Beautifully Done

by Riley Mackenzie

  “I didn’t think you were gonna show.” Chase slapped my back.

  Me either. I actually had no intentions on coming, but this was another attempt at normalcy. TP set up camp in my warped mind and was totally cramping my style.

  I couldn’t keep the flashes from the other night from swarming my vision. It had been a normal late night in the office and I had stopped in for a quick beer. Typical routine for a Monday night and not surprising when one turned into six and the hottie on the stool next to me matched me beer for beer. But the part that has totally screwed with my head was when I was bagging her from behind and my cell chimed in the other room. I wasn’t prepared for the sick pit in my gut. I couldn’t finish what I started. It was like I was cheating on her, cheating on my friend. Yeah, the friend I wasn’t even dating.

  “Nice to meet you, Sam. Your hair is gorgeous. Can I get you a drink?” Lili hooked arms with Sam and headed toward Sierra, leaving Chase and I to bullshit.

  “Serious?” Chase nodded in Sam’s direction and handed me a Heineken.

  “Ahem. No,” I spat. Damn, take a picture. This was me failing at normal miserably.

  “I don’t read minds, asshole.”

  “Yeah.” I took a swig, noticing his empty hand. “You drove?”

  “Nah, Lil tests next week. She can’t drink.”

  I nodded. “Gotcha.” I wouldn’t let my woman go through any of that alone either. Fuck. Did I just think ‘my woman’? I took another swig. It was ice cold but it wasn’t going down so easy. “You’ll never guess who I ran into?” He shrugged his shoulders. Now was as good a time as any. “Talia.”

  “Yeah?” Just one word. Seemed to be the word of the night.

  “Yeah. Get this—she’s a doctor. Crazy, right? Totally thought she’d go the music route. Anyway, she’s doing great and looks amazing.” More like drop dead gorgeous.

  “Who looks amazing?” Lil and her seriously blue eyes interrupted. She handed Chase her empty soda and smiled, waiting for an answer.

  “Just an old friend from back in the day. She lives out in California now, saw her while I was out on business a few weeks ago.” It was the partial truth.

  “From that look on your face, she doesn’t sound like just an old friend.” Chase’s wife was more of a hound than my sisters. Luckily she left Sam at the bar with Sierra. Last thing I needed was this traveling through the Craig grapevine.

  “You might be gorgeous, but you’re a pain in the ass. You know that, right?”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much.” She flicked my stomach. “You know I’ll get it out of you.”

  Chase smirked and snaked an arm around her shoulder. “She’s got your fucking number, man.”

  “No shit, Sherlock.”

  “Soooooo?” She sounded like a musical note. She wasn’t dropping it.

  “Talia Pryce.”

  Lil’s eyes widened, but not in a you mean the girl my husband dicked over way. She looked genuinely excited. “Oh my god, that’s amazing. It had to be awesome to reconnect with her after so many years.”

  Hell yeah.

  Her name meant nothing to Lili, but Chase didn’t miss it. “She married?”

  I shook my head. “Nah, long story.” One I didn’t even know yet.

  “Do you think she’d come out here for a visit? I’d love to meet her. Wouldn’t it be nice for the three of you to catch up? You know, for old times’ sake. KimCore’s New Year’s party seems perfect. I’m sure she’d love to see what you two have done in Kimi’s honor?” Her excited baby blues ping-ponged between Chase and me. “You should at least just ask her.”

  Chase leaned over and kissed her nose. “You’re pure sweet, baby.”

  I couldn’t gripe. Lili was dead on. Talia would love KimCore, or at least I hoped she would. She belonged there. “I’ll ask her.”

  Lil beamed like she just won the lotto. “Great. I can’t wait. In the meantime, what’s up with Sam? Don’t get me wrong, she’s seems really sweet, just not your type.”

  You mean blonde hair, killer legs, small tits, tight ass, sexy ass tat on her foot.

  “Cause she’s not. She’s Drew’s sister, lives up in Salem. Just broke up with her girlfriend last night or some shit. Molly called earlier, didn’t want her to be alone, and asked if she could travel home with me. Obviously I said no problem, told her I was heading out around five. Yeah, Sam took that as five PM, and showed up at my office, bags in hand.”

  “Only you, man.” Chase was amused.

