Twelve Truths and a Lie (8 page)

W
e arrived
at the hotel and went our separate ways. I was glad they had extra rooms available because I didn’t want Aurora to feel awkward having to stay with me. She was one floor below and got off the elevator first.

“Meet you downstairs in the hotel bar in an hour. We can grab a quick dinner somewhere before we head to the mixer,” I said.

She waved as she turned the corner. “See you then.”

I entered my own room, dropped my bag on the floor, and then sank down on the large king size bed. It was surreal, being back in the same town I’d spent my childhood. My parents no longer lived here, having moved to a warmer climate in North Carolina as soon as my brothers and I graduated college. Still, it had been years since I’d been around my old haunts.

I fished out my cell and sent my mom a promised text. She knew all too well what this weekend was about. I had filled my parents in about the reunion weeks ago.

My parents had been shocked about Dessa and Mike hooking up the way they did. Especially since Mike practically lived at our house during high school. To this day, I regret the weekend I had introduced my girlfriend to my childhood friend.

Mike had moved to Akron, about an hour out from the city. I figured it was going to be cool having my buddy closer to the town I’d settled in after college, but instead I had lost them both.

Except the truth was, my mom never cared for Dessa, though she would’ve never voiced it out loud. Guess she knew well before I did that we weren’t right for each other.

Me: I’m officially back in the hood. Everything pretty much looks the same.

Mom: Is Aurora with you?

I had broken down and told my mom this past week about Aurora. How it felt good to make a new friend who understood me in ways others hadn’t, especially my profession.

Me: Yep, glad she came.

Mom: Me, too. Let me know how it goes, sweetie. Call if you need me. Love you.

Me: Love you, too. Say hello to Dad. Talk soon.

Was I ready for this?

I was about to see cherished old friends at the reunion, which was cool, but how would I feel once I saw Dessa and Mike? Would that same profound anger and hurt swallow me whole again? Or had enough time passed to lessen the sting?

Besides, did I really want to show that wrecked side of myself to the amazing girl who agreed to come on this trip with me? She was so easy to talk to, to be around.

And wow, what she had just shared with me in the car. If my drinking bothered her in any way, then I could definitely do without. But I had a feeling it had more to do with how I had acted this past year, and I had definitely learned my lesson in that regard. Was still learning it, in fact.

Truth of the matter was that this weekend was a hurdle I needed to get beyond. It had been plaguing me for far too long.

I unpacked some clothes, checked my emails, and headed to the bar. To my surprise, Aurora was already planted on a stool with a drink in front of her. How long ago had she come down? There was a guy about the same age standing beside her, and they were involved in what looked like an engrossing conversation. I stood back and watched their interchange for a minute. The way the guy was checking her out and touching her shoulder told me he hoped she hung around longer.

My stomach muscles tightened into a fist. When she threw her head back and laughed at something he’d said, I could understand why guys fell for her. She had this mesmerizing luminosity that seemed to radiate from the inside and refused to be suppressed. People were drawn to that glow like a moth to a windowpane. She had this way of warming you to your core, and I wondered if she even realized it.

Her gaze swept around the room and landed on mine. A smile ignited her face and she waved me over. I almost faltered in my approach, wondering if maybe she wanted to continue talking to the guy alone.

“Hey, um, Bryce is it?” Aurora asked. The guy nodded and looked at me, disappointment clear on his face. “This is my friend Cameron.”

His features relaxed at the word
friend
and he reached out to shake my hand.

I looked over at her drink. “You been here for a bit?”

“About twenty minutes,” she said. “Didn’t feel like being in the room anymore. Call it nervous energy.”

“You should’ve told me,” I said close to her ear, and I could smell her light perfume that was floral in scent. I was like a bee drawn to a flower.

She waved me off. “No big deal.”

Bryce leaned over to order from the bartender, and I raised my eyebrows in his direction.

She lifted a shoulder, as if to say,
maybe,
and my chest clenched.

“Want another drink?” Bryce asked her, completely ignoring me.

“Um,” she said, biting her lip and looking over at me. I turned toward the game on the big screen so as not to sway her decision. “I think we’re going to grab some dinner.”

“Okay,” he said, the discontent evident in his voice. “Maybe I’ll catch you later. I’ll be here in the bar later tonight.”

She hopped off the stool, her cheeks flushed. “Maybe I’ll see you then.”

