Pink Ice

by Carolina Soto

“Shut up! You don’t know what you are talking about! Back then we were not together, a little while after that we were just messing around, but things are different now.” Fuck! I gave a little too much to her.

  “Different? How?” I could hear her little brain overworking about this.

  “Exclusively messing around?” My voice was too hesitant to make her believe.

  “Ok, since you avoided your best friend for this long, I want to know it all. Spill Bianchi.”

  Oh God! Why are you punishing me like this? Oprah had nothing on Michelle, she could make a dead man talk, so I better cooperate before she started with her usual tactics. “What do you want to know?”

  “Sex, of course. Good? Bad? Size? Dirty talk? Abs?”

  I would chop Dylan’s balls if I hear him talking about how I am during sex, so let’s keep this classy. “Most perfect abs in the world. Almost no words in the bedroom. I am not talking about size, you are a disgusting bitch. And marvelous, sex with him is marvelous.”

  “First, how do you know? You have no prior experience to compare to. So, I think you need to be more detailed so I can be the judge of it.” You wish!

  “Trust me, I know.”

  “Arggghhh! Second, I don’t know why you don’t want to talk about size. Marc, for example, is big and thick and I have no problem telling you this. Also, I have seen Dylan’s hands…they’re huge!”

  “I will never see Marc again, just letting you know, and no, I won’t talk about Dylan’s big, huge, enormous...hand” I could hear Michelle smiling through the phone.

  “You lucky bitch! As I know you are dying over there, I’ll be nice and ask just one more question. When did you sleep with him the first time?”

  She didn’t fool me for a second, her ‘last question’ could only be that or a date for our wedding. “The charity gala night.”

  The silence on the other line startled me, she remained silent for the first time in her life. “I am going to kill you! You kept me in the dark for too damn long!” She was really angry now, so the plan was not exactly what I had thought. Stupid plan!

  “It was a one night stand, ladies don’t talk about one night stands.”

  “You are too bitchy to be a lady, Katherine. As soon as you get your ass here I want a reenactment of the sounds he makes in bed, the way he kisses, and you better take pictures of his “hand”.”

  “M you are sick! I am dying to see you.”

  “Me too, baby.”

  “Love you, M. See you in a couple of days.”

  “Love you C. Can’t wait!”

  That went fairly better than what I had imagined. Now she would taunt me forever about Dylan’s size, but to her standards, that was fine.

  The days went by and everything was perfect. My job was much more pleasant without that little witch, the pain in my wrist was almost gone, and Dylan, ohhhh sweet ass Blue Eyes, was perfect. The week of the wedding he flew to Chicago first, he needed to attend the bachelor party and I had a meeting with a new client, so I had to take another flight.

  My Blue Eyes was really excited, the only thing he could talk about was how I was going to love Chicago. I probably would with him as my tour guide. On Friday morning I arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, where Max was waiting to drive me to the rehearsal. Our coming out. The first time that we would be together in front of a crowd of strangers, his best friends and my best friend. I was sweating like a pig, the nervousness eating me alive. Getting dressed in an airport bathroom didn’t help, we had no time and Dylan was reluctant for me to see his place for the first time without him.

  I got into the church by a side entrance, the bridesmaids and groomsmen were on the main door being organized. Completely out of place, since I had no business being there, I sat at the back, trying to be as invisible as I could. I wasn’t part of the wedding and being there felt like an invasion.

  I was lost in my iPhone, when I felt a little hand over my knee. The most beautiful girl, with curly brown hair and big hazel eyes was staring at me. “He asked me to give you this.” Her little hand gave me a piece of paper.

  “Thank you, what’s your name?”I asked her while I opened the note:

  You look beautiful, doll.

  The clean and elegant handwriting was Dylan’s. I turned around to see him, but the doors were closed so I couldn’t find him. I was distracted by a sweet voice. ‘”I am Maya. You are Kathrine, right?” I found her mispronunciation as the beginning of a new friendship.

  “Yes. Nice to meet you Maya. So, a nice guy gave you this?” You are sick! Little girls don’t drool like you!

