Between Friends (21 page)

“
I like your dress.” Steven
says, as he inches closer to me and grazes his hand up my bare
thigh.

“
I like your shirt.” I say
and mean it. He is wearing a very sexy denim shirt, over top of a
crisp white tee.

He blushes a bit and looks down in his
chest, “I don’t know what you’re doing to me, but I like it.
Jessica knew what she was doing when she introduced us. You’re
everything I’m looking for, beautiful, smart, and very modest. I
like that.”

I am trying so hard to feel something,
anything after Steven says this to me, but all I feel is empty. I
take a deep breath and make the mistake of looking over his
shoulder. Ben cups the back of Stephanie’s neck and a bunch of her
auburn curls wrap themselves in his fingers. He whispers something
in her ear and I immediately feel nauseated.

“
Excuse me.” I say and push
up from the table, “I need to use the bathroom.”

“
Are you okay?” Steven asks
glancing up at me with his bright baby blues.

I nod, storm past the table and push
my way into the bathroom. I slide into the nearest stall and flop
down on the porcelain throne. I place my head between my hands and
let a few tears trickle down my cheeks. Thank God no one is in
here.

“
Open up.” Ben’s demanding
tone says from the other side of the stall.

“
What the hell are you
doing in here?” I shriek and fling open the door to stare at a very
angry Ben.

He pushes himself in the tiny space
and locks the door behind him, “Don’t let that asshole shove his
hand up your dress again. I don’t like it. You got it?”

“
Open the door. Now.” I say
and shove both my palms against his tight chest.

“
Did you hear me?” He grabs
onto my wrists.

“
Go fuck yourself Ben.” I
say and break away from his hold and unlock the door. He takes a
step back and glares at me as I push past him.

When I get to the table, my heart is
beating out of my chest. Ben strolls back a few seconds later and
slides into his chair with a frown on his face.

“
Are you okay?” Steven says
and runs his fingers through my hair.

“
I’m fine” I lie and
plaster on a fake grin.

Michelle sticks her head between us
and says, “Megan will you come and dance with me? Stephanie doesn’t
want to, apparently she is on a mission.” She nods and rolls her
eyes over at Stephanie taking a shot with Ben.

I will not let him and his dirty
secrets ruin my night. I tell Michelle I’ll join her and let her
drag me up to the dance floor. I pretend to be happy and twirl
under her extended arm and sway to the music. Some random guys come
over to join our dance party, but when they start to get a little
too touchy feely, I tell Michelle I am going to get another drink.
She tells me to get one for her as she grinds up on some
guy.

I patiently wait for our drinks and
rap my fingers on top of the bar, until someone taps my shoulder
and I turn around. “Let’s go. Enough of this shit. You’re coming
with me to my villa right now.” Ben orders and reaches for my
hand.

“
I’m not going anywhere
with you.” I say and look away.

The bartender slides over the
cocktails, but Ben quickly clamps his hands over both of them and
pulls them tightly against his chest, “Why not?”

“
Give me the drinks.” I say
forcing my hands to my hips. I hate Ben and his superior behavior
as he glares at me with dark brown eyes. He slowly slides the
drinks in my direction, I snatch them and whip around, but his hand
fastens around my elbow.

“
Let go!” I shout already
feeling the tears well up in my eyes.

“
What the hell did I do?”
he asks completely dumbfounded.

I look at Ben and the disbelief on his
face, but I don’t say another word.

“
Come on Megan. Say
something. Tell me what I did.” Ben asks closing the space between
us. He is so close I can smell the rum on his breath. I push him
away and walk back to the dance floor.

Not here, not now.

Ben doesn’t approach me the rest of
the night. Instead he lets Stephanie hang all over him while he
slams back the rum and cokes. Michelle and I continue to have some
more good-natured fun, until our feet hurt and we decide we’ve had
enough. We trudge back to the table, and I make the mistake of
watching Stephanie lean over and kiss Ben’s cheek.

I’ve reached my breaking
point.

“
Well, I think it’s time to
call it a night.” I say and stumble away from the table, “I’m not
feeling so well.”

“
You shouldn’t walk alone.”
Steven says, “Let me walk you back.”

“
No, no, no. I’m more than
okay. Thanks Steven.” I say and slowly creep backwards.

“
No, I think I should walk
you back.” He insists and stands up from the table.

“
Steven, please. Sit down.
I’m fine.” I say. Steven opens his mouth to argue, but slams it
shut.

“
Are you sure?” Michael
asks and gives me an once-over.

“
Positive.” I say, and see
Ben dart his eyes at me.

“
Call one of us as soon as
you make it back to your villa. Promise?” Eric says.

I nod and start to walk away, feeling
Ben’s eyes follow me out the door. Once I am outside and safe from
his view, I let the tears stream down my cheeks.

Nothing is worse than being drunk and
feeling sorry for your-self. It is a recipe for disaster. I am half
way to our villa, when I flop down on some random steps outside of
a gift shop. I let the tears flow, because I promised myself as
soon as I made it to my bed, I would not cry one more tear over
Ben. I drop my head in my hands, wishing I could just erase
everything that happened between us. All I want is my best friend
back, but I know he is gone forever.

“
Are you okay?”

I suck up my tears and wipe them away
with the back of my hands. I look up through my long wet lashes to
see Ben standing in front of me.

“
Go away!” I shout,
“Someone might think we’re actually together!”

“
What the hell is going
on?” He takes one step closer and adds, “Holy shit you’re really
drunk.”

“
I know that!” I shout and
ungracefully stumble to my feet.

“
What the hell was that
shit you pulled back there with Steven? Are you mad at me or
something?” Ben asks moving an inch closer.

“
What was your first clue?”
I shout, and turn on my heel to storm in the direction of my
villa.

