“I’M GUESSING this is either a dildo or a phallic-shaped weapon.” Avery takes the neatly wrapped present out of my hands before shaking the box beside her ear.
“Maybe it’s both,” I tease as she carefully undoes the silk bow decorating the black wrapping paper.
We sit together on a bench, enjoying two large lattes while we wait for the wedding ceremony to begin.
The sun is perched high on the horizon, glimmering against the Pacific Ocean. The salty breeze ruffles through each strand of Avery’s cropped blonde hair, which sits in waves across her shoulders.
“Lily, you shouldn’t have!”
“Relax, it’s a little something from the best maid of honor ever, just to liven up your honeymoon.” I smile at her glowing face as she focuses on not ruining the wrapping.
Leave it up to Avery Soko and Luca Navarro to exchange vows in one of the most romantic places in the world. Albion is a quaint beach town in Northern California that looks like it was carved straight out of a storybook. Below the roofed veranda, the ceremony is set up on a cliffside garden facing the water. Rows of chairs line the grass with intricate bouquets of
flowers leading up to a large arch of pinks, whites, and golds.
Avery could give Grace Kelly a run for her money in her elegant white silk dress. Her future husband ensured her wedding would be worthy of Hollywood royalty. The overwhelming sense of joy and love I feel for her is practically shining off me, but there’s a strain scraping at the back of my throat.
Are we really at the age where my best friend is old enough to get married?
I could’ve sworn we just started our lives in New York together with Avery blazing her way through graduate school while I chipped away at my general education credits.
But time seems to have escaped me in a blink.
“Oh, come on, tear it open.” I wave my hands at her as she insists on peeling apart the wrapping with surgical precision. “It’s not like you’re going to find another use for this.”
Avery’s life motto could easily be the reduce, reuse, recycle slogan, but I would expect no less from my overachieving ocean conservation executive. “This is fancy paper, Lil. We’ve obviously graduated to the big leagues if we’re no longer exchanging gifts wrapped in old newspapers.”
“Those were the days.” I stretch my legs in front of me. “You know, I’m sure Luca would buy you all the fancy paper your heart desires. He may even ask about your preferred pulp count for each roll.”
Our laughter erupts almost immediately, sending streaks of happy tears down our faces. Thankfully, Avery’s soft and subtle bridal makeup hasn’t run at all, but my dark eyeliner stains my fingers. Definitely have to touch up the cat eye and my red lipstick before we make our way to the ceremony. Avery rips open the wrapping paper to reveal a thick textbook. “Ecology
Saves the Planet?” She holds the book in her hands. “I mean, I love it, but
—” Avery flips through the pages until a loud gasp leaves her. “What the fuck, Lily?” She slams it shut, clasping the gift close to her chest as her wide eyes dart around the veranda.
“I figured it was time to upgrade from your sparkly pink one.”
“You’re absolutely scandalous, Lil.” She sets the book on the small table in front of us and opens it to reveal a carved out indentation in the pages where a couple’s vibrator hides. “I knew it was a s*x toy!”
“You always know how to spoil a good surprise.”
Avery pulls out the toy and scrutinizes it. The blush creeping up her neck is adorable.
I almost bought one for myself, but a couple’s toy requires a couple to participate, and I’ve been rolling solo for nearly a decade now.
“How does—” Avery begins but is interrupted as the French doors swing open, and Molly, my roommate, who also happens to be Avery’s assistant, slips in through the doors.
“Looks like I came just in time.” Molly joins us on the bench, a small envelope in her right hand. She wears an immaculate floral gown, and her curly, copper hair is tucked into a high ponytail above her head. “Is that the new Double Bliss?”
“Yes, isn’t it beautiful?” I say.
Avery swings her head between us. “Am I the last one to get the memo on what a Double Bliss is?”
“Looks like it.” I gently nudge her, and the three of us chuckle together.
Molly rearranges her face into a stack of concern. “I don’t want to interrupt, but I had to come by and say sorry again for Lance refusing your wedding invitation. I simply couldn’t convince him that this wasn’t a work event.”
My lips snap into a frown. Lance Bradbury, Molly’s parent-approved boyfriend, is the lethal combination of pompous while being about as interesting as a bowl of plain pasta.
“You have nothing to apologize for—I understand it’s more complicated than it seems.” Avery smiles reassuringly.
