Chapter Six

Gemma

I held up the turquoise key card they gave us at the front desk and chuckled, thinking back to the last time I held one of these in my hand. "I remember when—"

Coco's loud shrill cut me off before I could finish my thought. "Smell this." She came up to the side of me and squeezed a mini shampoo bottle at my nose. Shampoo squirted out and hit my nose. "It wasn't supposed to squirt out like that. I guess I squeezed too much."

"It's okay." I wiped it off with the back of my hand and sniffed. "What exactly am I smelling?"

She sniffed it again and gave a content sigh. "Guava. It's like heaven in a bottle."

I looked over at the cart the maid must have left behind opposite our adjoining rooms and quirked a brow. "I don't think those are for us to take. They're probably already in our rooms."

Sophie waved a hand in the air and shooed me away. "Please. These goodies in the carts are meant to be taken. You know that Mom always used to say that."

"Yeah, but Dad always said she was wrong," I countered, remembering our childhood and the vacations we'd take as a family.

Daphne took a handful of bar soaps and plopped them in her open purse, ignoring us. "Next time I have to bring a bigger purse."

I ran a hand through my hair that I took out of its bun once we got out of the car. "Come on, we don't want to get caught."

"The robes," Sophie exclaimed.

"What about them?" I was almost too afraid to ask, shuddering at the prospect of Daphne trying to stick that in her purse, too.

Daphne chuckled. "Soph, Coco, and I have a bit of a tradition." Uh-oh. I could only imagine.

Coco turned to me again and explained, "We take the robes from every place we stay at. "

"Isn't that like illegal?" Surely if it wasn't theft, they'd have to pay for those if the hotel found out they were missing. Wouldn't they have charged their credit cards?

Sophie shrugged her shoulders. "We've never been caught yet." She looked at the girls and then back to me. "You're taking yours, too. It'll be fun, something to remember my bachelorette trip by."

I held a hand to my chest. "I will not! I'll happily buy a proper souvenir from the gift shop, but I'm not," I leaned in and dropped my voice to a whisper, " stealing a robe." An older woman walked past us clapping her flip flops on the carpet as she pulled out her key card to get in her room. I smiled and then looked back to Sophie and whispered again, "I will not." In case it wasn't clear before, of course.

"Come on," she insisted. Then she wagged her eyebrows. "It could be fun."

Coco and Daphne let themselves into their room.

"You know what's fun?" I asked, prepared to answer myself. "Getting caught up on all the work I have to do." And trying not to remember the last time I was here—with Lance.

I unlocked our door and wheeled my suitcase in, leaving it at the door before she came up behind me and grabbed my shoulders .

"What happened to you not being a party pooper?"

"Party pooper is different from criminal."

She rolled her eyes now, passing me by. "You won't be a criminal." She walked over to the door that connected our rooms and unlocked them. When the doors promptly swung open, she waved at Daphne and Coco who were sprawled out on a bed in their room.

"This is so cool," Daphne said, rolling around on the bed.

"Having sex on this mattress must be amazing," Coco commented, patting the plush mattress beneath her.

She should only know how amazing it truly was. Although, I had to give credit to where credit was due and it wasn't just because of the mattress that the sex I had at this resort was some of the best I'd had in my life. No, a certain muscular and tan employee had something to do with that.

Sophie walked over to the bed and then hopped on it, giggling. Then she lifted her head from the pillow and picked up the chocolate housekeeping left there. "Mmm." She moaned, opening the chocolate and eating it. "So sweet."

Coco walked over to our open door and looked around, whistling. "I can get used to these rooms. They're seriously top-notch." Then she turned to me and said, "I'm not planning on having sex with anyone, but we're in Miami, baby, so yeah if a completely handsome stranger makes me drool and wants to pleasure me, I'm not going to say no."

Danger, danger. Danger ahead, my mind kept repeating, but I kept my mouth shut.

Daphne came in behind Coco and laughed. "This place is so much better than the motel we stayed at our spring break freshman year."

"Ew," Sophie squealed, shaking her hands in front of her as she clearly remembered the time and place. "That place was gross." She gagged before smiling, her eyes growing wide with joy. "We've come up in the world, girls!"

I crossed back into our room and decided I had better things to do than sit around and listen to them reminisce about gross times. Or think about the last time I was here, in Lance's arms. No, no, no! That was over. I wasn't going to see him again. Didn't want to. He didn't work here anymore. Did you hear that universe? I didn't want to see him and he didn't work here anymore. Maybe if I said it enough times it'd ring true.

Keeping my hands, and mind, busy, I retrieved and opened my suitcase and took out the packet of drawer lining I brought with me to place under my clothes. "What is that?" Sophie asked, coming up behind me and taking one .

"When your clothes are all neat in the drawers, they'll look much better on," I insisted. "You'll thank me later." Taking pride in my appearance was big for me, and that meant making sure my clothes didn't look like they just came out of a suitcase, wrinkles and all.

She rolled her eyes. "It's a vacation and you brought paper for the drawers."

"Not just any paper," I said smartly, "this paper was designed for just this." Then I opened the drawers one by one and began lining them. When I was done, I stood back and smiled at my job well done. And it was a perfectly mundane task to distract me from my thoughts that were suddenly spinning over memories of Lance.

"All right," Coco said, sighing. "Well, as fun as this has been I'm going to go to the bar."

Daphne jumped up and clapped her hands together. "Oh, me, too. I want a margarita!"

"Make that two," Sophie said, smiling now. She looked back and asked, "What about you, G? You coming?"

I shook my head. "No, I think I'll stay back and unpack." I pointed to Sophie's suitcase. "I'll unpack yours, too."

"You don't have to," she said, likely thinking she wouldn't care one way or another—I did know my sister, after all .

