by Ward, Kira
“Fine,” he said, unclamping his teeth from his fist. “I’m putting you down for 10k, but if you fuck me, you know it’ll be your last race at The Bluffs.”
“Don’t worry man. I’ve got this.” I turned and headed back towards the food vendors to get another beer.
“Sorry about that,” I heard Mike mutter to the other guy as I slowly exited listening distance. “Were you wanting to put your $10 down?”
$10? I didn’t understand why he cared about the $10 guy when I was putting 10k on the table. I couldn’t wait to rub it in his face after I won.
“Another on my tab,” I said as I grabbed another beer out of the cooler. I opened it and started to chug.
It was time to start winning again.
Chapter 3
Amanda
“Oh my god!” I squealed. “Do you know how much I missed you?”
Travis let go of Layla’s hands and started running towards me furiously. When he was in grabbing distance, I swiped him up in my arms and squeezed him furiously.
He tilted his head back and laughed hysterically. “Hahaha!”
“You remember aunt Amanda, don’t you?”
“Yes! Haha! I see you before at the poooo.”
“I bet the beaches here in Florida are a lot more fun than the pool.” I kissed him on his left cheek and then again on his right cheek. “He is getting so freaking big, Layla!”
“I know,” Layla replied as she closed in. Layla, Mason, and Travis were meeting us just past the baggage claim at Miami International Airport.
Travis started squiggling in my arms, and as I tried to gently sit him down, he basically jumped away like a paratrooper.
I took a step forward and wrapped my arms around Layla. “Oh god. I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” Layla replied.
I pulled back, putting my hands on her shoulders. “You look so good.”
“I’ve lost a few more pounds since you last saw me.”
I glanced at Mason’s tall frame standing behind her and leaned into her ear. “Mason’s giving you some good workouts, huh?”
Layla’s jaw dropped and her cheeks lit up red. “Shut up!”
Still the same old Layla.
I pulled away and moved in to give a friendly hug to Mason too. “You’re taking care of my girl, right?”
“Of course, I am.” Mason smiled.
I turned around and glanced at Rick behind me, who was standing uncomfortably with his hands in his pockets. “Mason, I don’t think you’ve met my boyfriend Rick.”
“No, I don’t think I have,” Mason replied. He took a step forward and extended his hand to Rick. Mason towered over him.
“Nice to meet you,” Rick said as the two shook firmly.
“Thank you so much for coming,” Layla said. “I know it’s a long trip and—”
“Don’t worry,” I interrupted. “You’re my best friend. I wouldn’t miss your wedding for the world.”
After leaving the airport, Mason and Layla treated Rick and I to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. The place was packed, and we had to wait 10 minutes until a table was available. Rick seemed a little annoyed, probably because he liked to dine at more upscale restaurants—I’m not sure why—maybe because they were quieter more so than the quality of food.
We all ordered steaks, and even Rick couldn’t complain about how great everything tasted.
“So Rick,” Mason asked. “What is it that you do again?”
“Business development,” he replied as he shoved a piece of broccoli into his mouth.
“Well, that sounds… complicated and interesting at the same time. How’s things going on that front?”
“Business is great,” Rick said, purposely being short. I nudged Rick on his thigh a little, trying to encourage him to be more talkative. “I’m pretty backed up for work actually. There are a lot of startups looking to take their operation to the next level.”
Mason nodded. “That’s great.”
“And you?” Rick asked. “Layla told me you’re a… street racer?” Rick raised his eyebrows.
Mason chewed a piece of steak and swallowed. “Well, yeah. Once you’re a racer, you’re always a racer. But really, I just operate a mod shop now. Now that I have a family, I usually only find myself behind the wheel when I’m taking us out to buy groceries.”
“Mod shop?” Rick asked.
“Modification. Vehicle Modification.” Mason raised an eyebrow, surprised that Rick wasn’t familiar.
“Ahh… I see.” Rick took a deep breath in his chair and leaned back. He squinted his beady, blue eyes and pressed his lips together. “Some wine would be nice. Does this place have wine?”
“Wine at Outback?” I asked. I figured they only served Coke and other non-alcoholic soft drinks.
“Waiter!” Rick yelled and snapped his fingers, like we were at some kind of 5-star Italian place.
A short, Latino attendant approached. “What can I do for you?”
“Wine? Do you have wine?”
“We have wine.”
“Give me your best red.”
“Best red? I can get you a menu if –”
Rick rolled his eyes and signed. “Just get me some red wine.”
“Babe,” I muttered and pinched Rick on the leg.
“Yes, sir,” the waiter said, ignoring my boyfriend’s rudeness.
Rick was a stark contrast to Mason. It was impossible to deny that Mason was gorgeous, several times more attractive than Rick in both the face and body, and while Mason was quite a bit older than Layla, Rick was a lot older than me. Mason was cool and collected, while Rick was unpredictable.
I loved Rick, and I honestly didn’t care about physical appearances, but the chemistry that Mason and Layla had… their cute little family—I couldn’t deny that it made me jealous. Why couldn’t Rick be more laid back, a little more socially adept like Mason was?
