made it thick and messy, but for the first time during the entire trip, she looked truly happy. All it took was me getting fake married to a perfect gentleman, I guessed. And Katy bowing out early. Probably more of that than my fake husband.
“He is pretty great,” I agreed. I watched as he spun Lauren in a circle, her hair fanning out and her laughter loud even over the bone-shattering volume of the music that played.
Every once in a while, he’d catch my eye across the dance floor, give me a smile that turned me inside out, before turning his attention back to Bekka or Lauren, whoever he was tangling with at that moment. I wasn’t much of a dancer—my dances tended to appear as ironic and intentionally awkward—which was why I’d waved him off every time, insisting that he dance with Lauren and Bekka—who actually wanted to dance. But that was part of my life of the party persona—to make people laugh. But I didn’t feel like making anyone laugh just then.
I was fighting with the idea that I’d made vows reserved for a legal contract to a man whom I had no legal ties to. I’d brushed off the wedding as a silly thing; a dare. Halfway through the ceremony, as I’d made vows that held more weight than just the breath it took to say them, something had shifted within me. It wasn’t supposed to be real, but that’s exactly how it had felt.
I didn’t like not knowing what came next, what would happen tomorrow. Which made no sense, because I loved spontaneity. But I didn’t like not knowing where I stood, especially with him. I didn’t like that I’d known this man for only a handful of hours, and he was making me think too hard about tomorrows and next steps when it should have been a quick dare, something to laugh about and forget.
“Here he comes,” Bekka yelled into my ear, as if my eyes hadn’t been following him the entire time.
I clutched my glass tightly as Liam approached and my breath hitched when he leaned over me. “Are you thirsty?” I asked, holding up my drink.
Without answering, he took the drink, maintaining eye contact the whole time as he took a swallow. “That’s good.”
“Mm-hm,” I agreed, watching him lick his lips. “I hope you don’t mind that we haven’t danced tonight.”
“I don’t mind,” he said, dipping his head so his lips brushed my earlobe. “This place isn’t really my scene.”
I turned, my lips grazing along his jaw as my mouth found his ear. “You wouldn’t know it from the way you danced with my friends.” To anyone else, it might have sounded like I was jealous. Actually, I was far from it. If anything, I was grateful that he wasn’t in a hurry to ditch my friends and steal me away from them. If this weekend wasn’t meant for Bekka, I might be down with that idea myself.
“Lauren’s got more energy than a herd of border collies,” he said, causing me to laugh so hard I thought my drink might come out of my nose. “I don’t know where she gets it from, but I think she could easily outlast everyone on that dance floor.”
I glanced sideways at Lauren who was signing her check.
“Are you leaving?” I asked.
“I’m tired,” Bekka said by way of explanation, putting her credit card back into her wallet. “I should probably check on Katy anyway.”
This was the moment I was dreading. What were Liam and I supposed to do now? Hug and part ways as friends?
I turned to him, bracing myself for that conversation, when he answered for me. “I’ll walk you guys back to your room.”
When we made it up to the room, all the lights were on. Which should have been clue number one that something wasn’t right. Bekka was the first one in the suite and dipped into the room she shared with her sister before immediately exiting it and holding her hand over her mouth, turning to face us. “Oh, God.”
“What?” Lauren asked, moving around her to take in whatever sights lay before her. She paused in the doorway and her mouth contorted in a shape I’d never seen before. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Do I even want to know?” I asked from the hallway, where I waited with Liam.
“Katy puked everywhere.” Lauren turned toward us with her nose plugged. “Oh, it smells so bad.”