Friends with Benefits

by Margot Radcliffe

  “That’s so awesome! Thanks!” he chirped. “Hey, are you getting married tonight? I read that you just got engaged to your high school bae.”

  Alexa cleared her throat beside Carter and the kid looked over at her, his eyes widening even more as he took her in. He reminded her of Carter a little when they’d been in high school, the too-long hair, ill-fitting glasses and button-down uniform, except Carter would never chatter away like this guy was doing. He was way too self-contained for that. Even as a kid, he’d been serious.

  “Hi, I’m Carter’s fiancée.”

  The kid, James, opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t get the words out. Carter pulled her into his side. “It’s okay. Alexa makes me speechless, too.”

  She nearly rolled her eyes because it was over-the-top, but a traitorous part of her also kind of wished he meant it.

  She saw Kaylee and Bruce heading to one of the private rooms and remembered they were on a mission.

  “We need to sign the paperwork so our friends can get their marriage license mailed to them. We’re the witnesses.”

  “I think they already filled them out,” James informed.

  He pulled out a form on a clipboard from under the large reception desk and placed it on the counter. Alexa got distracted by Kaylee’s squeal of pleasure as the attendant showed her one of the available ceremony rooms.

  “Are you guys getting married tonight, too?” James asked, writing something down on the paper. “That would be, like, so cool. Carter is like Google or something and I could tell all my friends I was, like, at your wedding.”

  Alexa held back her rolling eyes at the guy’s hero worship, but she didn’t begrudge Carter for it. He’d worked hard and deserved recognition wherever he found it.

  Carter said something to James, but Alexa wasn’t paying attention.

  “Just sign here,” James instructed.

  Absently, ready to get this show on the road, Alexa signed where James pointed and headed out to find Kaylee and leave Carter to his fan club.

  Kaylee had changed into a puffy white dress she’d found in the shop of the Aurora. She looked beautiful and in love as she and Bruce took their places at the front of the small chapel room.

  After a few minutes, Carter appeared by her side.

  “Remind me again how I agreed to two weddings in one day?”

  “You did it because you’re the nicest person I know.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You’re the only person who thinks I’m nice.”

  “Well, me and James,” she said, smirking. “Besides, I know the real Carter, remember? The guy who once sat with me all night long when I got dumped by Kyle Roberts after his fraternity dance.”

  “Kyle was an idiot.”

  Alexa grinned up at him. “Exactly.”

  “Whatever you say, Alexa.”

  Winking, she left him on the groom’s side along with a couple of other guests who had migrated over from Matt’s wedding. Taking her spot beside the bride, Alexa felt a strange sense of alarm come over her. How many times had she been a bridesmaid just like this, standing up before two people who vowed to spend the rest of their lives together? Far too many. She witnessed weddings on nearly a daily basis in her own casino and yet she’d never taken the time to truly consider her own. It had been one of those things she just assumed she wouldn’t have. A vision of herself in white in the gardens at Halcyon appeared, Carter standing at her side.

  She shook her head at the image. Watching Bruce take Kaylee’s quivering hand and professing his love and vowing to stand by her forever was cracking open some vault of emotion in her chest that she normally kept locked up. It was probably just the alcohol talking, but maybe she was ready to settle down. Maybe she would move to France to open a new casino and finally find a man who would feed her cheese without judgment. Maybe selling the casinos was a good thing. Maybe the life she’d cultivated was just one big—oh God, did she just hiccup out loud?

  Eyes darting, she witnessed the inescapable truth. All fifteen guests and the bride and groom were staring at her, arrested expressions on their faces, not quite believing a grown person could hiccup during a wedding ceremony. Even a quickie Vegas one.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered furiously.

  She waved at the officiant to go ahead with the ceremony, but she could feel the laughing eyes on her. Her mortification was real, but mostly because she knew no matter what grand plans she made for her future, the only thing she really wanted was for everything to stay the same. For Carter to not leave Vegas.

  Thankfully, the rest of the vows were brief and Alexa was able to quickly escape to the bar for another glass of champagne to ease the embarrassment.

  Carter followed. “Hey,” he laughed, his face looking wavy. “That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen you do! I don’t think I’ve ever heard you hiccup at all, let alone in public.”

  “I’m here all night, ladies and gentlemen,” she mocked, attempting a wobbly bow.

  “Everyone’s dancing,” he told her, taking her arm. “We should, too.”

  She nodded, walking into his familiar arms. The last thing she remembered was her eyes closing as she nuzzled against his chest.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CARTER WOKE UP with a profound pounding in his head and in a bed that didn’t belong to him. As far as his mornings and waking up went, it was puzzling. Also, he was naked beside an equally naked Alexa. So there was that.

  Disoriented, he reached out to the nightstand for his phone, but got the regular hotel landline. He tried again, but only found the cool lacquer of the wood.

  He croaked out a voice command, his throat dry and crackling. After his second try, a dinging sounded from somewhere across the room. His phone’s digital voice was loud in the quiet of the room, but it gave him the time he asked for.

  A groan came from the Alexa-shaped lump beside him. “Shuuuut uup.”

