Chapter 11 Hacer La Vista Gorda
When Ari saw Luis and Reine come into view, sitting on the side of the road beside their broken-down vehicle, she felt a deep torrent of relief. Her body relaxed, her heart beat slower, and some of her uncertainty, some of that terrible jitteriness, dissipated on seeing her daughter whole and well.
It was one of the things no one had told her about motherhood, this odd dislike of being parted from her child. It was something she’d been unable to prepare for, no matter how many books she read or parenting vlogs she watched. No one had ever told her that, once her baby was in her arms, she would spend the rest of her life feeling incomplete when she was away from her. It was as though there was an invisible string between herself and Reine, and whenever — through necessity or choice — Ari had to be away from her, that string pulled on her heart, making her feel nervous, woebegone and incomplete.
She still remembered, with startling clarity, the first time she’d ever been away from Reine. Her daughter had been six weeks old and just starting to give Ari gummy, heart-melting smiles, when Luis and Sebastian had walked into her flat, dressed head-to-toe in running gear, sweatbands on their foreheads and a nappy bag strapped to their backs.
* * *
“Right,” Sebastian intones, taking in the sight of Ari on the sofa with Reine in her arms, a bottle of Lucozade by her side and Homes Under the Hammer playing on repeat on the television. “It’s time.”
“Time for what?” Ari asks, protesting when Luis reaches down and scoops Reine from her arms.
“Time for you to get up, shower and get out of this flat,” Luis answers, cradling Reine and grinning at the baby. “Tío Luis and Uncle Sebastian have found a Mum’s Bums and Tums running group at the park, we’ve invested in a top-of-the-line baby jogger and are ready to take this one for the day in a cardio-friendly fashion.”
“No,” Ari replies instantly, reaching for Reine. “No, you can’t. I’m not ready yet. Besides,” she adds, “she breastfeeds. What about when she gets hungry?”
Luis pats his backpack. “I have three bottles of defrosted breast milk ready to go.”
Ari stares at him blankly. “Please tell me it’s mine, and that you didn’t buy it on the internet.”
Sebastian gives a huff. “Of course it’s yours. We popped in last night when you were passed out next to Reine’s cot and took it from the freezer.”
“Oddly, that doesn’t reassure me.” Ari rubs her hands over her face. “Guys, I’m just not ready yet.”
“You’ll never be ready, Ari,” Luis says softly, dropping to the sofa beside her. He lays Reine against his shoulder, rubbing her back, and gives Ari a smile. “Parents aren’t meant to do this alone, you know. It takes a village to raise a child. We’re your village, Ari. We’re here. We want to help.”
“That’s sweet, but I don’t need help. I’m taking care of her, aren’t I?”
Luis and Sebastian make no reply, but Ari sees them exchange a glance. Suddenly, she’s very aware of her unkempt state, her unwashed hair and of the dishes and mugs sitting in piles on the floor. For a moment silence rings out between them, broken only by the muted sounds of a BBC home renovation programme playing on a loop.
“You’re doing an admirable job of raising your child,” Sebastian finally says.
“Yeah, Ari. I mean, look at this kid.” Luis indicates to Reine’s baby soft skin, her downy hair and the clean onesie she wears. “She’s perfect. You’re doing a great job with her... but you’re putting yourself second, and, well...”
“What he means is that you look rough, love,” Sebastian breaks in. “And there’s a bit of an odd smell to you. Like sour milk.”
“Sebbie!” Luis snaps, but Ari sits up, brushing awkwardly at her pyjamas.
“It’s not my fault,” she says miserably. “Reine keeps being sick all over me.”
“So, let us help you,” Luis wheedles. “Let us take the baby. She can be sick on us for a few hours.”
At that, Sebastian pulls a face, but Ari sees Luis give him another sharp look.
“Go and shower,” Luis suggests. “Clean up a little. Or take a walk. Whatever you need.”
Ari nods, watching as Luis bundles Reine into a pink blanket and then the shiny new city jogger by the door.
“You’ll take care of her?” she asks, already feeling regret for agreeing to let her go.
“A jog around the park, espresso for lunch and then a look-see around Kensington? She’ll be fine,” Luis reassures her.
Once Reine is gone, Ari takes a shower, looking at herself in the mirror for a long time. Sebastian is right, she has to acknowledge. She does look rough. Her hair is lank and unwashed, her skin pale with large bags under her eyes. Her breasts ache with milk, and there are blue veins visible under her engorged skin.
“You wouldn’t even recognise me if you saw me now,” she whispers, thinking again of Tom.
