Chapter Fourteen

Luca

When my phone first started ringing, I silenced it as quickly as possible, not wanting to wake Roxie. She looked so peaceful and beautiful while sleeping, and it was early enough that if I got through the phone call quickly, I could sneak back into bed with her for a little longer. Soon she would have to get up and start helping Thea get ready for the wedding, but I might be able to hold her in my arms for another hour. And if she happened to stir when I got back into the bed, I might just take that hour to take advantage of the very little clothing she wore to sleep last night.

When I was out of the bedroom, I answered the phone.

"Greg! What are you doing calling me so damn early?" I hissed.

"I'm on my way to work," Greg said.

"What does that have to do with me?"

"I haven't heard from you all week. I was getting worried about you. You were supposed to check in."

I winced slightly, remembering I told him I was going to keep in touch with him over the course of the week and keep him updated on what was going on. As soon as I saw Roxie, that had totally left my mind.

"I'm sorry man," I said. "Things have been a little bit hectic here. When Roxie said the bride had the entire week planned out, she wasn't kidding. I've never seen so many parties and activities planned around a wedding before."

"That sounds awful," Greg said.

"Actually," I said, "it's really not. It hasn't been that bad. Yeah, there were a couple of events I probably could have done without. And I'm still not entirely sure why I was holding hands with a bunch of strangers, chanting on top of a rock to bless their union, but at least it was something new I've never done before."

"Well, I guess that's something," Greg said. "You are always up for new experiences, I guess. What's Roxie like?"

I wasn't sure how to respond. I'd been wrestling with understanding how I felt about her for days. She was incredible and nothing like I had expected.

"She's pretty amazing," I finally said.

There was really no other way to describe her. I was amazed by her.

"Is she as hot as her picture?"

"That picture has absolutely nothing on her," I said. "I feel like I've barely been able to think straight since I met her in-person. And I've been able to see plenty of her."

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I regretted saying them. I didn't want to be talking about her like that to Greg. Especially since I still wasn't sure what was happening between us, or what was going to happen when we left the resort and made our way back to the city the next day. Greg made an appreciative sound and laughed.

"Leave it to you to turn a fake relationship into an opportunity to get in bed with a woman."

"Well, I kind of had to get in bed with her," I said. "We're sleeping in the same cabin and there's only one bed."

I was hoping that comment would act as a cover, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect.

"Man, maybe I shouldn't have tried so hard to win that bet. It sounds like this time, losing would have been better. Maybe then I could have done a little bit of convincing with her."

I hadn't expected the surge of defensiveness I felt when I heard that. I couldn't deny what I was feeling for Roxie any longer.

"Look, Greg. Don't talk about her like that. Coming here with her started with me losing that bet, but it's not like that anymore. It hasn't been like that since five minutes after I met her. You have no idea how incredible this woman is. I might have come here with the purpose of faking our relationship, but I really don't feel like I had to try very hard."

"Whoa," Greg said. "It sounds like you might be falling for this girl."

"I've already fallen for her. I just need to figure out how to tell her."

"Well, you better hurry. Aren't you supposed to come back to the city tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I said. "The wedding is today, and we check out tomorrow morning. I just need to find some time when I can get her alone and tell her I want to keep seeing her once we leave here."

"Good luck, buddy. She sounds like she's been good for you."

"She has been," I said, feeling the tension leave me as Greg realized how I felt. He might be a dumbass sometimes, but he was a good friend. "And I hope she will be for a long time."

I walked back into the cabin from the porch and found Roxie in the kitchen making coffee.

"You're certainly up early," she said. "You didn't need to get up. I have to go help Thea start getting ready and do some pictures and stuff, but you don't have to be down there for a while."

"I know," I said. "I was woken up by a phone call."

She looked at me questioningly as she pressed the 'Brew' button on the machine. It looked like there was something she wanted to say, but wasn't sure if she should. I wondered if she was struggling with the same feelings I was, trying to grapple for footing in this unknown territory we had created for ourselves. She glanced over at me as she set two mugs on the counter.

"Anything important?" she asked.

She tried to keep her tone as casual as possible, but that was the type of question someone asked when they wanted more information than just a yes or no. She was gently prodding, trying to find out something without directly asking me. I knew that if she had gotten a call so early in the morning, and it wasn’t Thea, I would have asked the same question – who it was and what that person meant to her. I'd be asking if there was someone else vying for the time and attention that I not only wanted, but had begun to think of as mine.

"It was just my friend Greg," I said. "Terri's brother."

She gave me a small smile, but I could see that she was visibly relieved. I walked up to her and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her gently against me and lowering my mouth to hers. I kissed her softly. There was nothing deeper to the kiss than my desire for that connection with her. No pressure, no insistence.

