have sex. That would be disgusting.” Evan takes a swig of his beer. “We leave disgusting to me, remember?” He winks at the only other bridesmaid that made the trek from Oregon to Mexico.
“No, Lily will be pissed if you screw her cousin.”
“Lily will never know.” He and Jack both laugh and glance at me. “Right?”
“I know you have like zero morals about this stuff, just don’t do it here, please?” I beg Evan to try and keep it in his pants, but I know he’ll never listen. He never does.
“I got you a drink.” Jack points at the Cosmo on the table in front of him.
I take a giant slurp, hoping it doesn’t go to war and piss off the burrito from earlier. “Please promise me that if we ever were to get married that we won’t have bachelor/bachelorette parties.”
“Promised. Really aren’t they just an excuse to do something dirty right before the wedding?”
I glance back and Josh and Lily, still making out. “I thought so, but apparently, in this case, it’s just to make the rest of us feel dirty.”
“They’re just in love.” Jack smirks over at them. “Dirty love.” His scrunched-up disgusted face matches my own, even through our laughter at his joke.
You can only drink in a hundred-degree room for so long before you feel like you’re going to have a stroke. An hour was about all it took for us decide to take our party outside to the beach.
“Where’s Josh?” Lily asks after she finally realizes he’s not lying on the sand with us.
“Maybe he went to get another drink?” Jack says, without moving from his star-gazing position.
“Evan’s gone too, so I’m sure that’s where they are.” I glance around at the indentations that held all six of us just thirty minutes ago. “Wait…” I sit up and glance around again. I may be seeing doubles of things, but I know I’m missing a complete person here. “Corinne is gone too.”
“Yes, as close as she and Evan were getting in the bar I’d say—” Jack groans suddenly, probably because of my elbow in his ribs. “I mean…”
“What? Evan is with Corinne?”
“No.” I quickly denounce the idea of Lily’s engaged cousin Corinne doing anything she shouldn’t with my brother. “Maybe she went back to the hotel? I’m sure Evan is with Josh.”
“Let’s go.” Lily jumps up but stumbles backward, catching herself on a nearby lounger. “Your brother will not screw another one of my friends, or family members.”
“Come on Lil…” Jack is slurring his words, which is a rare occasion and I’m sure is only happening because absolutely no one from his family or job is even in the same country as us right now. “Evan has always had a way with the ladies, you know that.” The perverted tone coming from my boyfriend is somewhat disturbing. “It’s not like he forces them to have sex with him. They just do.”
“Nice.” She glances at Jack with a glare. “It’s good to know you lost your gentleman status at my wedding.”
“I didn’t lose anything. I’m just sworn to the truth right now because I’ve had way too much to drink today.”
“Don’t fight! Let’s just go find Josh and Evan,” I say, trying to sound as motherly as possible. Wrangling a couple drunks to get along is about as effective as herding a flock of seagulls.
“And Corinne,” Lily adds, like I had forgotten her.
“Yes, Corinne too.”
“There are at least five bars between here and our hotel, so we’re gonna go search them all?”
“That’s right. And no more to drink for you.” Lily points directly at Jack.
“Or for me,” I say, hoping that the acid bubbling in my throat is just heartburn and not the attempted reappearance of the previously mentioned burrito.
The first bar we walk into appears to be a dirty dive bar. It’s so dark you can hardly see a few people ahead of you, and there is a band playing with strobe lights so the thirty minutes we search is completely pointless. I couldn’t even find the bathroom in that place, let alone a person.
“I think this is an after-hours bar.” Jack glances around the next one, his eyes as big as saucers. On the bar are three mostly-naked women (I’m not sure if sequined barely-there underwear count as clothing) dancing in heels so high it hurts me just to look at them.
“Do you see them?” Lily yells over the swanky music playing overhead. I shake my head, trying to avoid eye contact with every woman walking around in nothing but a bikini bottom. “I’m going to ask the bartender,” she shouts.
“Jack and I will wait outside.” I turn to grab Jack but he’s nowhere to be seen. “Shit.” Maybe he already went outside? It is packed in here, and he’s not exactly thinking straight this evening. Of all the places to lose him, why did it have to be at the topless bar?
