“Huh.” Casey hums.
“Fair bit we don’t know about her, hey,” I muse under my breath. “She’s entitled to her secrets. As long as she’s a good person to us, I don’t care what skeletons she has in the closet.” The three of us smile in agreement, and then Stella wanders back out to join us. We didn’t end up getting that photo, but none of us feel the need to ask again. Instead, we drink and laugh, or at least most of us do. Stella still has that look of shock stuck on her face and downs her first martini like it’s water.
Eventually the Uber gets here and we’re on our way to the bar. Spending time with the girls is like taking a cool bath after being burned by the sun. I feel like I am able to take a deep breath for the first time since the meeting with my father, and then my whole body feels like it relaxes the moment I lay eyes on him as we walk through the entrance of Bozzelli’s. At our usual table, the whole gang is here. Noah, Caleb, Ethan, Lucas, Matt, Jessie, Ava, and now, us girls. Riley and her boyfriendwere meant to join us, but Addy said she bailed last minute, something came up with her boyfriend…apparently.
It’s a strange thing, seeing everyone basically paired up, stranger still is that without even meaning to, I gravitate toward Caleb. He pulls me into his arms, pressing a sweet but gentle kiss to my lips as his smile grows across his face.
“Hey, pretty girl.”
“Hey,cariño.”His hands smooth down my spine to cup my ass, and he gives a playful squeeze before I smack at his hands, and we all settle into the seats.
My eyes scan the room, and maybe it’s just the leftover nausea from my meeting with my dad, but something about the night is…off. The hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention, my skin prickling with awareness. I keep trying to shake it off, but Caleb picks up on my tension and gives me a look that says he wants me to talk to him.
“I’ll tell you later,” I whisper just for him, hoping my expression conveys the ease in which I’m trying to relax into. He gives me a quick kiss to the forehead before turning his attention back to the table and I let my mind begin to cast a web…to find a way to spill all my secrets in a way that isn’t going to make him run for the hills. So far…I’ve got nothing.
Stella manages to squeeze in next to Lucas and Addison, and she and Lucas giggle and talk quietly. It’s obvious they’re close and that he cares for her, and I’m glad Stella has that, especially if she hasn’t felt like she can do that with us girls.
“C’mon, let’s go dance!” Casey smiles, Addy and I jump up, Ava too—which is nice that she was able to leave the kids at home.
I can’t take a step because Caleb grips my hand and spins me back to him, planting a kiss to my lips and raking a possessive hand down my back. The touch has my skin prickling, the promise of his kiss making me hot and needy in just a breath. Ibite his lip and pull it as I pull away, and a little groan leaves his throat.
“We’re leaving early tonight,” he promises in a whisper against my lips. I nod in response, not able to verbalize how badly I want to just be alone with him right now. I give him a little smile and then turn back to the girls as we make our way to the dance floor.
“I saw that,” Addy whispers with a chuckle.
“Saw what?”
“The way you look at each other,” Casey chimes in.
“You love him,” Addy says again before the music overtakes our voices completely, and I feel my heart stutter a little in my chest, that familiar ache setting back in. The same ache from last Friday when he took me on the greatest date of my life. He let me dance at the Chilean festival, sat me in his lap, and called me his. We kissed and ate, talked and laughed. It was possibly the greatest day of my life, and he did it just simply because I said I missed my culture. It ached. Like my whole chest was heaving with the way he’s made his way into my heart, in a way that I promised myself I’d never let anyone in.
You love him.
I force myself to swallow against my suddenly dry throat. I want to,God,do I want to. I want to fall. I want to leap without looking and know he’d catch me. That no one—nothing would rip us apart.
I look over my shoulder and find him staring after me, and then see the look on Addy and Casey’s faces. I decide in this moment to come clean. The conversation with my father from earlier runs through my mind, making me sotiredof pretending. I am done hiding, done keeping secrets, and done needing to keep the mask always in place. I’ll put it all on the table.
Tonight. We’ll go home together, we’ll kiss, and he’ll hold me while I tell him everything, and he’ll still hold me after. He’ll tell me everything is okay, that we’ll work it out, and that he isn’t going anywhere. He’ll call me his again and everything will be fine.
It has to.
Satisfied with my decision, I shake it all off for now, falling into the music with the girls as we laugh and dance together. Stella joins us for barely one song before she ditches back to the table, Ava too. And then it’s the three of us. I look at my two best friends and realize how much of this I will lose if I don’t fight back. And despite how hard I pull on that mask, the aching sensation of loss is making itself known.
I continue to dance with them when a party remix of “WAP”comes on. The three of us laugh, tossing ourselves around to the music, when I stumble slightly, bumping into someone.
I turn to give them an apology, but the words lodge in my throat when my eyes land on my worst nightmare.
Mickey smiles down at me like some kind of evil spirit, his eyes raking down my body in a way that has me feeling instantly dirty—and not in the fun way. “You look every part the whore tonight, Rosita.” His poisonous words make their way over the sound of the music. “The dancing, the outfit…it’s not very becoming of the Garcia heiress.” He snarls and my hands turn into fists by my sides as I snarl back at him.
“Hey, everything okay here?” Addison asks, coming to stand by my side. I have the subtle notion that Casey is on my other side as her eyes bounce between us. But all I can think about is that gleam in Mickey’s eyes. He knows about the conversation I had with my father today. He knows, and he isrevelingin it. I make sure to pull back on my look of indifference, giving Mickey the benefit of not scorching him with words, but rather lookinghim up and down like the piece of filth he is. Casey grabs my arm, and it’s a mistake because then Mickey notices her.
“Well, aren’t you delicious. I don’t mind resorting to these kinds of establishments, not when pretty little things like you are dancing around.”
“Fuck off, you pig.” I snarl at him, ready to throw myself in front of Casey when Jessie is suddenly—literally out of nowhere—shoving the guy back and standing between him and Casey.
Jessie’s arm subtly moves in front of me and Addy, doing his best to deliver the silent warning to Mickey, who doesn’t back down. I get the odd sensation that Jessie is three seconds from throwing hands with the way his body vibrates with the promise of pain, though when he speaks, his voice is oddly calm. “Do we have a problem here?”
If it is at all possible, Mickey’s smile grows and my stomach sinks along with it as he looks at me, his head tilting. “Rosie? Is there a problem?” Not letting Mickey out of my sight, I hope desperately that he disappears and this all becomes some weird thing we can laugh about later.
