groomsmen.”
“You told me he wasn’t coming,” Beatriz almost shouted.
“He wasn’t coming because of a work thing. Then he got a promotion. So now he is coming. I mean, he came.”
“So Ben’s here?” Beatriz glared at Claudia.
“Ben’s here.”
“Right now?”
“Right now.”
“Who’s Ben?” Keaton asked, leaning against the luggage rack and smiling.
“My ex-nothing,” Beatriz said.
“She was in love with him in college, but nothing ever came of it. She’s still a little bitter.”
“I’m not bitter. I’m just still mildly disappointed in him. You know, as a human being. Because he never fucked me, and he should have.”
“Yes, he should´ve,” Keaton said.
“Thank you. I owe you money, right?” Beatriz asked.
“I wouldn’t want to impose.” Keaton waggled his eyebrows.
Beatriz handed him a five-dollar bill. He gave Lincoln a quick kiss and headed for the door with the luggage rack.
“You should leave the rack,” Claudia said. “She’s having crazy sex this week with someone she doesn’t know yet. She may need that.”
“If she needs it back, call the front desk,” Keaton said as he pulled the luggage rack out of the room. “Put the wheel brake on first. Voice of experience.”
Alone now in the room with Claudia, Beatriz started to unpack.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me Ben’s here,” Beatriz said, angrily removing her underwear from her suitcase.
“I didn’t want you bailing on the wedding.”
“I wouldn’t bail on the wedding. But if I knew he was going to be here, I would have mentally prepared myself to see him again.”
“Mentally prepared as in?”
“I would have brought a date with me. I have a male escort who owes me. Although I think one of the Real Housewives has him booked this weekend.”
“Your life is weird, Bea.”
“What? Because I’m a sex education blogger?”
“For starters. Are you mad at me?”
“No, I’m not mad. He’s one of Henry’s best friends so of course he’s here. He should be here.” Beatriz hung her dresses up in the closet and started sorting through her shoes. “I just don’t want things to be weird.”
“It shouldn’t be. You haven’t seen him since college.”
“True, but we didn’t part on the best of terms. The day he graduated I went to his room in a bathrobe, took it off and stood naked in front of him. I told him to fuck me like he’d never fucked anyone before. I knew I’d probably never see him again so why not? No strings attached. No pressure. Only beautiful sex. My graduation present to him.”
“I never knew you and Ben had sex.”
Beatriz’s heart stuttered at the memory of standing naked in front of Ben in his dorm room. He’d already packed everything up. Nothing remained but the bed, the sheets, him and her. The way he’d looked at her when she dropped the robe, she knew she had him. Not only did he want her, he adored her. He drank up the sight of her like a man who’d walked across a desert and found his oasis. Or she’d thought.
“We didn’t. He said he was sorry, but he wasn’t interested. He asked me to go.” Beatriz would never forget the burning sting of humiliation. Her whole body had blushed at his rejection of her.
“What the hell? What straight man in his right mind says no to that offer?”
“Ben did. So I said something horrible to him, put on the robe and walked out. I cried all night. The next morning, I decided he was dead to me.”
“Beatriz…why didn’t you tell me this?”
“You were graduating, too. You had more important things on your mind. Plus, it was so humiliating. Definitely not my finest moment.”
Claudia sat on the bed and looked up at Beatriz, who tried looking at anything but her sister and the pity in her eyes.
“And here we are—it’s just like college again. You’re with Henry, and I’m stewing over Ben.” Beatriz sat on the other bed across from Claudia. “It’s just, I loved him, you know? I didn’t let myself love anyone else but him. And maybe that’s for the best. But I spent an entire year trying to be with him, and he said he didn’t want me. That’s fine. No one is supposed to want me. But then why did he kiss me like he did that night we met? Why did he tell me he wanted me on a Thursday, but by Friday it was poof—gone?” She blew into her fingertips.
“I don’t know. I thought he was crazy about you, too.”
“He took me for a tour of campus. You remember that? My first week at Brooks? I told him I was born in El Salvador and only made it to the U.S. when I was ten. You know what he said?”
Claudia shook her head. The sadness in Beatriz’s voice clutched at her throat.
“He said, ‘Más vale tarde que nunca.’”
“What does that mean?”
“Better late than never.” Beatriz smiled. She’d been so impressed that Ben, this blue-eyed all-American boy, spoke Spanish and spoke it so well. He hadn’t asked her any questions about her past, about why she’d come to America, where her parents were. People did that, even total strangers, not realizing that if a ten-year-old girl had to leave her family and her country behind, then it was probably not the sort of story you’d tell to someone you just met. No. Ben said, “Better late than never,” as if he was the reason she’d ended up in this country. And at that moment she’d believed he was.
“I know you loved him. I remember.” Claudia sat on the bed next to her. “Your freshman year was tough. It broke my heart watching him break your heart.”
“It was like I had two hearts and both of them were in love with him. I never knew you could feel that much. And he just had the one heart and it wasn’t interested in me.”
“I thought for sure he’d come around about you. I’d never seen two people more perfect together than you two. Not even me and Henry.”
“In college Henry wore his underwear on the outside of his pants.”
“Now you know why it took him five years to convince me to marry him.” Claudia winked at Beatriz who leaned against her sister and kissed her on the cheek.
“I’m very happy you’re getting married to Henry,” Beatriz said.
“I am, too. Now we just have to find you someone to be happy with.”
“I am happy, I promise. Spain was amazing, but it’s great to be back in the States again. Great to be here with you.” She smiled at her sister, a bright, genuine smile that she hoped convinced Claudia not to worry about her. She was so happy for Claudia and Henry. They belonged together. And Claudia needed to focus on her own wedding and not her foster sister’s five-year-old heartbreak.
“You’ll be okay?” Claudia asked, squeezing Beatriz’s shoulder.
“Totally okay. Promise. Or I will be as soon as I find someone to have sex with this week,” Beatriz said.
“God, it really is like being back in college.”
Chapter Four
Claudia slammed the hotel door behind her and