"Oh," she said. "What did he need?"

"He was just checking in on me," I said. "I told him I was going to give him a call during the week, but completely forgot to."

"Was that your escape plan?" she asked. "I think we're a little too far away for him to suddenly have a flat tire or family emergency you'll need to run away to, and if that's what he was trying now, he sure did wait until the last minute."

I laughed and pulled her closer.

"No. That was not some sort of escape plan. He's just nosy as hell and wanted to know what was going on this week. I think he's kind of jealous he's not the one who ended up here with you."

"Oh, really?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Well, I'm glad it wasn't him. Sorry, Greg."

"I am, too." I kissed the tip of her nose when a thought occurred to me. "I thought you didn't need to get up for another hour or so."

She sighed and stepped reluctantly out of my arms to get her coffee and put my mug in place to brew another cup.

"I, too, got a phone call in the wee early hours of the morning. Only this one wasn't mysterious. It was Thea panicking because she doesn't think that she practiced her wedding hairdo enough times and isn't sure it's going to be done on time."

"Didn't you do three run-throughs this week?" I asked.

She nodded as she took a sip of the coffee.

"Yes, we did. But that apparently wasn't enough to reassure her, so now I've been summoned to the main building to have an even earlier breakfast and start getting ready so there is no possibility she will be late to her own ceremony.

"So, I'm not going to see you until then?" I asked.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But you can go back to bed and get some more sleep. I'll see you at the ceremony." I nodded, and she looked at me questioningly. "Is something wrong?"

"No," I said. "Nothing wrong. Just wanted to talk to you."

She checked the time and took another deep sip of her coffee.

"We'll talk at the reception. I've really got to get going."

She put down her mug and walked into the bedroom, only to turn right around and reach up for a kiss. There was a genuine loving feeling to the kiss, and I wished I could make it linger a few seconds longer, but she pulled away and rushed into the bedroom to get dressed. I knew I couldn't wait any longer to talk to her. I needed her to know how I felt and to find out is she was feeling the same way. Today.

Roxie

Hairspray is one of the most magnificent substances on the planet. I had my hair twisted into a complicated updo for three hours already, and yet it looked like it had just been done. While that was fantastic for the impending ceremony and what I could only imagine would be approximately a million pictures afterward, I couldn’t help but wonder how long I would have to stand under the shower to break through the layers of spackle and return my hair to normal again. I was running my hand along the back of the updo and walking in the direction of Thea's suite when I saw Brad walking toward me in the hallway.

I was going to be so relieved when this week was over, and I could go back to the city where I knew I could turn a corner or walk down the sidewalk without running into my asshole ex-boyfriend. I diverted my eyes from him and tried to walk around him, but he stepped directly into my path.

"I need to talk to you, Roxie," he said.

"Brad, I don't have anything to say to you, and I don't have the time to waste on an argument right now. In case you forgot, today is your little sister’s wedding day. I'm her maid of honor. I have better things to do than listen to your indecent proposals or your insults."

"This isn't about any of that," he said. "This is about that guy you're here with."

There was a somber note in his voice that made me stop moving and look into his face.

"Luca?" I asked. "What about him? Is something wrong? Is he OK?"

"Come out on the sun porch with me so we can talk privately. I don't think this is something you want other people to hear."

My heart was pounding in my chest as I followed Brad to the sun porch and stepped out into the fresh air that flowed through the screens.

"Alright, Brad, talk. I don't have time to play games."

"I'm not playing games, Roxie. Where did you meet this guy?"

"On the subway, we told everybody that. I was trying to get to an appointment one day and I was running late, so I had to ride the subway, but I went down to the wrong station and I met…"

"Stop with the bullshit. I know what you told everyone. Where did you actually meet him?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know he's not your fiancé. I know the two of you haven't been dating for a year, and you're certainly not engaged. This entire thing has been fake."

I felt myself shaking and my cheeks were burning, but I tried to keep myself looking as calm as I could.

"That's ridiculous. Our relationship is not fake. I need to go."

I started to walk around him back towards the door.

"He lost a bet, Roxie."

I stopped in my tracks but couldn’t bear to turn around and face him.

"What?"

"He lost a bet," he repeated. "He's not here because he wants to be. He's not here to do you a favor or be a nice guy. He's here because he lost a bet to some guy named Greg, and that meant he had to come here with you."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I heard him talking on the phone this morning," he said. "I was down in the woods for a little early morning constitutional and heard him talking out on the porch at your cabin."

I scoffed.

"An early morning constitutional?" I asked. "Could one of the cute little members of the cleaning staff have been part of that by chance?"

