Two Thousand Miles (19 page)

I was so hungry and everything on the menu looked so good that I suggested we order a bunch of entrees and share them family style. Everyone agreed and the waiter didn’t mind
, so we had a little bit of everything. Steak, salmon, blue crab, oysters, frog legs, shrimp—several ways, Cajun seasoned pasta, jambalaya, blackened redfish, and a variety of sides including the best garlic mashed potatoes I’d ever put in my mouth and alligator gumbo, which I didn’t care for.

In the middle of eating, passing plates, and talking about how good everything was, Mason stuck his fork across the table toward me. “Try this,” he said. I stared at the piece of fish dangling from his fork unsure what I should do.
Take the bite while he held the fork? Take the fork from him, or pass altogether?

“Come on, Cali girl. Do we have to have the spit conversation again?” he asked. I knew he was trying to do away with some of the tension between us, but still, he shouldn’t have brought that up.

Even though it was only Bit, Shelby, Logan, and Cody, it felt like the entire restaurant was watching to see what I would do. So, I took the bite while Mason held the fork.

“Thank you,” he said. I rolled my eyes.
 

“Aw, how sweet,” Shelby sang.

“What broke y’all up anyway?” Logan asked.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I said
, and left the table. That was not a conversation I wanted to have. I didn’t want to rehash the night Mason dumped me.

I went in the bathroom and washed my hands. I dabbed my face with the now moist paper towel I’d dried my hands on and stared at myself in the rectangular mirror above the sink.

“I can make myself stay away from him,” I mumbled before tossing the paper towel in the trash and swinging the bathroom door open.

When I got back to the table, the waiter had packed up our leftovers and left a check. I paid the bill, and the others threw cash on the table for a tip. “I’m going to take a cab back to the hotel,” I said to no one in particular and got out of there as fast as I could.

“What the hell just happened?” I heard Shelby ask. “What’d I miss?”

I didn’t stop.

I put the window down in the cab and heard a mixture of jazz sounds coming from nightclubs and the sidewalks outside of restaurants. The air was full of scents so flavorful you could practically taste them. I heard laughter and saw couples holding hands
, and it made me sad. I hated to play the
what if
game regarding Mason and me, but if we were still together, today would have been much more fun for me. Wanting to be with someone you can’t have hurts. Having to spend almost every waking moment with that person, even if it was only for a weekend, was excruciating.

There was an obnoxious, repetitive knock on my door. I knew it was Shelby. I swung it wide open. Shelby’s fist was still wadded up, knocking on air.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said.

“I don’t care about your personal drama with Mason. I need you to come to my room right now.” She grabbed my arm and yanked me into the hallway. I clumsily followed her.

“You wait,” she ordered when we reached her suite. She barely cracked the door and slipped inside, leaving me
alone. A few seconds later, the door flew open and I was greeted with an uneven screeching of the words, “Happy Birthday!”

The room was dark, except for a flaming three
-tiered cake on a room service cart. Eighteen candles flickered; casting a small bit of light that forced the glitter on the cone shaped party hats Bit and Shelby were wearing to sparkle.

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Shelby was right. I did need sparkly hats, and cake. The presents, I could do without.

“Okay, okay,” Bit said, waving her arms around. “Put on your hat,” she said, holding one out for me. I slipped it on and gave her a big grin.

“Good,” she nodded. “Now, make a wish and blow out your candles.”

There were so many things I could have wished for; so many things that I wanted, but I knew that simply wishing for something wouldn’t make it happen. Bit was so excited that I didn’t want to squash her feelings, so I played along and acted like I’d thought of something really good to wish for, closed my eyes and blew out the candles.

Someone turned on the lights
; I laughed after getting a better look at the cake. It had hearts on the top tier,
Mike & Melissa
on the center tier, and
Forever
on the bottom tier. It was somebody’s wedding cake. Then I had a thought that made me stop laughing.

“Hey, Shelby,” I asked warily. “Where’d you get the cake?”

“Room service,” she said, matter-of-fact. Bit giggled. I looked around the room, and no one would make eye contact with me.
Room Service, huh? I wasn’t buying it
.

“Please tell me you didn’t steal it,” I said.

“What kind of asshole steals a person’s wedding cake?” Shelby barked. Bit covered her mouth, laugher sputtering out. Shelby and Logan laughed, too.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, yanking the glittery hat off of my head.

“Me,” Bit grinned, her eyes watery from laughing. “I’m the asshole. I took the cake,” she admitted, beaming with pride.

Everyone laughed. “Oh my god, Bit,” I gasped.

“They didn’t get married,” she defended. “We overheard one of the catering guys talking on a two-way radio in front of the elevator downstairs. He said the bride found out the groom had screwed four of her six bridesmaids and called off the wedding. She said she didn’t want to keep anything, especially not the cake. It was just sitting there…this big, beautiful cake that no longer had a purpose and we needed a cake for you—” “So, we distracted the guy,” Shelby interrupted, pointing to herself and Logan, “while Bit rolled the cart onto the elevator and made a clean getaway.”

I laughed, shaking my head. That story sounded crazy and if the catering company made a complaint, the hotel could review the security footage and easily find out who had taken it
, but since the cake was going to be trashed anyway, I hoped they didn’t pursue it. Either way, I couldn’t help but appreciate their effort.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome. Put your hat back on,” Shelby announced. “We’re just gettin’ started.” She pulled a half-empty bottle of bourbon from the nightstand and poured shots into six glasses lined up on a nearby table.

“I stole this from G, but it doesn’t count. He probably didn’t remember
havin’ it in the first place.”

