Page 15 of When Javi Dumped Mari
Javi
Now
A succession of dings on my phone wakes me from a nightmare in which Mari announces that she’s getting married to a bargain-basement Pedro Pascal. Groggy and blurry-eyed, I fumble for my phone on the nightstand. Where the hell are my reading glasses?
Snatching the phone in midair before it clatters to the floor, I hold it inches from my face so I can scan the notifications. Mari’s name jumps out at me like a jack-in-the-box. I get yet another fucking scare when I open her email and read the subject line:
From: Marisol Campos [email protected]
To: Sasha Campbell [email protected]; Brittany Holton [email protected]; Chloe Rivera [email protected]; Javi Baez [email protected]
Date: April 7, 2025, 10:00 am PT
Subject: Alex and Marisol’s Wedding
Hi friends!
Just wanted to connect everyone in the bridal party and share some details about my and Alex’s wedding, which is just six weeks away! Side note: Please excuse the formality of this email; I wanted to put everything in writing so none of you bitches could claim you didn’t know what was going on.
Chloe, meet Sasha, Brittany, and Javi. You’re my closest friends, and I’m glad I finally have a reason to get you all in one place.
Chloe joined my father’s firm when I did, and we immediately clicked.
She’s just as reckless as you are, Sash, so I expect you two will get along great.
I hope you’ll all have several opportunities to talk as we gear up for the big day (perhaps as you plan my bachelorette party, lol).
Javi has agreed to be my man of honor. Alex’s sisters have declined to participate (more on that some other time when there’s plenty of wine).
Wedding-related dates (times are all Pacific)
Dress rehearsal: Friday, May 16, 4 pm
Dress rehearsal dinner: Friday, May 16, 7 pm
Bridal luncheon and wine tasting: Saturday, May 17, 12 pm
Wedding: Sunday, May 18, 11 am
The wedding venue is Crystal Canyon Farm in the heart of Sonoma wine country.
Alex’s family will be coming from San Juan and staying in the cottages on the property.
We’ve reserved one- and two-person cottages on your behalf from Thursday evening to Monday morning, and you should be receiving your reservation confirmations later today.
If you need different accommodations, simply let me know and we’ll arrange them.
Additional details can be found at MarisolAndAlexSonomaWedding.com.
I’ve asked for time off the week of April 21, so if you wanted to plan a bridal party outing featuring a trip to a reputable strip club, my availability is wide open starting that Monday.
Let’s get on Zoom to chat face-to-face when you can.
The most pressing item is attire. I’m thinking you can choose your own outfit within the wedding color scheme (silver and sky blue).
I’ll create a Doodle poll to get your availability and send out a video invitation for a date that works for everyone.
I’m thrilled that you’re all going to be a part of my big day. I can’t thank you enough for joining me as I begin this exciting next chapter of my life.
Big hugs,
Mari
Now I understand the dings.
From: Sasha Campbell [email protected]
To: Brittany Holton [email protected]; Javi Baez [email protected]
Date: April 7, 2025, 10:02 am PT
Subject: Re: Alex and Marisol’s Wedding
That’s our girl. Always making lists and checking them twice.
Does anyone know why this wedding is happening in less than two months?
(Leaving Chloe off because I don’t know her. *inserts Mariah Carey GIF*)
From: Brittany Holton [email protected]
To: Sasha Campbell [email protected]; Javi Baez [email protected]
Date: April 7, 2025, 10:03 am PT
Subject: Re: Alex and Marisol’s Wedding
She’s not pregnant. I asked.
From: Chloe Rivera [email protected]
To: Sasha Campbell [email protected]; Brittany Holton [email protected]; Javi Baez [email protected]
Date: April 7, 2025, 10:03 am PT
Subject: Re: Alex and Marisol’s Wedding
Hey, everyone! Assuming I’m the only one who’s local, I’m happy to take the lead on the bachelorette party. My brother’s best friend is a stripper. Shouldn’t be a problem to ask him for recommendations.
From: Sasha Campbell [email protected]
To: Chloe Rivera [email protected]; Brittany Holton [email protected]; Javi Baez [email protected]
Date: April 7, 2025, 10:04 am PT
Subject: Re: Alex and Marisol’s Wedding
Thanks for offering to take the lead on the bachelorette party, Chloe. A stripper doesn’t seem like Mari’s style. Let’s put our heads together and come up with a few possibilities. Side note: Is your brother’s best friend on Instagram? I might be interested in auditioning him for a private event.