She’s always thinking of Tom. These days, every minute of every day, she has a living, breathing and crying reminder of him. Beneath Reine’s dark and baby-fine lashes are a pair of eyes that exactly match her father’s, and Ari feels an ache when she looks at her daughter. Their daughter, she reminds herself.
He’s missing so much.
Ari busies herself around her flat after her shower, tidying up and washing her and Reine’s clothing and bedding. She indulges in an afternoon nap, but when she wakes at three, to find her flat still empty and Reine still away, an ache in her stomach begins to grow. By the time she hears a key turn in her lock at four, she’s nearly frantic.
“Thank God,” she exclaims, immediately unbuckling Reine from her buggy and holding her close. “Where have you been?” She turns to Luis and Sebastian, who look clean and calm, sifting through the multiple carrier bags attached onto the back of the buggy. “Did you go to Harrods?”
“We wanted afternoon tea,” Sebastian replies calmly. “And then I picked up a few bits for supper in the food hall while Luis took the baby to look at the Barbies.”
“She’s six weeks old.” Ari turns instantly to Luis. “She can only just focus on my face. She’s still considered legally blind. She doesn’t need to look at Barbies.”
“Who said it was for her?” Luis replies jovially, pulling a shiny box from one of his bags and stroking it happily. “I picked up a 1992 Radiant in Red Barbie from the special collection. She’s one for the shelf, I think.”
“Right,” Ari says tightly, although Luis leans forwards, stroking Reine’s head.
“You look better, Ari.”
“And the smell is gone,” Sebastian adds cheerfully, walking into the small kitchen and flicking on the kettle.
“I showered,” she replies. “Thank you.” Her voice grows softer. “I appreciate what you’re both doing for me.” She looks around at the flat. “Everything.”
Luis smiles at her. “You’re welcome. And don’t worry about leaving little Miss Reine with us. So long as we aren’t working—”
“Or at Pilates!” Sebastian shouts from the kitchen.
“—or at Pilates,” Luis carries on. “We’re here for you. Get yourself booked into the salon for next Saturday. We’ll take Reine again. Mum’s Bums and Tums was quite good fun.”
“Agreed, although my bum and tum are already in excellent shape.” Sebastian comes back into the living room, holding out two cups of tea. He collapses onto the sofa, stretching out his long legs. “So, same time next week?”
Ari hesitates. It’s brief, but Luis has sharp eyes, and he peers at Ari carefully.
“What is it?” he asks.
“It’s nothing, well, not nothing . . .”
“Yes?” Sebastian presses her, sipping from his tea. He hands the other cup to Luis wordlessly.
“It’s just... I’m so grateful for everything you’re both doing for me... taking me in, giving me a job—”
“You’re my sister,” Sebastian protests. “I haven’t forgotten that you chose me over our parents, either. And to be fair, you’re amazing at your work. Don’t sell yourself short. You’re earning your keep.”
Ari nods. “Yes, but you gave me a place to live too, until I sorted myself out. And you were there when Reine was coming and—” She pauses, taking a deep breath. “I just... don’t want you both getting attached.”
“Attached?” Luis asks. “To our niece?”
“Yes,” she says awkwardly. “Tom is coming for me, you see, and I might have to leave and... Well, I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”
“Tom.” Sebastian’s voice is blank. “Of course. He’s coming for you. We keep forgetting.”
Ari swallows, shifting Reine in her arms. “Yes, Tom. He promised he would find me.”
Again, there’s silence. Ari shifts Reine once again, hoping the baby would start to cry, or gurgle, or do something — anything — to end this quiet.
A look of something like compassion crosses Luis’s face. “Of course he’s coming, Ari. But you don’t have to worry about us. Let us help you, just until he arrives. And then he can take over, and we’ll carry on being the best uncles in the world.”
* * *
But he never did come, and Luis did get attached.
Now, he was sitting by the broken-down car with Reine next to him. When Ari pulled up beside them, cutting the engine and stepping onto the verge, she heard Luis’s voice speaking to her daughter clearly.
“ Mira, princesa, tu mamá está aquí ,” he was saying, but Ari had already scooped Reine into her arms.
“Hello, Mummy,” Reine said as Ari held her tight. “I’m hungry.”
Ari laughed. “You always are.” She kissed Reine’s dark honey hair as she placed her down. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Just hungry.”
Ari turned to Luis, who hugged her warmly. “Are you okay?” he asked, but she shook her head.
“No. No, not really.”
