My Irresistible Enemy

My lips were speechless. My heart was racing. My stomach was in knots. I'd been awaiting and dreading seeing Grayson for days and here was. Of course my dumb ass could only think to say, "What are you doing here?"

Grayson raised an eyebrow. "I'm a groomsman. In the wedding."

I glared at him. "I know that. I mean what are you doing HERE? In my BATHROOM."

He turned and stretched his arms up, grabbing the doorway to the bathroom. "I mean I was just dropping off something from Della. But then I saw you touching yourself. What else was I supposed to do when I saw that?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe get out?! Don't be a creep? Any of the above?" I threw my hands above my head with the last suggestion, only then realizing I was naked. I quickly covered my body with a nearby towel.

Grayson turned his head and laughed. "Oh relax. It's nothing I haven't seen before, Chloe."

My face flushed redder than probably ever before. "Get out!"

He turned back and walked out of the bathroom. "Whatever. You're the one who was moaning my name. Della's present is out here just so you know." A silent moment went by and I thought he had left, when he poked back around the corner. "By the way, they were hot before too." He nodded at my chest.

I looked down, blushing even harder if possible. When I looked up again, he was gone. Natalie walked into my room, scratching her head and yawning. "Did I just see Grayson leave the room- Why are you naked!? What did I miss?"

I sighed. "You don't want to know, Nat. I gotta get ready." She just shrugged and yawned again as she turned and walked out of my room.

I probably stayed in the shower longer than I should've. But it helped me think and calm down after the fiasco from earlier. I was still a bit embarrassed that Grayson had seen me masturbating to the thought of him. Mostly though, I was worried he'd heard me almost say that I still love him. It was kind of mumbled so maybe he hadn't heard.

After my shower, I blew out my hair and did my makeup. Even though I'd packed so many clothes, I didn't want to wear any of them to dinner. I tried on lots of different outfits and eventually decided on something. Natalie walked in while I was putting on the finishing touches. "Hey, Grayson dropped this off. It's from Della." She held up a light yellow gift bag. "It's a present for us."

We dug through the bag to find two small white boxes. Inside of each was a white gold tennis bracelet. Little rubies and diamonds decorated the chain. Natalie gasped. "Holy balls. They're fucking gorgeous."

She was right. They were indeed 'fucking gorgeous'. "We should wear them to dinner, Nat."

She scoffed. "We should wear them to everything."

We took turns putting them on each other. Natalie finished getting ready and headed downstairs. It may sound vain, but we looked good. Natalie was wearing a dark blue velvet two piece skirt set. She accessorized with gold hoops and strappy nude pumps. I wore a black long sleeve bodycon dress. It was off the shoulder and went to my mid-thigh. I paired it with red stilettos and a matching red purse. Maybe a little too much for just dinner, but we felt hot.

The elevator was crowded. People were dressed for dinner, the pool, a night out on the town. We finally made it down to the lobby and squeezed out of the crowd. "Okay, they said the restaurant was down here somewhere..." Natalie checked her phone.

I was looking around the lobby, still awestruck with its beauty, when I heard a voice. "Chloe! Nat! Over here! To your left!" My eyes searched for the voice. From across the lobby, Della was waving and beckoning us over. We made our way to her, our heels clacking on the shiny marble floor.

"Hey! You guys are going to love it here. The food is amazing." Della said through a hug for each of us. We followed her to a large round table in a more secluded part of the restaurant. "Ok guy's, almost everyone's here."

I looked around the table. Caesar was sitting next to his brother, Amelio. He had two empty spots next to him. Next to those spots spots was David, Natalie's groomsman. He sat next to two more empty chairs.. Della sat in the last chair, next to Caesar.

My heart sank when I saw that Eden and Grayson weren't here. Considering their past, I had a bad feeling about them being gone at the same time. Natalie noticed the concern on my face and grabbed my hand. "C'mon babe, let's sit down. We both need a margarita."

We assumed Della would want to sit next to Eden, so we chose the seats next to Amelio. He stood up when I got to my seat. "Hey Chloe. I missed you." He pulled me into a hug.

I hugged him back and took a breath. His cologne smelled wonderful and his shirt was very soft. "I missed you too."

We parted and he touched my arm. "You look good. How've you been?"

"Okay I guess. Excited for this week." My ears turned pink.

Amelio pushed in my chair. He took his seat and smiled. "Yeah me too. I've been looking forward to seeing you." I wasn't sure what to say to this.