  “You’re all talk, asshole. If Moll called your ass, Miss Massachusetts would be sleeping in your guest room tonight instead of mine. Don’t even try and deny it.”

  Lil used my shoulders to pull herself up onto her tippy toes and kissed my cheek.

  “What was that for? Not that I’m complaining, gorgeous.”

  “Just cause. You’re awesome. And I love you.”

  Shit, those injections were turning my sweet and sober Lili into a hormonal sap. And to think I was worried about dropping the Tal bomb on Chase. His hands were full.

  Sierra and Sam drifted back, leaning on each other, arms entwined with matching fluorescent yellow drinks. Dodd brought up the rear, lugging a large pitcher of ice water. Smart guy. But he needed to start pouring and quit lugging if he had any chance of not waking up with the baby. Ha. I saw that shit go down with my brothers-in-law too many times to count.

  Pain pierced my shin and I jerked back. “What the hell was that for?” I bitched at the half-pint spitfire, sporting auburn highlights this week. Sierra changed her hair color as often as her shoes. And my luck, tonight she was in some pointy fucking boots.

  “You have a freakin’ plane? For real? You never told me you had a plane! Lil, did you know Green Giant had his own private plane? And he flies it?”

  “Hold up, Green Giant?” I questioned, trying to get a word in edgewise. These two women spoke their own estrogen dialect, much like Kimi and Tal used to. It could get out of control, especially when Sierra went off on a tangent. And there it was, with both hands in the air, her drink—which I assumed was a margarita—splashed down the front of her light grey sweater dress. She didn’t flinch. Sam, on the other hand, jumped to pat the excess liquid off her C cups.

  Can’t. Make. This. Shit. Up.

  Chase buried his head in his wife’s shoulder to hide his laughter, Lil bit her fingernail, and Dodd feigned a coughing fit.

  In her oblivion, Sierra manually removed the redheaded beauty’s hand from her chest. “I’m good, no really. Besides, it’s all padding, babe. Breastfeeding sucks the life from the girls.” If Dodd shook his head one more time he was in serious jeopardy of herniating a neck disc.

  “What part don’t you get?” Sierra focused back on me. “Your eyes resemble those crazy contacts models wear and you’re a freaking giant.” Her contorted facial expression screamed, ‘Duh.’

  “Um, Sier, we’re about the same height, sweetheart.” I thumbed toward the two six feet plus men standing on either side of me.

  “Yeah, but he’s a quarterback.” She pointed to Chase. “He’s a linebacker.” She air kissed Dodd. “And you’re the sick ass wide receiver. You just look taller. Just cause.”

  Since when did she follow football? My cell started ringing and luckily I didn’t have to find out. “On that note, excuse me.” I fished it out of my black suit pants and turned my back on the crew. TP CELL. My balls did a happy dance. I was so screwed.

  “Hey, you.”

  “You are something else, know that?”

  The bar hum was louder than I thought, so I finger closed my other ear and made my way toward the lounge to sit in one of their high-back cushioned chairs. “If you say so, not gonna argue.” Three-hour time difference, she obviously got my delivery.

  “I’ll have you know, I was fully prepared to cook.” She tried to be snarky.

  “I don’t doubt your abilities, Teeps.” Hell no. “But now, you don’t have to. Happy Thanksgiving.” I had the
best restaurant in Coronado cater a turkey spread for twenty. Leftovers never hurt.

  “What am I going to do with you, Ace?”

  Hated that damn nickname, except when it rolled off her lips. “You’re going to spend New Year’s with me, that’s what.” I expected a pause.

  Nope. “You skipped a holiday, you know?”

  Sassy, I loved it.

  “I’ll be in France for Christmas, business.” If the trip weren’t KimCore related, the next phone call I would have made would have been to Suzie, telling her to cancel. All of December. As if nineteen years wasn’t enough of a bitch to swallow, now I had my insane work and travel schedule to thank for another five weeks.

  She didn’t question it. “What did you have in mind?”

  “You’re coming to Boston.”

  “Are you asking?”

  “No.” Because I wasn’t. “You objecting?”

  Even with the background noise, I heard her exhale, and then she whispered, “Nah.”

  “Sweet dreams, Teeps.” I ended the call and walked back to where my friends were, no doubt sporting a lotto winning grin of my own.

