Chapter 15
Fifteen
D espite her dark sunglasses, the sun beamed directly into Tori’s retinas while she sat in grid-locked traffic. Lack of sleep and two bottles of champagne had left her with a dull headache and roiling stomach.
All but parked on the bridge connecting the mainland to Key Biscayne, Tori drifted into her memories, back to the night before. To drinking too much, laughing too hard, and being the last ones to leave the restaurant.
She couldn’t remember a single thing they’d said, but Tori’s chest was still buzzing with the lingering thrill. It sounded so stupid to compare Mia’s proximity to a drug, but she didn’t know how else to describe it. Couldn’t think of any other substances that were addictive and destructive but felt so good the risks burned away unheeded.
Inching forward, Tori bit back the ridiculous smile that kept trying to sputter to life on her face. Her skin was still a live wire everywhere Mia had casually touched her. Her hands, her arms, her legs, her shoulders. She wanted to close her eyes and indulge in the memory, but traffic crawled again.
God, she was so pathetic. And because the universe wanted to remind her just how much of a simp for Mia she was cursed to be, her phone rang. The sight of Mia’s name on her Jeep’s display resurrected the ridiculous smile.
“You’re the only person under seventy who just calls people, you know,” Tori said instead of hello.
“Yeah, yeah. Our generation is supposed to be terrified of the phone. How boring. I say let’s fear fascism and people who use speakerphone in public.”
Tori laughed, the pain in her head easing. “What?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been up since sunrise enclosed in the bathroom with bottles of Fabuloso and Comet ?—”
The thought of Mia having created a chemical bomb made Tori’s heart lurch. “Are you kidding? That’s toxic as hell! Open a window?—”
Mia’s chuckle stopped Tori’s worry spiral. “Are you fucking with me?”
“Or bringing you cheer. Where the hell are you? Your location has been on the bridge for like?—”
“Since when am I sharing my location with you?” Tori wanted to pick up her phone and check whether Mia was full of shit, but traffic was moving just enough that she didn’t risk sparing a glance.
“Umm, since you went to the bathroom last night and I shared it with myself. I shared mine too, so don’t be a weirdo about it,” she replied like she was already bored with the topic. “Don’t you want to know where I am? If I get kidnapped by aliens? Case in point, are you being held captive by rogue merfolk?”
“Merfolk?” Tori’s laugh was high pitched from surprise. “Are you okay? What other incredibly hazardous chemicals have you ingested?”
“I don’t know about hazardous. How much caffeine is in an entire cafetera of espresso?”
“Good Lord,” Tori breathed. “You should be studied in a lab.”
“I’m very impressive,” Mia joked. “Are you going to tell me where the hell you’re going?”
Tori had never felt more awake in her life. Her quads twitched as if primed to run across the bridge. She could sprint a marathon and still be ready for more.
“I never consented to electronic surveillance,” she said, hands gripping the steering wheel and gaze darting to the rearview. “How did you even know my passcode?”
“ Electronic surveillance ,” Mia scoffed. “You’re so dramatic.” She chuckled. “Overbearing and suffocating is how we show love. Don’t be culturally insensitive to my people. And it’s not my fault you haven’t picked a new code in all these years.”
Tori’s untamable smile was going to be murder on her TMJ. She laughed. “Did you learn something from a DNA kit you haven’t told me? Otherwise, we come from the same Cuban people, Maria .”
“Oh my God, Victoria ! Why won’t you answer this question? Do you moonlight as a mob boss? A confidential informant? What kind of real estate agent acts like they’re in witness protection?”
Tori’s chest unlocked. Her sternum cracked open, her lungs unfurling for the deepest breath she’d ever taken. She’d missed Mia for fourteen years and now she was somehow back and it was like they’d never missed a beat. Never been apart.
“I’m pretty sure I told you last night?—”
“I was fabulously drunk,” Mia interrupted. “Remind me.”
Stomach soaring, Tori switched lanes. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to compare my statements for accuracy?”
“Confidential informant. Final answer.”
Tori laughed before putting Mia out of her misery. “I’m touring a medical plaza in Key Biscayne.”
“Why?”
The sound of running water followed Mia’s question. Tori imagined her standing at the kitchen sink. Knew exactly what she looked like leaning forward, a light flush on her cheeks and the hair that had escaped her bun dropping over her face.
“Because it’s my job?” Tori raised her brows as if Mia were in the car with her.
“Are you buying or selling it?”
Tori laughed. “Why?”
“I want to learn about your job. Jesus. Is that really so suspicious?” Mia shut the water off. “Will you have time to pick up something to wear to Daniela’s wedding this weekend?”
“I’m sorry. Were those two statements connected?”
“We talked about it last night. How you weren’t going to make me go to the wedding all by myself.” Mia lied so obviously, Tori couldn’t help but laugh.
“Pretty sure I would have remembered that if it happened.” Tori saw a gap between two cars just wide enough to wedge between with only minimal honking in response.
“Oh, come on. Don’t make me go alone.” Mia seamlessly switched to begging.
“You won’t be alone.” Tori stated what they both knew. “You’ve stayed friends with these people all this time?—”
“Yeah, but they’re not you,” Mia replied like that was an explanation in itself. “And I’m going to be the only one without a date.”
“Oh, it’s a date now?” Tori’s heart fluttered up to her throat, but she swallowed it back down. Tori knew Mia wasn’t using the term seriously, but her heart was a slow learner. “I don’t think I’ll have time to take my tux to the cleaners.”
“You own a tuxedo?” Mia gasped. “Shut up. Are you serious?” she added with a burst of excitement.
“I do,” Tori responded without adding that she’d only worn it once when she was in a friend’s wedding party years earlier.
“Fuck, that’s hot,” Mia murmured before barreling into her next thought. “Alright, well. Now you don’t have any excuse not to take me. I’m getting my hair?—”
“I don’t need an excuse, Mia.” Tori grinned with her bottom lip between her teeth before she cleared her throat. “I’m a grown ass woman. I can just say I don’t want to go.”
“And when I’m back in Philadelphia and you miss me soooo much, you’re going to remember this moment and wished you’d agreed to go with me to a little wedding?—”
“Oh, Daniela is having a little wedding ?” Tori shook her head without commenting on Mia’s abuela-level guilting skills. “The girl who celebrated turning fifteen by throwing her own concert full of C-List pop stars? Yes, I do remember her being famously low-key.”
“Yup. Just a laid back, beachside wedding.” Mia played along, voice detached and feigning disinterest. “That just happens to be held at a nothing-special, five-star Bal Harbor hotel.”
“Nothing special. Got it.” Tori caught a glimpse of her own forehead in the rearview and decided to ignore how red she was.
“So, you’ll come with me?” Mia’s tone was bare and earnest. “After you’re finished buying and or selling a medical plaza?”
The soft contours of Mia’s voice sent Tori’s stomach into free-fall. With every climb further up the mountain of a bad idea, she was setting herself up for a greater fall. She should say no, but she couldn’t even pretend to consider it. Maybe she was already too high up for another step to matter. If she was plummeting anyway—if she’d hit terminal velocity—what was the point of denying herself what she wanted?
“Maybe,” Tori said, knowing she was hooked.
“I already put your name on our gift,” Mia said, her smile audible. “We got them a badass set of steak knives.”
“What if I had said no?” Tori challenged.
“Then you’d seem very generous.” Mia laughed. “Getting people a gift without so much as a sliver of chicken cordon bleu in exchange. Pick me up at six on Saturday?”
Tori sighed then chuckled. “You’re the worst.”
“You love me.”
Fuck if I don’t already know that.