Chapter 40
The bridal shower was going about as well as could be expected. There were nearly forty people on the guest list, mostly family,
with a few of Jasmine’s industry colleagues and a handful of the friends she’d stayed in touch with from high school and college.
The younger guests—Ava’s sister, Michelle’s niece, Ronnie’s stepdaughter, and Sammy’s oldest daughter—teamed up with Lily
Benitez and Nino Colón, Jasmine and Ashton’s costars from Carmen in Charge , to trounce the cousins and tías in games of Bridal Taboo and Wedding Family Feud. The older generations got them back by
kicking ass in Name that Disney Love Song.
“What even is The Rescuers ?” Michelle’s twelve-year-old niece Phoebe asked scornfully, to which Jillian replied, “It’s a classic, you infant.”
Titi Nereida surprised them all by writing the dirtiest version of Fill in the Blank Wedding Vows imaginable.
“?Qué?” the old woman said, looking around innocently. “Penis is a noun, ?verdad?”
“I’m going to be hearing that in my nightmares for the rest of my life,” Michelle muttered, draining another mimosa. Abuela declared that she’d peed herself laughing, and Titi Lisa agreed that her pelvic floor had never been the same since having Jasmine.
“How many times do you want me to say I’m sorry?” Jasmine grumbled.
Even with Ronnie and Michelle moderating the games, Ava had more than enough to keep her mind off Roman.
She was stacking champagne-glazed donut holes—pink with sugary sparkles—into a pyramid on a tray when Michelle strolled over.
Her tank top read “Bisexual & Bicoastal.”
“I haven’t seen you since you got back from PR,” Michelle said, popping a donut hole in her mouth. “How was your sexcation
with Roman?”
Panic jolted through Ava’s body. Four donut holes fell to the floor as she whirled around and grabbed her cousin’s arm. “Gabe
wasn’t supposed to tell you!”
Michelle’s eyebrows flew up to her hairline and she almost choked. “Relax, I was kidding .” Then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What wasn’t Gabe supposed to tell me?”
Ava pressed her hands to her face. Michelle had been joking, her particular brand of irreverent and slightly raunchy humor.
But Ava had overreacted and given the game away.
Everything was falling apart.
Before Ava could deflect, Michelle gave a dramatic gasp. “Oh my god, are you and Roman fucking?”
“Lower your voice, and yes ,” Ava hissed. There was clearly no getting out of this conversation.
Michelle flicked Ava’s arm. “How come Gabe knew before I did?”
“He only found out today. By accident .”
Michelle crossed her arms and leaned a hip against the counter. “I think you’d better start at the beginning.”
Resigned, Ava told Michelle about meeting Roman ten months earlier, and everything that had happened since, ending with Gabe walking in on them kissing.
By the time the full story was out, Michelle was pressing her fingers to her temples like she had a headache.
“Let me get this straight,” she said. “Ashton knows, but Jasmine doesn’t. Do I have that right?”
Trust Michelle to zero in on that part.
“Um... yes.”
“Ava, Ava, Ava ,” Michelle moaned. “What the hell are you doing? Did you not learn anything from my mistakes? Jas is gonna be so pissed.”
“She’ll be more pissed if Roman and I break up and ruin her wedding.” Ava returned to the donut hole pyramid. With her luck,
Titi Nereida would burst in to ask why the sweets weren’t out yet.
Michelle gave a knowing nod. “I see. This is about Hector.”
Ava slapped a hand on the counter, nearly upending the box of donut holes. “ It is not about Hector .”
“Bullshit.” Michelle pointed a finger at her. “That fucker did a number on you and now you think every relationship is doomed
to fail. So if you and Roman break up before the wedding, you think it’s going to make things weird for Jasmine.”
“Exactly,” Ava snapped, irritated at being so thoroughly dragged. “Jasmine has enough to worry about.”
Michelle stuck her hands on her hips. “What happened to that ‘a burden shared is a burden halved’ nonsense you told me last
year?”
“Did I say that?”
“You sure the hell did.”
“Well, this is different.”
“Really? Because it sounds to me like you’re trying to have your wedding cake and eat it too. And you know what? That cake is going to blow up in your face.”
Michelle mimed an explosion with both of her hands and made a sound effect to go with it.
Ava knew her cousin was right, but the thought of anyone else finding out made her lungs seize up. “Just keep it to yourself
for now, okay? And make sure Gabe doesn’t say anything either. Let’s get through this wedding, and then I’ll figure out how
to tell Jasmine.”
Michelle huffed. “Only because it should really come from you, but let the record show that I think this is a disaster waiting
to happen, and I will one hundred percent be saying ‘I told you so’ when the time comes.”
“Fine,” Ava ground out. She placed the last donut hole on the pyramid. It was flat on top, thanks to the four that had fallen
and the one Michelle had eaten. Not perfect .
You are five donut holes short of a pyramid if you think you can keep kicking this can down the road , that sarcastic little inner voice taunted.
“We’ll see about that,” Ava muttered to herself, and then she hefted the tray and carried it out to the party.