“Thank you.” Molly shudders in her seat and targets a pointed expression right at me. “Lily, I transferred back the money you wired me. I was serious when I told you not to pay rent until you find a job.”
“Not this again. I don’t want to be a burden on you.” Especially when the room I rent in her impeccably designed four-thousand-square-foot townhome on the Upper East Side is already a fraction of what it should cost.
“And that’s why I love you, but you need the money much more than I do. Plus, if I didn’t have you to keep me company, I’d probably be one of those people who gets eaten by their cat after choking on a slice of cake in the tub.”
“Gruesome.” Avery chuckles, but I cringe at Molly’s pity. “Fine, but I’m paying you the second I find a job.”
“I know.”
The fact that Molly comes from a long line of billionaires was the news of the millennium. The Greene family is composed of wealthy resort owners based in New York City, their daughter, Molly, is the heiress to the family fortune. It’s a fun tidbit only a handful of people in our small circle know because my roommate prefers to keep associations with her family to a minimum.
Molly reaches over me to hand Avery an envelope. “I wanted to give you this as a little wedding gift.”
My best friend opens the card and scans the text. “I can’t accept this. A private yacht is too much.”
“It was either this or a weekend at my parents’ On Cloud Nine resort in Arizona, but I wasn’t sure if your future husband would implode from all the required meditating.”
“He’s been doing his best with the weekly yoga classes.” Avery beams. “Thank you, Molly. You’re so sweet.”
Molly brushes Avery off. “What’s the point of keeping a yacht in Europe if you can’t lend it out for the day?”
My phone chimes loudly from inside the bridal suite.
“I’ll be right back.” I stand, leaving them to each other’s company for a moment.
“Hopefully, it’s good news from one of the jobs you interviewed for last week,” Avery calls after me.
“I know it’s bad of me to say, but I hope it isn’t,” Molly exclaims. “That way, you can take the summer off and join me in the Hamptons. I could use a break from all the soirees my mother will be throwing.”
I make my way through the French doors and take my phone off the charger. A string of text messages from the guy I hooked up with a few weeks ago appears next to a new email notification. I click open the latter and read the message.
 |
Congratulations! Your novella “Coastal Fling” is now live and available for distribution.
I let out a sigh of relief, but my eyes catch the smiling faces of my two
friends through the window. A guilty reflection stares back at me, the snake of regret wrapping around my throat.
Your friends don’t need to know everything about you, right?
 |
“I WANT to finish off by saying”—Nico smiles widely at the newlyweds
—“welcome to the family, Ave.” He makes his way to our table, carrying a
bottle of champagne. “Now, will you and your beautiful bride raise your glasses?”
Luca doesn’t protest, lifting his and Avery’s empty flutes.
“Just a sec here,” Nico says into the microphone as he momentarily struggles with the cork. He fists the mouth of the bottle to loosen the insulation. “Nothing a little warm-up sesh can’t fix.”
“Hey.” Luca flashes him a glare, but Avery simply laughs, her mascara fighting an incredible battle against her tears.
Servers make their way around the room, setting down glasses of the bubbly liquid at each table. A loud pop echoes, and the guests cheer with applause.
Nico pours himself a hefty serving before topping off his brother’s flute. “Now will our families join me over here,” Nico says, making his way to the front of the room.
I peer through a generous peony centerpiece to look at Avery’s mom, Melissa, and the Navarro boys’ parents, Oscar and Eloisa, who are all entirely amused by Nico’s role as best man.
Everyone, including the newlyweds, at our small round table stand to join Nico, leaving me sitting alone in my chair.
“My eldest is a handful, but not a single day will pass where Luca won’t take care of you,” Eloisa says as she pulls Avery into a brief hug, then returns her hand to her husband’s.
“Lily, get over here. You’re family too.” Avery waves to me to join them.
Her words tug at the tangled strings in my heart. My sister, Kira, didn’t even make me a bridesmaid at her wedding, but my best friend has always been more of a family to me than my own. I make my way over to them and snuggle carefully between Avery and her mom.
“Oh my god, can I join?” Renée, Nico’s date—whom he met on his flight here from New York—pushes her chair back, almost stumbling to the floor.
Looks like someone took to the open bar a little too eagerly.
“Nico, please get your date under control. You promised me that you’d be on your best behavior.” Luca wraps his arm around Avery.
