The Seduction Vow (11 page)

“
How about this cutie?”
Tara kissed the magazine picture before displaying it to the
others. “Garri-Tee, hottest hip-hop artist of the century. And
still is. Have you seen this man lately? I believe I win this
contest, because my guy is the only one who isn’t a
has-been.”

“
Yes, but did you
marry
him?” Corinne
asked. “You don’t win until you do.”

Graci laughed and took another sip of her
wine. “Kids today don’t know what they’re missing only having
electronic magazines. You can’t rip out a photo and tack it on your
wall. You can’t sleep with his picture under your pillow at
night.”

“
Uh, there is such a thing
as a printer, and girls today can photoshop themselves
with
their make-believe
boyfriend and tweet it,” Tara pointed out.

“
Still not the same.” Graci
wished Bree and Adya were there, completing their group. She
suddenly loved and missed them with a heart-wrenching tug, which
might be partly due to that third glass of wine.

“
I can’t wait to see Bree
again. I wonder if Adya will change her mind and make the wedding,”
she said.

Corinne patted her issue
of
Tiger Beat
with the photos of Michael Knox. “At least I know my fiancé
is finally mine alone now that Bree’s getting married. As for
Adya…” She grew serious. “That text didn’t at all convince me she’s
okay. I’ll be flying to LA soon for an event, and I plan to take a
side trip to Seattle to check in on Adya. God knows I have enough
frequent flyer miles.”

“
Good,” Tara said. “It’s
hard to tell from one little text, but I feel like there’s
something off too. She’s still our friend, and we made a lifetime
pact to be there for each other.”

“
No secret too dark, no
judging ever
,” Graci quoted tipsily. “I
love you guys.”

“
Aw, we love you too,
honey.” Tara jumped up and gave her a hug, and Corinne smiled at
her.

“
You know what? I have a
secret,” Graci confided. “It’s about Neal. I like him. I know I’m
not supposed to. I read the book you gave me, Tara. But I do. I
like him. I really like him.”

“
Oh, Graci,” Corinne
sighed. “He’s not a good match for you.”

Tara glared at Corinne. “Shut it. Graci has a
right to feel what she feels.”

“
She’s just drunk. She
doesn’t really mean it. This…musician is not the right sort of man
for Graci. Late hours. Gone every weekend. She wouldn’t be happy
with that.”

“
So what? Maybe he’s right
for her for now. That’s all that matters. Besides, you don’t know
Neal at all. He seems like a pretty good guy to me,” Tara
said.

“
He is! He
is
a good guy,” Graci
chimed in. “And now he thinks I don’t want him.” Her lower lip
began to tremble, and she stopped it by taking another sip of
wine.

“
You’ll be all right. There
will be other men when the time is right,” Corinne
soothed.

“
I don’t want other men. I
want N-Neal.” She stabbed a finger at Corinne. “And you keep
judging me about the men I like. Do you think I’m too stupid to
make my own decisions? Do you think I’m an idiot?” Graci gestured
with her glass and spilled red wine on the white sofa.

“
Oh Lord, there goes the
temper. Graci, don’t be an angry drunk.” Corinne took her glass and
set it safely aside. “I apologize. If you still want Neal, then you
should go for him. Just maybe don’t call him until
tomorrow.”

“
She has a point there,”
Tara agreed.

“
Fine. Whatever,” Graci
said. The song on the stereo changed to an up-tempo dance beat.
Suddenly, she couldn’t bear to sit any longer. She jumped up. “You
know what we should do right now? Go dancing.”

“
There’s a club I know
that’s not too far from here,” Tara volunteered.

Corinne tossed her
Tiger Beat
on the table.
“Okay, guys. If that’s what you want to do. But if Graci passes out
on the dance floor, remember I told you so.”

The next stretch of time was a blur, though
Graci remembered stepping out into the cold night air and getting
into the taxi. Next thing she knew, she was enveloped in the dark
noise of the club, a heavy beat thudding into her head and moving
her body. The place was busy, and they had to carve out a place for
themselves on the dance floor.

