Chapter 3

Lisa's POV

When Selena sent me an invite to her wedding, I jumped at the opportunity to leave Oakenville, even if it's for a few days, away from the pity and scrutiny of townspeople. I can use the break too, after an aggressive devotion to the affairs of my business, to burying myself in work and leaving no room for intrusive thoughts.

Willow yawns, and from the crook of my arm she observes the environs where we stand in front of the airport, like a king surveying his land from the top of his castle. Her blond short twin tails bob along with her head, and I dig my teeth down my lower lip at this momento of her father. I did not know what to feel when I gazed down at his unrecognizable body that day in the morgue, an hour after he had been fished out from the wreck that used to be his Porsche. Yet after his funeral, I was an automaton whose very first sensation was relief.

I shake my head in an attempt to banish the thoughts before I fish through my handbag for my phone. Part of my mission here is to forget Keith Reed, the adorable creation of ours currently nestling on my arm notwithstanding.

I finger the heart pendant at my throat, with the letter 'S' engraved on it. S for Selena. She bought two of these, and gifted me one on my eighteenth birthday. Hers also have a letter engraved on it. Letter L. L for Lisa. A friendship necklace, she called it. And we had both sworn to always keep it with us. Never to take it off, to always carry parts of ourselves in our hearts wherever we go. I had few to no friends at school to exchange any bracelets with, and none of them constant. Except Selena. She's like my best friend and sister. My favorite person. We haven't been in touch in a very long time, so I can't wait to spend the summer with her.

A silver Mustang rolls into view and halts before us, and I witness a familiar redhead pop out from behind the driver's wheel. Selena flashes a mega-watt smile that has graced magazine covers back in the day, as she slams the car door and sashays towards us, reminiscent of a long stemmed rose with a two piece jade-coloured ensemble hugging her long-legged physique like a second skin, the body that almost made her a supermodel. I give in to the urge to return that smile.

"Hey Cupcake," She engulfs me and Willow in a sandalwood-scented embrace. I burrow my nose against her neck and grin.

"Stop sniffing, you-" She cut herself off with a chuckle. I laugh, and pull away to look at her radiant face. Her eyes match the hue of the cloudless summer sky above, both even more brilliant awash in sun rays. Rosebud pink lips stretch in a sweet smile. My eyes stray to her neck, her very much bare neck. She doesn't have the friendship necklace on. But we promised to never take them off!

"You don't have your friendship necklace with you." I keep my voice really light and breezy. I don't want to sound petty over it.

"Oh yeah." Her long, red painted fingers flutter to her throat. "I must have left it in my jewelry box. You see yesterday…" Selena blushes. "Wade took me out on a very romantic dinner. And I wore this dress, a strapless red thing that really needed pearls. I'm really sorry, Cupcake but the friend necklace would have clashed with my outfit…"

"Okay okay, sheesh." I smile at her. "I'm no fashion police. I understand."

Selena laughs. "Let me look at you." She steps back to study me in my asymmetrical sepia brown top and leather cargo pants and white sneakers. "Hmm, chic. You look great since the last time I saw you." That was on my wedding day. She dabbed at her eyes with a white handkerchief alongside some other guests and gifted me a pressure cooker. "It's like forever since when last."

My heart swells with emotion. " Good to see you again, Aunt."

" You too, Niece."

" Niece?" I did not notice the brunette standing by a startled Selena. "I was expecting a cute little thing." She has her eyes on Willow.

" Don't go sneaking up on me that way, Yvette. And yes, she's my sister's child."

Yvette whirls rounded eyes on me.

" She was born sixteen years after my mom existed." I explain. Yvette reacts the same way everyone else does when I reveal my aunt and I splurged on cheeseburgers and ice cream everytime on our way back from school, played princess with mom's clothes sagging off our bodies and binge watched Disney animated movies together when we were kids. She has the look of one that happened upon a unicorn.

" Yup. We are apart by only half a dozen years." Selena slides Yvette a sly gaze. "Do the math."

"Congratulations on getting hitched, Selena. I really can't wait to see you in a wedding dress, getting married to the love of your life," I gush. I can't help it. I'm so happy for her. "You'd be so beautiful."

