I envied that about her. She had confidence, something I was lacking sometimes.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You should probably be apologizing to Cole, though.”
“Oh god. Don’t remind me.” I could practically hear her cringing on the other end.
“He threw you over his shoulder and dragged you out of there,” I said, laughing.
“Seriously, Al. I’m going to cry.”
I laughed louder, grinning. I could imagine the look on her face, and although I didn’t want my friend to be upset, it was just too funny.
“Don’t worry about it. He’s definitely not thinking about you right now.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“Something happened.”
Instantly I felt the conversation shift. “Tell me. Now.”
“Well, we went to one of those dinner things with our parents last night, right?”
“How did he look?”
“Good. I mean, really good. That’s not the point.”
“Cole in a tux. Shit, I think I just made myself hard.”
“What?”
“Lady boner. You get it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, he wasn’t into it, and I guess I was pretty bored too. So we snuck out.”
“Snuck out? This is getting good.”
“Hold on. Listen. So, anyway, he takes me out this emergency exit and up a staircase to the roof.”
“How romantic.”
“Yeah, well, he had a bottle of whisky.”
“Where’d he get it?”
“Stole it, I guess.”
She laughed. “Doesn’t surprise me.”
“Why, because he’s an immature moron?”
“No, because he seems to do whatever he wants. It’s an attractive quality in a man, you know.”
“Whatever. There’s nothing attractive about him.”
“Sure, Al. So what did you guys do on the roof, have some deep talk?”
“At first, yeah. I mean, the view was gorgeous, and the weather was perfect. The whisky was gross, but I had some anyway.”
“Sounds like a good time.”
“Lace, he kissed me.”
There was a pause. “Seriously?”
“I mean, yeah, and I kissed him back—for like half a second, but it was a really intense kiss.”
Lacey exploded. She began talking fast, a flurry of emotions pouring out of her. At first she was all, “what are you doing are you stupid he’s your stepbrother,” but that quickly turned into, “he’s also your husband and actually really damn hot so I guess I get it,” and finally she finished with, “I knew it, I knew you would, you dirty girl, did you guys bang? I would hit that in a second, you have to tell me everything.”
It was an emotionally intense ten seconds.
“Are you done?” I cut in.
“Okay, yeah. I just can’t believe you!”
“I know. It’s so stupid. So, so stupid. Like, I want to divorce this guy, get my life back on track. I can’t be making out with him.”
“I mean, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s not like you guys didn’t bone already.”
My eyes widened. “Lacey, we did not have sex.”
Lacey laughed. “Come on, Al. I know you guys definitely had sex on vacation.”
“Seriously,” I said forcefully, surprised. “We didn’t have sex. I thought I told you that? We did pretty much everything else imaginable, but we just never had sex.”
She was silent for a second. “You have to be lying.”
“I’m not lying. I’m dead serious.”
“But you said it was the most intense night of your life? After the fake wedding?”
“It was, but we never actually had sex.”
“I don’t get it. It’s not like you were a virgin.”
“I know! But he made me feel . . . things, stuff Bobby didn’t do.”
Bobby was my college boyfriend and the second guy I had ever slept with. I had thought sex with him was pretty good until I learned Bobby didn’t know anything about the human anatomy compared to Cole. Bobby and I had broken up three months before I’d left for Thailand after I caught him sending nudes to some girl he met on Tinder, the scumbag. I barely ever thought about Bobby anymore.
“Holy crap. It was that intense and you didn’t actually have sex?”
“Yeah, absolutely no sex.” I paused, sighing, as the memories of that night came back to me. Cole’s fingers, his mouth, his hands, they all made me squirm and come again and again. But for some reason I hadn’t been able to sleep with him, couldn’t let myself have sex. “You see the problem now?” I asked.
“Yeah. I really, really do.”
We were both quiet as the truth sank in.