Page 3 of Way Too Close

Two:Manny & the Beast

Xochitl

Both the bachelorette party and the rehearsal dinner that took place the weeks after the shower, had gone on without a hitch or much incident. The rehearsal dinner was for the wedding party only, and since it was on a much smaller scale, Vannah hadn’t been whisked away, as she had at the shower. Xochitl had spent the whole time with and around her friend. Angela wasn’t even in attendance. so there’d been no need of any,on-the-fly,unnerving, fake-girlfriend moments. She hadn’t thought she’d hear from Lex again until she had to see him at the wedding, but days after the rehearsal dinner, her heart had walloped when her phone rang, and she’d seen his name on her screen. Xochitl had been in the middle of vegging out in front of the TV, watching the classic eighties movieSixteen Candles. Her aunt had introduced her to it a few years back, and it quickly became one of her go-to feel-good movies. Lex’s excuse for the call had been to ask about one of the stories he’d read on her blog. It’d felt contrived but, surprisingly, though she’d never admit it out loud, it secretly thrilled Xochitl, both that he’d taken the time to look her blog up and read it, and that he might be making excuses to talk to her. It’s the only time he’d called her since, but when he’d asked her what she’d been up to, she told him she’d been watchingSixteen Candles. Her jaw had dropped when he said he’d never seen it. She knew the movie was before their time, but it was a classic and one of her all-timefavorites. A few days later she’d gotten a text from him that nearly stopped her heart.

How goes it, SEXY GIRLFRIEND?

It took her a second to catch her breath and realize he was making a reference to the movie. She’d laughed out loud, despite the slight unease it made her feel. Obviously, he’d watched the movie. As trivial as that might seem, something about the fact that he’d sit through an almost forty-year-old chick flick, then quote it in a text to her, just so she’d know he’d taken the time to watch it,becauseof her, made her heart nearly skip a beat. The texts were minimal, and he hadn’t called again, but he referred to her in the same way each time. Lex was obviously not invited to the bachelorette party, so Xochitl didn’t even see him that evening.

While Angela had been pleasant enough to her at the bachelorette party, she did manage to sneak in a thinly veiled, snarky speech Xochitl was now sure was meant for her specifically. If anyone knew snark, it was Xochitl. In fact, Xochitl was certain it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing either, like she’d made it sound. In hindsight, the catty bitch had likely planned and rehearsed it long before the party. They’d been taking shots in Vannah’s parents’ entertainment room, when an already inebriated Angela decided she wanted to make a toast to the bride. “Vannah I’m so happy for you.” She’d held up her shot glass. “As surprised as I was that you were getting married at just nineteen, I’m so relieved you’re marrying a twenty-six-year-oldman. For a minute there, I’d been worried you’d fallen for the firstboyyou met your freshman year in college and decided to do something silly and get hitched. You know being in college has really opened my eyes. I’msoover immature boys.Realwomen date men. Here’s to you and your college grad, business-owning, reality-show-hottie, grown assman. You lucky girl, you!”

She’d glanced at Xochitl, just before downing her shot. Already, Xochitl had been on the fence about whether she liked her bestie’s high school friend or not. She was tall, thin, and sexy, all things Xochitl had never considered herself to be. The unfair mix of attributes alone would normally have been enough to annoy Xochitl. But because she was Vannah’s good friend, Xochitl had decided to make an exception. Only now that she’d added catty to the list, Xochitl had no qualms abouthatingher. Obviously, the girl had been irked by what she’d witnessed at the shower between her and Lex. Since he said he’d been the one to blow Angela off, and because the girl had clearly taken the time to plan her stupid little speech ahead of time, Xochitl was now totally looking forward to the wedding. No games of course. That just wasn’t Xochitl’s style. But she could there was no denying it now, as wrong as it felt to feel so attracted to her bestie’s brother—she was. She enjoyed hanging with him at the shower and rehearsal dinner more than she’d ever admit out loud, so she knew she would at the wedding as well. Right then and there, Xochitl decided she’d just go with it. What did she have to lose? She’d enjoy whatever time she got to be around him again at the wedding, and when it was all over, she’d be back in the safety of her dorm two hours away in Los Angeles. Even if she could now grudgingly admit to herself that the guy did hold the power to make her heart pitter patter, she of course wouldn’t be admitting it to anyone elseever. Having to put up an act like maybe she was a little into him, forappearance sakes,would help her save a little face. But even better now she couldn’t think of anything more satisfying than pissing off this bitch while doing so.

