Chapter 4
4
ZARA
I toss the phone in the chair I was sitting in before turning back and grabbing the glass from Gabriella and taking a sip. “I need a shower,” I admit to the room, then look over at Zoey, who nods, “and some clothes.”
“I’ll get you something,” Zoey says, grabbing my hand. “Are you hungry?”
“I’ll order some food,” Ryleigh offers, pulling up her phone.
“I will…” Sofia looks at me. “I don’t know what I’m going to do because I’m literally in shock.” She takes a sip of the glass being passed around.
“I’m going to say something that I don’t know if any of you know,” Gabriella starts, “and I swear if anyone looks at me differently, I will cut a bitch.”
We stand here. “I know,” Ryleigh says, “and you can’t compare.”
“Romeo cheated on me,” she confesses, and my eyes go wide. “Not like Daniel cheating on you. He kissed a girl. Daniel had a girl naked on him,” Ryleigh adds, “but Romeo definitely didn’t do that.” She points at the phone. “And I forgave him.” She smiles. “I love him with everything I have.”
“He kissed another girl,” I tell her. “This guy was balls deep in someone else, in my bed.” I try to make her not feel bad. “AND has been for the past three years.”
“I know,” Gabriella says, “but it’s okay if you forgive him.” She tries to be kind. “No one is going to judge you.”
“I will.” Zoey holds up a hand. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t a kiss. This is an affair. He had an affair, and he might even, perhaps, have children.” Her eyebrows go up. “Plural.”
“I know,” Gabriella concedes, “I was just saying that it’s okay if she wants to forgive him.”
“Thank you for telling me.” I walk to her and give her a hug. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
“I will say,” Gabriella goes on, “I am sorry, but I would have not forgiven all of that.” She lets me go. “A onetime thing is one thing, but that was…” She shakes her head. “That was insane… three years.”
“Why don’t we get her in the shower,” Nash suggests, “and then you can have all the heart-to-heart talk.”
“I’m going to have to tell my mother,” I finally say, “and then my father.”
“I’m going to have to restrain Matty,” Sofia adds, making us all laugh. “He already thought, and I quote, ‘The guy is a tool.’”
I snort. “What is it with the men and that saying?”
“I have no idea,” Zoey replies, and I follow her into her bathroom. “Are you going to be okay in here?”
“Are you asking me if I’m going to sob in your shower?” I ask, peeling my shirt off. “The answer might be yes. But I think I’ll be okay.”
“Do you want me to stay with you?” She sits on the toilet, and I know she wants to stay with me to make sure I’m okay, so I nod.
“Three years,” I mumble, getting into the shower until the water rains over my face. “Three fucking years.”
“That’s crazy,” she says to me. I don’t cry in the shower, which is surprising, and when I slip into a pair of pj’s, I feel a bit more human than I did thirty minutes ago.
We walk back to the living room, where the girls have now made themselves at home. “We have pizza, sushi, cookies, some Bundt cakes, and tequila.” Ryleigh holds up the bottle in her hand from her side of the couch.
“Where is Nash?” Zoey looks around for him.
“He said that he’s going to give you space, and if you need him, he’s in the office,” Sofia informs us. “And he said, under no circumstances are we to leave here to go and hurt him.” I walk over to the couch and slide into the corner, sitting with my knees to my chest. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty much numb.” I look over at Gabriella. “How did you feel?”
“I went back to my place, packed up my shit, and left without saying a word to him.” I gasp. “He had no idea I was even there until he called me the next day.”
“What a douchebag,” Ryleigh snaps, making us all laugh. “Like, he’s my brother, but what a douchebag.”
“I forgave him,” Gabriella reminds us. “He hurt me like I’ve never been hurt before. But I also know I will never love anyone the way I love him. He’s the only one I want to share my life with. I also know he would die before he ever hurt me like that again. He makes up for that one mistake every single day and shows me I’m his world.” She smiles and then shrugs. “I’m just saying, we can never tell another soul, and you could work through it.”
“I don’t think I can,” I tell her. “Three fucking years. Why even start dating me if they were doing their thing? Like, what was the point?”
“Maybe he really, really liked you,” Zoey puts out there and then holds up her hands when I glare at her. “I know, I know, I hate him, but I mean, this doesn’t fall on you.”
“Like, did I not give him enough sex?” I ask the room.
“We have sex every single day,” Gabriella gloats.
“Stab me in the eye with that chopstick,” Ryleigh snarks, “but also twice a day.”
“After you stab yourself in the eyeball,” Zoey says, “put it right here.” She points at her own eye.
“We have sex all the time,” Sofia shares. “It’s not natural, and I blame it on him being an athlete with that stamina.”
“I already threw up today.” I hold up my hand. “Can we not go for another round?”
“From what he said, it didn’t matter if you gave it to him five times a day. He was always going to fuck her for ‘a release.’” Zoey picks up her hands, making air quotes. “Whatever the fuck that means. What it does mean is it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with him.”
“It’s a him problem and not a you problem,” Ryleigh adds, chewing a piece of sushi.
“Okay,” Sofia says from beside me, “I hate to be that person who thinks rationally at a time like this, but what are we going to tell everyone?” She smiles at me sadly.
“I guess we can just say we’ve decided we don’t want to get married,” I suggest, and Gabriella and Zoey laugh.
“That’s not going to fly with anyone,” Zoey states, sitting on the floor near the coffee table and grabbing a piece of sushi. “They’ll need more than that.”
“We don’t have to say anything to anyone right now,” Sofia offers. “We can wait until after Christmas.”
