Page 55 of Marry Me Not
“You gambled on deleting it before I checked my phone. It was a bad gamble.”
“I thought you’d be asleep.”
“Yeah, ’cause I work a fucking nine-to-five.”
The girls from the bathroom spilled into the hallway and squeezed past us. Cosimo pulled me into him without warning, and suddenly, there was no space left between us at all.
He was so warm. So sturdy. His cologne filled my next breath, and I melted against him.
A heavy, drunken haze rolled through me. I shook my head, and my forehead pressed against his chest. “How are you even here right now? Did you teleport?”
“I was upstairs meeting with Les and Rom.” His response was gruff, but he didn’t sound angry anymore. His thumb brushed over my biceps, back and forth, spreading goosebumps over my skin.
A sudden tiredness gripped me. “I think I do want to go home.”
He moved his hand to my lower back. “C’mon.”
The floor tilted beneath me. I couldn’t take a single step without wobbling.
Cosimo pulled me into his side, his palm firmly on my hip. “Christ, Nettle. Do I need to carry you out?”
My cheek brushed against his chest. More of his scent. More of his heat. “Nettle?” I mumbled. “Like the mug?”
“Yeah. Like the mug.”
A smile tugged at my mouth. “I like it.”
The walk out to his car was a blur. By the time the world came back into focus, we were already driving.
Nausea churned low in my stomach. I pressed my temple to the cool glass of the window and let out a miserable sound.
A bottle of water appeared in front of me. “Drink.”
I took a tentative sip.
“Can you keep yourself together for the thirty minutes it takes to get to your brother’s house?”
“I hope so.”
He muttered something under his breath. Then more clearly, he said, “When was the last time you drank this much, Fabiana?”
“Never.” I placed the bottle into the cup holder between us. “Never ever.”
“Your friends shouldn’t have been pouring alcohol down your throat.”
“They weren’t,” I insisted. I had to defend the girls’ honor. “If I’d told them I wanted to stop, they wouldn’t have offered me another shot.” I shut my eyes again. “My next bachelorette will definitely be a lot more chill.”
A beat passed.
“Your next bachelorette?”
“Yeah. The one before my real wedding.”
“Already planning your second marriage?”
“Just in the abstract. I have to find a man to marry first.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Where do you plan on finding him?”
