Page 53 of Almost Not Quite Engaged
ZANE
Maui
We blow off the Scotch tasting in favor of our plunge pool and then lay around in the sun on our patio until we get ready for the wedding. After she reunited a bunch of flowers and told them all they were going to be happy we ordered cocktails to our beach chairs.
I was going to prep for Bangladesh except she wore a royal blue bikini. The color against her skin was hypnotic, as was the sway of her hips when she walked to the water. The slice of perfect ass that won’t stay tucked under the fabric. Fuck. I was not prepared, even though I saw her in a sports bra today, for the slope and shape of those tits behind triangles that are slightly too small for her sumptuous chest. I’ve been titmatized all damn day.
She asks questions about Liesel and Bill, and I babble on. Who knows what the hell I said. I don’t know if she can tell she’s stupefied me with the undulations of all those curves she keeps hidden. I’m guessing there’s a minimizer situation in the bra department. I was not prepared for the full force of Kat’s tits.
Her face relaxes into a curious look I haven’t seen before. I’m cataloging her looks so they haunt me with what ‘could have been’ later.
“Thank you.” She rolls over to face me. I roll over to face her too.
“For fuck sake, Harpy. What now?”
“The camera.” She has to stop. It wasn’t that big of a deal. I don’t use it.
“I let you borrow a camera, and you can’t stop thanking me. I give you a flawless 2.7-carat platinum-setting diamond ring and a year off from your mother, and you laugh.”
“The ring’s not real.”
Right.
As I put on my tuxedo and even more hair product, I look like a different man than in my real life. Not better or worse, just different. She does too. Her wild red curls are tamed. Her hair up and sprayed, conservative makeup, and an appropriate silk beige long shift dress. She’s the farthest thing from beige, but it’s the role I’ve asked her to step back into.
“I’m sorry,” I blurt out. She puts her hand on my arm.
“For what, your crooked tie?” She straightens my bow tie out.
“I don’t know. All of this. None of this.”
“I’m the one who couldn’t resist a helicopter ride. I have a thing for men who annoy me,” she quips while she takes the last piece of her costume out of her bag and slips it on her finger. I touch the diamond like I’m rubbing it for good luck.
We stare at each other as if we’re getting acclimated to a new altitude. I extend my arm, and as we leave I glimpse us in the mirror. We’re pin-ups for Town & Country Magazine. We look like every fantasy Birdie and Nan have ever had for us. We look like the road not taken.
I swing her around to be in front of me and she steps into my arms willingly. Not sure Kat Taylor has ever done anything willingly, but I’ll take it. I run my hands up her bare arms. She looks up at me, her eyelids full of shimmer and her lashes elongated by mascara. She’s different than this afternoon, with her faint whisper of freckles dotted along her nose. I wanted to touch them so badly so I made up an excuse to rub sunscreen on them. She’s both this and that. We were trained to be this, but she’s always more that. Fuck she hides in plain sight differently than I do. She does things differently than most people.
I clear my throat a little. “Thank you. I don’t think I said that yet.”
“Wow. How vulnerable of you. And no, thank you.” She smiles up at me.
“If it’s for the damn use of the camera again…”
She shakes her head and interrupts me by putting her finger on my lips. It’s firm and I am scaling myself back not to suck it into my mouth.
“For all of it. Except the yelling at me part or the ten minutes I had to spend with the bridesmaids.” I lean forward and she slowly drags her finger down my lips and chin. I part my lips to speak but instead kiss her forehead and walk directly out to the front of the villa.
We brace ourselves for the you’re nexts.
“You look…”
“I know. Not like me.”
“Yes, but still stunning. What? Stop looking at me like you’re waiting for a punchline.”
“Aren’t I?”
“Most days. But not today.”