  She didn’t even think about it, and without invitation jumped to sit in my lap. “Yes, his name is Dylan. I met him today. He’s nice, and he gave me a dollar for the favor.”

  I couldn’t picture the GQ cover, aka Dylan, charming a girl with just one dollar. “You should have asked for more.”

  “I know but I was trying to be nice. He’s uncle Spence’s friend.” She was playing with her hair while talking. “Do you like princesses?”

  “Yeah, my favorite is Sleeping Beauty.” It was cool to have a new friend, Michelle probably was getting old and I needed someone younger. A strong hand laid over my shoulder.

  “You look adorable, doll.” His eyes were shining and a beautiful smile made him look sexier than ever. “Maya, thanks for helping me with Miss Katherine, but your big entrance needs to be rehearsed.”

  Maya gave Dylan a nasty look and got down from my lap. “I have to go, I am the flower girl. But, will you be at the wedding tomorrow?”

  “Sure princess.”

  She smiled at the word as if she had never been referred by it. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She smiled and took Blue Eyes’ hand. My heart clenched. Stop thinking stupid things! Too soon! Too improbable! Yes, I was becoming one of those girls who at the sight of a kid only could think about her own children. A blue eyed baby boy, a long black haired little girl, yes, I was being that dumb. Don’t you dare name them or I’ll kick you!

  I watched the whole procession in absolute boredom, until I saw that stupid woman, Tamara, walking with one of the groomsmen. The woman who thought she was meant to marry Dylan, and the only female that he considered part of his close circle. I never thought that she would be here, and for some reason jealousy flooded on my whole body. I hate her! She better take those clingy eyes off of my man! Whoa! My brain was claiming Dylan, hard, and this time I was not going to fight it. She wanted him, and I could only think about killing her with my own hands. Probably I was probably going to need a confession after the thoughts I had being in a church.

  After a long torture we left. Blue Eyes came to take my hand in his, pulled me to him, and carried me in the most Rom-Com scene moment ever to an empty space where no one could see us. “Hello, doll, I missed you.”

  “The 36 hours apart made you miss me?” I stared at his eyes, still with my feet in the air. My silence made him nervous, but I was just messing with his head. “Thank God, because I missed the hell out of you!”

  “Mouth!” He lightly spanked me and kissed me numb. “Let’s go! We have to attend the lunch, then I’ll take you home.”

  I was not a bit excited about this, and he was probably as uncomfortable as I was, but his only friends meant we needed to suck it up. He drove to Spencer’s house, made me avoid everyone who was in the living room and dragged me to the kitchen. No, I won’t fuck him in this kitchen! No way!

  Behind the counter a beautiful middle aged blonde woman was putting something in the oven. When her eyes met Dylan’s a big smile crossed her face. “Dylan!” He dropped my hand and took her in his arms.

  “Claudia!” I was shocked, he had never been so warm to anyone but me. Without letting her go, he removed one of his hands from her and extended it for me to take it. “I want you to meet someone.” His blue eyes looked at me smiling. “This is Katherine Bianchi, my girlfriend.” Whoa! I was still trying to get used to having a sexy piece of ass referring to me as
his girlfriend. “Doll, this is Claudia, Spencer’s mother.”

  “Oh God finally! I didn’t think my eyes would ever see this.” She extended her arms to hug me. I hated hugs, but this woman was important to Dylan, so I did my best to take her in my arms, almost not being stoic, almost. “You are an absolutely perfect girl, my kid told me everything about you, and I think he didn’t do you any justice.” I was lost in her kindness when something tiny pulled my dress.

  “You are here!” Little Maya was more excited to see me than Dylan had ever been! I took her in my arms and carried her against my hips.

  “Yes, beautiful, I am here.” Dylan was looking at me suspiciously. So as the lady I was portraying I lowered my voice. “Stop looking me like that before I kick you’re A-S-S.” I have a sailor mouth, but even I know to be careful around a little girl.

  “Kathrine said ass!” The little girl was giggling and I was peeing my pants that Claudia would kick me out for my classy display.