“So
, where were you two during The Great Wedding Cake Heist?” I asked, looking at Cody and Mason.

I thought about how I’d rushed out of the restaurant and imagined everyone knew it was because of Mason—including Mason.
My plan was to pretend it never happened and hope that everyone would follow suit.

“We were picking up your presents,” Cody finally said
, after it became glaringly obvious that Mason wasn’t going to answer me. He’d barely even looked at me.

“We didn’t steal them,” Bit announced. “We bought them.”

“Those can wait,” Shelby said. “First, we toast.” She handed out the glasses she’d filled with bourbon and held hers up high in front of her.

“Okay, so when I found out you were
comin’ to stay with us, I was pretty pissed off about it honestly.” Everyone, except me, laughed. “I didn’t want to have to look after some prissy blond socialite type. I told Momma if you showed up with a dog in your purse that I was gonna kick your ass all over Slidell.” That, I did laugh at. The whole carrying a small dog in your purse thing was not a trend I understood, or followed. “I’m so glad you didn’t turn out to be like we expected,” Shelby said, sounding truly relieved. She raised her glass of bourbon even higher and said, “Here’s to good times, great friends, and not getting caught for stealing that damn cake!”

The room filled with laughter and the sounds of our glasses clinking against one another. Shelby threw her arm around me as we swallowed down the bourbon. I hugged Bit and thanked her for stealing me the greatest birthday cake ever. I hugged Cody and Logan, too, just because I didn’t want them to feel left out
, and then I was face-to-face with Mason. He opened his arms; I stalled a moment before letting myself fall into them. “Happy Birthday, Cali girl,” he whispered, his lips dangerously close to my neck. 

The room was suddenly silent. All eyes were on us, waiting to see what we would do next. I held on a second longer than I should have, listening to Mason breathe, memorizing the sound and taking in the feel of being close to him again.

“Thanks,” I murmured, feeling tears start in my eyes. The last thing I wanted was for Mason to see me cry. I let go and quickly turned my back to him so I could wipe my eyes without him seeing.

“Looks like somebody could use a refill,” Cody said, and held his hand out. I nodded and gave him a slight smile as I handed over my empty glass.

“Open your presents now,” Bit said, sounding a little less excited than she had earlier
, but the mood of the entire room had sort of shifted. Nobody wants a person to cry on their birthday, even if they have a good reason.

I sat on the couch
, and Logan brought over a large, colorful bag with thick twine handles and sat it in front of me.

“Y’all really didn’t have to get me anything,” I said.

“I love it when she says,
y’all
,” I heard Bit say. I smiled.

“Just open it
, and quit trying to be all humble,” Shelby griped.

I dug into the bag and pulled out an object that felt familiar in my hands. My smile widened. I peeled away the layers of tissue paper and found one of the bottles of lotion I’d been admiring at a shop we’d been
to earlier in the afternoon.

There were several more bottles in the bag
, one was filled with chunky blue bath salt and smelled the way the world of commercial products wants you to believe the ocean smells. Truthfully, the ocean didn’t have that great of a scent. The next bottle held gardenia scented body wash, and the last was a candle that smelled of roses. It was in a diamond cut latch jar and had been my favorite one in the store.

“Thank you so much everybody. Today has been really great.”

“And we never would have known it was your birthday if it wasn’t for the chick with the weird bangs working the reservation desk giving you up,” Shelby smirked.

Cody handed me my glass back. “You’re welcome,” he said.

“Come have some cake,” Bit said, licking butter cream icing from her lips. “The top layer is strawberry.”

I was still full from dinner and didn’t feel like eating anything, but I went over and had a bite anyway. “It’s so good. Anybody else want some?” Bit asked.

“Always.
I always want some,” Logan said, and smiled at Bit. I laughed, but Bit had either gotten use to the jokes Logan made about them not having sex, or that one had gone over her head, because she had no reaction. 

“A
lright, y’all. It’s been real, and it’s been fun. But now it’s time for me and Cody to have some real fun without you,” Shelby announced, shooing us toward the door. 

“But I’m not done with my cake yet,” Bit complained.

“The cake has wheels, Bit. You can roll the whole damn thing to your own room,” Shelby said, and pushed the cart toward the door. “Okay, now you try,” she let go and instructed. Bit smirked, but took over and shoved the cake out of the room. 

I laughed. “See y’all in the morning,” I said.

Then I caught a glimpse of something on the muted television in front of me that grabbed my attention. I reached out and turned up the volume.

“—
body of a woman found in a Las Vegas hotel room yesterday morning has been identified as that of
thirty-six-year-old Veronica Matheson. We have learned that Ms. Matheson was arrested and released within hours on a fifty-thousand-dollar bond after allegedly shooting William Parker, the Chief Financial Officer of one of the country’s largest investment firms, Manger Mutual, based in Malibu, California. Parker was shot in the head over two months ago and remains in a coma tonight. The city of Malibu has released the 911 recording from that night. The voice you are about to hear is Parker’s now eighteen-year-old daughter’s call for help. We do want to warn you, this content may be disturbing.”

I stood silent and still as the camera switched from the photo of Veronica to a photo of me and Olivia taken the
night we graduated—before we’d left for the ceremony.

Olivia’s face had been cropped out, but I remembered her holding out her camera to take a picture of us. Her bubblegum pink lips were giving the camera a kiss
while I gave a crooked smile, and had my eyebrows raised high. We were being silly. We’d spent the whole day together and had laughed about things that weren’t even funny—probably to keep from crying. So many people were upset about high school ending, and it was sad to some degree, but more than anything I was excited to find out what would come next for me. I never imagined it would be the woman my father was dating shooting him in the head.