"Don't try to turn this around on me. I don't have anything to do with this, and who I may or may not have been in the woods with has no bearing on it. Look, I know the two of us didn't part on the best of terms and things have been a bit rough between us this week, but I'm trying to be honest with you. I wanted to tell you the truth, so you know what's actually going on."

I turned around to face him.

"And why would you want to do that?"

Brad took a step closer to me.

"Because whether you want to believe it or not, I still care about you. I've also seen the way you look at that asshole. I don't want you to get hurt."

"That's funny coming from you."

"I know, Roxie. I thought I had everything figured out. I thought I knew what I wanted. Then I saw you again, and I realized I never got a chance to properly say goodbye to you. I was hoping that maybe we would get a chance before we had to leave."

Anger surged up inside me. I took a step back away from him.

"You're disgusting, Brad. I don't want you anywhere near me, ever again."

I stalked toward the door and heard his voice following me.

"That's fine, Roxie. That's just fine. I was just trying to give you fair warning, but you go right ahead and humiliate yourself. I won't be waiting for you."

The ceremony passed by in a blur. I knew what was happening, but it was like I was somewhere else looking in. I could hear the music and the loving words being spoken, but none of them fully processed in my mind. I stood there beside Thea, watching as tears streamed gracefully down her cheeks and how her hand shook while slipping the ring on Bryce's finger. My heart felt like it was going to split in half with every beat it took. I didn't want to believe what Brad had said. I wanted to tell myself it was just a cruel story he had come up with to get one more chance at fucking me before the week was over. But then I remembered exactly what he said. He said he heard him on the phone with his friend Greg on the porch of our cabin that morning. That was too many details. It was too many things he would have no way of knowing unless he had, in fact, been in the woods below and heard the conversation.

I glanced into the rows of chairs that had been set up at the outdoor venue on the resort grounds and saw Luca staring back at me. He smiled, and I felt my heart shatter. An instant later my own tears were sliding down my cheeks and splashing onto my chest. I didn't bother to wipe them away. No one needed to know I wasn't crying for Thea and the wedding. Even though it was beautiful, and I was so incredibly happy for my friend, I was crying for myself.

The ceremony was mercifully short, and soon I was holding onto the best man's elbow and making my way back down the aisle toward where we would take pictures. I purposely kept my eyes diverted away from Luca. I needed to get myself back under control and hold it together just long enough to get through the reception. Taking pictures alongside the ecstatic couple and the rest of the bridal party was almost torturous. I forced myself to smile, to laugh, to look as though nothing was wrong and that I was just as swept up in the romance and joy as everyone else was, but on the inside, I felt gutted, humiliated. I couldn't believe I had let this happen again. I promised myself I wasn't going to make myself vulnerable to anyone, especially Luca, and now I felt like my heart had been stomped into the ground.

By the time we were heading into cocktail hour, I knew I wasn't going to make it through the entire party. There was no way I would be able to mingle with Luca and pretend like nothing was wrong, like everything was like before. The biggest problem was that it was just like before. We would be faking, just as we had intended to from the beginning. Just like I said was all he needed to do. While Thea and Bryce went to have a few minutes alone and change into her reception dress, the bridal party was directed into the ballroom for the cocktail party that would lead into the main reception. I could feel my throat closing and my heart pounding as we entered the room. I scanned the crowd of guests inside for Luca. I was initially overwhelmed by the sheer number of people Thea had invited to her wedding when I first heard, but now I was thankful for the dense wall of people I could hide behind.

I felt a rush of relief wash over me when the doors to the main reception hall opened and we were ushered inside. I knew it meant it would only be a few more minutes before Thea and Bryce arrived for their celebration. The sooner they arrived, the sooner I would be able to leave and put all of this behind me.

I had managed to avoid Luca for the first part of the reception, but Thea was still making her rounds through the guests when I felt him come up behind me. His hand touched my back and I withdrew from it. I couldn't even look at him. I didn't want to even acknowledge his existence. It hurt too much to even stand in the same space.

"Can we have that talk now?" he whispered.

"I can't, Luca."

Without looking at him, I pushed through the crowds to Thea. I gathered her in my arms, crying softly against her shoulder as I gripped her. Some of those tears were for her. Some were for me. Some were for the fucked-up situation I had gotten myself in. When I pulled back from the hug, I kissed her on each cheek and stepped back, allowing her to move on to the next group of well-wishers who were pressing up close to me. I felt like they were all closing around me. I could feel them looking at me. I could hear Luca's voice in my head, but it was replaced by Brad's. I took another step back and waited until Thea was far enough away that she wouldn't notice me anymore.

And I ran.