Hot Mistake

Lola took a sip of her quickly vanishing margarita. “Seriously, though, Sebastian isn’t the same jerk from high school. You should actually have a conversation with him. See what I mean.”

Gabriela scoffed. No way was she talking to Sebastian Lott. She’d long since gotten over her girl crush on the guy. No need to revisit those painful days when she’d be frozen by her locker and he’d come bounding up to his, three down from hers, with a caravan of hangers-on following his every move.

“Oh, lord. Is that a cheese plate the bartender just put out? I freaking love cheese,” Veronica exclaimed, glancing at the small snack nook near the end of the bar. “Lola, come on, honey, let’s go get fortified. Come with me, I can’t be the only one pigging out. Did I mention I love cruises? Seriously. Love them!”

“You know she’s getting married in two days,” Gabriela felt the need to point out. The last thing she was probably thinking about was consuming dairy fat.

“All the more reason for her to keep up her strength.” Veronica tugged Lola off her bar stool and the two snuck over to see about the cheese bar.

“I’ll be right back,” Lola promised, leaving Gabriela with her least favorite people at the bachelorette party. Gabriela would’ve headed over, as well, but Liv grabbed her arm.

“You’re right about Swipe Left,” she said. “Thanks for reminding us.”

Felicia even reluctantly nodded.

Gabriela felt perhaps a temporary truce might have been struck.

“Okay, I get it. I get it. No Swipe Left.” Felicia shrugged, adjusting her strapless bra. The top of a tattoo at her neckline became visible for the briefest of seconds and then disappeared behind the spandex fabric. Gabriela thought she saw the head of a running stick figure. Really, Felicia? She’d just started running 5Ks a few months ago and now she suddenly got herself tattooed?

“The worst part is that I heard he’s seriously hung,” Felicia said.

Gabriela seriously did not want to know this information. She really didn’t. Why were they still talking?

Felicia, however, could not read a room. “One girl told me she didn’t even know they came that big. Like an actual eggplant,” she whispered.

“Guess that’s where the emoji came from,” Liv said and barked a laugh.

“Do I really need to know this?” Gabriela protested.

“Yes, Liv, consider poor Gobstopper. You know she hates being explicit,” Felicia teased and the two sisters burst into laughter at Gabriela’s expense.

Gabriela was half tempted to confess a few of her exploits in New York. But she wouldn’t. Not to these gossips. She mentioned word one and then the whole ship would know about her sexual exploits.

“Ugh, all this talk about cock makes me want some,” Felicia declared, slamming her margarita glass on the bar as some of it sloshed over the rim.

Classy. Gabriela sipped at her malbec, wishing this night would come to an end.

“What are we going to do about this lame-ass party?” Liv moaned. “I’m bored.”

Lame? This party was not lame, and Gabriela had a clipboard to prove it. A clipboard full of activities. Granted, they’d only gotten through the shots part so far, but they were warming up to the rest, like Friend-ivia. Trivia all about the roots of Lola’s friendship with each bridesmaid. Gabriela had read about it online.

“We could play a trivia game. I made up one just for Lola,” Gabriela began, searching for her clipboard. She had all the questions mapped out and party prizes for bridesmaids who got the right answer.

“Trivia? No way.” Felicia frowned. Then she seemed to get inspired. “I know! Why don’t we go crash the bachelor party?”

Liv squealed in delight, clapping her hands together. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Oh, no, no...no! Gabriela couldn’t think of a worse idea. For one, they were supposed to have separate parties, and she’d made sure through a detailed schedule on her clipboard that they’d all be headed to different bars at different times to avoid crossing paths. Now Felicia was going to ditch all her hard work!

“No, we can’t,” Gabriela said. “We promised we’d stay in separate bars.”

“Who promised? I didn’t promise.” Felicia smirked at Gabriela.

Gabriela thought the idea had disaster written all over it. “Seriously. What if they’ve got strippers there?”

“On a cruise ship?” Liv looked doubtful. “Besides, I bet Lola wants to go. Lola!” Liv raised her voice.

Lola turned after having a bite of cheese. Veronica was already stacking her plate high with tiny cubes.

“Do you want to go crash the boys’ party?”

Felicia skipped over and Lola’s face lit up. Pretty soon, the two were jumping up and down and squealing in delight.

“Of course she does!” Felicia called as she tucked her arm through Lola’s and led her out of the bar.

“But I don’t think...” Gabriela protested one last time.

“What the bride wants, the bride gets,” Liv said and pushed past Gabriela on her way to the cruise ship elevators.

Gabriela shook her head. She had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling.

CHAPTER TWO (#u55d8a336-a632-57c6-bd26-8526761c5cf6)

UP ON DECK TEN, Sebastian was desperately trying to liven up what he could only call the world’s tamest bachelor party. They’d taken over the small whiskey bar on Deck Ten, with the ornate, old-fashioned, carved wooden wraparound bar, and had staked out the corner table surrounded by oversize leather chairs. The men sat in a semicircle: the groom, Marco; his brother, James; and Marco’s cousin Bill, who were about as lively as a stick in the eye. The only lively attendee so far was Lola’s brother, Theo, whom Sebastian had known since first grade.

So far, the men had only barely sipped at their expensive whiskeys and the most exciting conversation revolved around who took which expressway to work every morning. Boring.

Sebastian had to think of something to put this party back on track and fast. He was determined to make this bachelor party the very best party of a lifetime. If his best friend was saying goodbye to singlehood, something Sebastian himself thought was darn near close to social suicide, then he was determined to send him off with a bang. First, he needed to get these guys to drink.

Sebastian raised his glass high for a toast. “To you, Marco. Tonight is almost your last night—technically—as a single man. You crazy fool!” The others laughed a bit, but he continued. “I know that Lola is going to make you a very happy man. And no one deserves it more than you.”

Sebastian meant every word. He’d known Marco since law school, where the two happened to sit next to each other in Constitutional Law. But their friendship had deepened when Marco had helped him bury his mother after she lost her battle with liver cancer. That was a sorrowful memory, but Sebastian would always be grateful to Marco for being there.

“Hear, hear,” James echoed.

“Let’s get this party started,” cried Theo.

They all clinked glasses and took a swig. “By the way, when is it going to be your turn, Sebastian? Isn’t this the fifth wedding this year you’ve gone to?” Marco asked.

“The answer is never,” Theo interrupted. “This guy? He’s not the settling-down type.”

“That’s not true,” scoffed Sebastian. And lately he’d been thinking more and more about settling down. Sure, marriage sounded like pure insanity to him: one woman for the rest of his life? What was he, dead inside? Or he would be if he ever put on a ring. But, lately, he was thinking more about a woman who might be able to keep his interest for more than a week or month at a time. Lately, his parade of partners on the dating hookup app Spark was all about the quick physical connection. He couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d had a decent conversation with one of them. Then again, that’s not why they came over to his house at midnight, either.

“You like to play the field, huh?” Bill leaned forward and grinned, his wedding band catching the meager light. “Tell me about it.”

Bill was the last person Sebastian wanted to confide in.

“He was the first guy with a dating app account in law school,” Marco agreed. “He cleaned up.”