Girls' Night Out_A Novel

by Liz Fenton

  “We need to have you tested to see if there are any drugs in your system.”

  “Of course,” Natalie said, but the idea scared her. What if there weren’t? Would they think she was lying about her memory loss?

  “We’ll have someone escort you to the hospital as soon as possible. There is a private facility I recommend in Mérida. Unfortunately, it’s two and a half hours away, but I would not send you to a public one. You have medical insurance, yes?”

  “Yes,” she said and was hit with a wave of fear. She was being questioned by the policía. She had to get tested for drugs. Ashley was missing. The window for a happy ending—finding Ashley safe and sound and signing the Revlon deal and fixing her finances—was closing rapidly.

  “What was your week like with Ashley? You mentioned tension last night, but how were you getting along otherwise?” Officer Lopez asked.

  Natalie sighed, deciding he was the bad cop. She thought about the arguments they’d all had—the tension tightening around them like a straitjacket. She should be honest. Especially if Lauren told them the truth. It would only make her look worse if Natalie pretended otherwise.

  “Things were strained during the week, too.”

  Officer Lopez cocked his head, as if waiting for more. Natalie wasn’t about to offer anything additional. “Why were things strained?” he pressed.

  “Girl stuff. We’ve been friends a long time,” Natalie said. Twenty years—a lot of history, a lot of baggage. But also a lot of good times. Why hadn’t those taken center stage instead? Why was it always easier to let the bad things have the spotlight?

  “Why would you leave with Ashley from the bar if things between you were as tense as you say?”

  “I don’t know. I wish I did. My guess is I didn’t want her going off alone with Marco. Not because I thought he was going to hurt her, but because this is Mexico. And I’ve always looked out for her, you know?” she said, but they didn’t respond, so she continued. “But my mind goes dark from that point until this morning.” She wished she could explain the feeling of sheer terror that came over her every time she couldn’t access that black hole in her mind—like a panic slowly consuming her, bit by bit.

  Should she offer that she’d woken up on the beach? No, not after the way Officer Lopez seemed to have it out for her. Especially because it could mean she was connected to what happened to Ashley—and that idea, she could not even wrap her brain around. She needed to take Maria’s advice to be careful.

  “What about Lauren? How was she getting along with Ashley during the week?”

  Horribly.

  “Like I said, things were tense.”

  “Did they have any arguments?”

  Natalie thought of trying to avoid the question, not sure what Lauren might disclose. But she had to be honest about everything she could be. “They did, at Chichén Itzá, but I wasn’t with them—I didn’t hear it.”

  “When was Chichén Itzá?”

  “Two nights ago.”

  “Chichén Itzá closes at dusk,” Officer Garcia said.

  “We had a private tour—after hours.”

  “You know those are illegal.”

  Natalie didn’t respond. She regretted not going up. Letting her conservative side win out yet again. The side of her that went back and paid for an extra Americano the coffee shop hadn’t charged her for the day before. Because maybe if she had climbed El Castillo, things would have turned out differently. Maybe she could have helped Lauren and Ashley mend their relationship.

  “What was the argument about?”

  “I just told you—I wasn’t with them when they argued.”

  “Where were you?”

  “I stayed at the bottom of El Castillo when they climbed up. They fought there—at the top.”

  “They climbed El Castillo?”

  Her cheeks flushed. “Yes . . .”

  “I’m going to need the names of the tour guide and anyone else involved.”

  “Will they be in trouble?”

  “You don’t need to worry about that.”

  Natalie sighed. This was such a colossal mess. “I’ll have to look in the room to see if I can find the names. Marco set it up for us.”

  “The Marco that is nowhere to be found?” Officer Garcia raised his eyebrow. “So is that why things were tense between Lauren and Ashley last night? Because they had argued at El Castillo?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  “Well, it seems odd that she wouldn’t want to leave with her friends—that she’d rather stay by herself at a bar in Mexico,” Officer Lopez said. “How angry was she at Ashley that night?”