He looked hopeful as he watched us walk toward the parking lot.

“Are you sure you didn’t want to stay?” I said, motioning with my thumb toward the lobby doors. “You don’t have to—”

“I’m sure,” she said in a stern voice, as if dismissing the notion.

I pulled out of the parking lot to drive to a chain restaurant I remembered passing on the way in. Plenty had changed around here, like the new bustling businesses, yet so much remained the same. Like the busy ball field we passed with cars crammed on the lawn, no doubt to watch a pee wee football game.

I considered heading to my Arlington High alma mater to catch a game under the big lights until one of my old friends had emailed with the same thought for him and his wife. Apparently the team was on a bye week.

Aurora remained silent beside me, simply taking in the sights. “That guy at the bar definitely wanted to get to know you better.”

She shrugged. “He was cute. Nicole said that I should use this weekend to have a one-night stand.”

I gripped the steering wheel tight so I wouldn’t drive off the side of the road.

We pulled into the restaurant, were seated at a booth, and ordered some appetizers. After we were both settled in, her gaze finally met mine.

“So, why don’t you?” I asked softly.

“What?” she asked, and I felt like I only had a one-track mind. I could not get the thought of her getting it on with that guy from the bar out of my brain.

“Have a one-night stand,” I said casually, but inside I was anything but. “You have your own hotel room. He’s going to be there later.”

“Yeah, true,” she said, her eyes cast downward, a blush rising on her cheeks. “But why does it feel so shallow?”

“You need to decide what your end goal is,” I replied after we were served our mozzarella sticks and potato skins.

She cut into a wedge with her fork. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” I explained, after swallowing a bite, “depends how, um, sexually frustrated you’ve been and—”

“Extremely,” she said without hesitation, and I nearly choked on the cheese sliding down my throat. “I mean,
Richard
doesn’t even—”

She smashed her hand over her mouth, looking positively mortified. “Shit, never mind.”

“Who’s
Richard
?” I asked, thoroughly confused, wondering if I’d missed something in the conversation.

“Oh, God,” she said. “Can you forget I even said that?”

“Not a chance,” I replied, knowing it would bug the shit out of me all night if she didn’t fess up. “Don’t be embarrassed, we’ve talked about plenty of things already…”

As she took deep breaths, I tried to match up the name
Richard
to one of her old boyfriends she might’ve mentioned. Or was she more mortified that I’d brought up the idea of being sexually frustrated?

“Look, I wasn’t trying to embarrass you,” I said, attempting to dislodge her hand from her face. “Guys talk about jacking off all the time, I don’t know if girls do, but—”

“Of course we do,” she finally huffed out, her eyes bulging. “
Richard
is the name of my vibrator.”

Oh fucking Christ, what a visual. My dick immediately tented against my zipper. In that moment, I was so grateful the tablecloth was covering me. After I got over the initial shock and stimulation of her bringing up her vibrator, I focused in on the fact that she had named it in the first place.
Richard.

I couldn’t hold back a snort and that caused a chain reaction in Aurora, who began giggling and then full-on laughing. Her face was so beet red that when we made eye contact and I said, “Richard. As in
dick
?” she howled even louder, causing the people in the booth behind her to turn around and stare.

We finally got ourselves together after the server returned to refill our sodas. We refused to look at each other, or it would set one of us off again. It was an entire ten minutes later that we finally got ourselves under control enough to continue the conversation.

“My original point was,” I said, keeping my voice down after that fiasco. “Getting yourself off is one thing. Having a quickie with somebody you don’t even know is another.”

“But it’s intimate to kiss somebody,” she hissed out, leaning over the table. “To let them put their tongue in your mouth and…you know, other places.”

Well, fuck, I was rock solid again. I adjusted myself in my seat. Any residual laughter was long gone. Shallow pants were emitting from her lips, but her gaze was fixed on her food.

“So don’t kiss him,” I said, fully on board with that idea at least, if I wasn’t for the other. “I didn’t always.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyebrows raised, her gaze flicking to my mouth. Oh God, I was about to pull her over on my side of the table and crash my lips against hers. “Didn’t the people you were with want to kiss?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I said, somewhat embarrassed of how little I remembered from my string of encounters. “When you’re feeling horny and reckless, you just kind of want to get to the good stuff. Not that kissing isn’t good. But well, yeah…”

I sat back, unsure if we should even continue this conversation. I was about to pound nails with my dick. Or pound this guy Bryce’s skull in.

