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I nod. “They have it here. I saw it on the list.”
“Then why didn’t you speak up? Wait, I’ll order a bottle right now.” He raises his hand for the server.
But I lower it for him. “I have her wine all the time,” I laugh. “It’s nice to have something different.”
With a shrug, he fills my glass with the bottle in his hand, and I make a mental note to take it slow. It’s going to be a long night and even though the people I’m with are nice, I don’t really know them. I need to keep my shit together.
“So what’s the rest of the wedding story? How did you make your grand exit?” he asks.
“Oh, right. So, I get down the aisle, in front of everyone—my fiancé, the priest, all our friends and family. And then I see him look over at Jessica. Just a quick glance, but it was all I needed to see. I knew right away. I tossed her my flowers after smacking him with them, and got my ass out of there.”
He presses his lips together, nodding with great concern, but a second later bursts out laughing. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, but that is just so great. You hit him, then tossed her the flowers. Fucking A,” he adds, giving me a high-five.
I can’t believe it, but I’m actually laughing about it now, too.
Something I never thought I’d do when I think back to that day.
“The press that followed wasn’t fun. A lot of people in San Francisco know my family, and Andy is an up-and-comer in city politics, so it was very high-profile. I don’t recommend it.”
He holds up his glass and he toasts me. “To not taking any shit.”
“A mantra to live by.”
“What’s going on over there,” Tyler calls across the table. “Are you guys already in love or something?”
Rake answers without missing a beat. “If we were, we wouldn’t tell you, Ty.”
They raise their glasses with us, and I have to admit I’m having a good time.
12
PETAL
Sweat is drippingdown my neck and my eyes are burning. I open one and then the other, and realize I went to bed without closing the blackout blinds on my hotel room window.
Rookie mistake.
And now the Vegas sun is baking my poor, hungover brain.
I push myself up in bed and my stomach roils. Thank God I put a bottle of water on the nightstand before I went to bed. I grab it and chug the whole thing, dribbling some down my chin, which I wipe with the back of my hand.
That’s when I notice I’m still wearing my dress from yesterday. I went to bed in my dress? And then I see Rake sprawled in a reclining chair with a blanket pulled up to his chin, his mouth open, lightly snoring.
What the fuck?
Why is he in my room?
You know that moment when you first wake up in the morning, when your mind is blank and there is nothing yetoccupying your thoughts? Like you’re starting life with a clean slate and everything is wonderful?
And then reality smacks you in the face, and you’re no longer in the blissful state of slumberland?
Yeah. That’s where I am right now.
I look down at my hand, the left one, at the cheap yellow plastic ring squeezing the shit out of my fourth finger. A googly-eyed smiley face grins back at me.
Holy fuck.
What have I done?