  Natalie regretted telling them. She should have let Lauren answer that question. “Are you accusing her of something?”

  Officer Lopez frowned. “Should we be?”

  “No!” Natalie said, her voice rising. “Yes, she was pissed at Ash. She was ready to go home. But she’d never hurt her,” she said adamantly, even though there was a small voice inside that reminded her how incensed Lauren had been the night before. She shoved down the thought. No way.

  “Did Lauren come back to the hotel immediately?”

  “As far as I know, yes,” Natalie said, thinking of Lauren’s earlier confession about José. But they had only asked her if Lauren had come back, and as far as Natalie knew, she had.

  “As far as you know? Well, we will be sure to ask her about that. Seems strange you can’t remember, and she’s not trying harder to help you fill in more holes that concern her part in all this,” Officer Lopez said.

  “She’s doing her best. It’s been a hard day.” Natalie was exhausted and knew that Lauren must be feeling the same way. Like it or not, they were in this nightmare together.

  “What’s Marco’s address?” Officer Lopez asked.

  Natalie pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to them.

  “Have you notified Ashley’s family?”

  “Yes, her husband is on his way down here.”

  “Okay, we would like to talk to him when he arrives. Will you let him know that?”

  “Yes,” Natalie said.

  “Anything else you’d like to say?” Officer Lopez looked at her pointedly.

  Natalie thought of the emojis Ashley sent Jason. Maybe they’d be able to decipher them. “Ashley’s husband received a text from her last night.”

  “What did the text say?” Officer Garcia asked.

  She described the three emojis.

  “What do you think they mean?”

  Natalie took a deep breath. They could mean so many things. That she left. That she was taken. That she was planning to hurt herself. That last one was hard to imagine—Ashley had always loved life. Been a spark that ignited others. But according to Lauren, Ashley had begged to save their friendship. How much pain had she been in last night?

  “I really don’t know, I’m sorry,” Natalie said, feeling sick at the thought of Ashley being so upset she’d hurt herself. She decided to keep her theories to herself. Because they were just that, theories.

  “Thank you,” Officer Garcia said. “We’ll talk to Lauren now. And we’ll send someone to escort you to the hospital for the drug tests. Be sure to stay available should we need to reach you at any point today. And please don’t leave Tulum without telling us.”

  Natalie forced back the tears that were threatening to fall. She bit her lip hard and looked at Officer Lopez.

  He stared at her, a skeptical look on his face. “Or if you suddenly remember something.”

  As the officers walked away, she wanted to scream after them—Remember what? What do you think I’m hiding? But she was already yelling those words in her own mind. At herself. She rolled her shoulders, trying to loosen the knots.

  Ben’s name appeared on her phone’s screen, and she answered.

  “Hey,” he said, and she could immediately hear the concern in his tone. She exhaled, the familiar scratch of his voice bringing her immense comfort, despite their is
sues. None of that mattered at the moment. She was in crisis and needed him. It was strange, really, how a change in circumstances had turned her entire perspective about him and their relationship upside down.

  “Hey,” she repeated.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Not really,” she answered honestly.

  “I’ve been trying to reach you. I’ve been so worried. I read the link to the TMZ article you texted. What happened to Ashley?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, then dissolved into the tears she had been holding back.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  THE NIGHT

  LAUREN

  They’d barely made it through the front entrance of La Cantina—a bar they’d decided to go to on a whim, after Ashley searched Yelp for popular nightspots in Tulum—when Marco came up behind Ashley and picked her up. Ashley wriggled out of Marco’s grasp and playfully swatted him on the arm. “You scared me!” she said dramatically. Marco smiled, then reached over and gave Natalie and Lauren awkward side hugs. “Hola,” he said. “You ladies look lovely tonight.” But he was looking only at Ashley when he said it.

  Lauren took Natalie’s elbow and led her to the bar. “Of course Marco’s here,” she said as she signaled the bartender and ordered three mojitos.

  “What part of ‘girls’ night out’ does he not understand?” Natalie asked.