And why couldn’t we have a little baby like Travis? Damn, he looked so cute, sitting there stuffing French fries in his face. It made me so envious of everything that Layla had.
But maybe one day Rick would be open to the idea. I still had my hopes.
We continued with our food, Rick being mostly silent, enjoying the couple glasses of wine he had, while Layla, Mason and I chatted, talking about days of old, life in Florida vs life in California. It was a great dinner, and I only wished that Rick had made more of an effort to participate.
“11am tomorrow morning, okay,” Layla reminded me as Rick and I hopped into a taxi. “Don’t be late!”
“We won’t,” I yelled.
Rick grunted as he stretched against the leather of cab. “Now that that’s over.”
I slid in beside him and closed the door. “What? It wasn’t so bad. I had fun.”
“I’d rather be working than sitting around gossiping about High School proms and cars.”
“Babe…”
“What Layla? He’s a street racer and she doesn’t even work.”
“She only stopped working because she’s transitioning in careers. And why do you even care about her job? It’s not like I work.”
“You do… modeling.”
“Part time.”
“Yeah, well it’s different.”
“How is it different?”
“I don’t know. Because I take care of you. Because you’re handled already.”
“Handled?”
“I mean you get whatever you want, and you know that already. You don’t have to work… even if modeling goes away, I’ve got you covered. But these guys—”
“These guys what?” I interrupted.
“Outback?” Rick raised an eyebrow at me.
“Oh my god,” I moaned and leaned forward, pressing my fingers on the side of my forehead.
“What?” he asked.
Was Rick showing his true colors? Was he really so much of a prude that he would judge someone who took us out to dinner because it wasn’t upscale enough? He hadn’t seemed
that way when we first met, but then again, he never spent any considerable time around my friends. And what the fuck? Outback is just too damn delicious to hate on.
I knew he was moody about going to Florida, but the way he was acting was making me uncomfortable about the situation. Hopefully he could chill out and get the stick out of his ass before the wedding.
Chapter 4
Caleb
“Water, coke, juice, wine?” the flight attendant asked.
“Do you have whiskey?”
The woman smiled and reached down the lowest part of her push cart, producing a bottle of Jack Daniels. She poured an ample glass of the brown liquid into a plastic cup, handed it to me, and scurried away.
I lifted the rim to my nose and gave it a long sniff before I tossed the cup back and downed the entire thing. I brushed my fingers through my short, sandy hair and let out a loud sigh.
“Brutal,” a teenage boy—17 or 18—sitting beside me said.
“Yeah? Don’t make it a habit,” I advised him with a smile. I shrugged my shoulders and swirled the last remnants of whiskey around my tongue. “What are you headed to Miami for?”
“Just a vacation with my family. And you?”
“Wedding.”
A wedding I wasn’t looking forward to. I was happy for Mason, I really was, but deep inside my head, my jealously still lingered. He had The Beast, a car that was just a legendary as him. He had an adorable child, an exploding company…. And now he was getting married?
His life just kept chugging along while I did the same shit over and over. It just didn’t seem fair.
Or was it? Maybe having to change diapers and only being able to sleep with one broad for the rest of his life was him finally getting the short end of the stick.
Yeah, I didn’t want any of that.
When the plane landed at Miami international Airport, my phone buzzed immediately with a text from my brother.
Call Me, it said.
“Hey are you okay?” he asked immediately as soon as he picked up my call.
“Yeah. I’m fine. I’ getting off the plane now.”
“You sure you don’t want us to go to the airport to pick you up?”
“I’m fine, Mason. I’m not a baby. I can handle a little bit of travel.”
“You’re not a baby, but you’re still my brother. I worry about you. Just remember…. Tomorrow at 10am, okay?”
“Yeah, I got it. I’ll be there.” It wasn’t like my brother had been away from California for ages or anything, and we would have plenty of time at the wedding the next day. For now, it was my first night ever in Miami. I heard the party scene there and ladies in particular were very, very nice.
I had every intention of finding out.
Chapter 5
Amanda
“You look beautiful, Layla.”
“Oh my gosh. I’m so nervous,” she squealed and did a little shimmy in her wedding dress. It was a long, white dress that fell behind her a few inches. There was no veil, but a thin, transparent piece of fabric fell behind her back with her beautiful blonde locks.
Just seeing my best friend in her dress got me emotional. So long we had known each other, growing together, sharing everything when we were just kids in high school. Now she was a woman with a son and a great guy who would soon be her husband. The young caterpillar had blossomed into a lovely butterfly.
And then there was me. Rick was great, but he wasn’t ready for a family with me. I wasn’t even sure if he wanted to get married sometime. And while Layla was close to her dad, my parents split up just a year after I moved out of their house. Dad moved back to his hometown in Wisconsin, while my mom stayed in the OC, falling into a bout of depression after the divorce. While we all still loved each other, I didn’t feel like I had the same connection with either of my parents that Layla had with her dad.
In a way, I felt lonely. And seeing Layla on her wedding day only made those feelings multiply.
