Page 53 of Best Man
Her joke went over like a lead balloon. “What! Paulie! Are you serious?!”
“Relax. I’m just joking,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Besides, he wore a condom.”
“PAULIE!” She swatted Paulina on the shoulder. “Don’t joke like that! I can’t tell when you’re joking and when you’re serious.”
“It’s ajoke, obviously,” she lied. “I just wanted in on the fun. Everyone else is joking about me and Sasha—can’t I?”
“Duh.That’s the way it works.” Piper snickered. “It’s fun when you deny it. I get freaked out when you embrace it.” She paused. “But youwouldtell me if you guys were hooking up, right?”
Even if she wanted to tell her sister, she couldn’t. She promised Sasha she wouldn’t.
“Yeah,” she lied again before she retched one last time.
“Seriously, though, why are you puking?” She pressed the back of her hand to Paulina’s forehead. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”
“I dunno. I hope not.”
“Are you hung over?”
“Can’t be. I only had one glass of wine last night.” She wiped the sweat from her brow. “I think I’m nervous about my speech.”
“Aw, hon, don’t worry about it,” she said soothingly. “Say whatever you wanna say. It doesn’t have to be this amazing, epic speech, you know?” Piper chuckled. “Man. If you’re this nervous for my wedding, just think how bad you’ll be onyourownwedding day.”
The thought of her own wedding made her dry heave.
“Never gonna happen,” Paulina said.
“Still sticking with the never-want-to-be-married angle, huh?” Piper asked.
“What’s the point? I don’t need the stress in my life.”
Paulina stood and wiped away her tears—not tears of sadness, but ones that came when you emptied your stomach’s contents. Which, in this case, wasn’t a whole lot—just a glass of water and her morning pills.
Piper took a peek into the toilet before Paulina could flush it away. “You didn’t eat breakfast?”
Paulina shook her head. “I didn’t have time. I woke up late, remember?”
“No wonder you felt sick,” Piper said with a breath of relief. “Don’t you know you can’t take pills on an empty stomach?”
“Huh.” Paulina shrugged. “I guess I do now.”
“Goodness, Paulie. You gave me a scare. I thought you were getting sick,” she said. “Well, I’m relieved, anyway. I’ll have one of the girls grab you some food.”
After freshening up and having a few bites of a bagel, Paulina felt one-hundred percent better, and she got back to work on Piper’s hair.
17
Niko
Niko woke to what sounded like a police raid outside his hotel room. Fists urgently banged on his door, and urgent voices boomed.
“YO, NIKO!”
“OPEN UP!”
“WE GOT A PROBLEM!”
“WAKE UP, BUD!”