“So maybe I should get a little buzzed for extra confidence,” she said, finally leveling her gaze on me. “And then invite him to my room?”

Fuck. My protective instinct immediately kicked in. But I couldn’t tell if it was for all the right reasons.

“He was here on business?” I asked, and she nodded. “No ring on his finger?”

“No,” she said, her eyes wide. “Oh God, hadn’t thought of that.”

She looked off into the distance as if trying to remember exactly what their conversation had been.

“Don’t do this just to prove something to other people, like your friends,” I said, attempting to keep my nostrils from flaring like some big defensive ape. “Only do it if it’s for
you
.”

“To prove something to myself, maybe?” She shrugged, but I could tell she was thinking hard. “We’ll see.”

We finished our appetizers and then got in the car to head to the mixer. I felt strange, like my body was moving on autopilot, but my brain was stuck back in the restaurant somewhere. And I couldn’t shake the melancholy that had settled over me.

G
eez
, things were getting weirder by the minute. But I was pretty proud of myself. I had decided to head down to the bar after we’d arrived at the hotel because I was feeling antsy. It was a brave move for me, and that guy, Bryce, had walked right up and asked if he could buy me a drink.

Maybe I could do the hookup thing; even Cameron had sort of encouraged it. Though he had trouble meeting my eyes. Did he think differently of me now? After our awesome conversations all these weeks was he thinking it would be a slutty move? If so, screw him. Compared to all the women he’d been with, he had no room to talk.

My gaze drifted over to him as we pulled into the parking lot of the bar. He looked a bit green. I needed to stop thinking about me and focus on him. This was why we were here, after all. He probably wasn’t even contemplating my stupid one-night-stand option.

He’d had something horrible happen to him—a betrayal—and I wanted to be a good friend.

Plenty of other cars filled the spaces, and I wondered if they were all here for the same reason as us. Did one of these vehicles belong to his ex?

“Ready for this?” I asked once he found a spot in the back of the lot and cut the engine.

He took a deep breath and looked so young and vulnerable right then. “Yeah, sure. Thanks again for coming with me.”

I briefly squeezed his bicep and then opened the door to exit the car. Cameron looked handsome in his dark wash jeans and charcoal gray button-down shirt. He was wearing the black leather shoes I liked that were a cross between casual and dressy.

We walked side by side into a bar that appeared pretty run down with its wood paneling and worn pool tables towards the back, but it also had a small town kind of charm. I had worn my favorite jeans and lacy tunic and felt like I fit right in. Tomorrow would be the time to get fancy.

I looked around the packed room, only slightly self-conscious, given that people were more than likely wondering if I was somebody they had attended high school with.

There was a woman standing at the door handing out blank nametags and Sharpies if we wanted to wear a label for the event. “You just give me a heads-up when you see—”

Cameron’s entire body tensed. He didn’t need to offer any advanced warning apparently. I could see all the strain in his jaw muscles, and I was at a loss for what to do in that instant.

He was greeted immediately by a couple of old friends from school named Robert and Amanda, and while he said hello and briefly caught up with them, I looked over his shoulder to a very attractive couple at the bar. They also looked jittery, so I knew it had to be Dessa and Mike.

Dessa was a pretty girl with long brown hair and large beautiful eyes. Mike was a tall and bulky guy and as he hooked his arm possessively around her, I wondered if there was more to his protectiveness than being at this reunion. Maybe because he knew Dessa had already cheated once on a boyfriend, he questioned what might stop her from straying again. But that was just me—creating a story in my head.

Cameron steered me around the room with his large and warm hand on the small of my back, introducing me to old classmates, his gaze completely evading the couple who still stood watching at the bar. So far I’d simply been introduced by my first name, Cameron letting who we were to each other hang there, for people to make their own assumptions, apparently.

Finally, we made it to the other end of the bar and ordered drinks. I needed one after all of that. No doubt he did, too, so I forced all of my earlier assumptions about his reckless imbibing completely to the wayside. There was no room for any of that right now. Besides, how he handled his emotions this weekend would tell me plenty.

Robert and Amanda, the couple that first spotted us when we entered the bar, beckoned us over to a table in the corner, and I was thankful for the reprieve.

“You okay?” Cameron asked when we sat down on the unforgiving wooden chairs.