A look of concern crossed Luis’s handsome face, and he frowned. “What’s up?”
Ari chewed on her lip. She looked down at her daughter, running a hand down her cheek.
“There are some biscuits in my bag in the car,” she told her. “Go and find them and have a few, okay?”
Reine nodded, eagerly moving towards the car, and once she was at a distance Ari turned back to Luis.
“It’s Tom.” She watched as Luis’s forehead creased.
“Tom?” he asked. “What about him?”
Ari chewed on her lip again.
“Ari?” Luis reached for her hand. “What about Tom?”
“It’s just . . . I think I’ve found him.”
Luis blanched, his face falling. He looked behind Ari to the car, where Reine was happily munching on her snack.
“Seriously? You found him?”
Ari nodded mutely.
Luis took a deep breath. “He was supposed to find you though.”
“Yes,” Ari agreed. “Yes, he was.”
“But you found him instead?”
“Yes.”
Luis stood for a moment, regarding Ari with concern. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”
Ari nodded, bitterness flooding through her. “Yes, there’s something else.”
“What is it?”
“He’s getting married,” Ari said miserably, before taking a deep breath, “and I’m the one planning his wedding.”
* * *
They found a diner fifteen minutes away, where Luis and Reine ordered a late brunch.
“The man said there are waffles here,” Reine announced, “and they serve all kinds of sauces too. Chocolate, syrup...” Her little face frowned. “There was something else too, but I can’t remember.”
“What man?” Ari asked, but Luis gave a dismissive shrug.
“Some guy stopped to help us earlier. Let me use his phone to call Sebastian. Turned out to be a creep though, and took off in a hurry,” Luis rolled his eyes. “I think he was, how do you say it in English?” He turned to Reine. “ Se le zafó el tornillo? ”
Reine grinned. “He went nuts, Tío.”
Luis grinned back. “Yeah. Crazy. Like he’d seen a ghost or something.”
Ari sighed. “Okay, well, at least you’re both all right. And you can have the waffles another time, Reine. Something sensible today, all right my lovely?”
Reine frowned, but Ari remained firm.
Her daughter would be healthy, loved and strong. Her child would have the best. Though, at this diner, the best turned out to be an omelette with a few vegetables on the side, which Reine picked at unhappily.
“ Haz feliz a tu mamá y cómetelo, mi sol, ” Luis cajoled her, before looking at Ari. “And you should eat too.”
But Ari shook her head. Her stomach protested at the thought of food. Sebastian had thrust a single piece of toast at her earlier, and watched like a hawk as she swallowed every last crumb, each mouthful heavy and dry. Ari couldn’t bear the thought of having to eat anything else. Instead, she drank a black coffee, the liquid sitting greasily inside her queasy belly.
Tom had always drunk his coffee black, Ari remembered suddenly. Tom who wasn’t Tom Miller at all, but a different Tom. Tom Somerset.
She tried the name out in her head, trying to equate her memories of Tom — with his brown hair and brown eyes and plush lips — with what she knew of this Tom Somerset. But she couldn’t do it. All she knew of Tom Somerset was that he was a pilot who crashed his plane and was engaged to his — how had Sasha described it? — ah yes, childhood sweetheart . Ari cringed. If Sasha had been his childhood sweetheart, then what did that make her? Ari swallowed hard. She knew what it made her. It made her the other woman. True, it was inadvertent and unintentional, but still, that’s what she was.
Her eyes drifted to Reine. She took in her daughter, beautiful and intelligent and healthy, and realised that being Tom’s other woman made her daughter his lovechild. His bastard, Ari thought with a knot of pain. She wondered if that was what Sasha would call her. She wondered if that was what Marnie would think of her. She wondered if Tom would use that word. Wondered if he would berate the existence of his daughter to placate his fiancée. Wondered if he would dismiss and denounce her to save his relationship with Sasha.
With a clatter, Ari’s cup dropped to the table, spilling black coffee in all directions.
“God damn it,” Ari cried, the words coming through a throat that was thick with unshed tears.
Luis eyed Ari sharply before turning to Reine.
“Reine , cari?o, ve a sentarte en esa mesa en la esquina y mira tu iPad mientras tu mamá y yo limpiamos este desastre. No tomará un minuto y estaremos aquí todo el tiempo .”
Reine looked at Ari, who was dabbing at her eyes with a cheap paper napkin. “Mummy, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, lovely girl. Just fine.” Ari shook her head, dabbing again at her tears. “I spilled my coffee is all.”