  The sheets shuffled as she readjusted. Carter struggled to move his head through the pounding but glanced over to see that she’d drawn the sheets up over her head.

  “It’s already two in the afternoon,” Carter told her.

  “I know,” she croaked groggily. “I heard.”

  Carter rose to his elbows, shielding his eyes from the sun streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and took in the room. They weren’t at Alexa’s house and judging by the generic furnishings, they were in a hotel room.

  Christ, what the hell had happened last night?

  Getting out of bed, not giving a shit that he was naked, he went in search of his clothes.

  Finding his boxer shorts near the bathroom door, he slid them on and faced her, throwing her his button-down shirt since her dress was nowhere in sight and she wasn’t wearing it.

  “Last night was like college all over again,” she said, her voice muffled as she put on his shirt under the covers. “I drank too much and am sure I regret most of my decisions.”

  “Same,” he said, sliding on his undershirt.

  “Let’s just get out of here.”

  Carter called for his phone again, following its response and eventually finding it inside his shoe, which was inexplicably inside a dresser drawer. He quickly opened the messages crowding his screen. There were at least thirty congratulating them on their marriage. The first one was a link from his sister to an article with their picture and the announcement that they were married at the Blue Angel Chapel, the place they were last night. His sisters and his mom had messaged him multiple times, their texts increasingly angry and confused as to why they hadn’t been invited.

  “Shit.”

  “Fuck,” Alexa echoed, looking at her phone, too.

  Their eyes met, the same confusion and fear written in hers that he felt.

  “I don’t understand,” Alexa breathed. “I was drunk, but not blackout drunk.
We did not get married. What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know,” Carter said, lowering himself back onto the bed, possible solutions racing through his mind.

  “Oh God,” Alexa gasped, her hands dropping to the mattress as she leaned forward urgently. “Could it have been James? Did he have us sign the wrong thing or on the wrong place on that form?”

  Carter was on the line with the chapel immediately, obtaining picture proof to confirm that, yes, he and Alexa had signed the marriage license as the spouses, not the witnesses.

  “Fucking James,” Alexa growled, flinging off the covers. “I’m going to end him. He will rue the day he met Alexa Marielle Lawson.”

  Carter met her eyes. “It could have been an honest mistake. We were all distracted and he did say it was his first day.”

  Alexa snorted. “And how did it get out then? He just accidentally took a picture of it and sent it to the newspaper? He’s the only one who would have known the signatures were wrong.”

  Alexa looked like she was one second away from riding a flaming motorcycle into the Blue Angel Chapel and setting it ablaze.

  “I’ll call my lawyer and we’ll have it annulled,” Carter assured her. “This will all be taken care of as if it never happened. There’s no reason to worry or enact the revenge you’re plotting.”

  “Uh-huh,” she said doubtfully, rubbing at her head.

  “Let’s just get the fuck home now, okay?”

  He slowly rose, on a course to find his pants and wallet, dreading the fallout of this fuckup. Without a doubt, this was going to push Alexa away. He just didn’t have a plan on how to stop it.

  Alexa was typing away at her phone. “My uncle is thrilled,” she informed. “He has an offer for one of the casinos.”

  “Um, that’s a good thing, right?” Carter asked, knowing it wasn’t. She’d pretend that she was okay with it, but it was hurting her and that meant it was hurting him, too.

  Alexa took a moment before answering. “Yeah, it’s what we wanted. I just want to get a good deal. Set Uncle John up, you know.”

  He nodded, trying to be supportive even though his mind was elsewhere. Now that they’d figured out they were married, Carter couldn’t overlook the fact that they’d woken up completely naked.

  Alexa put down her phone finally and met his eyes, his own thoughts echoed there. “Do you think we—”

  He shook his head. “I have no idea. But there are no condom wrappers anywhere so we might need to make a drugstore stop on the way home, just in case.”

  Eyes wide, Alexa rolled out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom.

  “I’m on birth control, Carter. Jesus,” she muttered. “Are you clean?”

  “Of course. I never don’t use protection,” he told her. “I’m not an animal.”

  She turned, rolling her eyes. “That doesn’t mean anything. Have you gotten tested?”

  “Last month.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out. “Super.”

  The door to the bathroom shut and Carter groaned. He would remember sex, he thought, and definitely remember sex with Alexa. Christ, he’d been imagining what that would be like for the better part of his life; it wasn’t a thing he’d just forget, hammered or not.

  He pulled on his pants and jacket from last night and folded her dress before laying it on the bed. He was fucking married to Alexa. A state he’d always subconsciously thought might be his future. He definitely couldn’t imagine himself married to anyone else.

  A knock sounded at the door and Alexa emerged from the bathroom, looking hot as hell in his shirt with no bra. Yeah, he would definitely remember sex.

  “What are you doing?” he asked as she went to the door.

  She opened the door to a woman holding a bag of clothing.

  “We’re in the Landmark. There’s a store downstairs. I texted the concierge to bring me some clothes,” she explained, taking the bag back to the bathroom.

