"Can I buy you two beautiful ladies a drink?"
Liliana looked away from me and at the guy standing behind us. She smiled mischievously as she said, "You can buy us a drink, but I'm going to be upfront with you. Buying us a cocktail isn't going to get you very far."
The somewhat attractive bleach-blonde guy smiled boyishly in return. "Did I ask for anything more? If I remember right, I only asked if I could buy you two a drink."
Liliana looked at me, then giggled as her gaze returned to the guy trying to be nice. "If you're not expecting anything from her or me, then you can buy us a drink."
It never fails. My sister is always messing with guys whenever we hang out, and although it can be humorous watching her tease men the way she does, there are times it makes me nervous, fearing that her way of teasing them will only get her in trouble someday. Or us both.
The guy approached the bar and whistled for the bartender's attention, and when he headed toward us, he asked, "I'd like another beer and get these two lovely ladies whatever they'd like."
"We'll take two more of these Mai Tais," Liliana responded, pushing our empty glasses toward the bartender.
"Thank you," I politely said, studying the guy and wondering about his intentions. He looked okay, but something in my gut told me not to trust him.
He winked. "You're both very welcome." He turned and pointed at a group of guys playing volleyball on the beach. "See those guys over there?"
"Yeah," Liliana acknowledged.
"They've got a two-hundred-dollar bet going. Claiming you two would turn my drink offer down. So when you get your drinks, could you do me a favor and show them I won the bet?"
Liliana shrugged, humor playing in her eyes when she looked at me, smirking while asking, "What else did you guys bet?"
"That was it."
"Then, sure," she obliged, returning her gaze to him, "because if you want anything else from us, I'd have to cut you off. I'm engaged, and my gorgeous sister here isn't into men."
My mouth fell-dropping open wide.
What a lying bitch!
My eyes quickly shot to hers, and then I glared at her-letting her know that if she weren't my sister, I'd kill her for that remark.
"Even better," he emphasized, licking his lips.
Jerk...
With my eyes locked on Liliana, I cleared my throat, and with a hint of anger in my voice, I decided to get her back and said, "Don't let my sister fool you. She's the one who's into women-I'm the engaged one."
Neither of us is engaged, and we're both very much into men. However, my sister has a boyfriend she's been with since high school. And he's an asshole. If he knew or ever to find out how much my sister flirts with and teases men, either he'd kill her, or he'd kill the men she's flirting with. Then there's my pathetic ass. I haven't had a boyfriend in three long years. Not since my ex decided not to show his face on our wedding day. Leaving me for a woman he worked with.
So you could say I'm incredibly leary when it comes to men.
I. Just. Don't. Trust. Them.
Any of them.
The guy must have figured out my sister was messing with him. Because his eyes suddenly started swaying back and forth between my sister and me with a curious look in his eye, asking, "Are you two really sisters? Or are you fucking with me?"
I knew it.
"We're sisters. Twins, actually," I admitted, sipping my Mai Tai.
His eyebrows pinched together, looking confused. "You don't look like twins."
"That's because we're fraternal twins. I'm older than her by a day," Liliana proudly said.
He laughed. "A day? How the hell is that possible?"
"She's older than me by a half-hour," I admitted, rolling my eyes.
"It's because our mother delivered us naturally. I was born fifteen minutes before midnight, whereas my sister was born fifteen minutes after midnight... now, do you get it?"
I shook my head. In the two weeks we've been vacationing in Miami, Liliana has repeated this; she's the older sister by one-day story to every guy who's hit on us.
Liliana is the wild, adventurous one. And I'm a little more reserved. Not by choice, though. I used to be similar to her, but my habits changed after what my ex had done to me and how my sister likes teasing men the way she does. Someone has to be smart and do what'll keep us both safe.
And I'm still trying to figure out how to keep my sister from getting into trouble once we return home. Our vacation to Miami wasn't a planned one. Liliana and her boyfriend had gotten into a massive argument three weeks ago. And it was so bad that it led Liliana to leave their home in the middle of the night and come over to mine.
Their fight?
She wants to get married and start having kids. He claimed he wasn't ready. He also threw in her face that they didn't need a piece of paper telling everyone they were committed.
So, because of the drama back home. Our vacation was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Liliana felt a vacation away from her boyfriend would give her time to think about her future and that it would help her think harder if he was who she really wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Feeling that if she misses him while we're in Miami, he's the one. Liliana also feels that them being away from each other this long. He'll miss her terribly, rethink his ways, and then do what she wants-ask her hand in marriage and give her kids.
