Cancun: Bad Boys on the Beach: A Standalone Romance Novel (8 page)

Megan closes her eyes and her head drops forward, hitting the sticky bar with a thud. Stephanie reaches over me and shakes her shoulder. She’s out for the count. I know that sight and she’s not going to get up.

I look around for any familiar face that can help me out but there’s no one left.

“We won’t be able to wake her up,” I say. “We’ll have to carry her back.”

Stephanie shrugs and stands up off the bar stool. “She’ll be fine. The staff will bring her back. That’s what they get paid for.”

“No, it’s not,” I say as she steps away from the bar. “We can’t leave her here. Come on and help me out.”

I grab her heavy arm and wrap it around my shoulder, trying to be careful to not let her head roll backward. She’s pure, dead weight and a little too heavy for me. “Grab her other arm.”

Stephanie scrunches her nose as she looks at Megan. “I’m going to go dance.”

My mouth drops as she walks away. Even I didn’t think she was
that
bad. She doesn’t stop at the dance floor and just leaves the club.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I mutter under my breath. Aaron is gone too. I’m all by myself with my friend, the drunken sack of potatoes.

After twenty minutes of struggling to get her off the bar, two women with much stronger arms than me take pity on me and help me drag her across the resort back to her room. I find her key card in her pocket, thank the women and then drag her into her honeymoon suite and onto the bed. Lucas is still MIA.

She barely moves as I find her pj's, change her, wipe off her makeup and roll her under the sheets. I sit on the bed and catch my breath, exhausted when I’ve finally finished it all.

Megan looks so peaceful sleeping on the pillow. Now that she’s safe in bed the worry that I had is now replaced with the hurt that I’ve been feeling the past few weeks.

“I’m pissed at you,” I say to her calm, passed out face. “I should have been the maid of honor. After all we’ve been through and you choose her of all people?” Tears cloud over my eyes, blurring my vision. “I thought I meant more to you than this. You mean more to me than this.”

I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and they come away wet. “I know she’s paying for your honeymoon and she’s going to be your sister-in-law but still. That’s not an excuse. It should be me.”

She still hasn’t moved as her unconscious ears listen to the words I haven’t had the courage to say. “This really sucks Megan. You hurt my feelings.”

The door swings open and I jump off the bed in surprise. I wipe the tears from my eyes as Lucas stumbles in with Ethan holding him up.

“We have a hot one here,” Ethan says.

Lucas babbles something incoherent. He looks like he got shot with a tranquilizer dart the way his movements are so groggy. Ethan grabs his torso, lifts him off his feet and dumps him on the bed.

He grabs the garbage can from the bathroom and puts it at the foot of the bed. “I think he’s going to need that in the morning.” He walks over to the door and turns his head as he opens it.

I haven’t moved from the spot where I’ve been standing.

“Are you coming?” he asks.

Lucas is sprawled across the sheets still wearing his tight buttoned up shirt and shorts. Even his loafers are still on his feet. “Aren’t you going to put him in his pajamas?”

“Fuck no,” he says with a laugh. “We’re guys. He’s lucky that I didn’t leave him on the beach chair. I just didn’t want him all sunburnt for the wedding.”

I slip off his shoes as I walk to the door. It’s the least I can do.

Ethan holds the door open for me and he smiles as I walk past him. “I’ll walk you back to your room.”

Normally I would argue but I’ve felt so alone all night that I let him. I need some company and I like his.

We walk down the immaculate hallway of the VIP building and he casually places his hand on my lower back as he guides me into the elevator.

The doors close and I stare ahead at our reflection in the wavy, stainless steel walls. The flower that he placed behind my ear is still there, shining a bright red.

He leans towards me and slides his hand around my waist. “What a good-looking couple,” he says, looking ahead at our reflection.

I couldn’t agree more but I don’t respond. The doors bing open way too soon, and I step out, letting his hand fall from my waist.

It’s late now and most of the resort lights are off, except for the path and the winding pool that’s lit up a glowing blue. I can smell the salt of the ocean on the warm breeze and hear some soft music playing from the cocktail lounge on the other side of the resort. It’s dark and there’s no one around. Nothing to see us but the bright stars overhead and the swaying palm trees.

He slips his hand into mine and I’m shocked at how natural it feels.

“I think we should part here,” I whisper, pulling my hand away from his. My fingers tingle with the urge to touch him again. I take a step back instead.

“Why?”

“Ethan,” I say, rubbing my forehead. “I have a boyfriend.”

“So?” he says, raising his shoulders. “You’re not married. I still have a shot.”

I wave my hand around the empty chairs and dark rooms. “Why are you after me? You could have
any
girl on this resort.”

He stares in my eyes with a face so serious that it gives me shivers. “Not any girl. Not the one I want.”

The lights of the pool are reflecting in his eyes making them a fierce blue. Nothing could make him more attractive than he is right now. Any minute change of his face, even one that is meant to be an improvement, would only hurt his looks. He’s perfect the way he is.

“We live in different cities,” I say. “You own a bar and a tattoo parlor, and I work at a dog food company. You must go to bed at four in the morning every night and staying up to nine thirty is considered late for me. We have nothing in common.”

He doesn’t look discouraged. “I follow my gut,” he says. “I always have. And my gut wants you.”

“That’s not very romantic,” I say, laughing. “Normally it’s the heart that wants another person. The gut usually wants French fries.”

“My heart wants you too,” he says. “And you should hear what my cock has to say about it.”

A laugh bursts from my lips and I shake my head. “Come on, Ethan. It would be fun for a bit but like I said we have nothing in common.”

My stomach sinks as I take the flower from my ear and tuck it into his hand.

“Goodnight,” I say and walk away.