“Reine, sigue, ” Luis said. “ Te volveré a llamar en un momento. ”
He blew the child a kiss as she picked up her iPad and headed for the corner, turning back to Ari and looking at her keenly.
“I spilled my coffee, Luis,” she whispered helplessly, and he gave her an understanding smile.
“We can get you a new coffee, honey.”
“Yes. Yes, we can.” Ari cleared her throat and sat up taller. “I need to get it together,” she told Luis in a low voice. “For Reine’s sake.”
“Reine’s fine,” Luis replied. “She’s jetlagged and tired, but fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”
“I’m okay.”
Luis gestured to the table stained with coffee. “The furniture and I would beg to disagree.”
Ari gave a small smile. “Maybe I’m not fine. Maybe I’m not okay at all.”
Luis nodded, reaching over the table to take Ari’s hand.
“The coffee on your shirt—” she began to protest, but Luis shook his head.
“I can buy new shirts. In fact, I can design and make my own shirts, if I really wanted to. The shirt isn’t important. You and Reine are my priority right now.”
Ari nodded, squeezing Luis’s hand. “He lied to me, Luis,” she said, her voice small. “He lied to me.”
“Yeah. Of course he did. He’s an asshole.” Luis shrugged. “The fact that it’s taken seven years for you to figure that out is somewhat surprising though. You’re a smart girl, Ari.”
“Not where he’s concerned, I’m not. Where he’s concerned, I’m the world’s biggest fool.”
“Incorrect.” Luis sat back, sipping from his own drink. He kept a tight hold of Ari’s hand, rubbing his thumb on her palm. “He’s the world’s biggest fool, firstly for lying to you, and also for ever letting you go.”
“He used to say he was a fool for me.” Ari half-smiled, half-cried. “He had this playing card. The fool. He carried it everywhere.”
“Oh, Ari.”
“He told me he had a family emergency,” Ari said softly. “That’s what he told me. A family emergency. His father was sick. He had to leave me in... where was it? Germany? He wouldn’t give me an address. Just a phone number that led to nowhere. He kissed me, told me to get on with my life, and said that he would find me again.”
“Oh, honey,” Luis said with a sigh. “He really did a number on you, didn’t he?”
“I loved him. I really did. And I so wanted to believe him. I so wanted to believe that he wouldn’t do what he did to me, or to Reine.” She swallowed hard. “But he did.”
“Does he know about Reine?” Luis asked, glancing at the little girl over Ari’s shoulder.
“By now? I should imagine so. His mother is—” Ari paused. “Something else.”
“Okay,” Luis replied, nodding. He looked as though he was thinking, tapping the fingers of his free hand in a puddle of black coffee. “Okay, so they know.”
“It’s pathetic, really,” Ari mumbled, shaking her head. “I so wanted to be the one to tell him about her. When I was pregnant, I used to imagine him finding me. I would let him stroke my belly and would imagine his eyes lighting up at the thought of a family.” She gave a bitter laugh. “He always inferred that he didn’t have one, like me. But not only does he have a family, and a fiancée ,” momentarily, she let the word hang unhappily in the air, “but it turns out they own half of fucking Connecticut too.”
Luis stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“Tom?” Ari gave a huff. “His name isn’t Miller at all. He’s some guy named Tom Somerset. He flies planes and his mother is—”
“ Marnie Somerset ,” Luis finished for her, his mouth dropping open. “She’s old money, Ari. One of her relatives was a first-class passenger on the Titanic. The family knew the Rockefellers. Her mother’s family were practically French royalty at one point. Holy shit, Ari.”
“You’ve heard of them too?” Ari shook her head again at her own unworldliness. “Sebastian informs me that I’ve hit the sperm jackpot,” she added wryly.
Luis looked once again at Reine. “You gave birth to Marnie Somerset’s grandchild?” He gave a long exhale. “That’s unbelievable.”
Ari nodded. “Sebastian told me.” She gave another bitter laugh, reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out a faded playing card. It was creased and lacklustre — finger-worn from where she had rubbed at it. Sighing, she passed it to Luis. “Tom gave me this. A treasure from France.”
“The queen of spades,” Luis muttered, turning the card over in his hand. “I’ve seen this in your hands more times than I count.”
“I like to hold it sometimes,” Ari admitted. “When everything becomes too much, or I’m missing him, or wanting him, or needing to remind myself that he was real, that we were real,” she clenched her hand, “when I wanted to think that Reine came from a place of love, and not from some shitty place of abandonment.”
Luis looked stung. “She isn’t from a shitty place of abandonment. I love her. Sebastian loves her. You love her.”
