Chapter 3
THREE
LOURDES
Just as I predicted, Pricilla was unhappy about my dress. She had greeted her son as soon as she arrived at the church, telling him how handsome he looked, all the while pretending I was the hired help.
She had given me a once-over, and then her eyes widened in surprise at my choice of shoes. I couldn’t help but smirk at her. When it was time to start, the wedding planner reminded me to hold on to Neo. He stiffly held his arm out for me, and I hesitantly took it.
There weren’t any sparks flying or the tension going at an all-time high. That wasn’t Neo and me. We were just two people who disliked—maybe even hated—each other.
Walking down the aisle next to him was weird as we got ready to marry off our parents. All I could think about was that empty corridor and how, for a moment in time, he had made the pain go away. Some people shared hopes and dreams, but we shared our tragedies. Two dead parents led us to the altar.
The service was quick. I cheered and awed when appropriate, but mentally, I was elsewhere.
When the service was over, I had to do it with Neo at my side. This time, he was already stretching his arm out for me.
“Now you’ll be under me, little sister,” he taunted me as he walked me out.
“You’d be so lucky… asshole .” My murmur wasn’t as low as I thought because Neo missed a step.
Now, the night was almost done, and my feet were starting to kill me. I’d had one too many drinks because two palomas ago, I knew I was already pushing it. People got drunk at weddings all the time, right? I mean, how else was I supposed to survive all the festivities? Per my maid of honor duties, I had to do a welcome speech, and it was the most basic shit ever. Neo gave my father heartfelt words, but it was different in his case. My dad tried with him—hell, much to my dismay, he took Neo to work. Now that he was family, he would start to officially work at our conglomerate.
When Wes approached me, my mouth was wrapped around the straw, trying to binge-drink my tequila.
“You thirsty, Lou?”
I let go of the straw, waved my drink in his face, and smiled like a dork. “These were my mom’s favorite drink. Some moms do wine, but my mom had this after a hard day. I remember stealing sips here and there in my teens.”
His eyes softened, as did his smile.
“How come you aren’t dancing?”
I scrunched my nose.
“I don’t like people.”
He let out a hearty laugh.
“That includes me?
“You are people, and you are Step-enemy’s friend.”
“Step what?” he asked with a chuckle.
I waved him off. He didn’t get it the first time and a joke lost its effect if you had to explain it.
“Come on, let’s dance?” he gave me his hand, and because I was a bit tipsy, I took it.
Just as we got to the dance floor, the song changed to a slower one, and my feet thanked me, but the rest of me felt self-conscious.
“You’re a good dancer,” I complimented him.
“You’re not so bad yourself.”
“My grandparents made me take classes for all the classicals,” I admitted. “My mom taught me cumbia, salsa, merengue.”
I added the last part with a sad smile. It always came back to my mami, didn’t it? Every little thing reminded me of her.
“We should go out?—”
“Sorry, Wes, but I need a word with my sister.”
It must be the tipsy in me because his request sounded a touch possessive. I almost scoffed to myself. Before I could protest, Neo was already dragging me away.
“You’re walking too fast,” I snapped at him.
Tired and tipsy, a good combination did not make. It got harder to breathe, but it was probably my faja working against me. My mother taught me the importance of shapers before my quince.
“Yet you had no problem grinding on Wesley,” he barked.
I gasped. “I was not!”
“Oh please, you were all over him.”
“Correction,” I said, pulling back my wrist, but he wasn’t budging. “He was all over me!”
Wes was probably being friendly, but I was not too fond of Neo insinuating that I was all up on his best friend.
He stopped walking once we were outside. Neo turned me toward him, but he didn’t let go of me. His fingers were still on my wrist, and they had no intention of letting go.
His chest rose and fell a little faster. I wondered if it was the anger or if our little walk had winded him that much. I was the one who should have been struggling.
Neo looked down at me with a sneer on his perfectly symmetrical face.
“And why would Wes want you?”
Ouch .
Okay, that stung. Not that I wanted Wes, but he didn’t have to say it like that.
“I don’t know. Why don’t we go and ask him?” I raised my brow in defiance.
I hoped he didn’t take me up on the offer.
“You’re drunk already,” he thankfully changed the subject.
“Am not.”
I was, but he didn't know since we avoided one another.
“You spent the whole night at the bar.”
That bit caught me off guard. Had he been paying attention to me? And why did that thought have my stomach swirling all of a sudden? It was a warm feeling, but it wasn’t anxiety, that feeling I knew all too well.
Since I was drunk, I couldn’t stop my mouth from running off.
“You were watching me?”
Neo let go of me as if I burned him. He scoffed and put his hands in the pockets of his pants.
“The only thing I watched was how pathetic you looked as you threw yourself at every single man who talked to you.”
The venom in his voice was what I needed to sober up.
It didn’t matter that once upon a time we opened up to each other. That we shared a tragedy, because the Neo I had conjured up in my head was not real. This one before me was, and he was not kind.
“Fuck you.”
I began to walk away, needing to get away from him immediately. Unfortunately, in my grand exit, I missed a step, my ankle twisted, and then I felt as if gravity was being pulled from me.
“ Fuck !” I hissed.
Before I could be acquainted with the ground, an arm wrapped around me. Correction. Neo’s arm wrapped around me.
He pulled me back against his body, his hand curved around me, digging into my waist. If his hand slid down just a few inches lower, he would be holding on to my exposed skin. Was he aware of that fact?
I knew I needed to move away, but somehow my brain refused to listen to me.
