Page 58 of Fixed Up Ever After
“Fuck, Lola, what the hell is wrong with you? Are you not listening to a damn word I’m saying?!”
“If I gave you more money on top of the fucking two hundred thousand dollars I’m giving you, would you fuck me then? It’s just a job to you, isn’t it?”
Her words rang around him like an ominous finale. The curtains had closed on the tragedy, but something wasn’t quite finished. There was more to be said, but emotions were high and running rampant. It would have been kinder if she punched him in the face repeatedly until he passed out.
After all, hadn’t he been worried about the same things? He knew the damn money would play a negative role in this, but it wasn’t fair to say everything he was feeling and the night they spent together was because of the money.
“Lola…”
He didn’t know what to fucking say. His words were not coming and he didn’t know how to make this right. He fixed and repaired things for a living, but when it came to his relationships, he was hopeless.
Lola opened her mouth to say something, but her body froze and her mouth fell open in a silent scream. She wasn’t looking at him anymore, but rather at what was behind him. Dread washed over him and he didn’t want to turn around to see what left Lola as pale as a ghost.
Despite everything screaming at him not to, Javi slowly turned around. Standing there, not even five feet away, was Luciana Roberts. Judging from the pinched expression on her face, she had heard everything. And she was pissed.
CHAPTER36
Lola
Never in Lola’s twenty-plus years of life had she ever sobered up as quickly as she did right now, seeing her mother staring at her. It reminded her of those old cartoons when a character got angry and steam poured from their ears. That was her mom to a T and she braced herself for the onslaught of disappointment about to leave her mother’s mouth.
“Dolores, what did you do?” Her mother’s voice held no emotion, just a forced patience she had only ever heard once in her life when she was caught skipping class to smoke in the bathroom in middle school with a couple of girls from her science class.
Her mom had been livid then but kept her face neutral the entire time she spoke to the principal. Luciana knew how to keep up an appearance when the time called for it, especially when it would reflect badly upon her. The moment they got into the privacy of their car her mother let her have it. How ashamed she was of her behavior and how those poor decisions could add up. How would that make the family look if she continued to make bad decisions? She had a reputation to uphold and people in their small, posh community talked.
Lola thought her reaction had been over the top then, since she was not the first, nor the last, spoiled rich kid to try smoking at school. She was just unfortunate to be a dumbass who skipped with friends that had the same class. She didn’t know how skipping one science class would doom her entire family's wine legacy, but she didn’t try to argue with her mother. Even then, she knew it would be a lost cause.
But something like this? Hearing her daughter pay someone two hundred thousand dollars to attend a wedding and pretend to be their fake boyfriend would rate astronomically higher than skipping a class and smoking in middle school.
“Mom, it’s not—”
“Don’t you dare tell me it’s not what I think. Because from my viewpoint, it looks as if I overheard a loud conversation between you and this…man,” —she spat the word like poison from her mouth— “involving sex and money. Are you hiring an escort service for your sister’s wedding?”
The words were said in a hushed tone to not let any passersby hear their damning conversation. The softer tones did nothing to hide the vitriol behind her words. Despite the tension lingering between them, she couldn’t help the laugh bubbling out of her throat. She half blamed the alcohol for her outbursts. Luciana pursed her lips together, clearly not amused by the situation.
“He’s not my escort,” she managed to stammer out between fits of giggles. It was wildly inappropriate to laugh at this moment and yet she couldn’t make herself stop.
“Keep your voice down.” She huffed, reaching for Lola’s hand and pulling her into a room only a few feet away from them. She hadn’t noticed it was there, probably because her drunk mind was processing extra slowly. Movement sounded from behind her and she knew Javi was following, she just didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing yet.
The door shut behind Javi with a resounding thud and they were left in a small room, barely larger than a janitorial closet. The light flickered on and off, highlighting the animosity brewing in the room. Her mother finally let her go, turning and muttering something in Spanish Lola couldn’t understand.
If she didn’t know her mother was pissed before, she knew now. She never talked in Spanish. Ever. Honestly, Lola barely remembered her mother knew Spanish. It was a testament to how angry she was when she unassimilated herself.
“Now, let’s try this again. Did you or did you not hire an escort to pretend to be your date on your sister's big day?” She emphasized as if Lola did not understand what a wedding was or its significance.
“I didn’t hire an escort.” Her mother visibly relaxed until Lola went on. “But I did pay Javi to be here.”
“Dolores!” her mother shouted, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “What the hell were you thinking?” Now she had her mother cussing. Pretty soon Lola would have her mother in the hospital with a stress-induced heart attack.
“It’s not Lola’s fault. I wouldn’t have agreed if I didn’t want to come,” Javi, who she had forgotten was there, spoke up.
The redness in her mom’s face reached new levels and Lola was quick to intervene. “I don’t need you standing up for me, Javi. I got this. This isn’t anyone’s fault but my own.”
Javi looked ready to argue. He opened his mouth and then seemed to think better of it. He cleared his throat, stuffing his hands into his pants pockets. Only the slightest nod of his head was all the assurance she was given, but a part of her was disappointed he didn’t try to fight harder for her. Which was a shitty thing to say after the hell she had put him through.
Too many secrets had piled up and not just from this wedding. They weighed heavily on her shoulders and she couldn’t carry them around anymore. So she started to tell her mother everything. How this all started with getting the invitation in the mail and knowing she couldn’t face this wedding alone. How she had met Javi previously—though she did not explain how they knew each other—and how she hired him to remodel Phoenix. How they came to a mutual agreement on the remodel and the wedding.
“Javi isn’t an escort. He’s my friend, who also happens to be remodeling my bookstore. I couldn’t do this alone. I can’t be here and pretend it’s not weird or ignore the silent judgment from everyone in the room, knowing Archie broke up with me for Marisol. How it could have been me up there instead of her.”
