Chapter 48
Note to self:
Make sure the next hotel I stay at is “pest” free.
“Oh, Karen, you didn’t.” But I was staring at the evidence. She totally did.
The open shoebox held one and a half perfectly intact cream-colored wedge sandals. And also, one half of a chewed up cream-colored wedge sandal.
“I found the box sort of wedged under the backseat. I don’t know how she did it.” Theo sounded almost impressed.
“Hate. She was fueled by pure hate for me.” I held up the mangled shoe. It was still soggy. Gross. “Why does she hate me?”
“She doesn’t hate you.” He rubbed my back.
“Right.” I dangled the poor damaged shoe by a finger. “Melanie is going to lose her mind.”
“Over a shoe?”
I laughed a little too loud. “Did you not hear her earlier? She’s been planning this wedding for a year. She has a vision. Any time something doesn’t match up to the vision, it’s a nightmare. Did you know she had a dream about her wedding colors?”
He shook his head.
“Oh, yeah. One morning, a couple of weeks after they got engaged, she sent a group text to all of us in which she described the color pink she saw in her dream as ‘pink but not too pink with a bit of orange but not too much orange and a hint of purple.’ That color does not exist.”
“It is her wedding,” Theo said.
“I swear if I ever get married, I want something simple. Like in the summer, maybe June before it gets too hot, in front of the Legacy Tree on a random Thursday afternoon with just family and a few friends.” I began to picture this scene in my head. It would be small and romantic and perfect. “I don’t even think I want a traditional wedding dress. Something white but simple, knee-length, and a few flowers in my hair. Afterward, we’ll go to the Sit-n-Eat and have a big celebration.”
“If you get married?”
“Someone has to ask me first.” I patted him on the chest.
Theo peered at me, one of those small, secret smiles curving his mouth. For a moment, I got lost in his eyes and reached for him. Until I almost clocked him with the shoe in my hand.
“I’m going to have to see if I can track down another pair in my size.” I stuffed the shoe back inside and put the lid on. “We aren’t going to tell Melanie about this. It will only upset her.”
Theo took the box and wedged it under the backseat. “What shoes? I don’t know about any shoes.”
“I knew I liked you.” I shifted a little closer and walked two of my fingers up his chest.
“Really, really, really liked me?”
“I’d even go so far as to say really, really, really, really.”
A hand landed on my hip and encouraged me to come closer. “I feel like I have to prove I’m worth that extra really.”
My hands slid around his neck. “I think it’s only fair.”
And Theo, who never let me down, went ahead and did that.
Melanie, super-organized wedding diva, blocked two entire floors at a hotel close by for out-of-town wedding guests. In my room, I found a gift basket with water bottles, chocolate, microwave popcorn, hand sanitizer, maps to restaurants close by, local sightseeing opportunities, important phone numbers, and an itinerary of events over the next few days.
I flipped through the schedule, wincing at how every minute seemed to have something planned. Melanie had kindly highlighted the events I was required to attend in yellow, events that she highly suggested I attend in blue, and events I didn’t need to worry about in pink.
Three pages of yellow. It was gonna be a long, long weekend.
With a groan, I stretched out on the bed without changing. I hadn’t been this tired in a long, long time. I’d just lay here a minute and then finish unpacking and change for bed. Yeah, that’s what I would do.
My limbs grew heavy, and my eyelids slid shut and before I realized it, I was asleep.
Until the alarm woke me.
At first, I didn’t realize what it was, that loud, incessant ringing. A red light blinked at me from the ceiling. Someone knocked on my door. I stumbled to answer it.
“Ma’am,” a man said, yelling over the alarm. He had on a vest and nametag that identified him as a hotel employee. “We need to evacuate the building. That’s the fire alarm.”
I blinked, my brain slowly catching up. “Fire alarm?”
“The emergency exit is that way.” He pointed to the left and was gone before I could say another word.
Thankfully, I was still dressed. I yanked on my tennis shoes and had the foresight to grab my backpack. By the time I checked to make sure Mack, Abe, and Hallie (who all had rooms on my floor) didn’t need help and made it down the eight flights of stairs, a large group of guests were huddled together in a far corner of the parking lot. No one knew what had happened but seeing as how it was three in the morning, no one was real happy about it. No signs of smoke billowed in the sky, although there were two fire trucks, an ambulance, and several police cars in the parking lot.
