Chapter 5
1566 Words
He sighs soundly before he lowers himself into the seat beside me.
"Lemme guess, trouble in paradise?"
I shake my head at him.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Why are you drinking yourself silly in the middle of the night?"
"I'm trying to remember the part where I invited you to sit here."
"It's a public restaurant, and I didn't see any reservations on the bar stool." He grins at me. "You wanna call the cops?"
I roll my eyes before I turn away from him. I pick the glass from the counter, and I take a deep breath when he stops me a second time.
I turn to him with murder in my eyes.
"What do you want?"
"If you're going to drink, at least let me join the party."
"No."
"Why not?"
"There's a ring on your finger. Isn't your wife waiting upstairs?"
He nods at my hand.
"There's a ring on your finger. Isn't your husband waiting upstairs?"
"I asked first."
"As a devout feminist, I honestly believe that ladies should go first."
"Fine." I close my eyes very briefly when I feel the tequila starting to kick in. "He has another woman."
He laughs.
"My wife too. What a coincidence."
"What?"
"How long have you two been married?"
"A couple of hours. You?"
"A couple of hours."
"You got married today?"
He nods.
"Yup."
"Where is she?"
"I have no idea."
"She's not here with you?"
"No, she's not."
"Are you going to tell me the entire story or should I mind my own business?"
"Like i said, ladies first. You tell me why you're here getting s**t faced when you should be lying in your husband's arms."
"Well, it's a long story."
"Believe me, I have time."
I take a deep breath.
"Mine is an arranged marriage. My parents needed money, his parents needed a daughter in law. It was a clean swap."
"Not so clean, apparently, or you wouldn't be here right now drinking your ass off."
"Well, he just confessed that he has another woman."
"Why didn't he get married to her?"
"His parents didn't like her enough."
"And he just does whatever his parents ask him to do?"
"Wouldn't any good son?"
"How do you feel about him?"
"I used to have a mega crush on him back in college. I'm not over it yet."
"So knowing that he has another woman breaks your heart?"
"Pretty much."
He blows out his breath before he pushes the tequila shot to me.
"Take it. I think you really need it."
I tip the glass back and I swallow the contents. I'm starting to feel light headed, and it's the best feeling I've ever experienced. The bartender replenishes my glass, and I play around with it as I study the new guy.
"So, where is your wife?"
He shrugs.
"Like I said, no idea."
"Isn't she supposed to be here with you?"
"Yeah, but she isn't here. We ran into complications."
"I told you my story, so I think I deserve to know yours."
"We were in the church, getting married, and the priest did that trickster thing that they always do."
I shake my head.
"Trickster thing?"
"The part where they ask if anyone is against the marriage."
"So, someone actually was against the wedding?"
He nods.
"She walked in at that precise moment. She was exquisite. Hot, sexy, graceful."
"That's why you were cheating on your wife with her? Because she's hot?"
"I wish." He turns to stare at me. "She's in love with Cassandra, not me."
"Cassandra?"
"My wife."
"You're kidding, right?"
"She produced a birth certificate. They've been dating for a while and they adopted a kid together. Every time that Cassie said she was working the night shift, she was actually with her lesbian lover and their ten year old son."
I push the glass towards him when he sighs into his hands.
"Here, drink this. You need it more than i do."
He drinks it down without a fuss. The bartender refills the glass, and I nod at him when he asks if I want another drink.
"So, Cassandra doesn't like men, right?"
He laughs.
"She plays for both teams. She said that she loves me and Cecilia equally, and she didn't want to choose. Well, I didn't have a problem choosing. I obviously wasn't going to share my wife with another woman, so I left her to be with Cecilia."
"That's crazy."
He turns to look at me.
"Is it?"
"I mean, how can she love two people?"
"She was hoping to talk me into an open marriage where she gets to do her s**t and I do mine. I obviously wasn't going to do accept that. I know myself very well. I'm possessive, jealous, and borderline overprotective. Sharing my woman with another man or another woman for that matter is totally off the table."
"And her lover- what's her name again?"
"Cecilia."
"Why did she stop the wedding?"
"She decided that she wasn't going to watch the love of her life get married to another person. I can't blame her. I would do the same."
"And all this time, you never suspected that Cassandra was having an affair?"
He snakes his head.
"I've dated that girl for the last six years and I never suspected her. She doesn't have any male friends and I never imagined that she was interested in both men and women."
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't be. I'm a man. I'll be fine."
"So why did you come here? It'll only make you feel lonely."
"We always wanted to come here for our honeymoon. We booked our suite two months ago. We already had plane tickets, drivers and everything. The least I could do was show up for my honeymoon, with or without her. I owed myself that."
"And here I thought I had real problems."
See, your problems are nothing. I have way bigger issues."
"Congratulations. You're the winner."
His lips lift in a smirk.
"Thanks."
I watch him as he downs another tequila shot before he turns back to me.
"So, this arranged marriage of yours. Do you think it's going to work?"
"I have to make it work."
"Why?"
"Did you miss the part where my parents traded me for a small fortune? I'm stuck with this guy now so I owe them a good marriage."
"No, you don't. You're going to live with this man for the rest of your life. He will scar you."
"He already has. I loved him all through college but he never looked my way even once. Now I'm married to him and he somehow turned me against my parents just before he told me that he has another girl. That, is f*****g scarring."
"Are you open to the idea of an open marriage?"
"You mean where he'll be able to f**k his girl and I can get a man outside marriage?"
"That's pretty much what an open marriage means."
"The answer is hell no. I married this guy because I actually wanted to be with him. I thought that maybe we would give the marriage thing a try."
"You will get your poor little heart broken."
"I know. I can't help it."
He shrugs as he raises his glass.
"Let's drink to your heartbreaks then."
I smile as I click my glass to his.
"To heartbreaks."
I place the glass on the counter once I drain the tequila. I'm feeling lightheaded and I really like that feeling. I know that I'll still have to face my problems tomorrow but for now, I can just act like I don't care.
"So," he says as he looks me over. "You wanna do something fun?"
"What do you have in mind?"
"For starters, we can go to the beach. I heard it's phenomenal at night."
"I think I might be a bit too tipsy for that."
"But that's exactly why I'm here. I won't let you pass out on the sand."
"And how do I know that?"
"You don't."
"Then I'm not coming."
"You really want to go back to your hotel room and stare at your cheating husband all night?"
"I'd pick that over having a walk at the beach, with a stranger, in the middle of the night. You could be a serial killer for all I know."
He laughs.
"You really think that I would kill you on your wedding night? Is that how highly you think of me?"
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
"Fine."
"Um, Miss? The bill?" The bartender calls out loudly.
"I got it." Mr handsome stranger charmingly places a few bills on the table. "Keep change."
"Thanks." I comment as we walk away from the bar towards the exit.
"It's nothing. You wanna pay me back?"
"Yeah. I insist."
He c***s an eyebrow.
"Just tell me your name. That'll be enough."
"Camille. Everyone calls me Cami. You?"
"Gabriel. Everyone calls me Gabriel."
"Gabriel like the Angel?"
"Yeah, Gabriel like the Angel. My version is just darker, cockier, more perverse." He glances at his cufflinks. "Richer."
"You forgot to mention prouder."
"Knock off that judgemental attitude."
A cool voice stops me just as we get to the exit.
"Cami?"
I turn around slowly.
Brent is standing a few feet away, his hands shoved in his pockets, his eyes narrowed at Gabriel.
- Writer