Neo took care of that problem when he started to speak. “Is your foot okay?” His question was bit out in anger.
“I think so,” I said as I added weight to it. “Just a bit tender.”
Karma pitied me today, or maybe she was as petty as I was and didn’t want to fuck me over like she had Pricilla.
“Come on, let’s take you home.”
I looked back at the ballroom and didn’t want to go back inside to get my stuff, but I needed my keys to get home.
Neo began to drag me with him, taking most of my weight, then sat me on a nearby bench.
“I’ll be right back,” he said without looking at me.
He returned to the party while I crossed my legs to inspect my ankle better. The worst outcome would be that I sprained my ankle, but the look on Pricilla’s face made my humiliating moment worth it.
When Neo returned, I had my hand on my ankle, massaging the affected area. He looked down at my feet and then at my face. My Chanel clutch looked smaller in his large hands.
“Did it get worse?”
I shook my head.
“Why don’t you take off your shoes?”
“Uh, no,” I said. “That’s so tacky.”
For the first time ever, Neo was giving me a bemused expression. It looked kind of like when you were in class and you didn’t want to laugh because the teacher would get mad.
“Let’s go,” he said, motioning toward the path that led to the cars.
And because Neo was a distraction, I didn’t think as I got up and added weight to my injured foot. I winced as I felt the weight on my heel.
“Motherfucker.”
The pained hiss left my mouth before I could swallow it to save my pride.
“Fucking heels,” Neo muttered, but before I could question him, he took a determined step toward me.
His jaw was clenched—he did not need mewing exercises since he was perpetually mad, and his jaw got all the workouts he needed right there.
“W-w-what are you doing?” It was a stupid question, especially since one of his hands was already going to the back of my knees so he could pick me up. I let out a small yelp as he put his other hand under my arms.
There had to be some kind of bad luck juju when being carried out bridal style at someone else’s wedding.
My heart began to speed up.
We had never been this close. All I could smell was him, and it was having a strange effect on me…an aphrodisiac effect.
“Put me down,” I demanded while trying to wiggle free, but all he did was hoist me up higher and tighter against him. Everything about his actions had me feeling self-conscious. I’d seen the women who threw themselves at him, the women his mother set him up with, and they all had one thing in common: they were slim and dainty.
“You’re going to hurt yourself and me if you keep doing that.” It was clear he was agitated with me.
“I’m trying to do you a favor, asshole, it’s a long walk, and I’m not exactly light.”
Neo stopped walking, and although I had asked for this, I still felt my stomach sink and my cheeks heat with embarrassment.
When he looked at me, I was glad I was in his arms, or else I would have been sucker punched by the intensity in his eyes. I had never looked at him so closely before. At that moment, we were close enough that if I tilted my head, we would kiss.
“Lourdes.” He said my name low like a warning. I bit my lip to stop gasping since I was sure he had never said it before. He didn’t whitewash it or say it in French as others did, he said my name with Spanish consonants like my mami used to do. “Don’t insult me like that again. If a man can’t carry you, then he’s a pussy and not worth your time.”
His words did nothing to diffuse my blush. His smell, his closeness, and now his words made my lower belly tingle. And I was beginning to worry about the state of my nonexistent panties. My faja panties were crotchless since it was a bitch to roll the damn thing down and up.
I did not have my mother to talk to about these things, but how did women who whore fajas have one-night stands? I didn’t think it was very sexy to pull out your dress and be all, Tada . Look at my Colombian shapewear.
Neo didn’t make conversation for the rest of the walk, which I was okay with because it allowed me to gather my thoughts. When the parking lot came into view, I took a relieved breath. Instead of going toward my pink Porsche, he walked us to his matte-black Bugatti Mistral. If rumors were to be believed, it was one of the last things his father had gifted him. He was still alive to put the order in.
“I can drive,” I said as the passenger door slid up.
“You drank all night.”
“What about my car?”
“I’ll make sure it gets dropped off.”
Okay then, that was settled.
The drive was silent, which made me fall asleep.
He arrived at my house at some point because I woke up to him carrying me again. I was too sleepy to protest, and at least this way I got to keep my word on keeping on my shoes the whole night.
I didn’t think much about my room. Especially not the fact that he had never been in it, but I could tell it was something he didn’t expect because once he opened the door, he stood still, taking it all in.
My room was the last gift my mother gave me. She had it remodeled after my quinceanera. The walls were a dark purple that almost looked black. The bedding and room accents were all in silver, grays, light pink, and mauve. My bed was massive, with a gazillion pillows, translucent black canopy drapes, and so many fairy lights all over that there was no need for the chandelier to be turned on. The white faux fur that surrounded the bed made it seem all that much cozier.
In hindsight, my mom probably knew I would need a safe space to deal with her absence.
Neo sat me down gently at the edge of my bed.
I should probably thank him, right?
Just as he was about to leave, I opened my mouth, but those weren’t the words that came out.
“I thought you weren’t going to help me if I busted my ankle tonight?”
He stopped moving but didn’t turn around to face me. He just craned his neck, and based on the cold look on his face, I already knew I was going to regret not saying thank you and try to put this night behind me.
“You’d already embarrassed yourself enough by that point,” he sneered.
“Fuck you.”
It was not very original, but it was all I had. He didn’t even bother to acknowledge it. He kept walking. I got so mad at him, but more at myself for lowering my guard. I took my heel off and threw it at him.
I totally missed him, but he still paused to look at it as it hit the wall.
“That was tacky , little sis,” he taunted as he stepped through the threshold.
“I hope your dick falls off!”