But I knew it'd be better that way, so it didn't bother me to help her out. "No, really, it relaxes me. It's fine."

"Gemma, are you sure?"

Coco pointed to the door. "Come on, Soph, we're losing daylight over here."

I shooed my hands toward the door and insisted, "Please, go. I'll catch up with you guys later."

She eyed me and then finally gave. "Okay, but I have my phone, so text me when you're done. We can meet up or something."

I smiled. "You got it."

As they were leaving, Daphne laughed. "Good thing I put my bathing suit top back on before we got out of the car. I feel like hitting the beach. You girls?"

"I've been to a nude beach before. It's not pretty," Coco announced and Sophie laughed.

When the door clicked behind them, I sat down on the bed, took my sunglasses off the top of my head and placed them on the bed beside me. I reached backward and rubbed my shoulders. I did not care for long car rides. Especially as I was getting older. They seemed to give me a gnarly kink in my neck that I couldn't get rid of no matter how hard I tried. I rolled my head around and begged for it to crack. No such luck.

I finally gave up and got off the bed, going to the bathroom to check things out. Everything looked modern and clean. It was all very nice and definitely worth the pretty penny we paid for these rooms. I walked over to the sink and turned the water on, rinsing my face. Thankfully, I didn't wear any makeup or my face would have been melting at this point. The cold water felt good, refreshing on my face. I reached over for a towel and was immediately surprised with how soft and plush it was. It was like a hug.

I placed it down and looked at myself in the mirror. "The room looks the same, but I certainly don't." I patted the underside of my chin in that way that was all the rage a few years ago and hoped my elasticity would never disappear. It was bad enough that as I got older I could see little differences. Small lines, wrinkles. But once the elasticity was gone, I knew it'd be bad. Thankfully, I wasn't experiencing crepe skin yet. Although, as long as the bottle of lotion I used to keep it at bay didn't lie, I wouldn't have to deal with that ever.

I sighed and placed my hands on the counter. Who was I kidding? There was no guarantee with that stuff. Products claimed a bunch of things and that was all it was—meaningless promises.

I heard my phone ringing and walked back into the room to grab it from my purse. "Coming," I said. Then I slapped my forehead. Coming? Really, I thought to myself. It wasn't like they could hear me or anything .

I dug it out of my purse, but it wasn't mine that was ringing.

Listening closer, I followed the ring and went to the nightstand where Sophie left hers. The culprit responsible for all the ringing. I held it up and exhaled. "So much for bringing your phone," I said to myself.

I read the readout and saw it was Bobby, so I let it go to voicemail. Soph could call her fiancé back later.

I put it back on the nightstand and turned my attention to unpacking, but I knew the sun would soon start its descent and I couldn't deny how badly I wanted to sit outside and soak it all up before it was too late.

I looked at the clock on the nightstand. Three o'clock.

Oh, never mind this. Unpacking could wait.

I deserved to have a little fun, too, right? Darn straight, I did.

I went over to my suitcase and pulled out my white one-piece bathing suit. Of course, I needed something to cover me up, too, so I tugged at this cute beige crochet dress.

Changed in no time, I looked in the mirror and gave myself a once-over. I looked good, I decided. Young. Maybe even cute. Definitely cute. Finally feeling like myself without my sister and her teeny-boppers hanging around, I felt good. Ready to have that fun they were all about. It was Soph's bachelorette party, after all. Too bad she wasn't standing here right now. She'd definitely approve.

I looked down at my feet and realized I should probably change my shoes, though, from the very boring flip flops I had on to something cuter that went with my look. I had just the pair in my bags, too. White strappy sandals.

I dropped them on the floor and slipped them on. Much better, I thought. I grabbed my tote bag and popped my phone inside. I placed a hand on the door now and looked back one last time before opening the door with every intention to head to the beach. So maybe I wasn't as cool as her friends and I wasn't making my first stop the bar. And maybe I wasn't going to meet another random stranger and have mind-blowing sex, but I was going to have a good time. And I was sure as anything going to try to stop thinking about Lance Easton.

The elevator doors opened and I stepped in. I looked over to the woman next to me, her head down as she was typing something on her phone. Oh, but maybe I could check my email once last time, too. I took my phone out and pulled my email up. Nothing.

I knew I had an automatic reply on that I was out of the office, but this was just ridiculous. Didn't someone need me? I owned my own successful PR company for crying out loud. And I had no messages? It must've been the connection, I decided. Must not have good connection. I reloaded the page just in case.

Still no emails.

I groaned and the woman looked over at me and gave me a dirty look. "Sorry," I said and put a hand up.

I waited for the elevator to hit the lobby, which happened to be where we were both going. "So what are you here for?" I asked, swaying on the balls of my feet.

She looked at me and tossed her black hair behind her. "My anniversary."

I swallowed. "Oh, wow. How many years?"

"Ten." I gave her a once over, just barely, so she didn't notice. Too late. "We were young when we eloped."

"Gotcha," I said, grinning. I held my hands to the front of me. "Well, I'm here for my sister's bachelorette party." I didn't know why I just said that, it wasn't like she asked.

The woman clicked her tongue. "Good for you."

The elevator doors opened and I waited for her to go first. She did and I sighed. Thank goodness those doors opened up when they did because I wasn't sure how much more inane chitchat I could make.

I was so much happier being by myself on my laptop, answering emails and helping out my clients who depended on me. This was a bad idea that was only made worse by that little nagging voice in my head that insisted there was a chance I'd run into Lance again. So not ideal.

I stepped out of the elevator and heard the doors close behind me. I put my sunglasses over my eyes and looked out toward the beach, walking the path I'd walked three years ago. But it's okay, this definitely wasn't going to be history repeating itself.