I walk for ten minutes without looking back. My legs and chest feel heavy and I cross my arms, holding my shoulders as I walk.

This is going to be a shitty week. I can feel it. I just want to get it over with and go home. I’m sick of this achy feeling in my chest like my heart is breaking over and over again.

Familiar giggling echoes through the night and I roll my eyes when I see where it’s coming from. There’s a couple going at it on one of the beach chairs by the pool. I’d recognize that irritating laugh and long blond hair anyway. Looks like Stephanie found someone to spend the night with.
Slut
. At least her clothes are still on but he does have a hand up her shirt.

Stephanie bends over the guy and makes out with him.
Yuck.

Wait a minute.
I recognize those flip flops on that guy. They have the same outline of red sunglasses imprinted on the sole of the ones that I bought Aaron. The ones that he complained were the wrong brand name and the ones that he never paid me back for.

I hurry down the path and creep behind the dark bushes, looking at them from another angle.
That fucker!

It’s Aaron.

Stephanie stands up off the chair and takes his hand. She pulls him up, looking at him with pure lust in her eyes. Vomit creeps up my throat as they kiss on the mouth. I’m frozen in shock behind the bushes and I don’t even move when she pulls him onto the path and they walk hand in hand back towards her room.

I’m stunned. I don’t know why but I am. I’ve never been cheated on before and it sucks.

An empty pit in my stomach accompanies me on the rest of the way back. I open the room, get in my pj's and crawl into bed, not even bothering to take off my makeup.

I spend the next few hours staring at the curtains and watching the lights from the cars in the parking lot dance across the ugly material.

Aaron finally opens the door when the room is beginning to light up from the rising sun. He crashes onto the bed and is snoring almost immediately.

I never turn around. I feel nauseated from being beside him. From his presence but mostly from his smell. I can smell her on him. Her cheap perfume and the smell of her sex.

It’s the first time ever that I cry myself to sleep.

Chapter Six

Tanya

Day Two

I wake up to the soothing sounds of two Mexicans arguing outside my window. Aaron is still unconscious. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll drift off into a coma forever.

My head is pounding as I climb out of bed and yank the curtains apart. There’s a forklift in the parking lot with crates stacked on the metal prongs. The last wooden crate is flipped over on the cement with broken watermelons everywhere.

The two Mexicans turn back, look at me for two seconds, then turn back and continue yelling at each other.

Aaron doesn’t wake up. I stand over the bed with my hands on my hips glaring at him. I can’t believe that he did that. Wait. Yes, I can.

It’s been over for a long time between the two of us. I just didn’t want to admit it. I look at him lying on the sheets, still in his clothes from last night, and feel nothing but disgust. The stink of his alcohol-filled sweat is making my nose curl and the look of his mouth open, drooling on the pillow, is making my hands curl into fists.

We’re through. I’m doner than done with him. He slept with Stephanie of all people. He’s disgusting.

I only wish I wasn’t stuck in the same room as him for the rest of the week.

I change into my bathing suit, grab my suntan lotion and book, and toss them into my beach bag. I don’t feel like waking him up and having the talk. I don’t think I can stomach hearing his lies. I just want to get out of this room.

I hope you choke on your vomit.

I give his sleeping, disgusting, cheating body the finger and slam the door.

I actually feel lighter as I’m walking to the breakfast buffet, like there’s a weight lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t realize the heaviness that came with being Aaron’s girlfriend.

Cynthia and Julia are sitting at a table inside the buffet, each with a big pile of pancakes in front of them. My stomach growls when I see them but I grab a banana, apple and yogurt instead. I don’t want to look five months pregnant in my bikini this afternoon.

I pull up a wicker chair and tell them about last night’s events. They’re freaking out.

“That bitch!” Julia says a little too loud. The mom at the table next to us gives her a dirty look and tells her six-year-old never to use that word.

“I don’t want you guys telling Megan,” I say, peeling my banana. “I don’t want this to ruin her wedding week.”

“See?” Cynthia says with a mouthful of pancake. “That’s why you’re the better friend. That’s why you should have been the maid of honor and not that slut-bag.”

“Well, it’s not up to us is it?” I ask.

“It fucking should be,” Julia says while she peels her orange. “Picking that cunt.” She squeezes the orange in her hand and the juice shoots all over her white, designer tank top.

Cynthia bursts out laughing at Julia’s horrified look. I don’t want to even know how much that tank top cost.

“Don’t worry,” she says, reaching into her bag and pulling another tank top out. “I have a backup.” The price tag is dangling off the seam and I see $150 written on it.

“On the bright side,” Cynthia says, pouring more maple syrup all over her plate, “now you can fuck Superman.”

I’m ashamed that I’ve already thought of that. Numerous times.

“I’m not very hungry,” I lie as I stuff the apple and yogurt into my beach bag. “I’m just going to go read on a hammock. I need to get my mind off of this for a while.”

Cynthia touches my arm with her sticky hand. “Okay, sweetie. Come see us later okay?”

“I will.”

I saw some hammocks hanging in the shade at the beach that would be perfect for me right now. The sun is shining with not one cloud in the spectacular blue sky. I take a long breath of the salty air and I feel better than I have in a long time.
Wow
. I wasn’t expecting to feel like this when I woke up.

Kids are playing in the huge pool while their stressed-out, over-worked parents decompress on the beach chairs.

My head jerks back and I snort out a laugh when I see something that I never thought I’d see. Ethan is sitting on a lawn chair in front of me reading my book: All Angels Fall.

“What are you doing?” I ask, unable to stop giggling. Of all the books in the world, that’s the last one I’d expect
him
to be reading.

“What does it look like?” he asks, lowering the book past his exposed abs. “I’m reading.”