  The other guys, Marc and Spencer included entered the kitchen. “Man let’s go to the terrace, we are in charge of the grill.” Marc was pushing Dylan with his shoulder. I couldn’t imagine tight ass Berkeley getting close to a grill, let alone be in charge of it, but this was Spencer’s special day and he was playing along. Which meant that he was probably making Joe take care of it.

  Dylan turned to face me, like asking me to let Maya go and accompany him to the terrace. But I was not ready to be the clingy girlfriend in public, yet. So I acted as detached as always. “Go with them, Miss Maya and I will have fun in here.” He kissed my head, kissed Maya’s cheek, knickers melting, and left with the guys.

  Maya and I sat at the table next to the counter to draw some princesses and dresses. A time or two I found Dylan staring at me from the window, but I didn’t want to react to him, ten minutes apart wasn’t that much. Yeah, right! Soon someone noisily entered the kitchen and dropped herself in the closest stool. Chelsea, Spencer’s fiancée, a thin curly brunette who looked like an older version of Maya. I had never met Chelsea before the rehearsal, but I liked Spencer a lot, so she had to be as nice as he was.

  “Hey Claudia! Have you met Katherine here?” She put her feet over the counter, and I only could think how casual she was with her mother-in-law. Claudia nodded, smiling and winked at me, while Chelsea continued. “I was dying to meet you girl! Maya your mommy is looking for you in the living room.”

  The little girl rolled her eyes over the interruption to our drawing session, and left the kitchen. I walked to the stool next to Chelsea. “Thanks for having me here today, I know this is just for the family and friends.”

  “You are kidding, right? I wanted to fly to New York to meet you. The woman who has Dylan Berkeley eating from her hand! You are my idol girl! Since that San Antonio trip I was dying to see if you were as perfect as the guys said you were.”

  I immediately liked her, I had yet to see Michelle, but I understood why she had become friends with her. “I don’t have that perfect mouth eating anything from my hand, but we are trying and I like staring at him so I’ll keep him around. And thank you darling, but I don’t have a perfect bone in my body.”

  “Katie, the guy has been an uptight, pretentious man for years, now he is talking with my little niece to send love notes to you! If I didn’t know better I would think he hit his head, hard!” If you knew me, you would think I am the one with personality implantation.

  I laughed and tried to keep the attention away from me. “You are kind of cool Chelsea, this is your day and here you are talking about me. So dish, how did you meet Spencer?”

  “Harvard.”

  “You studied with them.”

  “Oh God no, my friends and I went to Harvard Square on weekends to pick up guys. I was determined to marry a Harvard Doctor. But then, one night we were in a bar and all the girls were crazy because the infamous Dylan Berkeley was there. We were betting on who was going to get lucky with him that night, and that was when Spencer came to me and never left.” Claudia was smiling fondly to Chelsea. “I lost all my friends that day, they hated me for not setting them up with Dylan.” She was over sharing, and even I couldn’t understand why, but in some way it seemed quite natural to her. “So, I have shared, your turn. There’s something that’s driving me crazy, explain me how someone that looks like you had remained single for this long?”

  And that’s why she was over sharing, God, I couldn’t lie in front of Spencer’s mom. “Well, I made all the decisions in life to avoid socializing. I always put school, and then my job first. And decided that I was not going to lose my time for something that wasn’t ‘I would kill to kiss you’ kind of love. I was not risking everything for something boring. There are many too boring things in life to make love one of them.” After a reflective silence I continued, Chelsea and Claudia paying all their attention to me “That, and the fact that I am perceived as a bitch and I scare men without even talking.”

  They both laughed and Chelsea pointed a big carrot she was chewing at me. “So, Dylan is different? You two have that, ‘I would kill to kiss you’ kind of love?”

  I froze. Was he? This wasn’t love, I didn’t even know what this was, but I was positive this was not love. But then why did I go out of my usual ways for this man? Yes, he was hot as fucking hell, but was that enough? I was more scared than a sinner in the apocalypse.

  I don’t know if they noticed the inner monologue occurring in my head, but Claudia turned to us. “Ok girls, too much talking, now it is time for you to help me.”

  Chelsea stood up as fast as she could. “That’s my sign to leave, I’ll go gather my bridesmaids.”