Nico runs over to Renée and helps settle her back into her chair, then whispers something in her ear that contorts her face into a pouty frown.
“Sorry, dude,” he says as he rejoins the other side of the group. He addresses the room once more. “Let’s all raise our glasses to the happy couple, Luca and Avery.” Nico sends his flute into the air in front of him.
My best friend and her husband share another kiss.
The love they share is its own language of wordless gazes and touches that linger longer than time allows. Every moment of yearning makes you want to drink it in.
But even pure emotions easily spoil when someone takes advantage of a feeling as selfless as love. Which is precisely why I keep my little stories tucked safely between the pages of my books.
“Thank you, brother,” Luca says, pulling Nico into an embrace. “That was actually really nice.”
Avery chimes in, saying, “Group hug, everyone.”
Oscar and Eloisa interlock around their sons and Avery. I find my way into the group’s center, snuggling between warm limbs. My eyes connect with Nico’s. He gives me a wide grin, and I can’t help but do the same.
Our balance is thrown off as something rocks into us. I turn just enough for me to see Nico’s date lying on the floor with the heel of her shoe completely snapped off.
“Nico, por favor,” Oscar murmurs to his younger son, who’s finally starting to look guilty for bringing a complete stranger to his brother’s wedding.
He plucks his date off the floor and hauls her out of the ballroom.
“Are you okay?” I whisper to Avery, who watches the entire trainwreck beside me.
“Nothing can ruin this day.” She smiles and kisses Luca’s cheek, wiping away the crease on his forehead. “I expected nothing less from my new brother.”
We all settle back at our family-only table, half of us helping ourselves to another piece of cake as Avery and Luca make their way around the room to thank their guests.
When I’m on my third bite of frosting, Nico plops down into his seat beside me, sighing loudly.
“You look like you’ve come back from war,” I jeer.
“Renée did not want to stay in the room. I swear she was tame on our flight.”
I gasp, sinking my fingers into his thigh in a mocking expression of shock. “Wait, you’re telling me after you fuck someone, they have a whole personality? Who would’ve known?”
“Can you please not be on my case too? I’ll get enough of it from my dad and Luca tomorrow before I leave for the airport.” Nico wrenches my grip from his leg. “And I didn’t fuck her.”
“No?”
“No.” His tone is enough to put the conversation to an end.
“Fine.” I brush off the sudden rigidness in his posture. “Your speech was decent, by the way. Did you search up ‘best man speech’ and rip off the first one you found?”
“Have some faith in me. I’m not terrible with words. Besides, your maid of honor speech was straight out of a classic romance novel.”
“Are you getting all soft on me, Nico?”
He swipes two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter before settling one of the flutes in front of me. “Going soft has never been a problem for me.”
“You’re so immature.” Most people at our table abandoned us to dance to the new song playing through the room. The buzz of alcohol springs a silly question to my lips. “Do you believe you’ll ever fall in love?”
Nico strips off his tuxedo jacket and throws it on a nearby chair. “I doubt I’ll ever be able to slow down for someone.”
“Love’s not a race.” I take a sip of my champagne and look over at him. “I don’t think anyone who finds it tries to run away from home.”
Nico’s tongue runs over the back of his molars, his brows raised at me with curiosity. “What do you know about love, princesa?”
Eloisa appears in front of us, steadying herself on Nico’s shoulder. “Mijo. ¿Por qué no puedes buscar una novia linda? Y que sea simpática.
¡Como ella!”
I face Nico, waiting for him to translate.
“Mom, you’re drunk.” Nico gets to his feet, handling his mother with the most patient tenderness.
“Then you know I mean what I say.” Nico scoffs. “Lily’s anything but nice.”
“What?” My eyes bounce from Nico to Eloisa.
His mom turns to me. “I told my son he should date someone nice like you. Especially if you can keep him in check when he goes radio silent
while he’s traveling.”
“Oh, no, no.” I shake my head. “We’re definitely just friends.”
I’m also definitely not one to take responsibility for a man. That’s not my job anymore.
“Oscar and I were friends too at one time,” Eloisa says. “They say—” Avery appears behind her, wrapping her new mother-in-law in her arms.
My best friend’s cheeks are flushed, and her eyes are liquored-up bliss. “What are you all doing here?” Avery giggles, still swaying in place to
the music.
“Nothing at all,” I respond for all of us. “Let’s go dance.”
