Chapter 19 #2
She’d packed plenty of swimsuit options for the trip, but none of them covered her new tattoo, so she opted for a black and gold bikini with a cover-up she hoped would obscure the bandage enough.
Sara was in the matching white version and lying next to her, frantically chasing her hangover with tequila.
At their feet, Taylor and Maricela propped themselves on the pool deck, sipping over-the-top cocktails with skewers of pineapple bobbing up and down.
She was not just thinking about the way Milo’s lips had felt against hers that morning. She was fully fixating.
“This is literally heaven,” Taylor said. “Exactly what we needed after last night.”
“How late were y’all out anyway?” Hanna asked.
Taylor looked at her over her sunglasses. “Oh god, girl. I don’t think Sara was ready to call it until like three this morning.”
“Oof,” she groaned.
Sara brushed them off. “I was on a roll! Weddings are expensive. Speaking of.” Sara pointed to Taylor. “Which one of us won the bet?”
“What bet?” Hanna snapped.
“You were obviously too drunk to remember, but I told you! If you had a threesome with Milo and Logan, I get fifty bucks.”
Hanna slapped Sara’s arm and flipped Taylor off. “Looks like the open bar budget just took a hit.”
“No!” Sara giggled. “I was so hopeful. Milo was looking at you like you were something to eat. Where did you three go anyway? That must have been awkward.”
Hanna slammed the rest of her margarita, Taylor’s baby blues burning into her from her perch on the edge of the pool.
“I was truly blacked out. Logan and Milo took me to get some food and then back to the hotel.”
Sara jerked upright next to her and she pulled her sunglasses off.
“Did they talk to each other?”
“A little, I guess. It was definitely uncomfortable.”
“I bet,” Sara said. “They’ve never gotten along, but after The Incident...”
Hanna rolled in her direction. “Is that true?”
“Oh, babe.” Sara sipped her drink, taking a bite of a pineapple wedge. “They’ve had a weird rivalry for decades. Logan stole a high school girlfriend or something. I can’t remember, but Matty knows.”
“Huh,” she breathed. “We talk about Logan a lot, and he never says a word about him.”
“That’s Milo for you, though. He’s so well-therapized I’m not sure he actually has feelings, just thoughts about them.”
Hanna sat up. “Okay! I say this to him all the time. He’s too chill about everything.”
Taylor threw an ice cube at her. “Sounds like you two do a whole lot of talking.”
“Yeah well, a lotta good it’s done me. I don’t know a damn thing that’s going on in that head of his.”
“If anyone can crack him, it’s you, Arizona.”
Hanna blushed as Taylor slipped into the water, cooling off her shoulders.
Sara cocked her head to the side. “Arizona?”
“You haven’t picked up on that yet?” Maricela asked.
“Is Milo nicknaming you?”
“I guess,” Hanna laughed.
“God,” she scoffed. “He’s in deep. I mean, I personally witnessed how deep he’s in physically, but emotionally… if he takes you to the bar, it’s officially over for him.”
“His dad’s bar?”
Sara set her glass down. “Hanna Stevens. Have you been to the bar?”
She hesitated. “Yes?”
Sara blinked slowly. “I’m too stunned to speak.”
“What?”
“Hanna, I have spent half my week with that man for five years, and he hasn’t even brought me to the bar. I’ve only heard the rumors. Matty has been like ten times in ten years. Have you met his mom?”
“No, that I haven’t done. But he did invite me to dinner with her before the whole Logan thing.”
Sara’s jaw dropped. “He didn’t let me meet her until I was engaged to Matthew! Oh my god, my brain is on fire right now.”
Hanna waved her hand. “It’s the hangover!”
“It’s not.”
She laid back, thoroughly embarrassed and also tempted to tell her more.
“Sara?”
“Hanna.”
“I think I’m in trouble,” she whispered.
Sara snorted. “I know you’re in trouble.”
Hanna’s phone vibrated against the pool deck beneath them. Before she could grab it, Sara snatched it from her.
“How mad will you be if I read it?”
“Light mad. Heavy embarrassed,” she groaned.
“Is that him?” Taylor screeched.
“Hanna. Grace. Stevens,” Sara muttered, her lips falling open as she read the text.
Hanna squeezed her eyes shut. “How bad is it?”
“It’s been three hours and I can still taste you?” Sara fanned herself. “Ma’am. You better fucking spill what happened this morning now.”
“This morning was boring,” she smirked. “Just a kiss over breakfast. What you really want to hear about is the time we had sex at the bar.”
If Sara could have evaporated Hanna with a stare, she’d have been dust in the wind.
“I need another drink. Someone help me. Oh my god.” Sara sat on the edge of her pool chair and looked her best friend in the eyes, her face bewildered. “I want to hear every filthy detail. But first, you have to let me take a picture of you to send to him.”
Hanna panicked. She could explain away a lot of things about Milo, but a tattoo?
“Wait! Get her wet!” Taylor pushed herself out of the pool, pulling at Hanna’s cover-up.
