“Of course. I get it. I’d do anything for my friends too. But we need to figure this out,” she answered quietly.
“Absolutely.” I found my cell phone and turned off the annoying alarm. “Just, do me a favor. Give me today. Go hang out with your friends. Get some rest. See what comes back to you. We’ll meet up tonight when I get back, and we can talk more. We can decide what to do, either way.” Unable to help myself, I stepped forward and grabbed her hand.
She hesitated, but ultimately relented. “Sure. Tonight. I suppose a day or two won’t make a difference.”
With that promise we both got moving. Jillian slipped on her shoes and dug out her purse from underneath the bed. Then, with an inscrutable glance and faint ‘goodbye’, she disappeared out the hotel room and into the hallway.
I paused mid-motion, risking one more minute to watch her go. Wondering if I had handled that the right way.
Wondering what might have happened if I had told her the truth. The entire truth anyway. Would it have changed her reaction to the news if I had admitted my biggest secret to her? Would she have been more or less likely to agree to stay married if she knew?
Because the reality was, last night was far from being an unfortunate accident. It had been a long time coming.
Because what no one on Earth knew was that I had been half in love with my brother’s girlfriend since the day we met.
CHAPTER3
Jillian
My stomach gurgled angrily as the smell of the bacon wafted my way. I took the tiniest bite of my toast before setting it back down and clutching my abdomen. I might not ever eat solid food again.
Across from me, Paige and Fiona made zero effort to hide their amusement as they devoured their own meals. I glared at them, silently cursing their flawless appearances and perky, upbeat attitudes.
With an exaggerated huff, I discretely flipped them both off. “This is your fault, you know.”
“Nice try. You’re a big girl,” Paige said. “You accepted every single one of those shots without complaint. And you absolutely disappeared with Dean on your own. One second you were at the table with him, the next you were gone. You’ve known him for over a year, so we knew you were safe. Were we supposed to put out a missing person’s alert?”
She sipped her Mimosa with a satisfied smirk, knowing damned well I had no response to that.
“So, are you going to tell us what happened now?” Fiona asked, curiosity glimmering in her eyes. “You promised. Stop stalling.”
She was right, I had been stalling. When I had completed my walk of shame earlier, I had been greeted with a million questions from my two best friends, yelled at a painful volume. Or what felt like yelling to me.
Initially I had ducked their interrogation, claiming that I needed to shower and change before I could think or function like a human being again. And then once that was done, I begged for some breakfast first, even though I couldn’t even imagine ingesting a thing. I just wanted some time to decide what to tell them.
Before entering our shared hotel room, I had removed the damned ring and hid it in my purse. Eagle-eyed Fiona would have spotted it immediately, and honestly, I wanted it out of my sight for a while too. I could still feel it’s presence though, taunting me through my knock-off Coach bag.
“Come on. Tell us something. We know you left with Dean and didn’t come back to our room all night. Does that mean what I hope it means?” Paige wiggled her eyebrows. “It would serve your asshole ex right. His own brother, what a brilliant rebound! I didn’t think you had it in you. And if you had taken any incriminating pictures someone could send Eric…even better.”
“Paige!” Fiona hissed.
“What? Like we weren’t all thinking it?” Paige smirked once again. “This was the best revenge imaginable. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “We don’t even know if anything happened. And even if it did, I doubt it’s that simple. Jillian isn’t like you. She doesn’t just have random hookups, especially not five days after breaking up with a serious boyfriend.”
I sat back and watched my two best friends’ bicker, and a small smile crept onto my face. Against all odds they had found a way to cheer me up, simply by being themselves.
The pair looked similar enough to be regularly mistaken for sisters but were polar opposites in every other way. Paige was the spontaneous wild child of our group. This Vegas trip had been her idea, as all of our last-minute road trips or girls’ weekends were. She was unabashedly boy crazy, although she rarely stayed with one guy longer than a few weeks. She was the life of the party everywhere she went, always up for anything, and I knew for a fact that she would lose her mind when she heard the whole story about last night. She might even be jealous that I had pulled off a drunken wedding before her. It was one hundred percent something that she would do.
Fiona, while every bit as tall, blonde, and gorgeous as Paige, was much more reserved. She was the stereotypical shy, quiet librarian. Actually, she managed a used bookstore, but it was close enough. She was brilliant academically and the sweetest person I’d ever met, but she wasn’t great at meeting new people or putting herself out there. And she never did anything risky or unplanned. Ever. I was terrified to see her disappointed face when she figured out what I gotten up to last night.
Ifshe found out. I hadn’t decided yet. When Dean and I got the annulment, it would be like the marriage had never happened. No one would ever have to know but us. But if I told my friends, they could slip up someday, and everyone might find out.
No, it was better to keep that particular detail to myself until I had it taken care of. I had to offer them some explanation though.
“First of all, you have to understand that I remember almost nothing about last night. I remember being in the club with you two enablers, but that’s about it. Other than a handful of distorted images, it’s a huge blank. But, as for the part you care about…yes, I woke up in bed with Dean.” I said the last part quickly and quietly.
And then Paige squealed in excitement loud enough to attract the attention of the five nearest tables, causing me to duck my head in shame.