I shove my way through the crowd and reach the sidewalk only to see Jack sitting on a bench out front. A nearly-naked, definitely topless woman is sitting next to him and giggling at whatever it is he’s just said to her. Jack is sitting as far from her as possible, while not falling off the bench completely.
“Jack!”
“Ems, I was just asking this lady if she’d seen them.” He jumps up, as fast as one can when they are drunk, and grabs my hand. “I founnd hher,” he slurs to the lady, who is now looking at the two of us and being less giggly than she was a moment earlier.
“They haven’t seen them.” Lily comes up behind us looking more than frazzled. “This is the worst party ever!” Her voice quivers when she says it, cuing me to what is coming next.
“Please don’t cry,” I say, as tears start to roll down her cheeks. “Maybe they got confused and went back to the hotel?”
“Lessh go check,” Jack slurs into my face, causing me to fan the beer smell away from me.
“How about we don’t breathe directly onto one another?”
“Deal.” He reaches down and grabs my hand, pulling it up to kiss it, missing on the first try but nailing it on the second. “Sssee… Shtill a gentleman.”
“Come on.” I lead him down the street by his hand, my shoes in my other hand. “I’m sure they’re at the hotel,” I say to Lily, but she’s no longer standing next to me. “Lil?” I call out. “For Christ’s sake, can we stop losing people, already?” I turn to Jack who is pointing just past me.
“Ssshe went that way.”
I turn to follow his finger but she’s not there.
“Great. How did I end up the soberest out of all of us?” I look over at Jack’s goofy smile.
“I know, normally that’sh me.”
“I like it better that way.” I frown at my grown man-child stumbling along next to me, staring at the sky instead of where he’s walking.
“I need to ssssit,” Jack announces suddenly, lurching towards a giant palm bush and retching all that he’s drank in the last hour.
I drop my head back and sigh. “Let’s lie down for a few.” I help him to the beach just a few feet away, steering him towards a lounger and making sure he’s not going to fall off before settling myself in the one next to him.
The sky in Mexico really is gorgeous at night. The moon reflects off the ocean in a way that almost makes it so bright you feel like it’s not night time at all. The breeze is nice, and I can’t help but fall in love with the whole tropical atmosphere. Even though I’m babysitting my drunken boyfriend and all my friends are missing, there is something romantic about this spot.
“Jack?” Sort of checking to see if he’s still alive.
He mumbles something to me.
“If we ever get married I want to do it here, without everyone we know. It’s just… so much easier than all the fuss of a wedding.”
Jack only groans over at me. I’m kind of glad he doesn’t totally understand me right now, because we haven’t talked about marriage at all. We’ve been together for three years and not once has he hinted that we should get married. He’s always so focused on the next step in his career that I don’t think it’s honestly even on his mind.
Our relationship is great, so why change it? But with my friends getting married I’m starting to feel a little left out. I mean… I’m 26 years old; I feel like this is the marrying age if there was one. I’ve no doubt that Jack is the one, so maybe I should mention it… preferably when he’s not puking in the sand next to me.
“Ems…” Jack groans at me, causing me to jerk awake and try to figure out where I am. “Why are we on the beach?”
It’s not as dark as it was when we sat down here so I pull my phone out of my pocket to check the time. 4.33 am. We’ve been lying out here since just after 1 am and we must’ve fallen asleep.
“We stopped because you were sick, remember? We can head back to our room. Do you feel OK?”
“No… But I can make it back.” He sits up and glances at me, his dark hair falling across his forehead. “I think this is the first time I’ve been this drunk.”
“In front of me for sure.”
“Well, that’s a change,” he laughs, as I try and pull him off the chair.
“That it is.”
“I had a dream that we got married.” His smile is faint, but his eyes are locked onto mine. He must’ve heard me earlier. “We got married right here, with the moon in the background.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, it was…” he stops walking, obviously searching for a word to use. “Beautiful.” He looks at me again. “Just like you.”
How could I not be happy to hear that?
“Thanks, Jack. Let’s get back.”
I slide the hotel card key into the suite we are all staying in and watch the flash of the green light before the door pops open and Jack pushes his way through like a bull in a china shop. “Hello, bed,” he says as he walks down the hall to our room.
“Let me just make sure everyone got back,” I say, watching him fall face first into our bed.
