Page 38 of When Javi Dumped Mari

No, Mari, stop it right now. Alex is a great guy. He’s done nothing to make you doubt him. You need to keep your head straight and focus on securing the future you’ve always wanted.

I sink my toes in the sand, then plop on my butt, bringing my knees up and resting my elbows on them.

“Hey, you,” Sasha says as she lowers herself onto her knees. “You couldn’t throw a fit away from all this mess?”

“I’m sorry, Sash,” I say, resting my head against her shoulder. “That was uncalled for. Maybe the jet lag’s getting to me.”

“It’s all right. But I don’t think it’s jet lag. It was the game.”

“Yeah.”

“Care to tell me what happened back there?”

“No,” I mutter.

“Care to respond in the affirmative if I guess correctly?”

“No,” I mutter again. “But I will.”

“Okay,” she says, sifting the fingers of her left hand in the sand. “So, something Javi said set you off. And I’m thinking that the person he had the hottest sex of his life with…is you.”

I groan.

“I knew it!” she says, her enthusiastic response dislodging my head off her shoulder. “You two-bit hussy.”

I snort. “Okay, Cowboy Carter.”

She shifts her entire body so she’s facing me. “I’m not surprised, you know. You two have been circling each other for years. More than a decade if you count college. So what’s the big deal?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Lie to me one more time, and I’ll bury you right here.”

“Okay, fine. I don’t want it to be a big deal, but it is.”

“Mari, you’re getting married in literal weeks. To someone who’s not the big deal in this scenario.”

There’s no judgment in her tone, but there is concern.

If our roles were reversed, I’d be concerned too.

But Sasha doesn’t know Javi like I know Javi.

Or understand how much I want what he can’t give me.

What even my parents couldn’t give me. And Alex is the right person for me.

There’s no doubt in my mind that we’d have an amazing life together.

Plus, my father likes him, which is a feat in and of itself.

“Sasha, it’s all going to be fine. I’m suffering from wedding jitters, that’s all. Alex and I are a perfect match. Alex and I make sense.”

“Has Alex ever fucked you against a hotel door?”

I yelp. Hearing those words out loud is so…shocking. “No, but I think he’d be up for it if I asked him to.”

“That’s not the kind of sex you ask for. It’s the kind that happens. Because you can’t keep your hands off each other.”

“Hmm” is all I say. “Anyway, what’s going on with you?”

She draws back. “What do you mean?”

“The pills, Sash. When did you start getting migraines?”

She licks her lips. “I don’t get migraines, but don’t share any of this with them: I have AFib.

It’s a heart condition. At my age, it’s likely caused by stress.

Totally manageable, hence the pills. I just…

when you tell people something’s wrong with your heart, it’s a thing. I don’t want it to be a thing.”

“Kind of like how I don’t want my and Javi’s past to be a big deal.”

“Exactly.”

“But it’s a thing, Sash.”

“It is.”

“Thanks for telling me, even though I had to pry it out of you.”

“I could say the same to you.”

“So, this thing, what shouldn’t you be doing?”

She swallows, then stares out at the sea. “Drinking too much. But good luck stopping me from doing that.”

“I don’t need luck. It’s the bride’s prerogative.”

“Shit, Mari, don’t do this to me. If I don’t drink, I won’t be any fun, and then you’ll replace me with Chloe.”

“Chloe’s a friend, but she’s not you. She could never be you.”

“She thinks she’s hot shit just because she paid for this extravagant weekend jaunt. It’s giving The Other Black Girl vibes.”

“Didn’t read it. But Chloe doesn’t think about money. She doesn’t have to. It’s both her best trait and her worst. I assure you she isn’t using it to one-up anyone. Besides, she can’t. Not where you’re concerned.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Okay, because she’s a basic bitch, and I was starting to question your taste.”

“Sash, Chloe’s not a bitch.”

“A ritch, then.”

“What’s a ritch?”

“A rich bitch,” she says, a duh expression on her face.

“That’s not any better.”

“I can’t improve on the truth.”

“What about women supporting women? Whatever happened to that?”

She draws back and rests a hand over her heart. “In this day and age? Oh, I’m all for it, but my support needs to be earned. It isn’t automatic anymore. And another thing: You know Chloe put Brittany and me in the double room because she wants to have a threesome with you and Javi.”

I snicker. Sash is in usual form; nothing’s rare when it comes to her. “I’m not even going to dignify your speculation with a response.”

“Because deep down, you suspect it’s true. Anyway, we’re getting off track. Now, at the risk of losing my first-in-class status as your best woman friend, I need to ask: What’s going on with you and Javi?”

“Nothing’s going on, Sash. He just threw me for a loop when he essentially confessed that he’d had the hottest sex of his life with me.”

“And that threw you for a loop, why?”

“Because I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Well, then, let me ask you this. If he had described a hookup with someone else, would that have been worse?”

Oh God, that would have been ten times worse. And isn’t that the crux of the issue?

Sasha stares at me, then takes my hand, covering it with hers and patting it gently.

“Like Britt said, it’s going to be a looong weekend.

” She jumps to her feet. “C’mon, let’s go to the bar and get a drink for you and a mocktail for me.

Then you’re going to explain how Javi had the hottest sex of his life with you and we still ended up here. ”

I take her hand and struggle to my feet. “Sash, I don’t even understand how we got here.”

“That’s a problem, sweetie.”

She’s right. Good thing I’m in the perfect place to bury my head in the sand.

“By the way,” Sasha says, linking her arm with mine, “when was this dirty little escapade between you two?”

I drop my head. “Seven or eight months ago.”

When I look up, Sasha’s staring at me, her eyes bulging in shock. “Oh.”

Precisely. What else is there to say?