THE TRIP

If you have to lie about it, it's most likely wrong, sweetie.

***

CHAPTER XXVIII

*****

FINALLY STEPPING INTO the house, I felt a weight being lifted off my chest and myself breathe easy again. Anna beside me let out an audible sigh of relief and I turned to her with a smile.

It only lasted a millisecond and, as if reading my mind, we both stormed down the hall together having one thing on our minds.

What the hell just happened?

We had every intention of finding Pablo and interrogating him worse than a police officer, but unfortunately for us, someone else had other plans.

“Araceli! You're back! We've been waiting for you the whole afternoon!”

I froze in my spot as did Anna and slowly turned to look at La Bruja who smiled at me like we were the best of friends.

We were all standing in the sitting room, but we weren't alone. Celeste glanced up at me, a smile taking over her face as she turned to the brunette lady with large, round glasses beside her. “Rachel! This is the girl that I was talking about.”

The so called Rachel looked up at me, letting her eyes run up and down my form as I did the same to her.

Her brown hair was in a messy bun with curly strands falling around her face. She was tanned with glowing skin and large brown eyes that made her look younger than she most likely was.

Her thin, pink lips stretched into a smile and I returned it politely.

“You're right. She is really pretty,” she agreed with Celeste who beamed at her.

I wanted to excuse myself, but I also wanted to know why exactly they were talking about my exceptional beauty in my absence as well.

“Exactly! She would look so good in the wedding pictures.”

“But a bridesmaid, ma'am? Surely you could just have her as a server or something,” La Bruja interjected, making me scrunch up my brows in confusion.

I turned to Anna who shrugged and walked away, probably to find Pablo.

“What are we talking about? What bridesmaid?” I asked, tired of them talking about me as if I wasn't there.

They all turned to me as if suddenly remembering that I was there before Celeste got up and started making her way towards me.

I took a cautious step back, keeping my eyes on her hands so I could brace myself if she suddenly decided to slap me again.

Surprisingly, she didn't. She raised her hands and pushed my bushy hair off my shoulders and then took a step back and let her eyes run over me.

“No. Bridesmaid is the only thing that I want her to be at my wedding.”

“What wedding? What's going on?” I asked, taking another step back from her to look everyone in the eye.

“Celeste, don't tell me you didn't let the poor girl know?” the other girl, Rachel, said as she got up and pulled Celeste away.

“It must have slipped my mind.”

“You're so good at remembering that one thing that I did to you that one time, but when it comes to telling the girl that works for your fiancé that you want her to your bridesmaid, it must have slipped your mind,” Rachel said as she gave me an apologetic smile.

“Wait... what?”

I was so lost. I was so confused. I knew what they were talking about had something to do with me, but I couldn't follow along. It seemed like they were all talking too fast or speaking a different language.

“Honey... my friend, Celeste, she wants you to be a bridesmaid at her wedding.”

“What wedding?” was the question I wanted to ask, but instead, I bit my tongue and asked something much more relevant.

“Why me?”

“Because you're pretty!” Celeste suddenly said from behind Rachel, pushing the brunette out of the way and placing her hands on my shoulders. “You'd look amazing in the photographs and videos. I'm planning the biggest wedding of the century. It's going to be all over the news and it cannot be anything less than perfect. That means everything needs to look spectacular. And you look spectacular. As well as exotic.”

Completely looking past my hatred for the use of 'exotic' to compliment me, I took another step away from her, successfully backing myself into the wall.

“Does boss know about this?” I asked as she rolled her eyes and finally sat down.

“He doesn't care.”

He should because I don't want to watch him marry someone else close up.

I didn't want to do it, but something told me that I wouldn't be able to live it down if I said no. Considering the fact that La Bruja seemed to have warmed up to her and Emma liked her as well.

I sighed and shook my head, not even bothering to give them an answer because none of them bothered to ask me. The three of them went back to chattering away as I watched them with my arms folded over my chest in the corner.

“Alright! It's settled!” Celeste exclaimed again, letting me know that she was the loud and extravagant type. “We'll all be going dress shopping tomorrow.”

“I can't. I'm working tomorrow,” I said, my lips in a thin, straight line as she frowned at me.

“Tomorrow's your day off, Araceli,” La Bruja said, looking at me with confused eyes as I copied the action.

“I took it today. Remember?”

“Daniel gave you today and tomorrow off. I thought you knew that.”

I shook my head from side to side, wondering why I hadn't known that. Or why she hadn't told me that. Shaking my head, I only nodded and began to walk away.

“Cool.”

“Be ready by twelve tomorrow. Emma will be coming with us,” Celeste yelled after me as I left.

“Cool.”

I ran down the hallway, looking through the doors until I found Anna and caught up to her. She was sitting on a bench beside the back door, staring out into the garden as I stood beside her.

“Did you find Pablo?” I asked, making her look up to me and shake her head with a sigh.

“They told me that he and a couple other men left the house with boss earlier today. They don't know when he'll be back.”

“Can you call him?” I sat next to her as she showed me the nine times she had called him, none of them going through to his phone.

“It's going straight to his voicemail.”

“Where could he have gone?”

“I don't know.” We sat in silence for a couple seconds before she let out a loud breath and turned to me with a smile. “So what were they talking about in the living room?”

My frown only deepened as I thought back to Celeste and her dream wedding. Suddenly, a giggle escaped my lips before countless others followed after it. Soon, I was left a laughing mess after thinking about my circumstances.

