Misbehaving (2 page)

“Why?” He drew the “why” out as long as possible to maximize the threatening tone in his voice.

“Because…well, Bea’s coming.”

“What? I thought she was in Spain.”

“She was. But she moved back to the States two months ago. Just in time to come to the wedding.”

“You have got to be shitting me.” Ben’s stomach dropped. Then it jumped back up again at the thought of seeing Beatriz again for the first time since college. Would she look the same? Leggy, brown-haired, dark-eyed and beautiful? Talk the same? Sexy Spanish accent and nine kinds of attitude? Smell the same? Vanilla and strawberry shampoo?

“Ben, she’s Claudia’s foster sister. She’s in the wedding. You both are in the wedding. So, you know, take that.”

Ben took it. He took it hard. Beatriz…He’d loved that girl in college. He could own that now. Back then he’d pretended Beatriz was just another girl he wanted to sleep with, and when he didn’t, he told himself it was no big loss. But here he was, five years later, still thinking about her.

“Is she here yet?” Ben asked.

Henry raised an eyebrow at him and Ben’s stomach dropped once more. It went down and stayed down this time. Ben watched as Henry spun around in his bar stool and pointed across the lobby. Ben followed Henry’s gaze to where it stopped on a woman, tall with long straight black hair and deep copper skin. She had on jeans, a camisole that did nothing to disguise the fullness of her breasts, and a wide grin on her face as she chatted with the man at the registration desk. She was, in fact, the most beautiful woman in the entire world. Ben recognized her immediately.

“She’s here now,” Henry said.

Ben stared at Beatriz across the lobby. She didn’t see him, thank God, so he knew he could stare all he wanted.

“Orange,” Ben said, noting the color of Beatriz’s shirt. “She’s wearing an orange shirt and orange high heels.”

“So?”

“She’s the only woman I’ve ever known who wears orange. She looks like a tropical flower, doesn’t she? God, she looks good in orange.”

“Man, I thought I was the drunk one.”

Ben looked down at the empty shot glass and back up at the bartender. She waited for his order. Five minutes ago she’d been a gorgeous girl he’d had fun flirting with. Now she was only the bartender. Good thing. What he needed right now was a bartender and nothing else. He pointed at the shot glass. She refilled it and started to walk off.

“Wait,” he said to her. She turned around with that same seductive smile. A smile that disappeared after his next three words. “Leave the bottle.”

Chapter Three

Beatriz checked into the hotel at nine that evening,
THE MANUAL
still burning a hole in her bag. While the man at the desk processed her credit card and paperwork, Beatriz scanned the lobby looking for any suitable candidates to help her with her review. Maybe she’d get lucky and an “Attractive Men Looking For No Strings Attached Sexual Intercourse” conference would be happening at the Hotel Essex this week. She saw a few teenage boys loitering by the fountain. Too young. Three older couples talked in the vestibule. Too couple-y. A pretty girl about her age strode through the lobby pulling a wheeled suitcase behind her. Too female. Most days she wouldn’t have any problem with a few nights in bed with another woman, but the sex position manual was for heterosexual couples. Plus women tended to get clingy. She had no time for clingy.

She heard a shriek from the general elevator area and Beatriz took a steadying breath. Speaking of clingy women…

“Oh, my God!” Claudia rushed toward her and wrapped her up in a bear hug. Beatriz hugged back, knowing that a Claudia-hug, much like quicksand, trapped a person more the harder he or she struggled. Best to simply relax and take it. This, incidentally, was her philosophy of anal sex, as well. “When did you get in?”

“Just now. Checking in. You look amazing.” Beatriz pulled back enough to give Claudia a once-over. She hadn’t seen her foster sister in over a year. She’d expected her to look haggard from wedding planning, but she wore the look of love. “Engaged looks good on you. Where’s Henry?”

“Hiding in the bar,” Claudia said while the bellhop put Beatriz’s bags on the luggage rack. “The wedding planner’s driving him nuts. I’m about ready to hit her myself. Got any connections?”

“I do,” said the bellhop.

Beatriz made a mental note to give the bellhop a good tip.

“How bad is it?” she asked Claudia.

“Long story. It involves her trying to get Henry to rearrange his groomsmen so they line up by height. She thinks the tallest one should be best man. Henry’s brother was not amused.”

“Short men deserve love, too. Is Mike still single?”