  The shirt barely covered her ass and if he didn’t feel like the textbook definition of shit at the moment, he might take advantage of the situation. As it stood, however, he was one gag away from vomiting.

  He pulled up the car service app on his phone and ordered a ride, wishing he had a pain reliever. He pulled a bottle of water from the mini fridge and drank it down.

  The bathroom door opened again and Alexa had pulled her hair into a messy-looking bun and changed into a pair of black yoga pants and an Landmark sweatshirt.

  “You ready?” she asked, taking a bottle of ginger ale from the fridge. Her stomach must be the same as his.

  The car was waiting for them outside, and when they got home they took the stairs slowly to their rooms.

  Once they reached the upstairs hallway, he turned to her. “I’ll call my lawyer now so we can get this sorted.”

  She gave a slow nod and they went to their respective rooms, where he showered and gave in to sleep.

  When he woke up, the sun had gone down and he felt like a new person. His stomach grumbling, he made his way downstairs and found Alexa in the kitchen, cooking something on the stove top. The image stopped him in his tracks, because they were married and he wondered if this was the life he was giving up by leaving. The cozy, quiet evenings together where they could just be. But he had to remind himself that his leaving was the only thing that might get him closer to that future. Alexa had to know life without him to realize that it was what she didn’t want. Having a heart-to-heart emotional conversation with her wasn’t going to work. She’d shut down the instant he tried. He knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

  After her parents died, he’d read lots of books on how to support people in grief. He knew she had attachment issues from childhood and that’s why she avoided emotional entanglements. He also knew what his role was and had been forever, to just be there for her when she needed it and not ask for more than she could give.

  But fuck it, he wanted everything and he literally had it all right now and every single piece of it was bullshit. It was like a living fucking joke.

  “Hey,” she said, turning to face him.

  “It smells good in here,” he returned, rolling his shoulders to fight off the tension gathering there.

  “Chicken noodle soup.”

  “Are we sick?”

  “Are we not?”

  He mustered up a half smile. “So, are you ready to unpack this nightmare?”

  “No.” She grimaced. “I will never be ready for that. Uncle John came over a little bit ago so I could sign the papers. We officially sold Wild Nights.”

  He took a seat on one of his island stools. Now he understood the chicken noodle soup—she needed some comfort food.

  “You feel okay about that?”

  She gave him a lopsided smile and a shrug. “I’m very rich.”

  He laughed. “You were already pretty rich.”

  “Yeah, but now I’m like in a totally different category of rich. Like buy-a-town kind of rich.”

  “I would suggest we go out and celebrate, but maybe another time.”

  “God, yes. I never want to smell alcohol even from a long distance ever again. Let’s just eat and watch television tonight.”

  “Agreed, but congratulations anyway,” he told her, pulling her into a quick hug. The kind they used to share all the time before everything changed in that stairwell. “At least this ruse is bearing fruit.”

  “Well,” she said, ladling the soup into bowls, “it’s technically no longer a ruse. We are, in fact, married.”

  “Yep, that does happen to be a fact.”

  She gave him a confounded headshake before heading into his media room. Pulling up the documentary series they’d started months ago, they ate in silence; the only sounds were their soup spoons knocking gently against the sides of the ceramic bowls and the monotone voice of the
male narrator educating them on the Vietnam War.

  When the episode ended and they’d finished eating, Alexa turned to him.

  “I got a little bit more information about what happened last night,” he told her, taking her cue. “My assistant spoke to the management at the chapel and James has been let go. They did suspect him of sending the picture of the license to the paper and posting it on social media.”

  “No shit,” Alexa said. “I’m the one who demanded he be fired.”

  Carter scratched the back of his head, a headache forming there at the thought that he’d been party to getting the kid fired. “That’s pretty harsh, Alexa. He’s just a dumb kid. It’s not like he was trying to extort us for money—he was just excited.”

  “First of all, he should absolutely be fired for violating the policies of his workplace, which obviously include posting private company documents on social media. My own lawyer was able to take a screenshot of James’s post of our marriage license photo so there’s no doubt it was him.”

  Carter shook his head. “Yeah, okay. But that doesn’t mean I hate him. He was probably just trying to get more recognition for his app. We should have paid more attention to what we were signing.”

  “Well, since you’re clearly ready to go to bat for this kid, I think you’ll be happy to know that his new employer will be a better fit.”

  “I’m not hiring that kid,” Carter told her. “I don’t want him to be fired, but I’m pissed as hell.”

  “I hired him as my new junior assistant. He’ll be working directly under Margaret.”

  All the hair on Carter’s neck rose at the mention of Alexa’s drill sergeant head assistant who oversaw all the assistants for Alexa’s casinos. She was literally a former air force lieutenant and she did not fuck around. In all the years Carter had known her, he’d never once seen her smile. She was just the person to set James on the straight and narrow.

  “Jesus. That’s diabolical.”

  Alexa gave him a crafty smile. “Yeah. It’s the best revenge, but also maybe he’ll learn how to be a decent human being instead of a crazy person who posts stuff on social media for attention. I also talked to Kaylee. She sent me a video that might be illuminating.”