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“Because Matt has made it very clear he’s not interested in a commitment. No marriage. No kids. This is sex without strings.”
Arnold leaned back, giving her a stern look that instantly had her feeling guilty. “Why on earth would you agree to that?”
“Because I thought it was the best way to?—”
“Easiest, Liza,” Arnold interjected. “Not best.”
“I wanted to explore these newfound submissive tendencies—tendencies Matt awakened, by the way,” she reminded him.
Arnold sighed. “I know he did.”
“I’m not a stranger to casual sex, Arnold. I’m a thirty-year-old woman who’s dated a handful of men I actually refer to as ex-boyfriends and only a couple of those relationships lasted longer than six months. My longest relationship ended just shy of a year, and the reason it lasted that long was because the guy was a pilot and out of town more than he was in. We broke up when we decided to take a weeklong trip to the beach together. By day four, we could both read the writing on the wall. To be perfectly honest, casual sex is all I’ve ever had.”
“Fair enough. I’ll give you that. And if it were any other man in the world, I suspect you would have had no problem with this affair either. But I’ve seen the two of you together. You aren’t as indifferent to the man as you might hope.”
She wasn’t. The words “she doth protest too much” were starting to ring a little too true as she considered all the bitching she’d done about Matt over the past year and a half. Part of her wondered now if she’d placed him in that role of arch-nemesis as an attempt to keep herself safe.
From him.
From the things he made her feel.
“And the same holds true for Matt,” Arnold added.
Liza hated how much she hoped her friend was seeing something she wasn’t.
“You’re right. I’m not indifferent. The past couple of days have been really amazing.”
She didn’t mention that things with Matt had felt a bit off this morning. He was perfectly nice, not rude, but the closeness they’d shared the previous day was gone. When he mentioned the meeting, she’d dismissed her concerns. The man was a self-confessed workaholic, so maybe he couldn’t turn that off for more than twenty-four hours at a time. She could relate—to a point—because she was also unable to disconnect from work whenever she was in the middle of a big project.
Arnold pointed a finger at her. “Then I think you owe it to yourself to stop thinking of this thing between you and Matt as just sex. Look at the man—with his clothes on.”
Liza laughed loudly.
“See if there’s something worth building on. Because to be honest, as I’ve gotten to know Matt better, I believe he may be your perfect match.”
Liza rolled her eyes. “This wedding has you looking at everything through the romance lens.”
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
The waitress returned to take their orders, and the rest of the lunch passed in pleasant conversation as Arnold filled her in on all the typical pre-wedding drama, like a company delivering the wrong topper for the cake—two brides rather than two grooms—concern about a groomsman not making it at all due to illness, and some nasty argument between two of Johnnie’s female cousins leading to a last-minute redo of the seating chart at the reception. Despite all of it, Arnold’s smile never faded, and Liza couldn’t help but feel the tiniest twinge of jealousy toward her friend because his love and happiness were almost tangible things.
“Okay, you’re both coming to the rehearsal dinner tomorrow,” Arnold reminded her as the meal ended and they stood to leave. Neither she nor Matt had a role in the wedding, but as out-of-town guests, they’d been invited to the dinner.
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“I’ll see you later.” Arnold excused himself, heading off with a list of chores Johnnie had handed him before he came to meet her for lunch.
Liza glanced at her phone. She needed to leave right now in order to make it to the dock in time for her tour. She was tempted to return to the suite to see if she could persuade Matt to change his mind, to blow off his meeting and come with her, but she refused to look clingy or needy.
Damn Arnold had planted a dangerous seed and it was already starting to take root.
“No,” she muttered to herself. An afternoon to herself was just what she needed. To think about where she wanted to go from here.
“We saw sooooo many sea turtles,” Liza said, taking a sip of wine. “I swear some of them were bigger than my car. I had no idea they got that huge. They were nothing like the box turtle my brother Aldo kept as a pet for a few weeks before the creature finally managed to escape him and our backyard.”
“Sounds like quite the excursion.” Matt had joined her for dinner, though she couldn’t help but feel he’d been reluctant to do so.
Officially out of sightseeing stories, Liza took another sip of wine and silence fell between them. Matt picked up the menu, reading it with a fervent interest rivaling that of a rabid fan grabbing the newest release from their favorite author.