The only thing is, I don't think she's missed him. Not once has she talked about him or her future. Which has me thinking she knows their relationship is over.
In two days, we leave to go back home, and the closer that day nears, the more my stomach turns into knots. I've got a terrible feeling when she gets home. It won't go how she thinks it will. They'll have another fight. She'll move out, and then she'll most likely move in with me.
Sigh...
Liliana finally shooed the guy away from us after he tried buying us shots. I had to laugh. What the guy didn't know was that we were drinking non-alcoholic drinks. We were only killing time before the tattoo artist willing to ink us at the last minute became available. And the number one rule before getting a tat is that you can't have any alcohol in your system.
Our tattoo artist walked us back to his room, and as Liliana sat in the chair, he asked, "Where would you girls like these inked again?"
"The inside of our wrists, please," I responded.
"Alright," the artist responded, putting on his gloves. He looked from Liliana to me, then back to her. "I see you girls are already inked, so I'll save us both time explaining the tattooing process," he said while sterilizing the armrest.
"Yeah, we know what to do, what not to do, and about the aftercare. We're good," Liliana enlightened. "If you had more time, I'd ask you to give me another one that'll piss off my boyfriend," she giggled, "but I know that'll have to wait until after we get home."
"You're lucky you came in when you did. Wednesdays are the only days I allow walk-ins," he smiled as he began stenciling her wrist. "As for doing something to piss off your boyfriend, I'm not so sure it would be something I'd like to involve myself in," he chortled. "I don't need someone coming after me for no reason."
Liliana waved her free hand across her face. "He wouldn't blame you, nor would he come after you. I would've only had you tattoo a hint toward him. A hint that would get the stubborn ass to propose to me finally."
"Ah. He's one of those kinds of guys... just an FYI coming from another man. If you've been dating your guy for more than three years. I can guarantee you he'll never propose. But if he does? Then you're a lucky woman."
"Really?" Liliana asked, shocked, as the buzzing sounds of the tattoo gun filled the room.
"I can't say for sure since I don't know the guy you're with. But from what I've seen and have been around, usually, that means they're not marriage material."
I turned around after seeing Liliana's expression turn sour. I've tried telling her the same thing, and she refuses to listen. I'm glad he made a point to tell her what I've been trying to tell her. Now, I can only hope she'll listen to him-an insight into a man's thinking process about marriage.
While he worked on Liliana, I looked at the pictures on his wall about his past work, which I thought was just okay. Don't get me wrong; the artwork was very detailed and unique. But nothing stood out for me, saying, hey, from now on, I'm flying to Miami for only this guy to do all my tattoo work.
We're at this tattoo parlor because we decided to get matching tattoos before leaving Miami. And this was the only place in the area that accepted walk-ins. And since the tattoos we wanted weren't over the top, and they'd be as plain as could be, we felt there'd be no way he'd screw it up.
I walked over to Liliana and snuck a peek at her wrist. The tattoo we chose to have is a heart with the word sisters as part of the heart and a butterfly sitting on the corner of the heart. After seeing hers and loving its looks, I'm more excited about having mine done. The only thing I'd like differently is the coloring of the butterfly. She chose green. I want red.
We also had him include a quote below the tat that read, My sister and I will always be connected by the heart.
***
"Have you talked with Travis yet?" I asked, buckling my seatbelt. "And I'm only asking because you haven't seen him in three weeks, and I'm worried about what he'll say or do once you get home."
She shook her head. "Nope."
"Are you two over, then?" I asked, discreetly crossing my fingers.
She shrugged. "I don't know. After the tattoo guy said what he did, I've been thinking. A part of me says we're over. And then another part of me tells me we're not. And that I should continue waiting. We've been together for ten years, Sawyer. How do you throw that all away? How can someone walk away from that?"
Ugh...
"Easy. You just do it. It's not like you two have had the perfect relationship. And you said yourself that Travis doesn't think marriage will help you two grow stronger. The guy's a jerk, Liliana. And he's been an ass since you started dating him in high school."
"He's not a jerk," she argued. "He's just set in his ways. I somewhat understand why he thinks we don't need a piece of paper telling us we're official for life. Look at his parents. They fight constantly. One of them always leaves and stays at a hotel until the situation calms down. They're always putting each other down and threatening each other with divorce. It's been that way ever since I've known them."
"Their relationship is dangerous. And the way Travis treats you is the same as how his father treats his mother. It's toxic. And I worry daily about you because of that."
"Travis and I will be fine. I feel he's scared to take the next step because of how his parents are with one another."