“Yes, I know. But he was supposed to find me. He was supposed to come for me. He told me we were forever.”
“Reine has only ever known love,” Luis said softly. “She doesn’t need her asshole father.”
Ari looked at him sadly. “I know. But I loved him, and I believed him when he said he loved me too. I believed him when he said we were forever. And I believed him when he said he would come for me. But it was all lies.”
“Ari, honey—”
“Lies,” she said again, plucking the queen of spades from Luis’s hand. “Lies that I believed, and all paid for with a cheap magician’s playing card.”
Before she could think twice, Ari viciously tore the queen in two, the rosebud lips on the regal face turning into an eternal scream as the card ripped in half. She crumpled the pieces in her hand before tossing them onto the table. Momentarily, regret rippled through her. She’d had that card for so long. Had loved it for so many years.
“Ari,” Luis exhaled. “Oh, Ari.”
But Ari shook her head, sitting taller and straightening her shirt. “He never loved me, he lied to me and he used me. That’s the truth. A truth I think I’ve known for a long time,” she paused, looking at Luis sadly, “I just didn’t want to believe it. But it doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t matter at all.”
“What are you going to do?” Luis asked her. He glanced once again at Reine. “I mean, if this Tom Somerset guy really is Tom Miller, and you never know, he might not be—”
“He is,” Ari replied. “I feel it.”
“Okay, so, say he is, and say he knows he’s Reine’s...” Luis trailed off. “Well, if he knows about her, is he really just going to sit back and do nothing?”
“I don’t care about him,” Ari lied, “or what he wants. Reine is mine.”
Relief fluttered across Luis’s face, and once again Ari was forced to acknowledge the bond he had with her child. Luis had always been fiercely protective of Reine, loving her intensely. From the moment she’d been born, he’d looked out for her, helped to raise her and taken on a far greater role in her life than Ari had ever intended. Whenever she and Sebastian were out on the wedding circuit — a frequent occurrence — Luis stepped in to care for Reine. He’d designed wedding gowns with her by his side, he’d taken her to fashion weeks across the world, first in baby carriers, then strollers, and finally with the child walking beside him and holding tight to his hand.
“She’s my little sunshine, and my protégée,” he’d once said in an interview, and Ari had felt a knot of worry at their closeness. What if Tom comes? she would ask herself. What if he comes to take them away and she has to leave Luis and Sebastian behind?
Not that it mattered now. Not now that Tom Miller’s — no, Tom Somerset, his name is Tom Somerset , Ari reminded herself — true colours had been revealed.
“He’s marrying Sasha,” Ari said, suddenly feeling overwhelmed and tired. “ Miss Teen Rhode Island ,” she added bitterly. “He won’t want a child hanging over that. He won’t want me around.”
“So, what will you do?” Luis asked again.
Ari chewed on her lip.
“Nothing,” she decided. “Carry on as normal. I’m going to bet that Tom... Tom won’t want anything getting in the way of his nuptials with Sasha. He won’t want Sasha finding out about his past infidelity. So, I’m going to return to that house and act as though everything is completely fine. I’ll plan his fucking wedding,” she added viciously, “and I’ll do an amazing fucking job of it too.”
Luis glanced at her in surprise. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I just need to get this job done so we can get the hell out of here,” Ari replied. “And then I can get on with the rest of my life. One that I won’t spend waiting for someone who’s not coming. One that I won’t spend wondering about him.”
Luis nodded. “Right. So, I’ll get there and design the dress? Is that still part of the plan?”
“Sasha wants a De León dress.”
“Yeah, I know she wants,” Luis replied, “but I’m asking you, honey. And if you say right now that you don’t want me donning that woman in tulle and satin, I’ll get on the first flight back to London.”
Ari smiled at him. “You’re a good friend.”
“Truth be told, I don’t want Reine around this guy or his family,” Luis admitted.
“Neither do I. But I have a feeling if we turn up now without Reine, Tom’s mother... I mean, Reine’s grandmother... will be all over it. Sebastian had a bad feeling about a conversation he had with her yesterday. I don’t think she’ll rest until she’s seen Reine for herself.”
Luis nodded. “So, your creepy lying asshole ex was raised by an overbearing and obsessive mother? Wow, he just gets better and better. When we get back and you start dating again, remind me to vet all your boyfriends.”
Ari shook her head. “I’m not dating again. I’m done with that.”
“Ari—”
“No, Luis,” she said, her voice serious. “I’m done with it. I can’t go through all this again.”
“Not all men are lying assholes, you know.”