  “Some girls’ night,” Lauren said. “Sorry. But this evening has been brutal so far. Why are we prolonging it?”

  At dinner at Hartwood, Ashley had spent more time flirting with their server than talking to them. Then she ordered another drink just as the bill came. Lauren had sighed, wanting to get out of the restaurant and somewhere she could get some space from Ashley.

  The bartender set the three drinks on the bar, and Natalie grabbed one and took a big sip. “Clearly we like to torture ourselves.” She laughed.

  “Thank God the wine was good at dinner,” Lauren said. And it had been. She had drunk until the edges of their tangled friendship had become fuzzy. But now Marco was killing her buzz.

  “Is it stupid that I thought the night might get better if we came here?” Natalie said, and Lauren remembered the way she’d nodded eagerly when Ashley had suggested it, Lauren pretending to be reading something on her phone so she didn’t have to answer. She hadn’t really wanted to go out, but she didn’t like the idea of sitting alone in her hotel room either. And although she was tempted, she couldn’t seek out José. At least at a bar, she would have a chance to meet someone interesting to pass the time until she could go home tomorrow. So she had followed them out to the waiting cab and bitten her tongue as Ashley attempted to speak Spanish to the cabdriver.

  “No, it’s not stupid to have the expectation that Ashley would want to hang out with us tonight. But now he’s arrived.” She pressed her lips together. “I suggest we prepare ourselves for the Ashley and Marco show,” Lauren said as she signed the credit card receipt. “But I draw the line at buying him drinks. I am not ordering a fourth one of these.” Lauren glanced across the bar to where Marco and Ashley stood. He’d been nothing but perfectly nice, but there was something about him that bothered her. Why did he follow Ashley around like a puppy dog? And more important, why did Ashley let him—changing the dynamic of the trip she’d insisted they all come on? Natalie followed Lauren’s gaze, both of them noticing Marco whispering into Ashley’s ear, Ashley giggling.

  “Every time I talked to him, it felt like he was just biding his time until he could be with Ashley again,” Natalie said. “Tour guide, my ass. It’s been all about his crush on her.”

  “Right?” Lauren thought of the way she’d tried to flirt with him at Tropical Kiss, him looking over her shoulder to where Ashley was sitting. At first she’d found him attractive. But now, as she studied the way his black hair carelessly hung over his oversized ears and how his eyes, small and narrow, made his nose look large in comparison, she didn’t think so. His looks were much like his personality: there was something that wasn’t quite the way it should be. Lauren sighed. “I’m getting drunk. You?”

  Natalie shrugged. “I think that’s a grand idea! Whatever makes tonight go faster.”

  “I guess we’ll be back to our lives soon enough.” Lauren looked at her phone. “In fifteen hours, to be exact.”

  “And what does that mean for all of us?” Natalie asked tentatively.

  Lauren sipped her drink, then glanced at the third full mojito sitting there next to the two empty ones. “I really don’t know, Nat,” she said, her fight with Ashley at Chichén Itzá still stinging. Still racing through her thoughts so fast she could barely catch her breath, every word, every look, every tear penetrating her, still.

  “Is that for Ash?” Natalie asked.

  “Yes. And to answer your question, I think our dynamic is a lot like those drinks right there. You and I are often totally empty seeking to be full. Seeking to be filled by Ashley. And there’s Ashley.” She pointed at the untouched mojito, the rum nearly spilling over the top. “She’s full, but alone. Not needing to be filled by either of us.”

  “True. But why?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know anymore. But we might want to start asking why we need her to fill us up.” Before Geoff’s death, Lauren had needed Ashley in a way that she now realized had probably been unhealthy. She’d text her at all hours wanting advice or reassurance, needing that feedback from Ashley to feel good about her choices. And sometimes, maybe even most times, just wanting her attention. Maybe there had even been a part of her that wanted Ashley to be her savior, for her to prove how much she loved Lauren. Because that was the thing with Ashley: you were always in competition with the person she loved most—herself.