Amelio and I had a fling after Grayson broke my heart. I felt bad that he was my rebound guy. Of course I never really did rebound. He was one of the sweetest men I'd ever met, but I just didn't grow to love him in that way. During our short time as a 'couple', he'd fallen in love with me. I cared about him, but still wanted to be with Grayson. He wasn't pushy, and never tried to make me feel guilty about ending things between us. But still, I did feel guilty. We stayed friends afterwards, just like we were friends before. Still though, it always felt a little weird with him.

Eden and Grayson still hadn't arrived and we were all hungry, so we just decided to order dinner. It was honestly nice for a bit. After a few margaritas and a twenty dollar bet from Natalie that she could eat a basket of friends faster than Amelio (she won), I wasn't even thinking about Grayson and Eden. Of course the distraction didn't last forever.

We were halfway through dinner when Grayson and Eden arrived. She was obviously a bit drunk and yelled her words. "What up hoes?!" Eden was holding Grayson's hand. Her long, slim fingers entwined his hand like a cage.

Della glared at her. "Really? You're half an hour late."

Eden pursed her lips through a smile. "Grayson and I were... busy."

Natalie squeezed my hand. I was grateful she was there.

They sat down together, Grayson was directly across from me. He looked at his menu. "I'm fucking starving. That was exhausting."

He glanced at me. I wouldn't meet his eyes. I wouldn't show that he and Eden bothered me. Della sighed. "Okay. Well whatever. You guys are here now. And now that you are, I wanted to say a few words."

We all turned to listen to Della. "Caesar and I are so blessed to have found each other and to be getting married. I've been dreaming of finding my soulmate since I was little. And now I finally get to marry the love of my life."

My eyes shifted to Grayson. Fuck was he beautiful. Coffee brown locks covered his forehead. His eyelashes were long and dark, making his jade eyes pop. He had a somewhat elfish appearance, with sharp eyebrows and a slightly upturned nose. When I thought about the myth of Adonis, I always pictured him looking like Grayson.

"And so, I just wanted to say, thank you everyone for being here to celebrate with us." I forced my eyes back towards Della. She held up her glass. "Cheers!" We all followed suit.

After dinner, we split up into two groups for boys and girls nights out. The guys went to a bar downtown and we went to a club. For once, I was glad for the heat. The line for the club wrapped halfway around the building and it would have been miserable if we were cold the whole time. Della eventually got tired of waiting in line and walked up to the bouncer. She handed him some hundreds and waved us over.

The three of us looked at each other and smiled. We speed walked as fast as we could in our heels to the front of the line. Everyone else waiting to get in groaned and complained but we didn't care. Once inside the club, Natalie ordered us a round of shots.

"To my best fucking friend getting fucking married!" She raised her shot glass. We did the same and downed our shots. The music was blaring and we were ready to dance our problems away. We stumbled to the dance floor and danced until we worked up a sweat. I bought our next round of drinks and we continued to dance. Della bought the next round with Eden after her. I was having such a good time, I didn't think about the Grayson incident once.

The four of us danced for a while longer until the DJ announced last call. We all ordered one final drink and left the club cackling about something that probably wasn't actually funny. On the way, Natalie decided that she had to pee, like, right then. So we pulled into the closest open building, which happened to be a McDonalds.

Della walked up to the counter. "You guys hungry?" I wasn't not hungry.

The food was okay, very 4am McDonalds. But at least the fries were hot and our feet could rest. After finishing up our food, Della and Natalie went outside to smoke a cigarette. That meant I was stuck alone with Eden. I didn't know what to say. Eden and I never really hung out much. And after the incident with Grayson at Della's engagement party, I wasn't exactly dying to be around her.

But it was awkward just sitting silently in an empty McDonalds, so I figured I'd ask what had been on my mind since dinner. "So... you and Grayson. You're like... a thing?"

She just stared at her nails for a minute, then plucked a fuzz off of her dress. Finally, when I thought she was never going to respond, she said, "Yeah I guess. I mean, we fuck or whatever. But I'm not into dating guys with commitment issues. Fucking is fucking. But dating? That's real to me. I don't play around with it."

I fiddled with my earring. "Commitment issues?"

"Well yeah. He broke up with you because he couldn't commit." Eden took a long loud slurp from her soda. "He told me you wanted more and he just, like, didn't."

So many emotions hit me at once. Anger, confusion, sadness, regret. He didn't tell me that was his reasoning when we'd broken up. Did I want too much from him? Was I wrong to want more? We were together for 2 years. That's not too soon to want more from a relationship, right?

"Look," Continued Eden, "I know you still have a thing for him. I get it, he's fucking hot. But it's not gonna work. He's just not into having a real relationship."

