Alex dropped his hand from my waist and stepped back. He stared at me in disbelief. “It was before I really knew you,” I said. “But that’s why I couldn’t do that to Megan even though I wanted to—when you kissed me that night, I—I think I knew all along how I felt, but I didn’t want to admit it because I couldn’t do that after—after—”
“This isn’t happening.”
“I know you said you tried to keep him away from me that night, but I don’t remember. And I know it doesn’t speak well of me that I would get that drunk and do that with him—”
“You didn’t.”
“I—what?”
He started to respond and then it was too much for him. He doubled over, hands on his thighs, laughing too hard to speak. When he finally caught his breath, he put an arm back around my waist, pulling me in close.
“You didn’t sleep with Justin, you fool.”
“What do you mean?”
“You stole my shirt.”
“I—what? No. Justin said it was him at the housewarming.” I pulled back, not understanding.
“Really? What did he say?”
“He—he said I owed him—for skipping out without saying goodbye—”
“You skipped out without saying goodbye when you came up to me and begged me to keep him away from you.”
“But—he said I owed him for the shirt.”
“You spilled a glass of red wine all over him.”
“I—what?”
“Lily, he was all over you. You were clearly drunk and I asked if you were okay. You said you were too drunk to drive home and he wouldn’t leave you alone. You really don’t remember any of this?”
Now that he was saying it, I could picture the arm that I was leaning on at the hotel’s check-in desk as being attached to Alex. “You got us a room,” I said quietly.
“I offered to drive you home, but you said you couldn’t leave your car. And you were wasted and not making a whole lot of sense.”
I held a hand to my face. “Does that mean I—that we—？”
“Is that what you think of me? No!”
“But I woke up and my clothes were on the floor.”
“You took them off. I looked away. Mostly. You said you couldn’t breathe in your dress and your bra was uncomfortable.”
I tried to remember. “But you were naked too—”
“I slept in my boxers.”
“And we didn’t—？” He shook his head. I couldn’t make eye contact. I was mortified.
“How did you think I was Justin?”
“I couldn’t see his—your—face—and I told Megan I didn’t want to know who it was. And then Justin said that, and I thought—oh my God, I’m so stupid.” I thought back to Megan’s housewarming party, where Alex was so sweet on the porch. To the notes at Starbucks. The way he dropped everything to come help me at Amy’s bachelorette and then the fact that I published something so wrong when there had never been anything standing between us at all. Nothing except my own idiocy.
“But—you read the blog. I said it happened at the engagement party in the blog.”
He shook his head. “I read the Buzzfeed article and most recent blog post. Then I was too mad to go back and read the rest. And then by the time I was ready to, you had deleted it.”
I stared at him. “I don’t know what to say. Alex, I’m so—” He cut off my apology with a kiss.
“Megan-sanctioned this time,” he said, a teasing glint in his eye.
“Who?” I asked, a tear slipping past my lash extensions, despite the smile on my face. His hand cupped my cheek, and he brushed the tear away with his thumb. He leaned forward to kiss me again, and I wanted nothing more in the world than to hold him and never let him go. I kissed him lightly, then whispered, “But we shouldn’t do this.”
“You’d better be kidding.” His arm was tight around my waist.
“Here,” I laughed. “We shouldn’t do this here. At the wedding.”
He smiled and kissed my cheek gently, and I felt a wave of desire wash over me. “I missed you too,” he said. I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and we stayed like that for a long time, swaying slightly with the music, but mostly just hugging each other as close as we could.
As the night began to wind down, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. Megan was in there, touching up her lipstick in the mirror. “I see everyone got a happy ending today,” she said to my reflection.