My whole body is tingling now, cold vibrations freezing me inside out. “I don’t have any idea who you mean, Dan.”
“Oi, you losers!”Tristan appears at my side, and I’m simultaneously flooded with relief and the desire to throw a chair at his head. He ignores me completely, as he always did in social settings, to throw his arms around Dan and Xav.
“You boys have fun catching up,” I say, thankful for an opportunity to return to my safe place, the bar. I order another gin and tonic to wash away the taste of those weird encounters when another male voice sounds close to my ear.
“Cece Taylor. I’ve been looking for you.”
I am not prepared for the full force of Will Sharpe. Social media is a shitty substitute. No poorly cropped photo can properly capture the way the bar lights pick up the honey-colour of his hair, the laugh lines that crinkle the corners of his eyes. They sure as shit can’t capture his presence, the way he leans in with a smile just for me, the air around us shifting to make room.
Butterflies go wild in my stomach, as if the baby ones that fluttered every time he smiled my way in school have grown with me, and now they’re huge adults that have taken LSD and gone to a rave in my abdomen.
“Here I am,” I manage.Here I’ve always been.
“It’s good to see you.” Will leans on the bar, swaying a little as his eyes trace slowly over my body. They pause on my chest, and I thank the angels for this neckline.
The plan is go.
I am going to hook up with Will Sharpe tonight like my life depends on it. Ada has her own revenge plans for this reunion, but this is mine. If I’m left with nothing at the end of this weekend—no business, no home, no best friend—I am going to have this memory to hold on to forever.
I am allowed to be happy.
Will orders a drink, and we clink our glasses together, then I lose time. The party keeps moving around us, good music and food floating into my consciousness, but there’s nothing else for me but this. The moment where all my stars align.
Will says something, and I say something back, but I’m not listening. Neither is he. I recognise it in the way his eyes rake my body, theway they linger on my lips, the brush of his fingers as he tucks a strand of my hair behind one ear.
He sees it in me, too, I hope. In how I touch his arm, lean a little closer, blush when he compliments me. The words don’t matter; the energy has the wheel, moving us closer, desperation pressing at us, fizzing in the gap between our bodies.
“Are you staying here?” Will asks. He’s downed three rum and Cokes in the time it’s taken me to finish my gin, but why does that matter?
I shake my head. “I’m at Nikau Palms.”
“Well, I am. The view upstairs is beautiful. Would you like to see it?”
Triumph surges through me. “With you? Always.”
We make our way towards the elevator, just outside the reception room doors. I can feel Jenny’s eyes on me, sticky with hate, and I straighten my spine in a defiant ‘fuck you.’ As if he can read my mind, Will links our fingers.
The hellfire roasting my back intensifies.
It’s happening. Holy shit and all the saints, it’s happening.
Will’s hand is clammy in mine, which is cutely comforting—maybe he’s nervous too, now that the moment between us has finally arrived?
Davis’s gold-flecked eyes flash through my mind, all confident and soulful.
And unsolicited business plans.
I push him away. Davis is what Hot Mess Cece wants. Will is the relationship Stable Cece was destined to have.
Ding!Will tugs me inside the elevator, and anticipation swirls in my stomach as the doors whoosh shut behind us.
“You’re so pretty,” he mumbles, cupping my cheeks, his breath brushing my ears. “Little Cece Taylor, all grown up now.”
It’s an odd thing to say, but he’s had a few, so I ignore it and run my hands along his sides.
“Lower,” he groans, grabbingmy wrist and moving my fingers to his groin.
He’s hard, and I cup him over the fabric of his pants, as he bucks into my hand. There’s only time for a couple of quick pumps before the elevator doors sweep open and we’re moving again, fingers linked as I follow him down the hotel hallway, my heels quiet on the carpet.