I hear Ben jogging up behind me
calling out my name, but I don’t care and it feels good to feel
that way. He grabs onto my arm, and begs me to stop and tell him
what I am so mad about. But I don’t want to say it out loud,
because it will hurt too much. Besides, it really doesn’t matter
what he says. I am done with him.

“
Megan, please.” Ben begs
with a subtle nervousness to his voice.

I cross my arms over my chest and tap
my foot on the ground, “When were you going to tell me you fucked
Stephanie?”

Ben’s face drops, he starts breathing
heavy and he doesn’t move a muscle. His nostrils flare a bit, and
he clenches his jaw. He starts to mumble something about how it was
a long time ago and it only happened once.

“
You’re lying!” I scream,
“Stephanie told me it happened more than once. Matter of fact it
happened a few times.”

“
Megan stop. It was a long
time ago –“ Ben tries to defend himself, but I don’t want to hear
him speak another word.

“
Actually Ben. It wasn’t a
long time ago. It was less than a month ago to be correct. What is
wrong with you? Is this a game to you? To fuck your friends? How
could you hide that from me?” I shout and my face turns
red.

For a moment Ben doesn’t respond. He
is completely silent. Then he takes a deep breath, “Are you
done?”

“
No I’m not.” I shout
feeling my chest tighten, “Oh, don’t let me forget to mention how
you asked Stephanie not to say anything about you repeatedly
shoving your dick in her. Just like you didn’t want anyone to know
about us! How many more dirty little secrets do you have? Are you
banging Michelle too? Jessica? Who else?”

“
Megan, it was not at all
like that.” Ben tries to reason with me. He runs his fingers
through his dark hair, and adds, “I never wanted to hurt you. If I
would have known that
this
would have happened between us, I would have never
slept with Stephanie.”

“
Oh, you never wanted to
hurt me?” I let out a hard bitter laugh “You never thought about
how much you were hurting me every time you slept with another one
of your bimbos or whores. You never thought anything about me
then.”

“
Megan, enough. We’ll talk
in the morning when you aren’t drunk,” Ben says with a hint of
frustration to his voice. He reaches out to grab my arm and lead me
back to my villa, but I pull away.

“
It’s over Ben. I don’t
want a friendship and I don’t want a relationship. I just want a
clean break.”

Ben doesn’t break his eye contact with
me when I push him away. I drop my gaze and kick off those damn
Louboutin’s. I let out a huff and storm back to my villa alone and
liberated.

Chapter 16

When I wake up the next
morning, I lie in bed staring at the ceiling. I listen to the quiet
murmur of people milling around the resort, and Michelle’s soft
snores in the bed beside me. I pull the covers up to my mouth, bite
down and let out a muffled cry. Why did I let Ben see me like such
a wreck? I should have never let my guard down. I should have never
let him see me cry.
Stupid, stupid,
stupid
!

I catch a glimpse of my turquoise
bridesmaid dress hanging in the closet and feel completely empty. I
want to be happy and excited for the wedding today; there is no
reason why I shouldn’t be. Despite Ben’s ultimate betrayal, the sun
is still shining, Jessica is about to marry the love of her life,
and I am on vacation (something I haven’t taken since I started my
real estate career).

I want to shake
myself.
Stop it!
What are you moping about? You knew what Ben was
like!

I should have known he would end up
breaking my heart. It was inevitable that he would eventually
disappoint me. He is not ready to settle down and probably never
will be. Now I am doing the one thing I never wanted to do. I am
choosing to lose him as a friend forever. A tiny unwanted whimper
escapes my lips, but I suck back my emotions and pull myself
together. Today is not about me and Ben - it is about Jessica and
Michael.

****

The morning flies by like a blur, and
I spend the rest of my afternoon trapped inside the Spa tending to
Jessica’s every little need in preparation for her big day. I still
feel like garbage, and have been less than approachable with
hunched shoulders and a permanent frown. Jessica either doesn’t
notice my misery, or she is just ignoring it. Either way, by the
time we get our hair done, eat a generous plate of tropical fruit,
and drink a dozen morning mimosas; Jessica is still all smiles. I
on the other hand can’t manage to stand up straight or even look
Stephanie in the eye. Every time she opens her mouth I cringe with
anger. Just having her in my presence, makes me sick, because it is
a continual reminder that Ben is a man-whore who can’t keep his
prick in his pants.

While Jessica’s stylist
adds the finishing touches to her sleek bun, Mrs. Ellis presents
Jessica with a gorgeous diamond necklace for her something
new
and an old antique
ring that belonged to her deceased Grandmother for something
old
. I help Jessica tie
the ring to her bouquet so it dangles perfectly from her flowers
when she walks down the aisle. Just like a good maid-of-honor
should.

Then it’s my turn for
something
borrowed
. Jessica looks expectantly at me, vibrating with excitement.
I reach into my clutch, and limply hand her my Sephora exclusive
Disney Cinderella compact mirror.

Jessica squeals and yanks it out of my
fingers, “I knew that was what you were going to let me
borrow.”

I try to force a smile and
share in her glee, but my body takes over and shrugs with wide eyes
staring off into space. We once spent many play dates as kids
imagining and re-enacting the whole Cinderella movie. Jessica would
always insist she played Cinderella, because she had the long
blonde hair, while I was left playing one of the miserable
stepsisters. When Sephora came out with that classy little compact,
I rushed there to buy one. When Jessica saw my purchase, she
insisted she had to have one too. But because it was a limited
edition, by the time she got there they were all sold out. It
killed her I had one and she didn’t, so it only made perfect sense
it became her something
borrowed
for today.

Tears form in Jessica’s eyes as she
wraps her arms around my neck and whispers for me to place it in
her clutch.