Ethan wakes me up with some heavy petting. “You’re feisty this morning,” I say as he kisses my stomach.

“How can I help it waking up next to you?” he asks between kisses. His hard erection brushes against my leg and I push him off.

“Let me take a shower first,” I say. “I’m so sweaty and disgusting.”

He holds me down playfully but I squirm out of his muscular grasp and run into the large walk-in shower.

I’ve barely put the shampoo in my hair when he joins me with his long, hard cock jutting in the air.

“I thought you might need some help washing your tits,” he says with a grin.

“Thank you, sir,” I say, talking like Marilyn Monroe. “I’m such a dirty girl and I need a big, strong man to help me get clean.”

“Good,” he says, taking my soapy body in his solid arms. “I love dirty girls.”

He steps under the jets and we have awkward, uncomfortable, but amazing shower sex. It’s always so hard to find a comfortable position in the shower but Ethan remedied that pretty well. He just picked me up in his jacked arms and lowered my pussy onto his dick.

After my long shower that leaves my fingers all pruney and my heart pounding, I meet up with the bride and other bridesmaids for breakfast. I sit down at the table with my banana, apple and yogurt.

Stephanie is with Aaron sitting at a table across the restaurant. She looks pissed.

“I can’t believe you’re getting married,” I say to Megan. “It still feels like I was cutting gum out of your hair in high school only yesterday.”

Megan laughs. Her bangs were uneven for months. “I know!” she says. “I’m so grown up. I’m freaking out!”

“It’s going to be great,” Cynthia says, placing her hand on Megan’s. “And if it isn’t you get a fake passport and move to Alaska.”

Megan shakes her head. “No. Too cold.”

“Okay, Fiji,” I say.

Megan nods. “Now you’re talking.”

“He is going to love your dress,” Julia says.

The girls gush over Megan’s looks for a bit while I zone out. I have other things on my mind. And that thing just walked by the restaurant to the pool. Ethan has his towel draped over his shoulder and he’s wearing the sunglasses that I like. A strong urge to run out and say hi tries to overtake me and I have to hold onto my chair to make sure that I don’t jump up. I watch him as he walks up to the pool, pulls off his tank top and tosses it onto an empty chair.

A woman nearby lowers her book then her sunglasses and watches him. Two young women walk by and gawk as he takes off his sunglasses. They stop walking and pretend to talk but they’re really only stopping to steal glances at Ethan every few seconds.

He’s so hot.

The women watch as he dives into the pool and swims the entire length before coming up for air. It’s weird to think that Ethan has a whole life in Chicago that I’m not a part of. He has a townhouse that I’ve never stepped into full of clothes that I’ve never seen him wear. He has two businesses that I’ve never been to and a motorcycle that I haven’t ridden on. I feel so connected to him and it feels weird knowing that tomorrow he’ll be going home to a different life that I’m not apart of. A life that is separated from mine by state lines.

He says that he’s interested in a long distance relationship but who knows? I’m hoping that he’ll want to continue this but it’s easy to fall into unrealistic, fantasy land expectations when you’re on vacation at the beach. It’s another matter entirely when you go back to the real world and get sucked back into the daily grind. I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Ethan climbs out of the pool and runs his hand through his wet hair. Drops of water cascade down his tanned, chiseled abs. The two young women have stopped pretending to talk and are outright staring at him now. The woman with the book is reaching for her camera.

I’ve never been with a man who had abs before. I like it. He struts back to his chair and lies down on his back with his eyes closed. The urge to walk over there comes back, but this time, I want to kiss him on the lips.

“What do you think, Tanya?” Megan asks.

“Huh?” I ask in confusion. I was completely blanked out there and have no idea what they’re talking about.

Cynthia grins as she bites down on her straw. “She’s looking at her Prince Charming over there.”

Julia turns her head. “Holy abs. You can wash your clothes on his stomach.”

“And hang them to dry on his cock,” I say. I think his crudeness is rubbing off on me.

“Tanya!” Megan says and we all burst out laughing.

I’m staring at him through the large open window when the laughing dies down. I can see Megan out of the corner of my eye watching me. “Is this just a fling?” she asks. “Or something more?”

I take a deep breath and bite my lip. “That’s the million-dollar question.”

And one that I’ll only find out in a few days.

* * *

We all get ready at Megan’s suite and by the time all of our hair is done up, our makeup is painstakingly applied and the four of us are dressed, the honeymoon suite is trashed. There are hair rollers and mascara and brushes everywhere. I feel sorry for the maid, or for Lucas, whoever comes in first I guess.

“Come here,” Julia says, fixing a strand of loose hair on my head. She spent an hour fixing it with hairpins, elastics, hairspray, and I think at one point she even had a glue gun working up there.

My mind drifts back to Ethan as Julia carefully fixes me up. I haven’t seen him since this morning and it makes me sad since this is our last full day together. I’m with my favorite girls and my best friend is getting married today. I should be thrilled and excited but I just can’t shake the tightness in my chest and the feeling like my heart is breaking. I hide it all for Megan’s sake and pretend to be happy but that’s just making it worse inside.

Megan comes out of the bathroom after changing into her dress and Julia squeals in delight. She looks stunning in a simple, strapless white dress that is tight around her torso and then flows freely by her legs. When I see her some of the excitement that I should be feeling comes back.

“Megan,” I say, “you look hot as fuck!”

The bride smiles. “Really?”

“Not as hot as your mom’s old dress we wore when we were eight but still good.”

She turns and smiles when she looks at herself in the mirror. “He’s going to like it.”

“He fucking better,” Cynthia says. “Or I’ll marry you.”

Megan gushes over our bridesmaids dresses and hair as I tuck a red flower, the same one that Ethan put in my hair on our first night, behind my ear. He tried to claim me that night by putting the flower in my hair and now I’m sending a subtle message back to him: I’m his.

Hopefully, he likes my dress. It’s a light pink breezy dress with a sweetheart neckline and a pleated front. I must say…I do look smoking hot in it.

I wonder if I’ll ever be the one in the wedding dress walking towards my groom. Of course, the groom standing in my fantasy is Ethan. I can’t see myself being happy to walk to anyone else.

When you’re young you think it is a given that you’ll meet the man of your dreams and get married but as the years pass and you jump from failed relationship to failed relationship you start to question the notion that you always thought was solid. And the answer can be pretty scary.

Will I ever meet my soul mate? Will I ever be the bride?

Little did I know that I would get a marriage proposal that very night.