Page 19 of Something like Desire

“Yeah,” I agree. “But we still have my mom.”

Zach laughs. “True. She might bite, knowing her.”

I set down my glass with a softthunk. “What do you mean, ‘knowing her’?”

Zach stares down at the table. “Sorry. I thought we were both still a little bitter with our parents. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“And I thought we were going to take it easy on each other’s parents. You said it yourself that you don’t want to get carried away. Maybe we should call it a night.”

Zach shrugs. “Sure, if that’s what you want to do, but it seems like a waste of the night when our goal is sabotage. When I was in ninth grade, my best friend started dating my crush. Believe me, I did whatever I could to end that relationship. I think it’s time to break out some of my old tactics.”

EIGHT

Zach and I sit in the lobby bar. Every twenty minutes, we use the phone on the side table and take turns crank calling Mom and Nicholas’s room, wait for one of them to answer, and then hang up. We’re either spoiling their sex life, their sleep, or both, and we are here for it. Every time we succeed, we take one of the B-52 shots lined up on the table.

“I feel like I’m at a slumber party in sixth grade,” I tell Zach.

“Hopefully you weren’t drinking booze when you were in sixth grade,” Zach says playfully.

I bite back a grin. “Not yet. I did drink my body weight in Kool-Aid Jammers, though.”

“Sounds like we both had fun childhoods. Solid families. And now...” Zach frowns slightly and stares at his empty shot glass.

“My sister’s even more upset about this than I am.” I can detect a slight slur in my voice. The B-52s are definitely kicking in. “It’s stressing her out. Especially since she’s getting married soon.”

“When?”

“A few weeks from now. She wants me to squash this affair so it won’t ruin her day. She wants both my parents walking her down the aisle without wanting to punch each other in the face, and at this point, I can’t guarantee that. But she’s my baby sister. I need to help her have the best day possible.” All this talk is making me feel sentimental. “Phone,” I call, and Zach passes it to me. I dial Mom’s room, hoping it’ll be her who picks up so maybe I can mess with her for making Gia stressed so close to her special day.

“Hello?” It’s Nicholas, and he sounds out of breath, like perhaps he was working out... or...ew.

I hit a bunch of the buttons so they blare in his ear and end the call. I shake my head at Zach. “Sounded like they were going at it.”

“Don’t they know there are other things they could be doing right now?” Zach says. “Don’t they like watching movies? My dad’s not normally so... active. Is your mom normally a really... physical person?”

I never considered my mom’s sexual appetite at all before recently. “No,” I say simply. “I don’tthinkshe is, anyway.”

Zach runs his hand through his beard. “My dad’s charming. I know that. But he always seemed so loyal to my mother. Up until now, she was all he needed. People used to stop them in the streets to compliment them, you know? To tell them what a beautiful couple they were. The local rec center asked if they’d do a session for the community about healthy marriages.That’show solid they were.”

“My parents too. All my friends looked up to them.” I’m about to say Jayden, too, but I stop myself for some reason. It’s troubling that I can’t talk about my boyfriend in front of Zach. What’s with that? It feels awkward and unnatural to bring him up—almost like, if I did, it would ruin the rapport we’re starting to build.

I tuck my hair behind my ear and shoot him a reassuring smile. “Well, we’re going to get your parents and my parents back on track. Deal?”

I hold out my hand and Zach grips it and shakes firmly—sofirmly that it takes me by surprise and sends a current of electricity through my spine. If he shakes hands that passionately... what else does he do passionately?

My eyes widen as that thought fully registers. It must be the drinks or all the infidelity swirling around like a cocktail of deceit in the air. I have to check myself. Quickly. Before I say something—or do something—I’ll regret.

“What next?” I ask. “The crank calling obviously isn’t working. What else can we do to annoy the shit out of them?”

“We could knock on their door and leave weird stuff on their doorstep?” Zach suggests. “It might scare them and force them to leave their room. They might argue over what to do about it.”

“Like what? Spread ketchup all over the concrete in front of their room?”

He shoots me an amused look. “Tempting. But that might be a little too serial killer for me. I was thinking more like... a note?”

“Worth a try. We could blackmail them. I’m sure not everyone knows about their affair. We could threaten to tell everyone.”

Zach gets a pen and paper from the front desk and writes the message.Stop this affair. Or else we'll tell everyone. And we meaneveryone.