The music was live tonight, but Graci
couldn’t get a glimpse of the band through the throng. Not that it
mattered. It wasn’t Neal’s band. The music wasn’t anything like
what they played. She fell into the groove, aided by the tequila
shots they’d drunk before starting to dance. Closing her eyes, she
let her body go, heedless of how she might look to anyone else. New
Graci was a much better dancer than Old Graci, if only in her own
mind.

She waved her hands over her head and swayed
to the beat. A synthesizer solo caught her attention, the melody
reminding her of Neal for a moment, but she quickly dismissed the
thought. For tonight, she must stop obsessing about him and be here
in the moment with her friends, dancing.

The song ended, and the leader announced the
band would be taking a break, but everyone should stick around,
then recorded music cued up.

Corinne stared at the stage. “No way. Tara,
you didn’t.”

Tara’s eyes opened wide. “I had no idea,
swear to God. It’s a different band. How would I know?”

Even before she turned around, Graci knew who
she’d see. “It’s fate,” she muttered. “This has got to be
fate.”

The band members were
filing off the stage, and Neal was one of them. He messed around
with the controls on his keyboard before following the others to
their table. A beam of light hit him and he practically glowed.
Graci’s heart swelled like violins in a symphony. He was here. For
her. Fate
wanted
them to come together. No more doubts or confusion or
protests or second guessing. She was about to accept her
destiny.

Graci didn’t even have to push her way
through the crowd. People parted like the Red Sea before her. She
floated along in a haze of joy and rapture. Everything was exactly
as it was meant to be. God had brought her here tonight, right
where Neal happened to be filling in with some other band. God
wanted her to know true love at last.

Neal’s T-shirt clung damply to his body, and
he wiped sweat from his face with a cloth as he talked to someone
seated at the table. A dozen people were there, musicians and their
friends or family members.

Graci moved a little faster now. Any second,
Neal would turn and see her. He’d smile that gorgeous smile, and
his beautiful eyes would light up. Then she would break into a run,
covering the final few yards between them. He would sweep her into
his arms and kiss her and tell her how glad he was she was here
and—

A woman jumped up from her chair, came over
to Neal, and threw her arms around his neck. She said something,
then grabbed his face and pulled it down to hers for a kiss.

Graci stopped moving…and breathing.

Neal held the woman close while he kissed her
back.

Graci felt sick. Literally.
The shot of tequila wasn’t playing nice with the wine already in
her stomach, and the sight of Neal with someone
else—
Already! He’d just left that message
in which he’d claimed he wasn’t interested in anyone but
me?
—topped it off. Her happy buzz turned
to queasiness. She lurched toward the ladies’ room.

A sea of people surrounded
her. With her head spinning, the music deafening her, and the
contents of her stomach roiling, it was like she was literally
tossing on an ocean. Two thoughts chased round and round her
brain
—s
he couldn’t hold her liquor
anymore, and who was that bitch with her skanky arms around
Neal?

She barreled into the ladies’ room and into
one of the stalls, where she crouched down, breathing hard. Nothing
happened. The churning in her stomach subsided as she stared at the
toilet and knelt on the disgusting floor of a public restroom.

Her guts continued to
gurgle, but the impending threat had passed. Graci went to the
sink, cupped her hands under the faucet and drank before splashing
her face. A sloppy drunk with smudged eyeliner and hair clinging to
her damp face stared at her from the mirror. She could
illustrate
pathetic
in the dictionary.

Someone entered the restroom. One glance at
the skintight, too-short skirt and the supersized hairdo chilled
her blood. This was the very skank who’d been swarming all over
Neal. Fate again. What else could have brought her straight to
Graci?

“
Hey!” Graci shouted,
startling herself.

The woman stared at her with wide eyes. “I’m
sorry. Do I know you?”

“
Not yet, but you will.”
Logic fled the room, and an angry ghetto bitch took possession of
Graci. “You’re here with Neal Murray?”

