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)
Chapter Twenty-Four
CASEY
It’s our last night on board Aurelia, and Sienna has claimed me. We’ve been getting ready in her suite and blasting music. She took a picture of me puckering my lips at her phone, and when she showed it to me, my jaw dropped. It looked so cool and professional, like an ad you’d see in Vogue. She has such a good eye for photography. Of course when I told her that, she barked out a laugh and said, “Uh, no, you’re just a smokeshow!”
Now, I’m standing in her bathroom, leaning over the sink to carefully apply black winged liner just the way my grandmother taught me.
Sienna appears in the doorway and snorts. “Good god. It looks like you nicked everything they have at Chanel.”
She’s referring to my makeup spread. Les Beiges eye shadow palette, Noir Allure mascara, Les Chaînes de Chanel blush . . .
I smile down at it all. “My grandmother worked as a beauty consultant at the Chanel counter for over three decades. It’s the only makeup I’ve ever used, and when I go into Saks to buy a replacement of something, the ladies my grandmother worked with always send me away with bags full of samples and gifts.”
She walks in and toys with the row of lipsticks I have lined up, eventually twisting up Rouge Coco in the Mademoiselle shade, and I can hear my grandmother’s description of it in my head: “A perfect neutral pink that pairs well with any skin tone.”
“Is she the one who taught you how to do makeup? You’re really good at it.”
I nod and look at my reflection in the mirror, studying my favorite features—the ones I got from Jean Hughes. “Is it weird to feel connected to her this way? With eyeliner and lipstick?”
She shakes her head. “I think it’s sweet. Makes me miss my gran too.”
I bump my hip against her and offer a sympathetic smile. “Are we going to be down in the dumps, or should we kick things into gear for our last night?”
She grins, and I know I made the right choice in keeping my plans with her. I won’t lie and say it was easy to leave Phillip. I mean, we’ve only been apart for an hour or two, and I’m already dying to see him. But I shove that feeling aside because I won’t back out on Sienna now. She’s really been there for me these last few days, and I feel like I’ve made a lifelong friend. We’ve promised we’re going to stay in touch and visit each other—we’re going to come up with some kind of concrete plan over dinner. We just have to finish getting ready and head out the door.
“Yes, right. Only . . .” She frowns and turns to me. “Are you sure about this? You absolutely can ditch me for dinner with your man.”
I pause applying my makeup and scowl at her. “Sienna, I’m not ditching you!”
“Fine, fine,” she says coolly. “Only I want you to know you can if you really want to. I’m not so desperate for company that I want to steal you away from him.”
“I want to be here,” I say. “Now, I think we should get as glitzy and glam as possible, okay? All the stuff we haven’t had an excuse to wear yet.”
Sienna’s eyes alight with possibilities, and she’s already hurrying to her closet. “I have this silver gown that’s absurd and gorgeous, and I’m breaking it out! Oh! And you have to wear this red dress. It’ll look heavenly on you. Want to see it?”
I agree to try it on, already knowing that if it’s coming from her wardrobe, it’ll be stylish and designer, no doubt.
She carries it into the bathroom, and it’s the most vibrant shade of red. Already, I know I’ll have to swap my lipstick to match it, which works well because I’ve kept the rest of my makeup neutral and relatively simple (for me, at least).
She hands it over. “And before you even start, I refuse to be sad about it.”
She’s talking about Javier.
He apparently broke things off with her this afternoon, saying it was better in the long run. “No need to drag out some long goodbye,” he said, which I thought sounded a little bit cruel. Sienna disagreed with me, though I couldn’t tell if she really believed it or if she was just trying to defend him.
“My only regret is that I didn’t beat him to it! I mean, get real. It wasn’t a breakup. We both knew the end was looming. And the thing is, I wasn’t even tempted to keep it going. Don’t get me wrong, he was bloody good looking. I mean, you saw him that time with his towel. I’ve never seen anything like him, but there’s nothing beneath it, you know? No real chemistry with us. He seemed to like things one way—always wanting to go, go, go. Like today, I wanted to have a lazy day by the pool, but he insisted we book it into town for a horse ride. Turns out it was this really dodgy setup. They were trying to get away with putting us on a bunch of donkeys. I laughed and thought we’d turn right round, but Javier insisted it was fine. ‘More authentic,’” she adds in a macho accent. “I told him I didn’t want to go, and we had a little row about it. So ridiculous because the guides and everyone were just watching on! Anyway, it’s done, and I’m glad for it. What about you and Phillip? God, I don’t envy you still having to cut ties and all. There’s no sense in making it this dramatic thing. Believe me, I regret getting carried away like that . . .”