"Go home?" I watch the lone white balloon escape the back of the car as the driver holds the door open. I hear Ace chuckling next to me, and I want to groan. "And miss all the fun?" He shakes his head. "Nope." He ducks and gets into the car. "Holy shit." He looks at me, and I can just tell that he wants to laugh. "Dear." He holds out his hand for me but I ignore it and get into the car. If he wasn't right, I would laugh out loud.
There are white balloons all over the L-shaped seats with Mr. & Mrs. hanging on each side of the car. "This is spectacular." He sits back and looks around. "Don't you think?"
"I should have called the resort," I admit. "Fuck," I say as the door closes, and then so does the trunk. "I need a drink." I lean over and grab one of the champagne flutes that is filled. "Are you still on your water kick?"
"Nope," he replies, and I hand him a glass. I'm about to say something to him when the car starts and the music coming out of the speakers is a wedding march. "Is that . . .?" He puts his head forward to hear better. "Is that the ‘wedding march’?"
"To divorce." I hold up my glass and don’t even clink it with his before I finish the whole thing in one go. I grab the bottle and just take a sip from the top. "I'm assuming you don't want any."
"You would assume correctly." He takes a sip of his drink. "That's not that bad." He looks at the glass as I look out the window, seeing crystal blue water on either side of us.
Neither of us says anything as the car stops, and I put the half-empty bottle back in the holder. "You’re not taking that to go?" he asks, and I just glare at him as I get out of the car first. I take a step and then stop when I see a woman holding up the same sign that we saw at the airport. A man stands beside her with a silver tray and two glasses of champagne.
Ace’s hand rests on my hip as he tries not to push me down. "Why did you stop?" he gruffs out and then looks up. "Oh my God." I look up from in front of him as he puts his sunglasses on his head. "I didn't think it could get worse," he mumbles. "Fuck me."
"Mr. and Mrs. Romano," the man says, coming to us. "I'm your concierge, Roberto."
"Nope," Ace says from behind me, and my heart speeds up, thinking about how I'm going to have to tell this stranger that I didn't get married. "I actually took her name, Mr. Baker,” he says and the man's face drops. "We're a modern couple like that. Just call us Ace and Shelby."
"No problem, sir," he responds, holding the tray in front of us. There are also two white towels rolled beside the glasses with little heart-shaped confetti. Ace keeps one hand on my hip while he grabs a glass and hands it to me.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hiss at him as my hand comes up to take the glass.
"If you will come this way." His hand points at the golf cart that is decorated with the same Mr. & Mrs. that is in the car.
"After you." Ace moves his hand from my hip to the lower part of my back. "Missus."
I flip him the bird, downing my glass of champagne and then handing it to the lady before I climb up into the golf cart. I grab Ace's glass and drink it, then hand him back the empty glass. "That's my bride." I glare at him, and he laughs as my head jerks back when the golf cart starts to move.
"If you look on either side," Roberto starts talking as we make our way down the pathway that is a wooden bridge. "You will see six private villas." I look over and see three on each side. "Each villa has its own pool and ocean entrance."
"This place is gorgeous," Ace says from beside me, and I just nod. The minute I saw it while scrolling on Instagram, I was a sucker for it.
"Each villa has its own concierge for all your needs. We are on call twenty-four hours a day." Roberto looks in the back, smiling. "Whatever you need." He stops when we get to the last villa at the very end. "This is the best villa," he announces, getting out.
"How many times do you think he says that a day?" Ace asks when he gets out on his side, and I follow him getting out on my own side.
"Right this way.” He walks toward the door that says Six on it. He opens the door, and you can see all the way through to the back.