Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
“She was a good bag.”
“Looks like it,” Aleena murmurs through a yawn. Her tiredness is understandable when you realize she spent the past hour bouncing off the walls. “How many hours of cardio do you do per day now?”
I shadow her slow walk to the bedroom I had planned to be mine while answering, “Ah… none.”
“None!” Her voice is so loud Shevi and her other bridesmaid I’ve yet to be introduced to stir. They’re hogging one-half of the bed I’m endeavoring to get Aleena in. “How is that possible?”
When she remains staring, demanding an answer, I shrug. “Good genes?”
“Good genes, my ass. I have to work out twice a day to stay fit, for hours each session, and I still don’t look like that.” After thrusting her hand at me, she crawls across Shevi while mumbling under her breath. “No wonder he looked at you the way he did.”
“Who?” I ask, hopeful my daft act will save our exchange from nosediving toward awkward.
Topics of jealousy only ever veer a conversation one way—toward the negative. I’ve only had an hour of pleasantries. I’m not ready to flip the switch just yet.
Aleena’s response is so delayed that just when I think she’ll never answer me, she finally does. “The man on the mezzanine.”
It takes me a beat, but clarity slowly seeps through the cracks of my exhaustion. “He was looking at Nikita, not me.”
“No…” Who knew one word could sound like an entire sentence? “Though we will return to how she knows Maksim Ivanov later.” She waits for me to nod in agreement before continuing. “I was talking about the man across from him. The one who got so riled up about your stare of another man, he almost blew a gasket.” I’m completely lost, so she strives to lessen my confusion. “Dark hair, cropped beard, dreamy eyes.”
Her description could describe a million men, but the increase in my pulse during her last feature announces exactly who my thoughts stray to.
I can’t deny this, and neither can Aleena.
“Who is he to you?”
“No one,” I lie before almost immediately backtracking on it. “If it is who I am thinking, what we had could barely be classified as a fling.”
“Had?” she double-checks, as if drinking makes you deaf.
I nod, not willing to lie with words again so soon after my last slip-up.
When she remains quiet, looking perplexed, I pull up the bedding until it sits under her chin like I did when she was little. Once she is as snug as a bug in a rug, I say, “Isn’t this weekend meant to be about you?” Her faint smile tugs on my heartstrings before she nods. “Then my idea of fucked-up relationships can wait. Your happiness is far more important.”
I tuck her in tight before tiptoeing out of the room like a herd of thunderous elephants could wake her from her drunken drift into sleep.
My world feels complete when my best friend eyeballs the closure of my bedroom door. It finally feels like the pieces of my demented puzzle are coming together as they should have years ago.
“That came many years later than expected, but followed a similar path to what I had envisioned.” After filling a glass with a double shot of vodka to settle a handful of nerves the last part of my exchange with Aleena instigated, I spin to face Nikita. “Are you sure you’re okay with them staying here with us?”
Her brows furrow as she slowly nods. “I’m sure.” She strays her eyes around a living room larger than my apartment. “Are you sure you didn’t mix up our key cards with Aleena’s? A destination bachelorette party screams old money, and only someone spending their daddy’s money could afford this room.”
“I’m reasonably sure Aleena’s room is on the floor she entered the elevator, but it’s hard to get anything out of her when she’s a blubbering idiot.”
Nikita sees straight through my ruse that Aleena was the only sentimental schmuck during our multiple conversations since our run-in in the elevator.
She smiles at me like it’s okay to be happy at Aleena’s delighted reaction to my arrival, before saying, “I told you, you had nothing to worry about.” After removing my security blanket as of late, she hugs me. “I’m sure she understands why you left.” Her words are muffled in my neck, but I get the gist of her reply by the amount of emotion she uses to deliver it. “And if she doesn’t, I’m not opposed to convincing her otherwise.”
“I love you, Kita.”
She inches back and makes an aww face. “I love you too.” Her hip bump forces me back half a step. “Enough I’m willing to share a bed with you.”
I worm my way out of her grip when she drags me toward the bedroom not occupied by my baby sister and her bridesmaids. I’m exhausted, but I am also too wired up to discover if my intuition is right to rest just yet.