“Nadia! It’s good to see you today!” Lila came out to greet her. “They just finished lunch. Would you like me to bring yours out?”
“Oh no.” Nadia practically vomited at the thought. “I just need water, coffee, and some aspirin, please, if you have it.”
Lila smiled in understanding before leaving to go get it.
“So, what did they fix you to eat today?” she asked them curiously, wanting to pull the attention off her raging hangover.
“You missed a good breakfast,” Amo began. “Pancakes, sausage, toast …”
Nadia, however, got lost in thought over what the soldier was saying when Dante abruptly stood from the table to go lie down on a sun lounger without a single word.
“… So, lunch was good, too.” Amo’s voice had trailed back just in time for him to finish.
“Th-That’s good,” Nadia commented, trying to place her attention back on the boys, but it was hard because she couldn’t help but feel slightly hurt. Is he ignoring me? Her mind couldn’t comprehend Dante would do that, considering they were forced together for another day or so. There was no way he was going to get away with that, so she clearly must just be overreacting. Right?
Seeing that Leo had noticed something about her, she pulled herself together to put on a smile. “I’m glad you two are enjoying yourselves now.”
“Yeah,” Leo said, his voice laced with a tone she didn’t quite understand. He appeared kind of down, but before she could ask what was wrong, he got up like his father had.
Amo either didn’t catch what Nadia had or chalked it up to Leo’s normal behavior when he thanked her. “Yeah, thanks to you and those rum runn—”
“Oh God. Don’t remind me.” Nadia covered her mouth at the alcoholic beverage that must not be named, and it was like the bartender felt his senses tingling when Max showed up.
“Ms. Brooks, can I get you—”
“Nope!” Nadia violently shook her head. “You may not.” She, however, didn’t have the heart to tell him what she really wanted to …
Never fucking again.
As far as alcohol went, she was now celibate … and she was quickly about to find out that Dante was going to make her want to be forever celibate in another way, too.
The bastard didn’t so much as glance her way after she finished her coffee and took the sun lounger next to his. The boys had asked her to apply sunscreen on their backs again, and when she handed the bottle to Dante to use, he told her simply, “No, thanks.”
Frustratingly, Nadia had to even manage applying sunscreen to her own back.
He was perfectly fine with me touching him last night … and him touching me! Or had he really? All those memories of last night, and she couldn’t remember him kissing her once.
Last night had been all about sex, and that was it. And while she didn’t complain in the moment, now that she was fully sober, she was able to notice what drunk Nadia hadn’t. The small red flags that told her it would never, could ever happen again. While that would be fine, if the sex had been bad, it stung Nadia, because that had been the best night of her life, even drunk on rum runners. None of her sober sexcapades had come close to that one, and that was just sad …
She couldn’t believe the audacity of men. Once they had gotten their dick jerked, they went on to catch the next sucker. Heaven forbid they had to face the woman the day after and “acknowledge them,” but that would require facing the consequences of your own actions, and we all know men royally suck at that.
With each passing hour he ignored her, Nadia couldn’t even focus on the book she had yet to finish, reading the same cursed page over and over again. She couldn’t believe women would even write this false crap. All women knew men couldn’t be further from what was written in the pages of a romance book, yet they still succumbed to reading them, just to keep the hope alive that one day, they could find a man like Stud or whichever fictional character they were in love with.
Fuck hope. She slammed the book shut, having had enough. Maybe nonfiction was best. The real world might be cruel, but at least the stories weren’t based on lies.
Like clockwork, Dante had come back from his swim, dripping wet in all his glory—
Stop it! She cursed herself for not finding the man repulsive for his behavior, while he continued it by lying back down in his sun lounger without a glance or word to her yet again.
Am I hideous or something? she asked herself, looking down at what she was wearing. Maybe he thought she was, and that was why he was acting that way. A lot of people wake up the next day next to someone who wasn’t up to their standards if they had been sober. For Christ’s sake, it was so common that they had a name for that—coyote ugly.