The Wedding

Lex

If Lex wasn’t used to how every milestone this family had was handled like the most momentous thing to happen ever, he might’ve been irritated by all the build-up to this damn wedding. Instead, seeing Angela look genuinely annoyed by his interest in his sister’s college friend had been amusing at the shower two weeks ago. Getting to know Xochitl a little better had been an added bonus. He’d originally regarded her as his sister’s apathetic friend. Just like the first time when he met her way back, the few times he’d been around her before the shower, she hadn’t shown the slightest interest in him. Something he didn’t realize he was not used to—at all. It’s why he’d chosen her out of any of the other non-related girls at the wedding he could’ve asked to pretend to be his girl. Something about her demeanor in the times he’d been around her before the shower defied him. It wasn’t until he sat next to her that day, when the slightly obscure but definite indifference he thought he’d picked up from her before continued, did he realize he still felt challenged by her. Weird thing was he liked it.

After seeing her again a few times since all this wedding madness had started, he’d finally figured out who she reminded him of: Jasmine from the Disney animated movieAladdin. It’d been driving him crazy since last year. He happened to be walking through the front room while his sister Nena sat there with the TV on. She wasn’t even watching the television, more so than tapping away at her laptop. But it was on, and he’d done a double take when he looked up at the side-by-side closeup photos of the animated character and the actress Mila Kunis. The volume was too low for him to hear what they were saying, but it hadn’t mattered. He’d been glued to the image. Mila’s eyes were just as big and pretty. But he now knew, as silly as it seemed, it was Jasmine whose eyes Xochitl’s had reminded him of. Not just because of the long dark hair that made the color pop, but because while he’d noticed them since the day he met her, they now seemed almost—unreal—animated. Lex wasn’t much for watching animated movies about princesses. But with two older sisters he’d been forced to watch a lot of them growing up.Aladdinhad actually been one of the less painful ones to watch. He hadn’t been forced to watch a Disney princess movie in years, but he did remember most of the princesses were usually these docile, sweet things, prancing around, and singing with talking animals. Yet, he remembered Jasmine being one of the feistier ones. It made him smile just thinking about the fact that this had been the first thing that’d come to him when he met her. What a contradiction the sweetness in her eyes when she smiled genuinely, was to the uncompromising first impression she’d made on him. And he hadn’t even been able to place who it was she reminded him of at the time.

He thought of the wedding shower as he walked into his kitchen. Lex couldn’t give two fucks about Angela. But her being an asshole with her little-boy remarks, when he knew she was just pissed about being blown off, he could admit it now that he’d justified his immature reaction to her showing up at his house so obviously trying to flaunt her new older man. Fortunately for him, it’d created a good excuse to approach Xochitl and chat with her on a more personal level than he ever had a chance to up until that day. He was only glad now she’d had been a good sport and gone along with it. Given the impression she’d made on him up until then, he wasn’t sure she’d be willing to. Though in hindsight, there wasn’t much for her to go along with. Basically, just sit there and chat with him. Still, now they had a secret he could use to approach her with as often as he got the chance to at the wedding, and he’d be taking advantage of that. Especially since he hadn’t gotten much alone time with her last night at the rehearsal dinner.

