Has he been thinking about this? He has, hasn't he? “Okay, sounds good. Your sister is gonna kill me though.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re gonna pretend in front of her that we’re together, and then what? In four days, I’m gonna be likejuuuust kiddingand go back to being your best friend?”
He ponders my question, scratching his thick dark beard. The man has the best beard I’ve ever seen—that the world has ever seen, actually. He even won a contest once.
The summer I turned twenty one, we went on a cruise with our friends. Mateo, Holden, Lucas, and even Aspen, the youngest in the crew, all participated in as many contests as they could. Liam, the oldest, was the only one who sat out and stayed back with me. I wish he would have let himself relax a little, but instead, he continued to be his grumpy self, even if all of our friends and their beards participated in the most ridiculous contest to ever exist. Even Holden, who only has a mustache, participated. No one could hold a candle to Mateo, though.
“What if we just tell her and Alex?” Mateo asks, grounding me back into reality. “They won’t say anything, and then she won’t get her hopes up. We both know she’s been trying forever to make this happen.”
It’s true. Livie has been saying all her life how she wishes I was legally her sister. She has tried to pair us together for so long. Mateo has never seen me as more than his best friend, and his friendship means the world to me. I can’t mess it up by telling him my feelings. Half the time, I don’t know if I’m in love with him or just completely infatuated. He’s gorgeous, yes, but he also is the best friend I could ever ask for. Maybe what I really love is him as a person in general and not necessarily him romantically. Who am I fucking kidding, though? I’ve considered all the what ifs of what would happen if we were to be more than friends.
“Daze?” he asks, snapping me out of it.
“Sorry. Yes, that’s not a bad idea. I would hate to lie to them.” Livie got married this past summer to Alex, a former football player with a bad rep with the media. He’s the perfect match for that firecracker of Mateo’s sister. They met last Christmas, and by the summer, they were saying I do. I’ve never met two people more worthy of each other.
“I’m so excited they’re going to be there, even though Livie will probably be busy spreading all her Christmas cheer.”
“It’s different there. Christmas is still lively and fun, but it’s different. It’s more about gathering. I think you’ll like it,” he adds.
“Good. That, and having Livie around will help with spending a few days with the evil witch.”
He chuckles, looking my way with a smile. “Are you ever going to stop calling her that? She didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Stop defending her! She strung you along for so long and then said no when you proposed? Now she’s marrying your cousin? Out of all the men in the world. I cannot believe her. Who would do that?”
“Daze,” Mateo whispers.
“Sorry, rambling.”
“You know you don’t have to apologize, but you also don’t have to fight my battles. It’s fine. I’m not losing sleep over it.”
He doesn’t add anything else, but I get the feeling he still has something to say. Aaaaand now I know so, judging by the way he pinches his nose.
“What?”
“She’s not the reason I didn’t want to come,” he replies, taking his eyes off the road for a second and looking at me.
What does he mean?
“Then what is?” His phone rings, interrupting the conversation. His boss’ name flashes across the screen on the console. “Why is he calling you so early?”
“He always does. He must have forgotten I’m off today. Hold that thought.”
Mateo clicks Accept Call on his steering wheel, andJason’s voice inundates the vehicle. That man looooves to talk, so I know it’ll be a while. I pull my current read out of my bag, along with the couple of highlighters that match the cover so I can annotate as we drive to the airport.
“It’s beautiful here. I don’t know how your parents ever wanted to move to the States. Look at the water.”
“Now you see why I don’t go to the beaches back home. I just wish I had time to come here more often.” The road itself is exactly the same back home. It was ignorant of me to assume I was going to find dirt roads everywhere. I haven’t traveled much outside of the United States, and when Mateo and Livie’s family talked about the Dominican, I only imagined the beaches. I knew the beaches would be beautiful, but the luxury every building showcases is definitely mouth-dropping.
The driver pulls up to the entrance of a resort and the view is even better than I could’ve imagined.
I step out of the vehicle, trying to gather my bearings and my jaw, which had apparently decided to land somewhere near the pavement. Palm trees sway like they’d been rehearsing, in perfect synchrony; the air smells faintly of salt and new leather, and the lobby looks like it has been plucked straight from a Pinterest board.
“This way,” Mateo adds, walking to the reception desk completely unfazed. He drags my suitcase with him through the marble entrance, and I have to speed-walk to catch up. He hands the bags to the bell boy and keeps walking.
“You said this was low-key,” I whisper, trying to pull at his shirt.