“Maybe not. Just the ones I fall in love with, hey?”
“He must have been honest with you about something,” Luis suggested. “I mean, six months of solid lies must have been exhausting for him, and all just to what? Keep having sex with you? I mean, I’m sure you’re a great lay, Ari, but there must have been more to it than that.”
“I really don’t care.”
“I think you do,” Luis said gently, “but I’m not going to press you on it.”
Ari sat back, turning once again to look at Reine. “What should I tell her?”
Luis took a deep breath. “Nothing. She’s going to meet some guy called Tom Somerset. Someone who’ll be desperately trying to cover his tracks, so his fiancée doesn’t find out that he cheated on her years ago. She doesn’t need to know anything.”
Ari nodded. “I need to get into my work head,” she said, slumping slightly into the plastic covered fabric of the booth. “Even while going through a crisis, I’m still mentally ticking off my to-do list. De León dress, woodland wedding, Stella photographs—”
“Stella?” Luis asked. “Holy shit, this is a Stella wedding too? Did you get her biscuits?”
“Not yet,” Ari replied, worrying her lip between her teeth. “It’s on my to-do list.”
“I’ll order them in. Don’t worry about it.”
Ari nodded, but she didn’t feel any better. Her stomach still hurt, and she felt jittery again, full of nerves.
“Ready to head back?” Luis asked gently. “Ready to... uh, hacer la vista gorda ?”
He was looking at her intently, and Ari felt a tremor of fear run through her. She was going to see Tom again. She was going to see him. She was going to introduce him to their child.
“No,” she whispered. “I’ll never be ready for that.”
“I’ll be there,” Luis promised. “Now, come on. Let’s get the bill, get Reine and get back. I’ve got a bride to design a dress for.”
Before they hopped in the car, Ari turned to squeeze Reine’s hand lightly, checking once again that her child was well and healthy. When she turned back, she noticed Luis squinting at something.
“What is it?”
“Look at this sign,” Luis said, gesturing to a photograph stuck on the wall outside of the diner. “It says, In loving memory of Douglas Somerset, who loved this diner and all the pie within it. ”
Ari stared at the photograph. It was of a man, grey-haired but handsome, sitting in the diner, a mouthful of pie on a spoon before his cheeky smile.
“Somerset,” Luis mused. “Do you think he was a relative?”
“Yes,” Ari whispered. Something about the shape of the man’s face was familiar, striking her oddly. She turned to Reine, taking in her daughter’s chin as if for the first time.
They were the same.
“Yes,” she said again. “I think so.”
Luis read the sign again. “He died just before Reine was born. You said he said his father was sick, right? That’s why he had to leave you in Germany?”
* * *
“My father is sick,” Ari hears Tom say, and he sounds dejected, defeated and terrified all at once. “My father is sick, and I have to go to him.”
She nods, because what else can she do? What else can she say?
“Of course,” she whispers. “Of course, you have to go.”
“Today,” Tom carries on, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “I need to leave today.”
“Yes.”
The heartbeat running through her body must echo through her voice, because Tom suddenly turns to her, gathering her fiercely in his arms.
“I’m coming back for you,” he tells her, his voice half-growl, half-promise. “I’m not letting go of you.”
“We never... we never said this was forever,” she utters, trying to be reasonable, trying not to feel bereft, trying not to feel abandoned all over again.
“I asked you to marry me,” Tom disagrees, pulling Ari even closer. “I meant it. We are forever, Ari. I’m coming back for you. I promise. I love you, Ari. And I’m coming back. I’m coming back for you. Magic, remember? That’s what we are. That’s what we’ll always be.”
* * *
“Yes,” the simple word a struggle as memory threatened to overwhelm Ari, “that was what he told me.”
“Well,” Luis shrugged. “Looks like Tom didn’t lie about one thing, then. Hmm. Maybe there are other things he didn’t lie about too?”
“Keep your voice down,” Ari hissed, looking at Reine. “And I told you, I don’t care now. I don’t care what he did or is going to do anymore.”
“Okay,” Luis said, his face thoughtful. “But I need to warn you... I get the feeling this isn’t going to go the way you think it is. I get the feeling there might be more to all this than you know.”
“Maybe,” Ari replied, her voice harsh. “But I don’t care enough to find out. Come on,” she added, “get in the car. You’ve got a bride to dress, and I have an ex-lover to ignore.”
“Ari—”
“Luis,” she said again, and now her voice was firm. “I don’t care about him anymore. And after this week . . . I never want to see him again.”