"Another reason for you to get out while you can," I groaned, "it's not like he's the only guy on the planet."
"I know. But I love Travis."
I looked out the window and groaned.
Finally, my eyes returned to her, and I sighed, "If you're not going to leave him. Please do me a favor before they tell us to turn off our cell phones. Message Travis and let him know we're on our way home from Miami and that you two need to have a heart-to-heart talk when you get back... Please," I begged.
She removed her phone from her purse, groaning, "Fine."
"Thank you," I breathed.
I nervously watched her message, Travis. And it didn't take long for him to respond. Seeing how my sister's hands shook while holding her phone as she read his response told me his response wasn't an excited one. "What did he say?"
She sighed, "He said, I agree. We do need to have a heart-to-heart talk. But I can guarantee you this. He will not like what I have to say."
"What else did he have to say?"
She shook her head fast. "Nothing."
"Liar. I heard your phone go off a few times. What else did he have to say?"
A long exasperated unhappy sigh left her mouth, "He said that you're a bad influence and that if I continue hanging out with you, we're over for good."
My stomach instantly dropped.
Liliana better tell Travis to pound sand after that statement. "What an asshole!" I snapped, then pursed my lips after remembering we were in an airplane. I looked around us, and seeing how everyone's eyes were on us immediately embarrassed me. I leaned closer to Liliana and quietly told her, "Don't you dare listen to him. You're my sister..."
She shoved her phone back into her purse, returned her head to the headrest, and closed her eyes. "I'm not going to listen to him. This vacation was something I wanted to do. Not you. And I'll make sure to let him know that."
She opened her eyes, reached for my left hand, and flipped my arm over, resting her wrist against mine. "We didn't do this for nothing. You're my sister and my best friend for life. We've been connected at the hip since birth. We're connected at heart. And I absolutely refuse to allow Travis to intimidate me, as his father does to his mother. We already lost our parents, and because you're all I have left, there's no way I'll let him take me away from you, too."
***
My stomach twisted and turned while driving my sister home. And because of how I felt, I drove as slowly as possible, thinking of ways to talk Liliana into staying with me for a couple more days.
After much thinking and silence filling my car, I finally said, "I think you should stay with me until you and Travis have worked things out. It would be the smart thing to do."
She lifted her phone, smiling while trying to show me a message. "Travis sent me a message saying that he missed me so much and can't wait any longer for me to get home. He also said he loves me."
Typical asshole talk.
"You believe him?"
"I do," she said in awe.
"How can you believe anything Travis says after he told you to quit talking to me? That still pisses me off," I hissed.
"He didn't mean that. He only said that in anger because I took off. And to Miami, of all places. A place he's been talking about taking me to for months."
"So, that's why you wanted to go to Miami! You did that to piss him off!"
"Of course I did. It's the only thing I could think of doing to get back at Travis for everything he said to me that night."
"No wonder he said I'm a bad influence!" I yelled. "I'll bet you anything he thinks I'm the one who put you up to going to Miami."
"As I said to you on the airplane. I'll let Travis know that this was my doing. Not yours."
"He won't believe you, Liliana," I bitterly said. "You know damn well he won't."
She rested her hand on my arm. "Don't worry. All will be good. I promise," she assured with a smile.
After pulling into her driveway and parking, I turned to her. "I'll make sure my phone is on. Please call after your talk and let me know how things went. There's no way I'll be able to sleep until I hear from you. Okay?"
"Everything will be okay. I'm sure of it. But to ease your mind, I'll call," Liliana said, bear-hugging me. I noticed Travis peeking out the front window and let go of Liliana. "You better get going. He's standing at the window looking at us."
She looked away from me and at Travis. "I feel that my being away for the last three weeks was the eye-opener he needed. Telling him if he doesn't get his shit together. I'll be gone for good."
"For your sake. I hope so because you know as well as I do that there are much more fish in the sea, and there's always that one that'll be worth catching and keeping. And honestly? Travis isn't that fish."
"I'll call you later," she offered, ignoring my comment while opening the door. She stepped out. Then she turned around and lowered, extending her head back inside the vehicle, smiling. "Wish me luck! I've got a good, good feeling he's proposing tonight..."
The second she grabbed her luggage and began heading towards the door, a feeling of emptiness instantly roamed through me.
I'm glad she feels it'll be the night she's been wishing and praying for. Because I don't have the same gut feeling as she does-it's ultimately the opposite.
And now, as I drive away, my gut feels like it's eating me alive.
I've got a bad, bad feeling...
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!!🤞🤞