A couple months ago, I was just a maid. Now I was a maid who was sleeping with her boss who was getting married to the woman she was going to be a bridesmaid to. How did it come to this?

“Are you okay, Ara?” she asked, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder as I looked to her in confusion.

It was only after she had used her thumb to wipe away a tear that I realised I had many more streaming down my face.

I was crying.

I got up quickly, shaking my head as my laughing died down. “I'm fine,” I said, wiping the rest of the tears away with my arm. I picked up my bag and smiled at her. “I'm just confused, that's all. I'll go put these away,” I raised the bag up so she knew what I was talking about. “And then we'll talk about everything.”

“Ara—”

“I'm fine, alright? Don't worry about me.” I leaned down and placed a small kiss on her cheek to get her to stop worrying before turning around and walking to my room.

***

“Araceli? Long time no see, beautiful. What are you doing here?”

I whipped around quickly at the sound of the familiar voice, catching myself smiling once Guillermo came into view.

“Guillermo!” I smiled brightly as I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around him. “I haven't seen you in forever. Where have you been?”

“I should be asking you. You just disappeared into thin air.” I shrugged, not really knowing where I had gone. I hadn't been myself ever since the Vincent incident so it was understandable. “Where are you headed to? Aren't you working?”

“I'm off today,” I answered, letting his hand drop to my waist as I pulled away from him slightly. “I've actually been recruited as a bridesmaid for Ms. Celeste's wedding and I have to help her find a dress.”

Guillermo let out a loud laugh and pulled away from me fully. “I take it she doesn't know you're fucking her fiancé then.” The smile dropped off my face and I stared at him with wide eyes as he rolled his own at me. “Don't look at me like that.”

“How did you know?”

“The same way I knew that Emma was with Pablo. Shit like this doesn't just fly over my head.”

I opened my mouth, about to speak when I heard loud clicking heels in the distance. Quickly silencing myself before anyone overheard my secret, I turned around just in time to meet Celeste walk into the sitting room with Emma behind her.

Guillermo didn't even give her a word of greeting. He just nodded his head and turned around to leave, obviously not before placing a kiss on the crown of my head.

“Come on, Araceli. We've got a wedding dress to buy.”

***

I thought the awkward silence of the drive would be the worst part of the day, but I was proven wrong the second we stepped into the bridal shop.

I was wearing a loose, white sundress that was too big for me and literally hung off my shoulders and I still felt the humid, unconditioned air of the shop drench me in my own sweat.

If Celeste and Emma noticed, they didn't say anything as they went about looking through bridal dresses and conversing between themselves. Not one of them decided to include me in the conversation once.

Luckily, Celeste's friend from the last day, Rachel, had joined us a bit earlier. They made note to include her in every conversation, but most of the time she would brush them off and speak to me.

We were in one of the showrooms, watching Celeste model a big, white dress. The atmosphere around the room was mostly happy, but whenever it came my turn to speak, it became gloomy again.

It had nothing to do with Celeste. Or Emma. Not even Rachel. It was me. I was my own problem.

The guilt was eating away at the back of my mind, leaving a sinking feeling in my stomach. It got worse every time she would put on a new dress and come out of the changing room with a wide, happy smile on her face.

How could I just sit there and watch her prepare for a wedding when I was sleeping with the guy she thought she was going to marry behind her back?

“What about you, Ara? What do you think?”

I snapped my head up at the sound of Emma addressing me for the first time that day. I looked up at Celeste and felt the tears prickle the back of my eyes.

She looked stunning, smart, intelligent; everything I wasn't.

I felt like I was trying to sabotage her. She had everything I'd ever wanted so I was sleeping with Daniel behind her back just to one-up her. The worst part is, she was actually starting to warm up to me and treat me like a human being and I was just being a dishonest slut.

“It's... lovely,” I replied half heartedly, sending her a forced smile as she frowned at me.

A tense silence descended on us as I looked down at my hands and played with my own fingers. Suddenly, someone cleared their throat beside me and I looked up to Rachel.

“Why don't you and Emma go look for bridesmaid dresses in the other room?” she asked, looking at me hopefully as I smiled and nodded.

Getting up, I wiped my clammy palms against my dress and waited for Emma to get up too before we both walked to the next showroom.

This one was way more colourful than the last one with gowns of different shades instead of huge white wedding gowns. I went looking through some, wanting to make the peace last as long as I could between us before wrecking the havoc that I knew I couldn't avoid.

“Is everything alright, Ara?” Emma asked me as I took a deep breath and shook my head. I went and sat on the plush, round sofa in the middle of the room.

“I need to tell you something, Em.”

She looked at me with concern as she made her way over to me and took the both of my hands in her own. “What is it? Is someone hurting?”

“No, I—” a ball lodged it's way up my throat as the tears threatened to spill out again. Shaking my doubts away, I said what I had to. “I'm sleeping with Daniel.”

*****

Okay but like I don't see why I couldn't have kept it a secret for a bit longer.

I genuinely want to know, how do you think Emma will react? Do you think Ara should tell Celeste?

Me, asking these questions as if I'm not miles ahead a yall. I jus wanna hear your theories and prove them all WRONG that's all

Also updated again cus I got an agenda to keep. Expect that bonus chapter next Saturday. You might like it... rough ;)

Dueces ✌️