I nodded. Tears welled up in my eyes. He was the most special person to me on the whole fucking planet yet I could never be with him. Not in any real way.

Eden sighed. "Holy fuck girl. Fine, if he means that much to you, I'll stop fucking him and find some other guy while I'm here. It ain't gonna be easy for you though. He's an ass."

I stared at her. "Really? You'd do that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. But I'm losing some good dick so you'd better make it up to me."

"You mean like... me..."

Eden slapped my arm. "What?! No bitch! I don't eat pussy. I meant you'd better find me some good replacement dick. What the fuck?"

I was so grateful, I hugged her from across the table. "Yeah whatever. I mean it though. Good. Replacement. Dick."

Della and Natalie walked in to find us (or, me) mid-hug. They looked at us quizzically. "Since when are you guys friends?" I let go of Eden, a huge grin on my face.

Natalie tied her hair into a messy bun. "Okay well I'm beat. Let's head back."

The guys still weren't back to the hotel when we got there. Everyone else headed to their respective rooms, but I stayed in the lobby. It was another hour and a half before the guys stumbled through the front door. Caesar was leaning on David, slurring a joke and laughing. Amelio and Grayson were joking about something they'd seen on the way in.

Amelio noticed me sitting by a pillar and yelled, "Heeeyyy! Chloeeee! Wassup girl? What- what're you doing here?"

"Just waiting for Grayson. I need to talk to him." Grayson looked at the other guys. "Okayyy I guess bye guys. See you later."

The rest of them made their way upstairs. Grayson teetered back and forth. "You uh... okay there dude? I grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the bench.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just you know..." He trailed off, this time swaying in circles.

"Okay. I wanted to talk to you, but it's not gonna work like this. Let's get you back to your room."

Grayson crashed into a nearby plant, taking it to the ground. "What? I'm fine man. I'm fine. Totally-" He rolled onto his back. "Fuuuck. I feel like shit."

The few guests in the lobby were staring at us. Housekeepers and front desk attendants stopped what they were doing to gawk. I felt uneasy. Mr. Baker wasn't here and I didn't want to find out how far we could push our "VIP treatment".

It took all of my strength to pull Grayson to his feet. "C'mon. Work with me." I finally got him somewhat upright. I tried to appear as normal as possible, but people were still staring and it was starting to piss me off. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two guests whispering and laughing. Finally I yelled, "What? You've never seen someone wrecked off their ass before? You're in fucking Miami! Get used to it!" And with that, Grayson and I were off, through the lobby and into the elevator.

Once the doors closed and the show was over, I realized I didn't actually know where his room was or even what floor it was on. Tried to ask Grayson, but he was no help. He probably didn't even know which state we were in. I tried calling the others, but either they were asleep or too hammered to answer the phone.

"Shit." I looked at Grayson slumped over my shoulder. "You're just gonna have to come back to my room."

After what seemed like hours and what felt like dragging a sack of rocks, we finally made it back to my room. I dug through my purse to find my key, praying Gayson wouldn't make any noise. To my delight, my prayers were answered. He was still unconscious, sprawled out on the hallway floor.

"Yes! Thank you." I whispered as I found my key card and unlocked the door. It was pitch black and Natalie's door was shut, so I assumed she was asleep. I grabbed Grayson's arms and dragged him into my room. Again, it took everything I had to pick him up. Almost as soon as I did, I dropped him on the bed. I managed to pull him all the way on top and flip him onto his stomach, since I knew it hurt him to sleep on his back.

For a moment, I just stared at him, taking a much needed break. He may have been drunk, but you'd never know it by looking at him sleeping. I know the phrase "looked like an angel" is overused, but it really did apply to Grayson. He really looked like he may have just fallen from heaven and gone into a deep sleep.

Once my moment to gaze was over, I realized he was still in his street clothes. Jeans, a black button up, and dress shoes did not look comfortable to sleep in. I wanted to take off his clothes so he'd sleep more comfortably, but that seemed kind of creepy. Still...

Eventually I rationalized it as being better for his skin, sleep, circulation, ect. All of which was true. But if I'm being honest, part of me just missed seeing his body. I only took off his shoes, jeans and button up. Leaving him in underwear, an undershirt and socks. I'd hoped he would understand in the morning and notice that I left him considerably modest.

With the realization that I'd laid him on top of the covers, I needed to get a blanket from the closet. I laid it on top of him and got under the exposed covers. I debated on what to do next; turn over and go to sleep, or cuddle the love of my life (which at this point, I'd kinda earned). I chose the latter. After all, we were separated by not one, but two blankets.

So with that, I snuggled up close to Grayson, closed my eyes, and fell asleep.