AllFreeNovel
Share Us
These past couple of days have been perfect. We’ve been drowning in a haze of each other. And when wedding tasks pull us apart, we text. He starts it and it continues until I’m back in his arms. Or I start it because I miss him fiercely, and it continues until he’s back in mine. Last night, at the rehearsal dinner, he texted me within seconds of me leaving to use the restroom just to tell me tohurry, which isAleckfor I miss you.
We’reengulfedin one another.
That’s how I know, this ridiculousplanto give each other up tomorrow is complete horseshit. I’m torn between enjoying my time with him and fighting the heartache already setting in. And I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t hurt that he hasn’t brought it up.
“Aleck…”
“Mm-hmm?” he hums over my other breast.
When I don’t answer, he looks up, his bright blue eyes searching my face with a question he already knows the answer to. He braces his weight on his arms and stares down at me. Trying to form a sentence that doesn’t put him on the spot or ruin this moment between us churns my stomach.
This entire situation churns my stomach.
“This is our last day together,” I whisper. The words feel somehow more real now that I’ve said them.
How did this happen? How did I fall for him?The man who compared my appearance to a fucking boulder. The man who waltzed into our suite the first night with a hard-on and two shiny women. The man who still listens to R&B for god’s sake.How?
When he says nothing, my eyes drop between us. I can’t look at him. The swarm of painful realizations quakes my body from the inside out.
“You’re a fling, Winter. Easy to fuck, but not good enough to date. He won’t extend your little arrangement because you’re not on his level and he knows it.”
“Hey,” he says, tilting my face up by my chin. “We’ll figure it out, Winter.”
What’s there to figure out? You either want me or you don’t.But I don’t say it. If a few last moments are all I’ll get with Aleck, I’ll take them. Because although I know I shouldn’t have, I fell for him these past two weeks. I fell for him hard, and I’ll take him any way I can get him.
Until I can’t.
* * *
“You’re getting fuckingmarriedtoday!”Keith booms, seconds before the loudpopfrom the champagne bottle echoes across the room.
“Yeah,finally.” Sondra fidgets with the hem of her long white silk wedding dress. “Remind me to keep this flame alive because I amnevergoing through this process again.”
“Honey, do I have to remind you thatWinterwent through this processforyou?” Keith adds.
“Oh, yeah.” Sondra looks at me through the mirror. I smile and finish pinning the last piece of her hair into a braided bun. “So I never have to putWinterthrough this process again,” she amends.
“Done,” Dottie says, taking a step back. “You look absolutely gorgeous.”
Sondra looks in the mirror closely, observing the makeup Dottie applied, and smiles warmly. “What would I do without you guys?”
“Well,” Keith starts, handing Sondra a glass of champagne. “You’d have to do your own taxes, for one.”
Dottie laughs. “It’s becoming clear to me we do all of Sondra’s grunt work.”
“Should Inottell them I did all of your chemistry homework in high school?” I laugh, spraying Sondra’s hair down with a thick layer of hairspray.
“No, please, don’t tell them that.” She rolls her eyes, coughing through a cloud of Aqua Net.
A flash of light from the corner of my eye alerts me to a text. I smile, knowing it’s Aleck, then walk to the desk in the corner of the room, and pick up my phone with a grin so big it makes my cheeks ache.
Aleck: How’s the bridal party?
Me: Champagne and giggles, as to be expected. How about the groomsmen?
Aleck: Whiskey and hookers, as to be expected.
Laughing, I roll my eyes.