  Still panicked by my revelation, I walked behind the counter and took the apron Claudia was handing me. Damn I had become soft over a hot ass, and now I was even playing to be Bakery Barbie. I had never tried to cook anything, I wasn’t even sure why Spencer’s mom would be doing this. Catering services were usual for these events, but then she asked me to help her and my mommy had raised a lady, ok, in some things I was a lady. “Don’t look at me like that Katherine, this is my only son’s wedding, I don’t want staff cooking.” I wasn’t sure, but probably my stupid face was that transparent.

  I was lost in the boring task that Claudia asked me to do, peeling thousands of fucking cherries, when all the bridesmaids, minus Chelle walked through the kitchen. That’s when that bitch, Tamara walked by, whispering to a girl I didn’t know. “What the hell is she doing here? He had already dumped her, maybe he just feels guilty.” What is this? High school? Apparently some bitches never grow.

  I was going to turn around and rip her hair out of her skull, because you are one of those bitches that never grow, when Claudia grabbed both of my hands. “Breathe Katherine. You know she’s just messing with your head.” She had heard, that was even more embarrassing.

  I couldn’t push Claudia away, from the short interaction I noticed she was the closest to a mother that Dylan had, I couldn’t go aggressive with her, so I tried to calm down. “Sorry, but I hate her. And forgive my profanity, but the only thing I want is to kick her ass.” When the hell did I become this possessive about Blue Eyes!?

  She laughed. “Don’t apologize, I would use the same word if a woman looked at my husband like that. But that girl has been mooning over Dylan since they were kids, of course she’s jealous. We all thought he didn’t have it in him, but then you came and changed everything.”

  I stayed quiet taking deep breaths when my stupid mouth talked without my permission. “I guess I am just scared.” I forced my lips to close, I hadn’t even thought about my insecurities and my subconscious was there discussing my fears with Spencer’s mother. “I am afraid that I am just a whim, and the moment he thinks he has me, he will lose interest.”

  “Then you are not as smart as everyone thinks.” She had my hands in hers, and didn’t want to let me go. “If you see that boy’s eyes when he looks at you, you’ll know he is crazy about you, Katherine.”

  Wow, I
liked Claudia, I liked her a lot. She put my hands over the chopping block and motioned me to continue with my task. Before I could reply, Dylan came to the kitchen. “So you can act like a lady, doll.”

  What the fuck Berkeley! “I never said I couldn’t.”

  “You never showed you could.” He was coming to hold me and I just backed away with ‘I’m going to chop off your balls’ eyes. Claudia had prevented two murders in that kitchen, because the only reason why I was not stabbing Blue Eyes was Claudia, and maybe those abs.

  I put my hand in front of me not letting him approach me. “Where’s Michelle?”

  When he noticed I was not letting him come to me, his eyes became sharp and threatening. We were not making a scene in front of Claudia, but we were losing it. “She had problems with her dress and she is getting it fixed.” He grabbed my good wrist with more strength than necessary. “Are you ready to leave?” He didn’t even wait for my answer before pulling me in front of him.

  “Aren’t you eating here?” Claudia was oblivious to our exchange.

  “No Claudia, thank you for everything. We’ll see you tomorrow.” I couldn’t even say goodbye, he dragged me to a beautiful black Jaguar and opened the door for me. Max was not waiting for us, so I had no way out.

  As soon as we were in the car, he took my chin in his hand and made me look at him, wanting answers for my dark mood.

  “So I am not a lady, asshole!?” Yes, the comment was shitty, but he was really paying on Tamara’s half, no, he was not going to know about it though.

  “Oh God, I was just kidding!”

  “Were you Dylan? You are a jerk! If you don’t like the way I am just leave me alone!”

  He manhandled me and put me over his lap, I didn’t even know how he managed to do that, but my knickers were wet by the display. “Don’t.”

  “What?”

  He was getting angry at me, yes I was being a bitch, but he had exposed me to that stupid witch that had no respect for us at all. “You are not going to pick a fight with me just because you are scared of this!” He kissed me hard and bit my lip just to prove his point. “Now get in your seat so I can take you home.”