“
Yes. He’s a friend of
mine. Why?”

Rage thundered in Graci’s head, pounding with
every beat of her heart. She moved a step closer, stabbing her
finger at the chest of the skank’s butt-ugly sparkly halter top. “I
suggest you keep away from him, Hairdo. End the night, and don’t go
out with him again.”

“
Ex
cuse
me?”

“
You heard me, you ’80s
throwback ho-bag.” Normal Graci hovered at a distance and watched
Crazy Graci go nuts, her voice growing shriller and louder with
every vile thing she said.

“
You’re insane.” The woman
backed up and reached for the door handle, just as someone came
through, slamming the door right into her.

“
Oh my God, I’m sorry!” It
was Tara, with Corinne right behind her.

“
Jesus!” Neal’s date rubbed
the side of her head where the door had hit her. “What the
hell?”

While Tara tended to her, Corinne moved
toward Graci. “Graci, Are you all right? I saw you run to the
restroom. Did you get sick?”

“
Your friend is drunk off
her ass.” Neal’s date snapped. “You should take her home before she
pisses off somebody who’s not as nice as I am.”

“
And who are
you
?” Tara folded her
arms and jutted a hip, ready to defend Graci.

“
Neal’s girlfriend,” Graci
whimpered as she slumped against Corinne who had put an arm around
her.

The woman shook her big-haired head. “Girl,
you’d better check yourself. You are one crazy bitch.” She walked
out of the restroom.

Graci called after her, “I’m sorry.”

Tara offered her a tissue to wipe her leaking
eyes and sniffling nose. “What did you say to her?”

“
Terrible things. I saw her
with Neal, and when she came in here, I just lost it. I went nuts
and called her names and threatened her. I wanted to
hit
her!” Graci spoke in
gasping bursts between sobs. “I am so messed up.”

“
Yeah. I think we should’ve
thought twice before those tequila shots,” Corinne said.

“
I don’t mean drinking
tonight. I mean everything. Ever since Joey left. I don’t know who
I am any more. Old Graci? New Graci?” She hiccupped and sobbed into
the disintegrating tissue some more.

“
Aw, honey.” Tara pulled
her into a big hug. “You kept saying you were okay, but I knew you
weren’t. Tell us everything. No secrets.”

Graci drew back, blew her nose on a fresh
tissue, and began. She told them about her vow to lose her
virginity and her half-assed attempts to make it happen. She
explained how she’d really met Neal and how she’d fought against
liking him too much.

“
And then tonight, I
suddenly saw everything clearly. All that bullshit about rebound
relationships and spending time alone to discover myself doesn’t
mean anything. Love doesn’t work on a schedule. It comes when it
comes. I love Neal, but it’s too late. He’s with that…that
woman.”

“
Just because they’re on
one date doesn’t mean they’re together. You need to talk to him,”
Tara said.

Corinne held up her hand. “Wait. Back up.
What I don’t understand is why you decided you needed to screw
somebody like you were getting a booster shot. I thought you were
waiting for marriage. Isn’t that what you said?”

Graci rubbed her eyes. “When I said that,
Joey and I were going to get married soon and I wanted to save that
final act for our wedding night. Maybe I’m more Catholic than I
wanted to admit. But now I think it was also about him. Somewhere
deep inside, maybe I didn’t trust him.”

“
Well,
that
I can understand,” Corinne
said. “But what changed your mind about sex? Why did you think you
were ready now?”

“
I wanted to prove to
myself I’m a fully sexual person,” Graci admitted. “I didn’t want
to show up at Bree’s wedding the lone virgin. I wanted to be
different, to be someone else.”

Tara stroked her hair. “But Graci, you’re
fine just the way you are. We all love who you are. Trying new
things like you’ve been doing is great, but you shouldn’t change
just for the sake of change.”

Graci threw up her hands.
“I see that
now
.
I’ve been an idiot, and now I’ve lost the only guy I’d
really
like
to go
to bed with.”