From: Javi Baez [email protected]
To: Sasha Campbell [email protected]; Brittany Holton [email protected]
Date: April 7, 2025, 10:06 am PT
Subject: Re: Alex and Marisol’s Wedding
It’s happening in two months because her dream venue has an opening. She’s been talking about it since we were in college.
From: Sasha Campbell [email protected]
To: Javi Baez [email protected]
Date: April 7, 2025, 10:06 am PT
Subject: Re: Alex and Marisol’s Wedding
Send me your number. I need to speak with you.
My phone rings seconds after I reply to Sasha and close out of Gmail. Shit. I’m not alert enough to deal with her without caffeine in my system.
I sit up in bed and crack my neck. Here goes nothing. “Hello, Sasha.”
“Don’t ‘hello Sasha’ me. What did you do?”
“Do? What the hell do you mean?”
Sasha and I haven’t talked one-on-one in ages, but I might as well have talked to her yesterday. Some people slip in and out of your life as if they know your door will always remain unlocked for them; Sasha is one of those people.
“Don’t play oblivious,” she says. “The last time I talked to that girl, she was taking a break from dating, and now she’s getting married. And before you try to act clueless, she told me about your pact, so explain to me how everything went sideways.”
“Sideways how?”
She takes in a deep breath. “So help me, Javi. This is not the time. Our girl doesn’t do anything dating-related without your approval. And now she’s getting married in six weeks? Make it make sense.”
She’s asking the impossible; I don’t know what the hell happened either. “Sasha, all I know is that she called me in the fall and said she was taking a break from dating.”
“What prompted the break?”
“She needed to regroup.”
“From what?”
“She didn’t tell me. It’s not like I was going to encourage her to date if she didn’t want to. She’s entitled to take a pause if that’s what she needs.”
Sasha sighs. “Of course she is. I’m not suggesting otherwise. But none of this is mathing, as the kids say—”
“If you need to tack on ‘as the kids say,’ then you probably shouldn’t be saying it.”
“Interrupt me again and see what happens.”
I freeze, all of my focus centered on not making another sound.
“All right,” Sasha continues. “As I was saying , if she supposedly doesn’t date a person unless you give them a thumbs-up—”
“It goes both ways,” I point out, wanting to be clear that this wasn’t some villainous scheme on my part to control her love life. Mari herself came up with the idea, and she’s disapproved of a number of women on my behalf.
“Sure, sure, I get that. Regardless, you two have this pact, then she announces she’s done with dating for a while because she needs to regroup, and then out of the blue she’s engaged.”
“That about sums it up.”
Well, the part I’m willing to come clean about, that is. If Mari hasn’t told Sasha what went down between us, I’m certainly not going to enlighten her.
“So what are you going to do about this?”
I blink several times before answering. “Do? Me?”
“Fa. So. La. Ti. Yes , you. The man who loves her.”
“As a friend.”
“Okay, well, if you’re committed to lying to me, then I won’t offer to help.”
I’m not taking her bait. Yet. Sasha’s a blabber. I’m not sure she’s a worthy accomplice. Several beats of silence later, I say, “I guess we’re just going to have to accept that our friend is getting married.”
She sighs. “You’ve met him? In person, I mean?”
“Who? Alex?”
“No, Timothée Chalamet. Of course Alex.”
“Yeah, I met him.”
“And?” she prompts.
“And I would have disapproved of him had she come to me first.”
“Which is why she didn’t,” Sasha mutters.
“Yeah, I think you’re right.”
“Oh, and Javi,” Sasha says.
“Yeah?”
“You interrupted me twice. I didn’t miss that.”
“I had a feeling you didn’t. My apologies.”
Sasha blows out a frustrated breath. “What about his socials? Anything there?”
“Only Instagram and an embarrassingly sterile LinkedIn page. The guy’s squeaky clean.”
“Ugh, I don’t like this.”
“Believe me, neither do I.”
“Okay, so I’m curious about something. Why’d you two make the pact in the first place?”
“We were kids, Sash.”
That doesn’t explain why we continued to honor it into adulthood, but that’s too long a story to share with Sasha over the phone. And much of it should stay between Mari and me anyway.
“You came up with this at Belmont?” Sasha asks. “It goes back that long?”
“The idea of it, yeah.”
“Huh, y’all are just full of surprises. I had no clue this was a thing when we were in college.”
“It wasn’t this big thing. Not really. Certainly not in the way it’s supposed to work now. But yeah, the seed was planted back then.”
Unfortunately, I suspect the moment we made the pact is when our problems began.