“I’m fine,” I replied, glad to finally be tucked away in a corner instead of in the middle of the bar on display. “How about you?”

“Surprisingly, I feel all right,” he said, whispering close to my ear and I couldn’t help shivering. Cameron was a gorgeous guy and had several eyes on him in the room. I wondered how many women in here he had dated back in high school. Mr. Heartthrob Football Player. At his reunion with the show choir queen of her own high school.

No way would he have given me the time of day back then. More than likely, we were way different people anyway. Not that it mattered. I had already been in over my head with the wrestling captain who was one grade older than me and way too conceited.

My mom had liked him, which should’ve tipped me off straight away, given her terrible taste in men. Though Mr. Wrestling Captain
had
looked awfully hot in his singlet. That visual almost made me snort out loud, but I kept it together, sipping my wine out of a white plastic cup.

“It helps to have you here with me,” Cameron said, placing his arm across the back of my chair. “I feel like I don’t have to explain anything, you just understand.”

Before I could respond, Robert cleared his throat. “So how long have you guys been together?”

“Oh, a couple of months,” Cameron said, and he knocked my knee beneath the table. I wasn’t about to argue.

“How about you guys?” I asked and that helped turn the tide. They told us that they had been married for five years, had one kid, and were glad for a weekend getaway.

“How did you guys meet?” Amanda asked several minutes later.

“Through mutual friends.” Cameron’s arm tightened around me, his fingers twining in my hair, before he whispered in my ear, “Is this okay?”

Warmth traveled across my limbs. I practically melted into his side, because it just felt so damn good to be touched. Human contact. Male contact. That was all this was, right?

“It’s perfect,” I said, sighing. He tilted his head as his eyebrows knit together. “Perfectly fine, I mean.”

And then I felt him tense. Dessa and Mike were heading our way. I grabbed his other hand and entwined our fingers. He squeezed once, twice, and I felt his lips nuzzle the top of my head. Crap, my entire body was thrumming now. Which matched his nervous tics.

“Cam,” his ex-girlfriend said in a raspy, intimate tone, which immediately made my hackles rise. What the hell?

“Dessa, Mike,” Cameron said. His friend Mike shifted awkwardly on the heels of his shoes.

“I…” Mike stuttered and yeah, this was one giant mess they’d created. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be here.”

“Me neither,” Cameron said grimly.

“But I told him of course he had to go to his ten-year reunion,” I interjected, bending forward and kissing his cheek, feeling his light stubble beneath my mouth.

As if he’d been stung, he reached up and swiped his fingers over the area where my lips had been and his wide, round eyes met mine. Our hands were still entwined, and he gripped my fingers firmly. “This is my…uh…”

God, we really should’ve discussed the details of our fake relationship beforehand.

“I’m his girlfriend, Aurora,” I said, attempting to keep my voice light and cheery instead of biting and possessive.

His ex seemed stunned as she looked between us, her gaze darting to our entwined hands.

“Cameron, I…” Dessa said, clearing her throat. “I’m…I’m glad to see you happy.”

“Very happy,” he said, and then his eyes latched onto mine again. I expected him to return to the conversation, but instead, his gaze darted to my lips and then back to my eyes again. Suddenly, Dessa and Mike faded away with the drone of the bar noise.

Cameron’s fingers wound around the nape of my neck, and he increased his grip as if beckoning me forward. We stared into each other’s eyes and there was apprehension in his. He inhaled a breath and angled his head.

It was as if there was an undercurrent running between our mouths. My lips were itching—no,
aching
—to connect to his. When Cameron hesitantly brushed his mouth against mine, it felt like a power surge had ignited all of my limbs, making me feel instantly flushed and limp.

His breath fanned across my lips, and I could feel my fingers trembling in his hand, my mouth pulsing from his touch. His lips glided across my cheek and then to my ear.

“So damn pretty, Aurora,” he hummed into my skin.

Were we still pretending or was this real? I couldn’t tell anymore. All I knew was that my heart wanted to claw its way out of my chest and bow down in homage to Cameron and how amazing he had made me feel right then, playacting or not.

“You two are so sweet,” Amanda cooed from across the table, snapping us out of our bubble. I tucked my head into Cameron’s neck, my cheeks on fire, and when I glanced up at Dessa and Mike, they looked so awkward standing there, gazes fumbling around for a good place for their eyes to land.

Had we embarrassed them? Perfect.