Chapter 29
Farewell, Morocco! – Kayla
A fter closing the door, I rest my back against it, and I feel on top of the world.
I just kissed Jack Shelley. Again.
“Did you get your list together?” Gwen asks after approaching me.
“What?” I have no idea what she’s talking about.
“Your list.” She gestures behind me. “For Jack.”
“Oh.” Clearly, he told her a lie to get me out into the hallway with him. “Right.”
She crosses her arms. “So, what is he going to make for us on the way to Greece?”
“Um…” For the life of me, I can’t think of one recipe. “It’s a surprise.”
“Oh. That’s weird.”
I shrug. “Who knows with Jack, right?”
She clicks her tongue before brushing her tongue with her finger. “I guess. Speaking of which—”
The door moves, and I see Harper come in.
“Harper!” Gwen squeals before hugging her. “How’d things go with Jack?”
As usual, she’s devastatingly gorgeous with her dark hair cascading down her backless, red dress.
But hearing Gwen say his name makes my stomach hurt.
Harper scoffs. “Terrible.”
Gwen similarly groans. “Well, Kayla and I were just talking about how weird he can be sometimes.”
“That’s not what I said,” I clarify.
However, they both seem to brush me off as they continue talking, and as much as I want to know everything Harper has to say about her ex, they soon walk too far away for me to hear.
“Kayla! Where’d you go?” Callie suddenly emerges with two small cups in her hands. “We’re doing shots.”
I put my hand up. “No thanks. I mean, we have to be up early tomorrow.”
“Ok.” Her big brown eyes pout up at me.
“Fine. One!”
She smiles. “Yay! Cheers!”
We click them together before downing them, the liquor burning my throat with each centimeter it travels down.
After that, she pulls me back out into the courtyard, and we dance some more. The song playing has a heavy bass.
Within a few moments, she stops flailing around. “Wait for it!”
“For what?” I yell.
“The drop! It’s about to—”
The tempo picks up even more, and everyone around us starts jumping up and down like crazy.
Later, I feel like some water would do me some good. So, I go into the bathroom and fill up a small glass.
I was too thirsty to realize I wasn’t alone at first, but the rustling coming from behind the curtain is a pretty dead giveaway.
I know it’s none of my business who is back there, but I’m still curious.
After tip toeing closer, I pull it back a little and see that it’s two crew members I don’t know that well.
Huh. Besides Jack and me, the only people I’d seen people associated with The Marina that I’d seen messing around with were outsiders.
“Kayla!” I soon hear Callie yelling for me, so I sneak away again and leave them to do their thing.
When I meet up with her again, I explain I just needed a water break.
“Break’s over. Let’s go.”
Eventually, a slower song starts playing, and she and I sway to it just like all of the couples around us.
I want to tell her so bad about what happened with Jack that I feel like I might burst.
“He kissed me,” I whisper in her ear.
“I was going to ask you how your little cactus date went.” She might be tipsy, but she remembered that.
“No, not then. Just now. Well, before. Out in the hallway.”
She stops and lightly hits my arm. “Is that where you disappeared to?”
I nod. “He wanted to make sure that I knew he didn’t want me hooking up with anyone tonight.”
“Oooh. So, does that mean you two are official?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t not mean that, right?”
“Right.” Then her face twists up. “I think.”
We both laugh.
However, the entire mood of the party changes when Jenkins walks through the door.
“He fired me!” he yells, clearly intoxicated.
The music cuts out, and Denver approaches him. “Who? Jack?”
“Yes.”
Callie’s eyes meet mine.
“I have no idea,” I mouth. It is the first I’m hearing about this.
“What happened?”
A small crowd has gathered around him by this point.
“He caught me cheating.”
I grab at my heart.
“Jenkins, no!”
He sniffles. “I know. It was stupid. But it just happened.”
“Who—who was she?” Denver asks the question we’re all wondering.
“Just some girl. I met her at the club last night.”
I don’t want to miss much, but it’s obvious that he, too, could use some hydration. So, I go back into the bathroom and get him some water.
“Thank you,” he says after I offer it to him.
“So, Jack just fired you? Then and there?” Callie inquires.
Jenkins nods. “Pretty much. He said after this trip, I’m done.”
He wasn’t kidding when he said he hates cheaters.
Denver puts his hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, man.”
After that, Jenkins just stares aimlessly. “In one day, I managed to ruin my entire life. I’m sure my wife is going to leave me, and I have no job…” He reduces into hysterics after that.
“Maybe Jack will change his mind,” someone else offers up.
Yeah right. I understand that I don’t know the man super well, but I know he sticks to his word.
“No. I’m finished.”
“There will be other jobs,” another voice in the crowd adds.
“Oh, yeah. Because there are so many billionaires who have to travel everywhere via yacht because they’re afraid of flying.”
What?
“What did you just say?” I ask for clarification.
“Oh, yeah. He’s right,” Harper says while swirling ice around in her glass. “Jack is absolutely petrified of planes. Why else would he expend the time and resources to yacht everywhere?”
I guess I just never questioned it.
But before I can ask more, Jenkins starts blubbering on again about how his life is over. A part of me does feel sorry for him, but, at the end of the day, he chose to cheat. Nobody forced him.
Just like you cheated on Jack, I think while looking up at her. How anyone in their right mind could throw away a future with a man like him was beyond me. And I’m not just thinking about his money. There’s so much more to him than that. He’s funny, gorgeous, intelligent, and caring.
I once again picture him in some Kenyan village with kids piling on top of him.
However, before I can continue daydreaming, I suddenly see Harper reach for her phone in the little clutch purse hanging from her other wrist, and when she looks at the screen, she smiles before sliding it back in, biting her lip, and looking around devilishly.
I then watch as she sneaks away and leaves out the door.
What are you up to?