A chill ran through me in the cool night air. Above, the moon played peek-a-boo with the thick gray clouds. I sat on a nearby curb right by a streetlight, put my backpack in my lap, and curled my body around it until I found a comfortable position.
“Is Aunt Ali okay?” Hallie asked.
“Yeah, honey. She’s just tired, I bet.”
I groaned but didn’t lift my head. Not even when someone sat on the other side of me and put an arm around me. Theo rubbed his hand up and down my arm. “You’re freezing.”
“Yes. Cold. Tired.”
Theo chuckled. “Here, sit up.”
I obeyed, my eyes barely open.
“Arms up.” He pulled a sweatshirt over me. The arms were too long, but it was still warm from being on him and it smelled like him. I buried my nose in the collar.
“Hmm. Good.” I slumped into him, doing an accurate impression of a cooked noodle.
“Ali?”
Frowning, I looked toward the voice. “Alec?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” His smile seemed forced as his eyes darted between the two of us. “Theo.”
“Alec.”
At least we all knew each other’s names. I blew out a breath and waited to see who would speak first. This was so much more awkward than I expected.
Alec turned his body slightly, so he was facing me. “I hope we can have a chance to talk before the wedding. To catch up.”
Theo’s arm on my shoulders tightened and he hauled me closer. I put my hand on his knee.
“I don’t have anything I need to say,” I said. “So, I’m good.”
He leaned closer. “I think I made a mistake. I thought,” he smiled a little uncertainly, his eyes darting to Theo and then back to me, “you could go to the wedding with me. As my date. We could reconnect.”
I was almost impressed he’d asked. He had bigger cojones than I had given him credit for. “No. We’re not going anywhere together. You made that clear over a year ago. Like I said. I’m good.”
“Oh, come on, Ali. We always have fun together and,” again his gaze tripped to Theo and back to me, “I miss you.”
My back went rigid. “Where is this coming from? You haven’t spoken to me in months. You blocked my phone number. You were dating two days after you broke up with me.”
“But—”
“She said no,” Theo said, his voice hard.
Alec’s eyes swung to Theo, giving him a quick assessment. He’d never said outright that he hadn’t liked Theo when we dated but it had been obvious. Mae was right. Alec had changed when he got that job in Dallas. The more his boss praised him, the more time he spent with his work bros, the fancier his suits got, the more his arrogance grew.
I’d put the blame of our relationship’s demise on me. It was my stubbornness, my selfishness, my inability to share my feelings that had caused all our problems. But that wasn’t true. Alec had been just as complicit. He’d just never taken any responsibility for it.
Alec rocked back on his feet. “If you change your mind, let me know.”
“I’m not going to,” I said but he’d already walked away.
It took another twenty minutes before we discovered a guest had been smoking in his room and set off the fire alarms, and we were finally let back inside. Everyone rushed to the elevators, so Theo suggested we take the stairs. That sounded impossible but if it put me closer to being in bed, I was all for it.
Around the fourth flight of stairs, I gasped. “I forgot my room key.”
I’d have to go all the way to the lobby and beg for another. I stopped and turned, ready to trudge back the way I’d come.
Theo laid a hand on my arm. “Do you have everything you need in your backpack?”
“Yes.”
“You can stay in my room.”
“Bed. Sleep.” I nodded.
We started back up the stairs. “I might like this version of you. These one-word answers are nice.”
“Jerk.”
He laughed. “I deserved that.”
When we reached his floor, the elevators were letting off a group of people. We waited for them to pass. Theo reached out and took one of my hands. I smiled sleepily and rested my head on his shoulder.
The last person exited the elevator and froze when he saw us. Of course, it was Alec.
He smirked and waved us to go first. Thus began the most awkward thirty seconds of my life. Alec followed us down one hallway and again when we turned left. Theo pulled me to a stop in front of his room. Alec stopped, too. At the room right next to Theo’s.
Alec cleared his throat. “Like I said, think about it.”
My jaw dropped but, as was Alec’s way, he said what he wanted to say and disappeared into his room before I could reply.
“Ignore him,” Theo whispered. “He’s not worth the effort.”
Theo’s room, like mine, only had one bed. I crawled in and curled on my side.
“Make yourself at home.” Theo pulled my tennis shoes from my feet and tucked the covers around me. He snapped off the lights and climbed in next to me. I was mostly asleep when he rolled on his side behind me and wrapped an arm around me.
“Nice,” I whispered.
The rain started a few hours later.