Gordo opened the front door for yet another one of his sister’s bridesmaids who arrived at their home. Lex did a double take when he realized who it was. Because it was a summer wedding and they’d known it’d be hot, Vannah said she’d chosen more casual than normal summer dresses for her bridesmaids. He’d been hearing them talk about the damn dresses for months now, so he knew they’d be long, sleeveless, body-hugging, maxi dresses. He remembered because he and Gordo had sniggered like thirteen-year-olds, more than once, about the bridesmaids’ maxi-pad dresses. While of course he hadn’t even noticed it on his sister or his cousins, Xochitl and those curves he couldn’t get enough of, had his undivided attention now. The body-hugging dress she wore now amplified each of said curves, in a way none of the other bridesmaids could even compete with. Lex didn’t even realize he’d stopped midway before bringing the protein drink he’d been about to take a sip of, to his mouth. He stood there, jaw dropped open, until their eyes met, and she smiled this time, unlike that first time she’d caught him ogling way back. Feeling relieved, he hoped maybe that was because he hadn’t been so blatantly obvious about it this time. Smiling back, he considered the possibility that maybe he’d just overreacted to her utter indifference last year. Maybe she wasn’t asuncompromising as he’d first thought. “Spiffy,” she said, turning from him to Gordo. “You two clean up really well.”

Gordo rubbed his knuckles against the front of his tux with a smirk, as he backed up to let her in. “This old thing?” Don’t ogle. Don’t ogle. He nodded, smiling, and while he knew it was probably way too big, at least he’d managed to take her in quickly and politely. “You don’t look half bad yourself.”

“Thank you.” She glanced down at her dress as she walked in. “I was nervous about this when Vannah first told me. I don’t usually wear something so snug. But I think it’s growing on me.”

Was she kidding? He’d admired her curvaceous attributes from day one. But Jesus Christ, she looked hot asfuck. “I think maybe you should wear snug more often.” Gordo smiled, looking her up and down.

Lex glared at his younger brother’s second attempt at wit, or was that flirting? But one look back at Xochitl had him smirking. Just as she hadn’t seemed amused at Lex’s ogling, what Gordo likely thought she’d take as a compliment hadn’t flattered her. Instead, she looked annoyed, and it was likely because his clueless brother was still shamelessly eating her up with his eyes.

Before Lex could have the pleasure of hearing Xochitl put him in his place, Nena’s shriek from the top of the staircase interrupted his thoughts. “Oh my God, you look amazing, Soch!Girl, I knew that dress would lookperfecton you.” His sister urged her to come upstairs, where the herd of other bridesmaids were helping Vannah get ready.

Meanwhile, now that he could, Lex was glued to Xochitl’s jaw-dropping voluptuous ass, as she headed up the stairs. “Holy shit,” Gordo said as he walked toward Lex. “She looks so different.”

“This old thing?” Lex turned to his brother, a little annoyed but not surprised he’d noticed just how different she suddenly looked. “Then you do the elevator-eyes thing? Really?”

Gordo laughed. “Don’t be hating on my game.”

Lex scoffed. rolling his eyes after taking a swig of his drink. “Like your seventeen-year-old ass would have a chance with her.”

“For your information, even the older ladies find meirresistible.”

Shaking his head, Lex stopped when, once again, he had to do a double take. Only this time it was his sister who caught his eye. Vannah was at the top of the staircase in her wedding gown, and she looked stunning. Nena and one of his other cousins held the long ass train to her dress behind her, while the photographer and guy filming walked backwards down the steps in front of her. She carefully started down the stairs. Rushing to help her, Lex put his drink down, hopped up the stairs, passed the photographer and guy filming, and reached for her hand. “You look beautiful, Sis.”

“Thank you.” She smiled, taking his hand and gripping the rail with her other. “But don’t look at me that way, Taz, or I’ll get all emotional again, and I don’t want to mess up my makeup.”

Chuckling, Lex wasn’t sure what way she meant, but she likely meant in awe, because his beautiful sister wasabsolutelyglowing. Once at the bottom, the front door opened, and their dad froze when he saw her. “Sweetheart.” His voice was a near whisper. “You’re even more gorgeous than I imagined.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” she said as her bottom lip quivered.

“Okay, okay,” Nena said, dabbing the corner of Vannah’s eyes with a tissue. “It’s been established she looks amazing, but I worked hard on this makeup. Let’s not get her going again. I already had to reapply it up there a couple of times.”

“You’re bringing it with you though, right?” Vannah sniffled. “Because I already know the minute I see Byron—”

“Xochitl’s all over it.” Nena motioned to her up the stairs.

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