Page 14 of My Grape Crush
On the short walk home through the hush of twilight, my flip-flops crunch along still-warm gravel, although the air is cooler and infused with the fruity tang of fermenting wine and a faint brininess from the nearby lake. I feel sleep dragging me down, but I’m buoyant inside. Yes, my nose got smashed, and I damn near needed the shock of a defibrillator to kickstart my heart after witnessing her jewels. But it’s a known fact that women will mention a boyfriend or husband at the first opportunity.
And I gave her plenty of those.
Just before I pass out on the comfiest bed I’ve ever slept on, two words cradle me like welcoming arms.
Next time.
Chapter Five
DANI
After Rhys leaves,I pour myself a glass of water, ring Amelia, and mentally prepare for the barrage of questions. And the volume at which they will be shrieked. Sure enough…
“Way to keep me hanging!” Amelia shouts into my ear. “What, where, when, how? All of it. Details, puh-lease.”
I wince, pulling the phone away from my ear. “Geez, Ames. Indoor voice.”
“Don't you dare 'indoor voice' me,” she huffs. “Spill!”
I take a deep breath and stare out the kitchen window, my eyes tracing the path that leads to his villa. The last twenty minutes feel like a pixelated blur, a whirlwind of emotions and revelations. I’m still reeling, my brain haywire from being laid bare in front of Rhys. His eyes lasered to my womanhood, and if intercourse could happen with a glance, he fucked me slow and dirty.
“Rhys came over to borrow some coffee cream.”
“Cream?” Amelia's voice drips with disappointment. “That's all you've got for me?"
I nod, then remember Amelia can't see me. “What do you want me to say?”
“How about the truth? I can hear your voice,” she says accusingly. “You’re holding back.”
We are finger-pinky swear besties and keep no secrets from each other. And who else but my sister can cherish the carnage of a near-legendary blunder that left my heart a tattered wreck? My entire world sharpened into focus in that quiet moment when all my secret spaces felt exposed under the blazing intensity of Rhys’s gaze. It felt private and incredibly intimate. It left me feeling unraveled. And not unbothered. From the question that floated within his eyes, Rhys sensed it too.
And the sexy had come off him like perfume.
If I needed proof of how unprecedented this incident falls within the spectrum of my existence, Exhibit A is Amelia’s concerning state when I wrap up: one of dead silence.
Then: “After a full naked takedown, with bloodshed, you nursed him in cut-offs?” Her voice leaks with disbelief. “You heroic little skank.”
I wait for her to say more. In the history of the Rialto Sisters, the undisputed fact is this: Amelia will grace me with her opinion/advice/counsel whether I want it or not. Being around my baby sister turns back the clock. I become the girl who needs validation.
An old habit that defines us.
In school, I struggled to get B’s. She breezed through a master’s in education. I was on a mission to get fired from every waitressing gig in Vancouver. She turned down a prof gig at The University of BC to start a podcast and, eventually, make babies. She is blonde to my dark. Spunky to my steady. The Disney princess to my gnarled witch.
(Yes, sometimes it feels like that.)
She hopped from boyfriend to boyfriend like there was a never-ending supply of mesmerized men willing to fall at her feet. I wrangled my beach volleyball body into classy suits and sat alone all night at the bar, watching drunk guys fawn over petite giggling blondes in Juicy Couture sweats.
And then, cherry on the sundae of her one-upmanship, she scores an interview with Rhys for her podcast. Every word, every laugh, every thoughtful pause of that interview lives permanently in my head. Rhys sounded so sweet. So kind. I was half-certain the universe Amelia has wrapped around her finger would have sent her jetting off to Corfu to canoodle with her new Trenton Bae had she not been happily married.
So, the butterflies I’m feeling right now are not just Rhys-induced. A bit of pride is involved.
Little old me scooped my baby sister for once.
Amelia clears her throat.“So? Now what?”
“Nothing. Other than business as usual.”
She snorts a laugh. “I can guarantee you he is not thinking that.”