  Dodd was explaining the difference between Cessnas and Mavericks to the ladies, but single turbine engines were the last thing on my mind. I was counting the sips until Sam finished her anti-freeze looking drink, so we could call it a night. Ironic how I spent most of my adult life trying to make every day longer, every second count, and this blonde beauty walks back in and I was praying for a damn fast forward button. Five fucking weeks.

  “Holy shit, you pulled it off.” Not that I doubted her for a second.

  “Get out, get out!” Lili backhanded the air and then focused back on fluffing the flowers. “Ash, you’re ruining the surprise. Why. Are. You. Here?” No joke, she growled.

  Last month after another taste of life’s fucking unfair, Chase swept her away for a last minute weekend in Sin City where Lili found all the inspiration she needed to recreate The Chandelier for tonight’s New Year’s Eve party. I hoped for her sake her newfound obsession for detail was a form of self-preservation or distraction and not the ball-busting surgeon rubbing off on her. Either way, the Cosmopolitan Hotel had nothing on KimCore’s two thousand square foot marble lobby. It looked spectacular, and sexy as shit. There had to be hundreds, maybe even thousands of ten foot shimmering strands of beaded crystals.

  “Shouldn’t you be covering that up? It’s freezing outside and you’re walking around half naked.” She was cute when she was pissy.

  I smirked and looked down at my sweat drenched t-shirt and running pants. I squeezed in a quick round with the bags, attempting to shed some pent-up energy. I’d been doing a lot of that lately. This was the longest I had gone since I was twenty. I tried a couple of times. I just couldn’t seem to get past the cheating on my friend part. Because that was what we were, that was all we were.

  “More importantly, shouldn’t you be going to pick up Talia soon?” Her deep growl scaled up five octaves and she actually jumped a little, clapping her hands together. Hormone withdrawal was a scary beast. I felt bad for Chase. Lili’s moods were all over the place since she stopped pumping herself with all that shit. But I felt a thousand times worse for her. She wasn’t going to be getting pregnant any time soon, if ever, according to Chase. He called me in Europe, after the latest negative pregnancy test prompted yet another exam, and explained some rare fucked up uterine scar situation that sounded like it was named after me. It was a fine print risk of the surgical procedure she needed after all of her miscarriages. And because Lil’s had that kind of luck, she got her heart broken a week before Christmas. To say they both had a lot on their plate was an understatement. If executing our event gave her a bit of reprieve, so be it.

  “Someone’s excited,” I winked. Screw it. I was just as excited. She was here, in a hotel a few blocks away. “Just making sure all the liquor we ordered came in.”

  “Seriously if I didn’t know better I’d think you were the same person. Chase already called twice and stopped in just to be sure I didn’t miss a case of … whatever.”

  We paid event planners handsomely for handling this stuff; we weren’t concerned about running out of booze. But we obviously both sucked at making excuses. Sierra had bailed on hanging with Lil today. Supposedly, Layla was teething and needed a ‘Mommy day.’ Unintentional but salt, open wound, ouch. So instead of going straight home to shower before I knocked on the Oriental Suite door in T-minus fifty-four minutes, I made time to “check” in. And since I was here, I snuck a peek behind the bar to secure a visual on the case of Prosecco I had shipped from Italy. Just where I left it. Good.

  Lili whipped her hands in the air and scooted down the bar to rearrange the accent pieces that had been set down not two seconds ago. Dark blue and purple roses were draped by the millions on top of every reflective surface. Flowers were never my thing, but hell, they looked pretty good in this setting.

  “You trying to kill my boy tonight? You look gorgeous.” I was a schmuck for just noticing that she was already glammed up, wearing a killer one shoulder blue satin dress that matched the flowers. It wasn’t my fault. I was a little distracted ... T-minus fifty-two minutes.

  “Asher,” she snapped. “Get out! Go get dressed and pick up your girl.”

  “Bossy and persistent, he’s wearing off on you.” But I liked her choice of words. Hell, I loved them. She eye daggered me and I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m going, I’m going.”

  Lil was fine, holding it together, so I was sure as shit going, finally.

  I valeted my nine-eleven Carrera in front of the Mandarin Oriental on Boylston.

