Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask them, but then Sienna hears music blaring one bar over, and she pulls me off my stool, forcing me to keep up with her as she dashes out the door.
Inside, her eyes go wide with wonder. “I knew this place would be a riot. Oh, look, it’s packed to the gills, and some of these men are absolutely divine. Let’s have a look, shall we? Just a quick loop around the room, and if someone catches our eye, well . . . we’re both single, aren’t we?”
I laugh as she shimmies to the music. “What about Javier?”
“What about him?” she says with a tone of haughty indifference, though she’s not fooling anybody. “He could have me if he wanted, but he’s nowhere to be found, is he?”
“So then we find Javier 2.0.”
She grins. “Precisely.”
There’s a coconut drink at this bar that everyone’s ordering. A kitschy cocktail with a little paper umbrella and enough liquor to knock out a horse. It’s so sweet I can barely down the first few sips. Sienna pulls a face and winces.
“It’s pure sugar!”
Not to brag, but as we drink and dance and join forces with other little clusters of travelers, I don’t bring up Phillip even once. Oh sure, I think about him nearly every second we’re out on the town. I torture myself with thoughts of what he could be doing with Avery. Bending her over that same couch? Showing her that lovely little trick in the shower? Inspecting her hip for little grandmother-inspired sun tattoos?
Well, good riddance.
Sienna commends me for letting my hair down and having fun. She doesn’t bring up Javier either, and we’re both good sports about understanding that it’s vital—this front we’re putting on cannot be questioned or else it might collapse like a poorly constructed house of cards. We are playing two carefree girls out on the town, dammit.
Every half hour or so, one of us suddenly panics and asks for the time.
“Oh, thank god, it’s only eight thirty . . .”
“Relax, it’s only nine fifteen.”
By the time we really do need to book it back to the boat, we don’t want to leave.
“The party’s only just getting going. I could tell that place was going to get wild,” Sienna says as we’re walking back on the dock. “Could you see them pushing the tables to the side of the room and clearing the floor in front of the speakers? Ugh. I wanted to dance so badly.” She sweeps her hair up. “Just lose myself in music!”
“I’ll put music on in my suite and order us up a bottle, how’s that?”
She gasps and reaches over to grab my arm with both of her hands. “Brilliant! Yes! I am a first-rate DJ. Ask any of my flatmates from uni.”
She shakes me like I might not believe her. “Okay, all right.” I laugh. “You can prove it once we get there. Now if only we could find the boat . . .”
We’ve been on the dock for the better part of ten minutes. We walked straight here from the bar, and I thought we took the same route as earlier. Down past the restaurant with the huge marlin on the front door, past a little conch shack, that man on the corner playing drums, and voilà, the ship should have appeared before my very eyes.
There are boats at the dock—other cruise ships, even—just not ours.
“That’s not funny,” she warns.
“I’m not trying to be funny. Was our ship docked there?” I point over to the left. “I could have sworn it was.” I’m starting to get a little worried. I don’t want to have to explain to Gwen why I had to expense a plane ticket from Grand Turk to Puerto Plata because I missed boarding and had to fly to meet up with the cruise ship. “What time do you have?”
I don’t even really have alcohol to blame for the fact that we’re lost. I could barely down more than a few sips of the coconut cocktail at the bar, and the nice couple bought me that beer close to two hours ago. I’m mostly sober now. Sober and lo—
“Do you two need help?”
“Oh!” Sienna squeals and whirls around, her hand clutching her chest. “Lord, you scared the bejesus out of me!”
It’s dark out, sure, but the dock is well lit. It’s not that eerie, especially with how many people are out walking around. Sienna’s reaction was a little over the top, and it makes the men chuckle. The sound makes my spine stiffen.
I hardly want to turn around, but it would be extremely weird to totally ignore him. I don’t let my cowardice win out. I turn around to face Tyson and Phillip with a confident smile in place.
I hate that I check behind them to confirm they’re alone—sans Avery and Jenna—and I blatantly ignore the surge of triumphant relief when I see it’s just the two of them.