Page 5 of Drunk In Love
The stately room is a mixture of warm tones of cream, burgundy, and dark gold. The space is immediately relaxing as soon as one steps in. The carpeting in the room sinks under my footsteps. A large king-size bed awaits me in the center of the suite.
As I check out the amenities, a knock sounds at the door. It’s not the front door but the sound is coming from near the wall to my right.
As soon as I open, there is a waiting Kam on the other side.
“Hey roomie, looks like they gave us connecting rooms!” Kamaya says.
She looks beautiful standing in the doorway, even in jeans and a simple top. I don’t realize I’m staring until she flips a lock of hair back and laughs. “What is it?”
I shake my head. “Um, nothing. I guess we should join the others now.”
“Yes, looks like we’re already missing a lot.” Kamaya looks down at her phone. From my vantage point, I see the home screen lit up with multiple notifications from the wedding party group chat.
“As bridesmaid and groomsman, we have to be there for the bride and groom this weekend. But you and I should still see if we can take advantage of all the amenities they have at this hotel,” I say.
“Oh, yes,” Kamaya says. “We have to take advantage because once this wedding is over, we’ve got our work cut out for us on the Van Zandt assignment.”
Ava and the wedding planner stood by the entrance of the banquet hall, directing everyone to where they needed to be for tomorrow afternoon. I could see Brandon’s frustration at the length this process was taking and had to hide my grin. By the looks of things, we were in for a long day.
“Max, finally!” Ava says when she sees me. I arrived a few moments after Kamaya. “You should be standing next to Kamaya since you’ll be walking her down the aisle.”
Ava’s bouncy curls are loose but look like her hands have been running through them due to the stress of wedding day preparation.
Kam moves from where she’s standing with Bree and beckons me over.
“I texted you that we’d started, but you didn’t answer.”
I feel around in my pockets. “I knew I left something behind.” I sigh. “I’ll be back.”
Kamaya smiles. “I know weddings can be stressful for brides, but Ava is turning into a bridezilla. She’ll have your ass if you don’t get back here quickly.”
I turn to see Ava, the wedding planner, and Ava’s mother talking, all their backs turned away from where Kamaya and I are standing.
“I’ll be back quickly,” I say, slipping through an exit on the opposite side of where I came in.
Once I’m back in the room, I check that my phone is fully charged and return it to my back pocket. Then I open the door and halt at the familiar voice in the hallway.
“Everything’s going according to plan,” I hear Zach say. I peek out the crack in the door and see him presumably fishing for his keycard to return to his room. “Yeah, everyone is under the impression that the journal was hacked. They have no idea who is behind it, I’m certain. Look, I need to change for the rehearsal dinner…”
I don’t hear the rest of his sentence because he’s shut the door.
Everything is going according to plan. Under the impression the journal was hacked.
Who was he talking to? It sounded as if Zach knew more than he was saying. Was he talking to the hacker behind what was going on, sabotaging the company he worked for?
I knew something was up with that man. I could never put my finger on it, but I immediately got a bad vibe from him the day we met. What Brandon and Kamaya see in him, I’ll never know. Zach’s smarminess has only worsened in my mind after hearing that conversation.
My phone alerts me of an incoming text from Kam:
Ava wants to practice coming down the aisle in pairs, where are you?
On my way, I text back.
Securing the door closed behind me, I turn at the sound of another door opening. Zach appears in a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and chinos. Perfectly dressed as I was used to seeing him. One positive I could say about the man was his attention to detail.
“Max, I was just on my way over to the hall. Walk with me?”
“Uh um—sure,” I say. It would have been objectively rude to flat out refuse him, especially since we were heading in the same direction.