“What is it?” Celeste answered.
“Hey, baby,” Nick said on the other end. “You doing anything tonight? Want to hang out?”
Celeste tucked the phone under her cheek and
dabbed on another layer of Benetint lip stain. “Very funny. Are you calling just to annoy me or is there actually a problem?”
“Maybe just a tiny one—the projection screen won’t unroll. I think it’s jammed.” He sounded vaguely amused.
Celeste breathed a sigh of relief. Major crises she could not handle right now—minor crises, sure. “It was doing that earlier. You have to unroll it manually. Just get behind it. There’s a crank near the top. Just crank it open and we’ll leave it down for the party.”
“Excellent. At least one of us has a brain around here.” Celeste could hear the cracking of a back being stretched. “By the way, I don’t think I’m going to come to the cocktail party. I better stay around here and make sure no one knocks the palm arches into the pool or anything.”
Celeste shoved a little piece of paper with notes on key guests into her bag. “Is everything ready? Food, dec-orations, everything?”
“Yeah, it all looks great. Totally under control.
Actually, the food’s here now, so I better go tell that guy where to put it. He’s trying to set everything on the drinks table.” Nick chuckled.
“Go, go!” Celeste cried. “Quick!”
“Shhh, calm down. I’m going—see you later.” He
clicked off.
Celeste resisted the urge to start tearing at her cuticles and slipped her phone into her evening bag. If she came out of this evening without gray hair, it would be a miracle. She glanced at the clock and felt her heart rate spike. It was time to go out to the gates.
✦ ✦ ✦
Celeste stood near her parents and the Saunderses in the lobby, trying to not to fidget with her dress. The lobby was filled with well-dressed Hollywood types—everyone
slim, lovely, and dressed with the perfect indie-film edge.
Celeste tried not to gape at a woman wearing a torn black T-shirt and a huge diamond necklace talking to the guy in platform heels next to her. She glanced at her parents. They were beaming as they made pleasant small talk with the guests and accepted compliments on the resort. Celeste had never seen them happier.
Then she turned to peer through the main doors and her stomach plunged. There, getting out of a huge Escalade, were Travis and all five of his best buddies.
They were talking and laughing as they slammed the car doors, taking off their sunglasses and surveying the place as if they already owned it. Celeste could feel her pulse pounding in her temples. What the hell were they doing here? She barreled through the glass doors and marched up to Travis.
“Hey, babe!” he greeted her. She could tell he’d already been drinking by the flushed, jovial look on his face, but luckily he didn’t seem totally trashed—yet.
Celeste forced a smile.
“Hi. Hi, guys.” Everyone nodded.
“Hey, which way’s the pool, Celeste?” Kevin shouted.
“This place is awesome—how come you never had us down here before?” He slapped Travis on the back, almost sending him sprawling face-first onto the gravel driveway.
“Well, the pool’s that way, but it’s closed—there’s a party there later tonight,” she said deliberately, glaring at Travis, who seemed totally oblivious. He was busy chortling at another one of his buddies, who had grabbed a hibiscus flower from a nearby bush and was prancing around with it behind his ear. “Travis,” Celeste managed between clenched teeth. “Can I talk to you alone for a sec?”
“Oooh, Trav, are you in trouuubbble?” Kevin
shouted as Celeste dragged her reluctant boyfriend off down the path.
Around the corner of the main building, Celeste
released Travis’s arm and turned to face him. “What are those guys doing here?” she hissed furiously. “I thought you were at the beach!”
Travis made little “calm down” gestures with his hands, patting the air around her like she was some hysterical child. “Look, don’t freak out, okay? We were going to go to the beach, but then I started thinking about Nick and I thought you might need a little male protec-tion.” He winked. She remained stony-faced. “So the boys came here.”
Celeste thought the top of her head was going to blow off. Her face felt tight and hot. “I honestly have no idea how you could think this would possibly be okay,”
she managed to say without screaming. “You know how important this is to my family. Those jerk-offs cannot come to the festival.”
Travis rolled his eyes. “We were just going to hang out on the golf course anyway until the parties are over, so stop worrying.”
Celeste looked at him warily. “Really?”
“Hey, baby, have I ever let you down before?” he asked, taking both her hands in his.
Was he kidding?
“Just keep them away, Travis,” she said, pulling her arms back. “I mean it.”
“Hey.” He held up a Boy Scout salute. “You have my word.”
Celeste eyed him for a long moment and then nodded.
She spun on her heel and marched away down the path.
Back in the lobby, Celeste slipped into the ladies’
room and splashed some water on her face, being careful not smudge her eye makeup. She took a few deep
breaths to try to calm herself down. A toilet flushed behind her, and as she dried her hands, she could see a pair of legs dancing around in the booth. Celeste rummaged in her bag to touch up her faded lip stain and the stall door banged open. An impossibly thin woman in skin-tight gold lamé burst out.
“Ugh!” the woman exclaimed breathlessly as she
turned the water taps on full force. “Why do these people have such small stalls? How do they expect anyone to do anything in there?” She had buried her ring-encrusted hands in a mound of soapsuds.
Celeste’s eyes widened. She started