"Yeah, right?" She beams her thanks. Willow, who was silent this whole time, suddenly gurgles.

" Hello there, Buttercup." Trust Selena to instantly dub my thirteen month old a nickname. "It's nice to meet you." She turns to me. "She really does look like Keith."

"Yeah." The mention of Keith's name sends shots of ice into my bloodstream. I don't say anything else.

Selena notices this. "Sorry, Lisa. Alright everyone, let's bounce!"

It is when Selena swerves her car into traffic that I ask. "We are staying with you, right? Willow and I." I envision the homey condo I once spent my twentieth summer in. "I know we arrived a little early

" No, Cupcake." Diamond winks at me from the palm resting on her steering wheel. I think of the ring Keith gifted me on our engagement night, the dainty ruby and diamond jewelry stashed away in a drawer back at Oakenville. "I'm with Wade now. The condo's no longer mine."

"Oh." I remember the hunky, good-looking, filthy rich, brown skinned male Selena said was an executive in a gaming company.

"Don't be a sad cupcake. So here's the good news. Wade and I are hosting a pre-wedding getaway!"

I scrunch up my nose. "They do that too these days?" Keith and I never had anything like a "pre-wedding getaway."

"I don't know about that, but this is my brainchild. My idea. I've always wanted one, a few days of pure, wild fun with friends before Wade makes me his wife."

"Wow. So…?" Of course a "so…" is forthcoming.

"So Wade and I, we booked… hired a holiday villa at a beach. Invited some people over. Mainly the bridesmaids. And groomsmen. It's kind of like a get-together too between friends."

I shift uncomfortably in my seat. Selena did not tell me all this over the phone last night, or on the email she sent me where she attached her wedding e-invite. "You know I'm not that good with people, right?"

"Oh come on, Lisa. I figured you'd say that." Selena drums her fingers on the steering wheel. "You've been to a camp, right? Think of this as a camp, but with less people."

I only went to a camp because Mom always finds a way to keep us out of the house during the holidays.

"I didn't tell you because I knew you won't come if I did," Selena continues. "Loosen up and have fun, Lisa. That's why I called you here. That's what you said to me last night, isn't it? You wanted to have fun. You can't do that if you're so… buttoned up."

Hurt pricks my skin like a hot needle. "Ouch."

"Forgive me, Cupcake."

I huff and lean back on my seat. "You too then? You're gonna be there?" I ask Yvette. She looks up from her phone and swivels her neck to glance back at me from the passenger seat.

"All the bridesmaids. And yeah, that includes me."

"You're gonna love the place. Trust me," Selena promises.

"Alrighty." I sigh resignedly, and fish out cookies from my tote bag and offer it to Willow. Yeah, having a baby meant trading your usual tiny purse stuffed with one or two lipsticks for huge bags filled with all they want. Nevertheless I lean back in my seat to watch colorful lights and buildings whizz past as we ride through the south Florida city, briefly wondering if Mom would take a break from flying all over the world as an ambassador to attend her sister's wedding. She didn't show up at my own wedding afterall, so that might be unlikely. I toy with the idea of asking Selena, but I drop the thought almost immediately. Selena and Mom haven't been in the best of terms since I've been in college, and I probably shouldn't bring that up with Yvette in the car with us.

"Well, well, well, we're here at Palm Paradise." Selena declares about an hour later. "Welcome, babes."

I raise my head to smooth paved streets mostly flanked by towering palm trees, and residential buildings. Locals are milling around like swans on water. I spy a girl on a bench, buttery tresses tied up in a ponytail with a coral scrunchie that matched the polka dots on her mini dress, scratching her pug underneath its jaws. The place looks like somewhere right out of a movie. The kind that stars gorgeous lead actresses on a summer holiday.

"I know I've been here before but…" Yvette remarks. "Wow."

"I feel the same way, Yvette," I agree. "Except I haven't been here before."

Selena is rounding a bend, and I see a charming yellow building first, with manicured front lawns and hedges trimmed so flat they look like leafy tables. Two palm trees flank the front steps that lead up to the entrance.

"Oh my god, is that the villa?"

"No cupcake," Selena replies. "That is the Palm Paradise Resort."