“Like that’s not going to be a red flag when she shows up without him,” Gabriella points out.
“You could say you are going to Daniel’s side of the family,” Gabriella adds. “It’s not like he’s going to reach out to anyone. The man is probably going to sleep with one eye open, wondering which one of us is going to come for him.” I can’t help but snort.
“Oh, God.” I rub my hands over my face. “I gave them twenty-four hours before I told Sarah’s husband.”
“You’re a good woman,” Ryleigh compliments. “I would have already had it on a billboard in Times Square.”
“I would have gone from my house to her house and spilled all the beans,” Sofia admits. “Where is your wife? I’ll tell you where she is, she’s fucking my fiancé at my house.”
“What a clusterfuck. Those poor kids,” Gabriella says. “Imagine thinking that’s your dad but then finding out it’s not.”
“That’s what you get when your mother is a ho,” Zoey quips.
“I need to get tested to make sure I don’t have something,” I finally say. “I mean, he still wore condoms even though I was on the pill, but you never know.”
“He used double protection with you and no protection with his mistress?” Sofia shakes her head. “The guy is a fucking moron.”
“So tomorrow you go to the house and get some things.” Gabriella asks me, “Then what?”
I sit up straight now. “Fuck, I have no idea. I didn’t even think about that.” My heart hammers in my chest. “Where the fuck am I going to stay?”
“You can stay here,” Zoey quickly pipes up. “We leave in two days, so after that, it can be all yours.”
I lay my head to the side. “I feel like I need to get the fuck out of the city.”
“You can come to LA with us,” Zoey invites just as fast.
“Or you can come to Dallas with me,” Gabriella offers.
“Our door is always open,” Ryleigh says, and I smile at them all.
“Thank you so much, but I feel like I need to, I don’t know, be by myself,” I admit to them. “To maybe work all this shit out in my head.”
“It’s a lot to work out,” Sofia says, smiling at me, “but I do think it’s good for you to get out of New York for a bit.”
“I agree,” Zoey adds. “The last thing you want to do is stay here and run into them.”
“Can you imagine?” I snort. “That would be something.”
“You can go to my house back home,” Sofia suggests, and I look over at her. “I can guarantee you that no one will bother you there.” She smiles. “But it’s the perfect oasis away from home.”
“It really is,” Gabriella agrees. “We stayed there two months ago. The pictures I got were insane.”
“I think you should go there,” Zoey says. “You can be by yourself and not have anyone hovering over you like you would if you were to stay with one of us.”
“We wouldn’t all hover,” Ryleigh retorts, “but yeah.”
“I need to make a plan.” I sit up. “Step one, get my shit from the house.”
“We’ll all come with you tomorrow,” Sofia states, “to make sure, you know, no one goes to jail.” We laugh.
“Step two is to get tested,” I say, holding up my finger.
“I can get you an appointment with a nurse tomorrow,” Zoey mentions. “Next?”
“Figure out where the fuck I’m going to stay,” I finally say, and they all look at me, not pushing anything else. I fall asleep on the couch to them talking about I don’t even know what, and when I open my eyes in the morning, I find Sofia lying on the couch in front of me.
I don’t know how long I lie on the couch, looking out the window at the sun peeking out. The past twenty-four hours play over in my head, from standing in the middle of the bridal store wearing my dress to having the rug pulled out from under me.
A lone tear escapes the corner of my eye as I keep looking out the window. I don’t know how much later it is when Sofia stirs from her side of the couch. “Morning,” she greets when she looks over at me. “How are you doing?”
“Feeling like I got kicked in the vagina, and not in a good way,” I deadpan, and she snorts. “Did the girls all stay over?”
“Yeah,” Sofia says, “I lost the rock, paper, scissors.” She tosses the throw blanket off herself. “I’m going to go make coffee.”
“I’ll come with you.” I toss my own throw blanket off me and follow her into the kitchen. “I’ll get the milk,” I tell her, walking to the fridge. The two of us are trying to be quiet so we don’t wake everyone else.
She makes me a coffee, and both of us sit at the island drinking it, neither of us saying anything. “Does your house have Wi-Fi?” I ask her, and she looks over at me.
“It does,” she confirms, and I just nod.
“I would feel weird going to your house and not telling my parents at least,” I say. “If they found out, it would kill me if they thought I lied to them.”
“Then you tell them,” Sofia urges, “and then tell them you need time away.”
I snort. “Have you met my family?” She chuckles.
“I have, and I know that no matter what you want, they will do it. It might kill them or at least kill your father not to go and beat the shit out of Daniel.” I smirk. “Even though he’s a calm man. That being said, he will respect whatever it is you tell them.” She takes a sip of her coffee. “Now Matthew, that’s another story.” I roll my eyes. “He’s very much like my grandfather, which means he’s going to respect my privacy, but then, at the same time, he’s going to make sure he does what he needs to do in order to ruin the other person. Without getting his hands dirty.”
“I’m going to call my mother, then,” I tell her, pushing away from the island to get my phone, and returning to the kitchen. “Here we go.”
“You got this.” She holds my hand as I dial my mother. I’m holding my breath the whole time, knowing this will make it so much more official than it was yesterday. I mean, there was no fucking way I was going to go back to him, but this is going to be official-official.
I’m about to hang up when I hear my mother’s voice fill the phone. “Good morning, baby girl,” she greets me, and I blink the tears away. “How are you doing?”
I look over at Sofia. “I’m okay, Mom,” I lie just a bit. “Well, not really okay, but—” I take a deep breath and close my eyes. “I’m calling to tell you the wedding is off.”