  Natalie tilted her head to one side. “Very good question. Sometimes I think we’ve been intertwined in each other’s lives for so long that we couldn’t untangle even if we wanted to.”

  Lauren wondered if she was thinking about BloMe. That it tied her to Ashley in a way she no longer wanted. She got the bartender’s attention again and ordered two shots.

  “Not three this time?” he asked.

  “Nope,” Lauren said, her eyes locking with Natalie’s. “Just you and me, girl.” It hadn’t been a great trip, that’s for sure. But maybe, just maybe, she and Natalie could walk away with their own friendship, one that didn’t revolve around Ashley. Lauren held up her shot glass for a toast. “To a night we’ll never forget.”

  “Where’s mine?” Marco said as he walked up behind them, smiling widely.

  “Sorry, this is a girls’ night, so the shots are for girls only,” Natalie said pointedly, before grabbing her drink and walking away.

  Marco watched her before turning back to Lauren. “She doesn’t like me much, does she?”

  Lauren took a long sip of her drink, running back through the way Marco had wormed his way into every aspect of their trip. Would things have been different had they not met him? Maybe. “Should she?” she finally said. “Like you?”

  Marco shrugged his shoulders slightly, his smile smug. “I get it.”

  “I don’t think you do,” Lauren said, her voice low and deep, Marco leaning in to hear her. “This trip has been a fucking disaster.”

  Marco’s eyes flashed. “And that’s my fault how?”

  Lauren gave him a long look as she traced the rim of her glass with her pointer finger. “What do you see in her?” she asked, glancing toward Ashley, who stood across the room, head thrown back, vividly discussing something with Natalie. She asked even though she knew exactly what he saw in her. It was what had captivated Lauren for years.

  Marco followed her eyes and took Ashley in, a small smile playing on his lips. “I love the way she wraps herself around everything. She has an intense energy. She sparkles.”

  Lauren sighed, but she wasn’t surprised to hear it. Men had often described Ashley that way: a beacon of light, a star, a force. But still, while Marco might really believe she sparkled, he still didn’t seem intereste
d in her. “But what is it about her? Do you even know where she was born? Her favorite color? If she needs coffee in the morning? Or are you just attracted to her?”

  “I believe the universe brought us together. Why? I don’t know yet. But I’m happy it did. And in time, I will find out the little things. But we have talked, a lot. She’s told me what’s inside her heart. And for me, that matters more than her hobbies.” He touched his chest.

  Lauren rolled her eyes, but before she could speak, Marco continued. “I know you think all my talk about the universe is bullshit, Lauren. And that I’m probably bullshit too. Don’t think I haven’t seen you roll those eyes at me all week.” He smirked. “And I don’t blame you. Ashley is your friend and you are protective. But there really is something out there, bigger than us. Maybe, if you could just open yourself up, the way Ashley does, you could see that.”

  Lauren felt her anger spike. Marco didn’t have a clue who she was. Hell, he didn’t even know Ashley. “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “But I do. You lost your husband last year, yes? And you are still grieving?”

  Lauren put her hand on the bar. “Stop.”

  Marco stepped backward. “I’m sorry. I can see I’ve upset you. I was just trying to help.”

  Lauren picked up her drink off the bar. “I think you’ve done enough helping on this trip, Marco. Excuse me,” she said, pushing past him, back through the front entrance, to anywhere but there.

  Thirty minutes later she returned from outside, where she’d leaned against the wood fence with the peeling paint, trying to regain her composure from her interaction with Marco. Something about the way he questioned her about Geoff had enraged her. As she walked back into La Cantina, her eyes were immediately drawn to Ashley, who was leaning into Marco, Natalie standing next to them, sipping her mojito, almost as if their conversation at the bar had never happened. So much for being annoyed he crashed our girls’ night. She wondered how much of what Natalie said was even true. Was she really that irritated with Ashley? If so, why did she jump to her side at the first opening? Were they ever not going to be fighting for her attention?