AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ONE
June
Maybe I should’ve said something about the missing button on the back of Aubrey’s dress. I look back and wonder if that’s what jinxed me. It was junior year of college and I didn’t tell her before she left our apartment on a date with Ethan where her pocket caught on a doorknob which caused her dress to pull apart, forcing Ethan to be a gentleman and offer her a safety pin from his apartment which, long and arduous story short, brought me to the moment she spoiled our senior year spring break in Mexico to tell me Ethan proposed.
It wasn’t Ethan who ruined anything. I adored him. In fact, he was perfect, so it made absolutely no sense why his best friends were such pricks. Well, most were just idiots, and some were tolerable, but the biggest prick of them all was his best friend.
“Rowan!” Aubrey shrieked, piercing my ear as she leapt from my side. I rolled onto my stomach and flipped through the magazine Aubrey bought earlier at the airport convenience store. I was on the last question of the magazine’s quiz to determine which cake best described my personality when I gagged on the cloud of cologne that hung heavily around us.
Reaching for my bottle of sunscreen, I flipped it open and sniffed while trying to ignore Aubrey fawning over Rowan Ellis. Between reading whether I was angel food or strawberry shortcake, the pages darkened with his shadow.
“Find your perfect celebrity boyfriend?” Rowan mocked, daring to tug on the end of my French braid. Rolling my eyes up to see him squat in front of me, I closed the magazine and moved to stand, grabbing my bag from the plastic chair and slipping my feet into my flip-flops.
“Close your legs, Ellis,” I spat. “Nobody wants to see that.”
As if being squished between half-naked people at the hotel pool with not enough drink in my hand wasn’t already too much, Ethan and his posse of posers cut short girl time. The two guys who tagged along for their pre-wedding shenanigans had been in our lives since Aubrey and Ethan’s second date. First impressions are important, and when their second date was a pregame party at the apartment those guys shared, where Aubrey and Ethan whispered sweet nothings to each other while I whispered into my red cup next to them, Rowan Ellis was the star of the hour. He wasn’t even there, but he was all anyone talked about.
“Where are you going?” Aubrey whined, finally noticing me. Ethan approached in greeting, suffocating me against his massive bare chest. He handed me a gin and tonic, something he learned to use as a liquid apology.
“Don’t leave, Mer. I promise,” he snickered, tousling my hair, “I told them to all leave you alone.”
Rolling my eyes, I returned his hug and peeled myself from his warmth. “I’m going to gamble, have a drink, and then meet my best friend for dinner.”
“Oh,” Aubrey chuckled, her cheeks blushing as she looked between Ethan and I. “About that.” I stared at her, following Aubrey’s blue eyes as they darted to Rowan. He was climbing from the pool, his palms spread flat on the scalding cement, as he twisted his weight to sit on the ledge. I didn’t want any of Aubrey’s “about that” to deal with him. I hated when things were about him.
“It’s not just the girls anymore,” I presumed, watching Aubrey bite her cheek. I couldn’t be mad at her when we were in Vegas to celebrate her and Ethan getting married, but I could get disappointed and petty.
“Fine. Still meeting at the casino at seven?” Addressing Aubrey through my clenched jaw, I noticed her demeanor shift as she eagerly nodded. She bounded over to me with an enormous hug, one that told me she knew it was a shitty thing to do but that she’d buy me drinks to make up for it and I should just accept her as she was, the smitten kitten. I did, but I didn’t have to accept Ethan’s friends. With Aubrey skipping to Ethan at the pool, I took one giant sip from the sympathy gin and tonic and carried it with me as I passed the corner where Rowan sat, stretching back and leaning his weight on his palms while women ogled him.
Hearing him flirt, I poured the rest of my drink on him as I passed and set my glass on a table on my way back through the hotel. It might’ve helped rather than annoy him as I’d hoped, because I could hear all the bikinis come to his rescue even as I opened the door back into the hotel. Maybe that seemed petty, but Rowan Ellis was someone I’d rather choke on a chicken bone than spend time with since I met him in college.
Free alcohol quickly made up for losing some money on the slot machines. If I sat long enough in each section, slipping in singles so it looked like I was playing big, the busty broads would shake their way over to me with a tray of goods. I was three Baileys and ice into the Roulette table when I won my money back, and then some. Calling it quits, I finished my last drink and carried my sun-kissed and tipsy self back to my room and got ready for dinner.
Vegas was an oven no matter the time of year, especially in June, limiting what I could wear out. Even makeup warranted special ingredients to keep it from sliding down my face.
I was slipping my heels on when someone knocked on my door. It was too early to be Aubrey, but I figured she was in a panic about something wedding-related. Peeking through the peephole, I wondered if my clicking shoes had made too much noise already or if I could escape. When Rowan knocked a second time, I knew he heard me.
Slowly taking in a breath and fixing my resting I-hate-Rowan-Ellis scowl, I opened the door. “What?”
His eyes widened, taking me in while he leaned against the door frame. “Wow, Meredith,” Rowan appraised.
“My eyes are up here, you slime ball,” I groaned, waving near my face as I rolled my eyes. “Why are you here?”
“Change of plans.” Rowan shrugged, finally looking at me and not at my legs. “Someone owed me a favor, and I set up Aubs and Ethan on a date.”
“But I planned our dinner tonight.” My skin tingled. And not in the way it did for so many idiots around Rowan.
Rowan reached for his phone and answered a text before responding, slipping the phone into his pocket. “My plan involved dinner and a show. They’ll love it.”
“It wasn’t even supposed to include you two,” I snapped. “Why do you always do this, Ellis? Someone makes a plan and you spoil it.”
“Name one time,” he rebuked, crossing his arms. His wristwatch reflected the light above us as his forearms tensed.
“Easy,” I claimed, repeating his body language and regretting it as soon as his gaze moved to my chest. “When I wanted to throw Aubrey an engagement party, but you took over and made it about getting a stupid suite for one of your games.”
“I remember you enjoying that,” he winked, “and I know I had to tell some players to step off. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“You’re welcome?” I groaned, uncrossing my arms and clenching my fists at my side, trying not to scream at him. “The last thing I need is you interfering with my love life.”