“You’ll do great, babe,” I said to Layla, patting her lightly on the shoulder.
“Where is Travis?” She turned her head around, expecting the little energizer to be running around one of the small tents that had been set up by the beach.
“He’s in the other tent with Mason now. Don’t worry, babe. It’s all under control.”
“Okay,” Layla sighed and then took a deep breath, patting at her hips. “I’ve got this.”
* * *
All the wedding guests gathered in their seats and waited for the wedding ceremony to begin. The seats were arranged at circular dining tables with a clear procession area open down the center. At the end of the procession area was an altar overlooking a small, beautiful beach. Layla and Mason opted to keep the wedding as simple as possible, the tables acting as both a place to watch the wedding and dine once the wedding had ended.
Layla invited her father and a few of her closest friends, while Mason had invited most of his family and a few of his racing friends, some I recognize during the couple times I went with Layla to The Bluffs. All-in-all there were only about fifty or so guests. There would be no bridesmaids, best man, or maid of honor. Only Travis was acting as a ring bearer for the small wedding.
I was sitting at a table with Rick and three other guests waiting for Mason to make his appearance, when I saw people’s heads turning. Near one of the tents was Caleb, getting barked at by his brother for some reason or another. I could only assume that it was because he was late. I hadn’t seen him the whole time the preparations were being made.
Caleb’s head was sunk and he was nodding slightly before Mason smirked and pointed to one of the tables. Caleb nodded again and straightened his posture before he headed off to the direction that Mason indicated.
He stumbled slightly, choosing to walk through the sand rather than the various paths that had been created to help avoid everyone ruining their shoes. When he reached his table, he nodded to the other guests and tugged on his tuxedo before pulling the chair out and having a seat.
He looked good—really good. Caleb had always resembled Mason when he was younger, but had much more of a baby face. Now that he had gotten older, his face had gotten more chiseled, and he was just as masculine, if not more so than Mason. I had never seen him so put together before—in the dress clothes he was wearing for the wedding—but they only served to make him even more handsome.
“You know him?” Rick asked as he placed hand on my leg.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked.
“That guy who just sat down. Your eyes are burning a hole into the kid.”
“Oh…” I said, straightening my back in my chair. “I was? We… We just went to high school together. He’s Mason’s brother.”
“Ahh, okay,” Rick said as he scooted himself back further in his chair and threw me a suspicious glare.
I failed to tell him that Caleb and I didn’t just go to school together, but at some point Caleb had a huge crush on me. In fact, the first time that Layla and I went to The Bluffs to watch the races, Caleb and I had made out in the stands.
I liked him at the time, quite a lot actually. But there was another guy, the captain of the football team who had asked me out. When I chose to go to prom with Russell Blake rather than Caleb, it was the last time Caleb had shown any interest in me. I’m not sure if I hurt him, but he seemed to shrug it off like it was nothing. I even felt a little bit of a knot in my stomach when I saw him at Prom with a pretty freshman who was pawing all over him.
I looked up at Rick and then scanned the beach looking at the other guests, most of them much younger than he was. I really cared about Rick, but at that moment I couldn’t help but wonder if I had made a mistake by being with an older man who already had kids or maybe even several mistakes by jumping into a relationship with him.
What if I hadn’t blown Caleb off for Prom? Would a romance had blossomed out of that, rivaling what Layla had with Mason? What if I had another boyfriend who was ready to have children with me, a guy who wasn�
��t quite as experienced? How would my life be different?
When the wedding music started, I yanked my eyes back into focus, realizing that I had started staring at Caleb again. I placed a hand on Rick’s knee and turned to see that I had been so zoned out that Mason and the Minister had even made it to the altar without me even noticing.
“It’s starting,” I whispered to Rick.
Rick just threw me a quirky smile and nodded.
After a few moments of music, Travis appeared out of one of the tents and started walking the procession path, smiling and holding two rings neatly perched on a small pillow. There was an audible “Aww,” from all the guest the moment he was in full view. He took deliberate steps and giggled a bit right when he passed our table.
Eventually, he made it to the altar and Mason knelt slightly, patting him on the head. It looked like he mouthed “Good job, buddy.” Travis just stood there smiling, holding the rings. With as much energy as the boy had, I was surprised that Layla and Mason had managed to get him to act so relaxed and scripted.
Mason’s demeanor looked a little tenser the moment that the music cueing the bride’s entrance started, but there was no turning back at that point. Seconds later, Layla appeared, glowing like I had never seen her before.
She met with her father right before she reached the procession path, and he walked her arm-in-arm until they finally reached the altar.
Travis jumped a little when his mother reached him and grunted loudly. “Mom and Daddy getting married!”
Everyone laughed. He was adorable.
He looked like he had lost interest in the rings he was holding, and I thought that any moment they would fall right off the pillow or he’d just drop the whole thing.
Rick looked like he was a little bored, and I saw him make a few soft blinks and a yawn as he stared towards the altar watching the show.
Layla’s father rolled off to the side and the music stopped as Layla and Mason stood face-to-face staring each other in the eye, the Minister looking on behind them.