I quietly knock on Corinne’s door. She doesn’t answer so I crack the door open to make sure she’s at least in bed. She is… But so is Evan. Obviously they have been up to no good, considering I’m standing on their clothes near the doorway.
“Evan!” I whisper, poking him in the back. “EVAN!”
“What?” He groans, opening one eye.
“Get back in your room or Lily will kill you when she gets up. What is wrong with you? Corinne is engaged!”
“So… It’s not like we’re the ones getting married tomorrow.”
“Just go!” I toss his clothes at him and watch him kick off the blankets, hold his wad of clothes over his nether-regions and tiptoe back to his room across the hall. “Not a word of this to anyone!”
“Whatever, Mom.” His door clicks shut behind him.
I glance in at Jack, who isn’t moving but has somehow managed to strip himself and is now lying completely naked on top of the covers, his bare ass exposed to anyone looking in the wall of windows.
“Lil?” I crack her door enough that the light shines directly onto the bed, giving me the perfect vision of her and Josh doing things I never wanted to imagine they did. “OH MY GOD.”
“EMI!” Lily yells and tosses a pillow my direction.
“Sorry,” I yell through the crack, quickly shutting the door behind me. “Shit.” I race into my room, shut the door, and close the curtains so Jack doesn’t gain a crowd when it’s light outside.
Right, then it hits me: not the alcohol, the burrito. I barely make it to the bathroom before the burrito and everything I’ve drank tonight decides to make an appearance.
I don’t remember sleeping the next few hours on the bathroom floor but I’m awoken by Jack, using the toilet in the same way I last remember using it.
“I’m never drinking again,” he moans, lying down next to me. “Why are you in here?”
“Bad burrito last night.” We both lie on the floor for the next hour until Jack finally feels well enough to take a shower and get dressed.
“Wedding is in eight hours.” He stands at in the doorway looking as handsome as ever in his cargo shorts and a white t-shirt. It’s like he didn’t just have the first hangover of his life.
“I’m so sick,” I cry from the floor, wishing I’d never have gone to that burrito stand with Evan yesterday. “Is Evan sick?” He’d better be; it’s only fair.
“I dunno, sweetie. I’ll go get you some aspirin and find out.”
I hear the door open a few minutes later, but it’s not Jack’s flip-flops in front of me, it’s Evan’s chucks. “What the hell? Jack said you’re sick from the burrito yesterday?”
“You’re not?”
“Nope… I feel great.”
“You’re a disgusting human being.” I push his calf in an attempt to force him out of my bathroom.
“Why’s that?”
“Because you screw everything.”
“Oh, come on now… not everything, I have some standards.” His sly smile makes me feel even sicker.
“I brought you Evan’s hangover cure.” Jack walks in behind Evan. “Come on…” He helps me walk to the bed and sits a tray of burnt toast, juice, and aspirin in front of me. “Eat, and I’m sure you’ll feel better.”
I don’t. I throw up until Lily forces me to get dressed for the wedding. I sit still like a statue while she fixes my hair and makeup and Jack practically carries me to the beach and down the aisle. I’m just glad I make it through the vows, all the while holding the prettiest trash-can Lily could find, my bouquet taped to the front of it, without having to use it. I manage to save that until just after the ceremony. Then miraculously, as quickly as it comes on, it’s gone.
“That was a miserable time, wasn’t it?” Jack asks the next morning as we pack up our bags to go home.
“Yes. I hope I didn’t ruin Lily’s day?”
“She’s as happy as she’s ever been, Ems, so it’s safe to say you haven’t.” He walks over to me, pulling me away from my suitcase and out to the balcony with him. “I heard what you said last night about wanting to get married on the beach.”
For a second my heart stops and my ears turn scalding hot. “You did?” Why did I mention it out loud? Every girl knows not to mention marriage first. It only scares guys away.
“I did. I agree… It would be perfect.”
“It would?” My heart is racing in my chest, wondering if he’s going to ask me to marry him.
“Well… Without the food poisoning and the hangover, yes.”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know if I’m there quite yet, but it’s definitely an idea for the future.”
My heart sinks a bit, and I have to force my face to not show the disappointment I’m feeling knowing this is not him proposing. Not that I was ever really expecting it, but a girl can dream.
“Definitely a great idea for then.”