Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
I’m so riddled with guilt that I enter a warzone unprepared. Nikita took a walk on the wild side, and I missed her metamorphosis.
“Zoya!” Nikita staggers across a cabana that reminds me of the pool parties we attended in college before she wraps me up in a tight hug. “Where have you been? You missed the celebration.” I’m tempted to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming when she stomps her foot. I haven’t seen her act this carefree since… forever. “You won! You got twenty big ones.” I step back when she looks seconds from barfing. Mikhail isn’t the only sympathy vomiter I know. “Well, more like ten after I borrow a tiny bit to fix that.” She gestures to something behind me. “They didn’t have long, but they almost drank the bar dry. They won’t tell me the final tally, but I can’t leave all that mess to Maksim’s family. Especially because I was acting like a jealous twit. He deserved it, though. He’s being weird.” She waves her hand across her face, collecting the spit she releases when she pffts. “Anyway, you won!”
“Wow.” I wish I could give a more enthusiastic response, but my emotions are too askew to offer up more. I feel like I’m in a dream and that if I move too fast, I’ll be jolted out of a fantasy better than any reality I’ve faced.
“Who are you, and what did you do with”—holy mother of God. I didn’t know you could be forced out of sobriety by a burp—“my best friend? You sound like Aleena when I reminded her that her wedding is only a few short weeks away.” Her sigh hits me with a second bout of alcoholism. “She’s not giving off blushing virginal bride vibes tonight.”
From the stories Bayli shared during our drive home years ago, pure white shouldn’t be Aleena’s wedding dress color of choice.
“Where is she?”
“Um…” Nikita drags her eyes over the crowd of mostly women before pointing to the corner. “There.” We cringe in sync when her bloodshot eyes announce the level of her intoxication. She is even more gone than Nikita. That is understandable. Aleena is a cheap drunk because this weekend is the first time she’s been allowed to drink.
“She’s pretty wasted.” Nikita huffs out a laugh. “We’re all pretty wasted.” As she wipes at the bead of sweat on her top lip, she says, “I don’t think the eggs in the brownies were fresh. I’ve been feeling a little off since I ate them.”
I take a moment to assess her as if she is a patient and I’m her doctor.
All appraisals point in the same direction.
“Are you high?”
“No. I don’t think.” Her eyes widen enough to give credit to my theory. “Do I look high?”
“Yeah, you do.”
The world tilted more on its axis than I realized during my brief intermission.
Well, I really shouldn’t say brief. Countless orgasms and hours of sex will never be considered brief.
“And you smell like a brewery.”
“That would be my fault.” A man with surfy blond locks leans against a solid wall of the cabana before greeting me with a wave.
Nikita beams with excitement before she drags the stranger inside the littered cabana. Once he’s in front of me, she introduces us. “Zoya, this is Riccardo. Riccardo, this is my deliciously gorgeous friend Zoya.”
She should never give up her day job. She is the worst matchmaker I’ve ever met. Not only does Riccardo give off creeper vibes, but also, not all of them are directed at me.
He’s eyeing Nikita with just as much interest.
With my brain too fogged by a lust haze, I give the oldest excuse in the book. “I’m not looking for anything permanent right now.”
“Good, because from what I can tell, neither is Riccardo.”
When Nikita slaps her hand over her mouth, the situation shifts to awkward at a record-setting pace.
“I’m sorry for asking you to come back after your shift,” Nikita murmurs to Riccardo two seconds later, finally clicking on that I’m not interested. “I could have sworn you were her type.” She hugs Riccardo like it’s a consolation prize for an almost win. His response assures me he believes the same. “Are you sure there’s nothing?” she asks me while fawning over Riccardo’s pecs. “Maybe you should feel his chest. It is all rigid and tanned, with only the slightest smattering of dark hairs.”
She’s more intoxicated than first believed.
Riccardo’s chest is whiter than snow.
“I think it’s time to call it a night.”
“No.” Nikita stomps from foot to foot like a child busting to use the bathroom. “It’s still early. The sun hasn’t even gone to bed yet, so I don’t want to either.”
“Kita—”
“Please, Z. I promise I’ll be good.”
I will never be strong enough to deny her every want. She was there for me when I thought I had nothing to live for, so I’ll never ignore her puppy dog eyes.