Claudia shook her head. “Nope. He’s here with his girlfriend. Why?”

“I need to get laid. It’s work-related.”

Claudia nodded. She knew all about Beatriz’s work.

“I have connections there, too,” said the bellhop.
Keaton
, his nametag indicated.

“I love this guy,” Beatriz said as they neared the elevators.

“So what’s the job?” Claudia asked as the three of them got on the first elevator.

“I have a book to review by Monday. Sex position manual creatively entitled
THE MANUAL
. They call it ‘The Joy of Sex for Generation Y!’ complete with exclamation point.”

“What’s Generation Y?”

“Us.”

“Got it. We’ll find someone to do you. Someone generation Y.”

“I like older men. Gen X works, too.”

“A couple of the groomsmen are single,” Claudia said. “Jake’s here.”

“No way. He always wears too much body spray. I’d need to wear a hazmat suit. Hazmat suits are not sexy.”

“Speak for yourself,” Keaton the bellhop muttered.

“Jed?” Claudia suggested.

“We hooked up in college. He’s terrible in bed.”

“Really?” Claudia sounded stunned. “He seems so confident. Cocky even.”

“It’s a cover. Guilt. Momma complex. You have sex and then fifteen minutes later he’s giving you the ‘I don’t think we should do this anymore’ routine. I told him his cock wasn’t worth cutting through the red tape for.”

“You go, girl.” Keaton nodded his approval as the elevator door opened.

The three of them disembarked and headed for room 424.

“Well…there is one other option,” Claudia said as they reached Beatriz’s hotel room.

“Not worry about it since you’re getting married in five days?” Beatriz asked.

“Not that. Getting you laid is much more fun than me getting married.” Claudia helped Keaton with the bags.

“Then what?” Beatriz asked.

Claudia smiled at her. It wasn’t a good smile. It was a “don’t kill me” smile. Immediately Beatriz thought of a plethora of ways to kill Claudia.

“Ben’s here, isn’t he?”

Claudia winced. “Sort of. He’s one of the groomsmen.”

“You told me he wasn’t coming,” Beatriz almost shouted.

“He wasn’t coming because of a work thing. Then he got a promotion. So now he is coming. I mean, he came.”

“So Ben’s here?” Beatriz glared at Claudia.

“Ben’s here.”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

“Who’s Ben?” Keaton asked, leaning against the luggage rack and smiling.

“My ex-nothing,” Beatriz said.

“She was in love with him in college, but nothing ever came of it. She’s still a little bitter.”

“I’m not bitter. I’m just still mildly disappointed in him. You know, as a human being. Because he never fucked me, and he should have.”

“Yes, he should´ve,” Keaton said.

“Thank you. I owe you money, right?” Beatriz asked.

“I wouldn’t want to impose.” Keaton waggled his eyebrows.

Beatriz handed him a five-dollar bill. He gave Lincoln a quick kiss and headed for the door with the luggage rack.

“You should leave the rack,” Claudia said. “She’s having crazy sex this week with someone she doesn’t know yet. She may need that.”

“If she needs it back, call the front desk,” Keaton said as he pulled the luggage rack out of the room. “Put the wheel brake on first. Voice of experience.”

Alone now in the room with Claudia, Beatriz started to unpack.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me Ben’s here,” Beatriz said, angrily removing her underwear from her suitcase.

“I didn’t want you bailing on the wedding.”

“I wouldn’t bail on the wedding. But if I knew he was going to be here, I would have mentally prepared myself to see him again.”

“Mentally prepared as in?”

“I would have brought a date with me. I have a male escort who owes me. Although I think one of the Real Housewives has him booked this weekend.”

“Your life is weird, Bea.”

“What? Because I’m a sex education blogger?”

“For starters. Are you mad at me?”

“No, I’m not mad. He’s one of Henry’s best friends so of course he’s here. He should be here.” Beatriz hung her dresses up in the closet and started sorting through her shoes. “I just don’t want things to be weird.”

“It shouldn’t be. You haven’t seen him since college.”

“True, but we didn’t part on the best of terms. The day he graduated I went to his room in a bathrobe, took it off and stood naked in front of him. I told him to fuck me like he’d never fucked anyone before. I knew I’d probably never see him again so why not? No strings attached. No pressure. Only beautiful sex. My graduation present to him.”

