It’s room service with our champagne and orange juice. I’ve never been so thankful for alcohol in my entire life. Ruby’s silent while he shows us the bottle and takes his time pouring. Then she throws money at him and practically pushes him out of the room.
As soon as the door closes she spins around. “You kept this from me the entire time? What’s it been, like four months? Have you been sleeping with each other this whole time?”
I drop onto the bed with a sigh. “It wasn’t intentional. And it wasn’t really supposed to be anything beyond Bora Bora.”
“So what happened? And why keep it from me? I wouldn’t have said anything to anyone.”
“He’s Bane’s brother and Armstrong’s cousin. It’s a complicated situation made more complicated by the fact that I’m still married to Armstrong. I honestly didn’t think he was going to drag this out for so long and Lex and I thought it would be better to keep it between us until the annulment went through to avoid more complications. I couldn’t ask you to keep this from Bane. That’s not fair when he’s your person and Lex is his brother.”
“You’re my person, too.”
I try to reason with her. “I’m your best girl. He’s the rest of your life, it’s not the same.”
She purses her lips. “You’re my other person.”
“I know. And that’s why I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want to put you in the middle of your two people. Bane will always be your first priority now, Ruby, as he should be. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to keep something from him.”
Ruby waves her hand around in the air and takes a hefty swig of champagne. “Bane’s been pretty suspicious for a while. I just figured you would’ve told me if you were sleeping together . . . is that what is this? Are you just . . . sleeping together?”
“It was supposed to be a fling. We meant for it to end when I left Bora Bora.”
“But clearly it didn’t. Did you stay in touch when you came home and he went to California?”
I shake my head no. “I was really conflicted. I mean, I was still married, and still am, even if it’s just a signature on a piece of paper that’s tying us together. Then I ran into Lex in a coffee shop and he ended up taking me back to work in his car . . . but I didn’t see him again for weeks. Not until after you got engaged—”
“Did you two get it on at the engagement planning dinner?”
I shake my head. “No, we were just talking—well and kissing, but it was mostly talking . . . later though—”
“I knew it!” Her smile drops. “That was almost two months ago.”
“I really didn’t think I would still be waiting for the annulment to go through. And I wasn’t sure exactly where it was going between us.”
“So where is it going?”
I sigh. “I don’t know. We’re covert dating for now.”
I can feel Ruby’s eyes on me. It’s not good. She knows me better than anyone else in this world. Better than my family. She’s been instrumental in almost every fabrication or lie I’ve concocted to get me out of trouble. This time there doesn’t seem to be a good out. “Do you have feelings for Lex? Like feeling feelings.”
We spend a lot of time together, just as much clothed as unclothed, and while we talk, Lex never mentions the future, because right now we’re stuck in the present. “I think so.”
“You think you have feelings for him?”
“For a while I wasn’t sure if I could trust them or not. Look at the man I married. He seemed perfect. Or I wanted him to be. I ticked all the right boxes with him and look at how horribly that turned out. Sometimes I worry that I’m projecting an ideal onto Lex like I did with Armstrong. Like I’ve made him into this savior and it’s all going to fall apart on me as soon as the marriage is annulled.”
I do know with absolute certainty that Armstrong was never right for me. I’d just made so many bad boyfriend choices before him—ones that had nearly caused scandals for my family. As a teenager I made bad choices as a means to force my parents to deal with me together instead of separately. Besides, it wasn’t like I ever wanted to get serious with any of those bad choices.
“How’s the sex?” Ruby asks.
“What?”
“The sex, how is it?”
I’m not sure why the sudden shift in topic, but my reply comes without hesitation. “Beyond amazing.”
Her eyebrow lifts. “Lots of orgasms?”
“Countless.”
“So it’s safe to say you’re not projecting the ideal of awesome sex.”
“Phenomenal sex isn’t going to make Armstrong sign the annulment papers. Until I’m free of him, this needs to stay under the radar.”
“Good luck with that.”
I ignore the barb and switch positions with Ruby so I can resume primer application. After a few moments, I ask the question that’s been eating at me since I overheard that conversation between Lex and Bane. “Do you know much about the competitive stuff between Lex and Armstrong?”
“I know they used to be best friends as kids and that they were always competitive with each other.”
“With sports and stuff, right? They used to mess with each other, it’s how Lex got those scars on his back.”
Ruby nods. “Oh yeah, the bridge jumping accident.”
“Bridge jumping? I thought it was a swimming accident. Lex mentioned something about a river.”
“It was a swimming accident. They were bridge jumping into a river and Lex had to go in after Armstrong. It caused a big rift in the family. Gwendolyn and Mimi had a falling out for a while. Apparently it was bad. I don’t have all the details. Anyway, Bane said after that the competition took a nasty turn. They’d go after the girls each other liked, sabotage each other. It got worse in college until Lex just had enough, and stopped playing into it. I think it got really bad for a while, though.”
I frown, filtering through the conversations Lex and I have had over the months we’ve been doing this. As much as we talk, he’s never really gone into detail about his disdain for Armstrong. “What do you mean they’d go after the girls each other liked?”
“Like whenever Lex liked a girl back in high school, Armstrong would find a way to interfere. He’d ask her out before Lex could, or do something shitty to screw it up for Lex. I guess when it pissed Lex off enough, he started to do the same thing back. It escalated, but after a while it stopped, mainly because Lex stopped feeding into it I guess.”
I think about the night I met Lex, the same night Armstrong formally asked me on a date. Had I been part of a competition back then? Was I still part of one now?
Ruby touches my wrist. “Amie? Are you okay?”
“I met Lex the same night Armstrong asked me out.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The night Armstrong asked me out, Lex was there. He introduced himself to me first, it was . . . intense. He offered to get me a drink, and when he did, Armstrong came over and asked me to dance. He told me he was saving me from making a bad decision with Lex, then he asked me out.”