  “I’m only gonna be a couple minutes, can you keep the car running?” Sliding out of the driver seat, the wind cut through my white tuxedo shirt. It was freezing out. Even though KimCore was only a couple of blocks away I was glad I decided to drive. I opened the back door and closed it and then opened it again, finally grabbing my tux jacket. The valet attendant stood patiently waiting for me to make up my mind. “Thanks,” I mumbled in his direction.

  I pushed through the revolving doors and opened her text for the tenth time. Ready when u are. Dangerous last words. I wanted to pick her up earlier but she made a last minute engagement with a friend. She didn’t offer; I didn’t ask. It seemed irrelevant, or so I hoped. I slipped on the formal black jacket and punched at the elevator button several times hoping to make the damn thing move faster. I wasn’t sure if I had ever felt like this. Lili’s last comment was stuck on repeat in my head.

  I thought back to how Tal agreed to hang with me for New Year’s without questioning our destination. Even during subsequent conversations, she skirted the topic until she finally admitted she enjoyed the mystery, because no one—which I could only assume was a boyfriend—had surprised her in decades. That tidbit pissed me off. I was tempted to jump on the next transcontinental flight to surprise her with a fucking French croissant. If she knew me at all, she had twenty plus years of missed surprises coming her way. But a gala event at KimCore wasn’t one of them. I would’ve never done that to her. I only wished I could’ve told her face to face because the minutes of silence before I heard her resolve crumble sliced deep. I started from the beginning and talked until all her questions were answered. And by the end of the call she knew everything. Kim’s suffering, Chase’s development of the device, the struggles getting KimCore off the ground, even Lili’s accident. My chest constricted when she audibly sobbed.

  The magnitude of walking through KimCore’s doors for the first time, on New Year’s no less, was not lost on me. No doubt this was going to be difficult for her. But her strength leveled me and her poignant words when we ended that call were still permanently ingrained in my mind. ‘Chase gave Kimi a beautiful life, Asher. Both of you have. You’ve poured your hearts and souls into a project that’s not only dedicated to our truly selfless best friend, but has given hundreds after her a second chance on life.’ I fell back on my hotel room bed tha
t December night and squeezed my eyes shut. The last twenty years of my life flashed under my lids, a newly familiar sick feeling bubbled up from my gut. It finally dawned on me. Yeah, I lived in the moment. Yeah, I liked teetering on the outer edge of all boundaries. And yeah, I felt selfish half the time knowing I was given a second chance at life. But Talia’s perspective made me realize it wasn’t about being selfish. It was about being selfless. I had never given myself a chance to think about a future. I had barely given myself a chance to think about the next day, let alone the next year.

  A long ass elevator ride and five wide strides later, I found her suite door propped ajar by the safety latch. She was waiting for me, but I knocked anyway. Always a gentleman. Or at least I was a gentleman, until she opened the door. I stood frozen and drank her in. All of her. I saw my future. Our future. For the first time in my life, I had to remind my lungs to expand. Who had to remember to breathe? Everything I had ever known, ever lived by, seemed to be spiraling out of control. Time had always been irrelevant, now it needed to slow down so I could memorize this moment. She was breathtaking. Her translucent brown eyes twinkled with flecks of champagne and gold, almost reaching my own; there was no chance she wasn’t wearing a pair of killer heels. Her makeup was subtle and showcased her perfect porcelain skin. The only contrast to her soft hues was shimmery eye shadow and a sparkly lip glaze that I had every intention of licking off. Her silky blonde hair was parted to one side and pulled into a high sleek ponytail. Classic, understated. Stunning. And all she did was smile. Sweet Jesus, those lips. She was mine tonight and here I was hoping for a whole hell of a lot longer than that.

  The vessels in my neck pulsated and my heart matched them beat for beat. I was fucked. I rocked back on my patent loafers, providing some space to soak in her entire length. Whoever designed her dress hated men, hated me. The delicate sequin fabric matched the sparkles of her eyes and hit high on her thigh, showing off her sickly defined legs. It clung to the tip of her shoulders, loosely criss-crossing low in front. The neckline didn’t plunge—it just didn’t exist. There was nothing sexier than the deep triangle of bare skin between her small perky tits that were no doubt flying commando. We had that in common. Good thing my hands were already snaked in my pants pockets and responsible for pinning my arousal against my stomach. That might have disguised the evidence, but did nothing for the intense throb.