“I—”
Sara rolled her eyes.
“Oh come on, Hanna! It’s just a bit of fun!”
Hanna sighed. She’d already exposed more than she’d planned—what was one more thing? She pulled the cover-up off and laid back on the chair. Sara’s eyes immediately darted toward the black splotched ink beneath the clear bandage.
“The fuck is that?”
Hanna tried to fight back the grin, but it was too late.
“That is… a new tattoo. That Milo paid for last night.”
A chorus of oh my gods exploded before Maricela got them back on track.
“Use the engagement ring balloon to reflect gold onto her. It’ll make her look tan,” Maricela spouted as she rushed around the cabana and grabbed the massive ring inflatable. She held it toward the sun to cast a warm reflection over Hanna.
“Cross one leg over the other like, yep, you got it,” Taylor said. “Okay Sara, how’s our angle?”
“I need more titty,” she said, squatting and standing, trying to find the right vantage point. “Move your arm. There they are!”
“Take it in portrait mode!” Maricela shouted, stretching to get more sunlight on the balloon.
“I got it! Okay. Oh my god, yes, this one,” Sara said, tapping and adjusting something before she flashed it to Hanna for approval. Hanna’s head spun, but her tits did look great, despite the peeling plastic beneath them. “Sent!”
“Wait, what did you say with it?”
Sara balked. “Nothing. What man wants to read an essay with their tittygraphs?”
She reached for the phone. “Milo does. He cares way more about the mental game.”
She typed out a message and fired it off while Sara read over her shoulder.
HANNA
Hope you’re wearing something sturdier than those goddamned basketball shorts or Brendon is going to start getting ideas.
ALWAYS ANSWER
Did Sara take that?
HANNA
Maybe, why?
ALWAYS ANSWER
Noted.
Sara cackled beside her. “Milo just Venmo’d me a hundred bucks with an eggplant and prayer hands emoji.”
HANNA
Your turn.
ALWAYS ANSWER
I don’t think Logan is going to snap a studio-lit dick pic for me. Do you accept selfies?
HANNA
I’ll take Morse code at this point.
“God, you two are insane. No wonder the sex is so hot.”
Hanna mumbled, “It’s unreal. The last three weeks have been so painful. But this morning we decided maybe Vegas doesn’t count.”
Sara looked at Taylor, who looked at Maricela.
Hanna sighed. “I know it’s dumb, you don’t have to figure out how to tell me. Oh! He just texted back.”
Sara turned away. “You can keep whatever photo he sends to yourself. I still have to look the man in the eye.”
“Speak for yourself,” Taylor mumbled, leaning in to see, but Hanna held her phone to her chest. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Your nudes are all I can handle anyway.”
Hanna glanced at the screen, but immediately set it back down to take a breath.
Sara sipped a fresh drink, courtesy of Maricela. “That good, huh?”
“I’m in so much trouble,” Hanna muttered.
She braced herself and flipped the screen again, greeted by Milo in the hotel bathroom, gray sweats hardly concealing anything below his waistband. He sent a second without any pants at all, and every drop of blood in her body drained south.
HANNA
I cannot believe you gray sweatpants-d me.
**This message was sent from the bottom of The Cosmopolitan pool**
ALWAYS ANSWER
Don’t drown, I have big plans for you later.
HANNA
Don’t flatter yourself. Slightly above-average plans.
ALWAYS ANSWER
Don’t make me come over there early
HANNA
Aw, it’s okay, buddy. Happens to lots of guys.
ALWAYS ANSWER
I’m going to fuck the smirk I know is on your mouth right off tonight, Arizona.
HANNA
Promise?
Sara gasped as she glanced back over Hanna’s shoulder again.
“Hanna!”
“What? It’s just what we do. We fuck with each other and then he hangs out with Chloe, or I hang out with… myself. It’s just fun.”
ALWAYS ANSWER
On another much less sexy note, how are you feeling about the Logan stuff? Still okay with our deal? I don’t want to be in the way.
“Oh my god,” Sara sank into the chair next to her. “Hanna. You cannot tell me this is just fucking around.”
She shrugged. “As far as I know, it is.”
“That man is in love,” Sara chimed.
Hanna scoffed. “That man is jealous.”
Her phone buzzed again.
DO NOT ANSWER
Hey, Hanna. Can we talk before dinner tonight?
“A new bombshell has entered the villa,” Sara whispered.
Hanna sighed. “Oh, please.”
HANNA
We’re all good, Cali.
And then swiped over to Logan.
HANNA
Coffee in twenty?
“You’re not going to tell Milo you’re talking to Logan?” Sara asked.
Hanna rolled her eyes. “Can you just uninvite the groom’s brother? It would really help me out.”
Sara laughed, signaling the waiter for another round of drinks.
* * *
“Medium dark roast for me and she’ll have…”
Logan rocked on his heels, glancing at her.
“Water,” she said.
“Just water?”
Hanna chuckled. “I’m three coffees and four margaritas deep, Logan. You need me to drink water.”
“Fair enough.”