“I never knew you and Ben had sex.”

Beatriz’s heart stuttered at the memory of standing naked in front of Ben in his dorm room. He’d already packed everything up. Nothing remained but the bed, the sheets, him and her. The way he’d looked at her when she dropped the robe, she knew she had him. Not only did he want her, he adored her. He drank up the sight of her like a man who’d walked across a desert and found his oasis. Or she’d thought.

“We didn’t. He said he was sorry, but he wasn’t interested. He asked me to go.” Beatriz would never forget the burning sting of humiliation. Her whole body had blushed at his rejection of her.

“What the hell? What straight man in his right mind says no to that offer?”

“Ben did. So I said something horrible to him, put on the robe and walked out. I cried all night. The next morning, I decided he was dead to me.”

“Beatriz…why didn’t you tell me this?”

“You were graduating, too. You had more important things on your mind. Plus, it was so humiliating. Definitely not my finest moment.”

Claudia sat on the bed and looked up at Beatriz, who tried looking at anything but her sister and the pity in her eyes.

“And here we are—it’s just like college again. You’re with Henry, and I’m stewing over Ben.” Beatriz sat on the other bed across from Claudia. “It’s just, I loved him, you know? I didn’t let myself love anyone else but him. And maybe that’s for the best. But I spent an entire year trying to be with him, and he said he didn’t want me. That’s fine. No one is
supposed
to want me. But then why did he kiss me like he did that night we met? Why did he tell me he wanted me on a Thursday, but by Friday it was poof—gone?” She blew into her fingertips.

“I don’t know. I thought he was crazy about you, too.”

“He took me for a tour of campus. You remember that? My first week at Brooks? I told him I was born in El Salvador and only made it to the U.S. when I was ten. You know what he said?”

Claudia shook her head. The sadness in Beatriz’s voice clutched at her throat.

“He said, ‘
Más vale tarde que nunca
.’”

“What does that mean?”

“Better late than never.” Beatriz smiled. She’d been so impressed that Ben, this blue-eyed all-American boy, spoke Spanish and spoke it so well. He hadn’t asked her any questions about her past, about why she’d come to America, where her parents were. People did that, even total strangers, not realizing that if a ten-year-old girl had to leave her family and her country behind, then it was probably not the sort of story you’d tell to someone you just met. No. Ben said, “Better late than never,” as if he was the reason she’d ended up in this country. And at that moment she’d believed he was.

“I know you loved him. I remember.” Claudia sat on the bed next to her. “Your freshman year was tough. It broke my heart watching him break your heart.”

“It was like I had two hearts and both of them were in love with him. I never knew you could feel that much. And he just had the one heart and it wasn’t interested in me.”

“I thought for sure he’d come around about you. I’d never seen two people more perfect together than you two. Not even me and Henry.”

“In college Henry wore his underwear on the outside of his pants.”

“Now you know why it took him five years to convince me to marry him.” Claudia winked at Beatriz who leaned against her sister and kissed her on the cheek.

“I’m very happy you’re getting married to Henry,” Beatriz said.

“I am, too. Now we just have to find you someone to be happy with.”

“I am happy, I promise. Spain was amazing, but it’s great to be back in the States again. Great to be here with you.” She smiled at her sister, a bright, genuine smile that she hoped convinced Claudia not to worry about her. She was so happy for Claudia and Henry. They belonged together. And Claudia needed to focus on her own wedding and not her foster sister’s five-year-old heartbreak.

“You’ll be okay?” Claudia asked, squeezing Beatriz’s shoulder.

“Totally okay. Promise. Or I will be as soon as I find someone to have sex with this week,” Beatriz said.

“God, it really is like being back in college.”

Chapter Four

Claudia slammed the hotel door behind her and raced to the bed. Henry groaned as she threw herself on top of him.

“Easy, babe. I had too much to drink.”

“Two beers?” she asked, planting kisses along his jawline.

“And a half.”

“You’re such a lightweight.” She threw her leg over his stomach and he caressed her thigh. “I love you anyway, even if you do have the drinking prowess of a ten-year-old girl.”

“Hey, I’ve known some hard-drinking ten-year-olds.”

“Liar. Kiss me, I’m horny.”

“Best four words ever spoken.” He kissed her on the mouth and rolled her onto her back. “Thought you’d be too tired tonight.”