The Chapel Wars (24 page)

“No. No. This is an in-person thing. So. You did it.”

I played with the string of my pajama bottoms and tried to hide a smile. “I’m sort of awesome.”

“But only sort of.” He slid the pizza box onto the table. “The real reason I’m here is because I was hungry and I didn’t want to be pathetic and eat this alone.”

“And I’m the only mouth you could think of?”

Sam sighed. “Porter is out of town. Grant and Mike took two girls from Green Valley out on a double date. And Camille mangled my heart yesterday. So yeah, it’s you, Nolan. Eat.”

He flipped back the lid and cursed. They’d shaped the crust into a heart with pepperoni slices fanning around the cheese like lace. “Communists!” he shouted.

I reached past him for a slice. “Mmmm, communist pizza.”

“Why did they do this? Are they mocking me?”

I slid my knee onto the arm of the couch. “It’s Valentine’s Day, remember? It’s a nationwide conspiracy.”

Sam tore the pepperoni off, like that would fix things, and shoved a slice into his mouth. “I was going to give Camille the promise ring today, did I tell you that? Take her to the park where we first kissed, make a picnic of her favorite foods, make it all special.” He tore off the crust. “But I’d picked it up yesterday at the jeweler, and when we were by the airport taxis I saw this old couple. He was helping his wife into the cab even though he could hardly walk himself, and I thought, that’s how Camille and I will be. Know what she said?”

“Yeah, I know. I was there when you guys hashed this out last night.”

“No, about this couple. She said, ‘Ugh, I never want to get old.’ Here I am looking at this couple and seeing forever, and she just sees an end.”

I headed to the fridge for some Cokes. “Sam, you look for metaphors too much.”

“You know who else looked for metaphors?”

“J. K. Rowling,” I said at the same time as Sam.

“It’s true!” Sam cried. “She also was a master at creating complex characters in relationships that promoted growth.”

“Sam. I know. I’ve read the books as many times as you have. And I think J. K. Rowling would also say that when you lose love you need to move on. Or else you’ll turn into Snape.”

“But Snape never had the love to begin with!” Sam said impassionedly.

“Sam. I am very sorry about you and Camille. I know you love her very much—”

“
Loved
her!”

“Whatever. You don’t turn off love in one day.”

“Well, now that I see what kind of person she is … do you know she told me that she doesn’t even
like
Harry Potter? That she just watched the movies because I like them.”

“Because that’s what you do in a relationship! You compromise. You don’t give ultimatums and expect the girl to just bow down to your orders.”

“I didn’t give an ultimatum.” He folded his arms. “I just have standards.”

My phone rang with a text. I rushed over to the coffee table,
but it was Camille, asking if I was having a better Valentine’s than her. Dax and I needed to have a talk about his texting skills or lack thereof.

“Where’s your boyfriend tonight?” Sam took a swig of Coke. “Shouldn’t you be sharing a heart-shaped pizza with him?”

I rubbed my forehead. “Sam. Look. You just broke up with your girlfriend, and I’m here to talk to you or listen or whatever. But I don’t want you harping on Dax tonight, okay? We had a good day at the chapel, but it was long, in part because you never showed up to work. There is stuff going on with my brother and family and I just … I can’t, okay? I’m going to be a friend to you. But I need you to be a friend back.”

Sam slid down next to me on the couch. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

I waved my hand. “It’s fine.”

“No, no, it’s not. Here, I want you to have something.” He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the promise ring. It was white gold with a ruby and little diamonds around it. If it was real, it couldn’t have been cheap. “Here. The jeweler won’t take it back.”

“I’m not going to wear your creepy promise ring, Sam.”

“Then wear it as a friendship ring.” Sam shrugged. “Hold on to it for me. In case I ever find love again.”

The ring barely fit my pinky. “Porter would make so much fun of you for this.”

Sam gave me a brotherly peck on the cheek. “That’s why Porter isn’t my best friend. You are.” He swiped the remote from the
table and started flipping through channels. ‘There’s a
Battlestar Galactica
marathon on. Want to watch?”

“It’s one in the morning.”

He shrugged. “We’re young.”

We finished off the rest of the pizza and watched an episode before falling asleep. My mom came in and put blankets on us. I had some weird dream about Dax dressed as a zombie cupid, and it ended with all my friends dead and my dad eating a pizza.

When the phone rang at five a.m., I was already onto another dream, this one involving alpacas and skateboards. Sam picked up the phone.

“Dax, what’s up?” Sam asked.

“What? Dax?” I peeked open an eye. Sam’s hair was flat on one side. I couldn’t process why Sam and I were on the couch and why he was talking on my phone. To Dax.

I shot up. “Give me the phone.”

“It’s Sam. Are you okay? No, we must have just fallen asleep.” He paused. “Don’t worry, it’s not like that.”

I grabbed the phone from Sam. “Dax? What’s going on?”

“I shouldn’t be worried about you and Sam right now, should I?”

Sam leaned in close to listen. I pushed him away. “You shouldn’t be worried about Sam and me ever.”

Dax sucked in a long breath. “I need to ask y’all a favor.”

“Right now?”

“Yeah. I’m at Red Rock. I need … can you come pick me up?”

“Like, at the casino or the mountains?”

“Casino. You don’t have to come in. I’m actually in the parking lot.”

“You want me to come pick you up from the Red Rock Casino parking lot at five in the morning? I don’t have a car. Where is your car?”

“It’s here … look. Don’t be mad. Or be mad, whatever. I’m just … I’m a little drunk. Maybe not even drunk, but I had enough to drink that I shouldn’t drive. And I would call a cab but I don’t want to leave my car in a casino parking lot thirty minutes from my house.”

I rolled my eyes. Sober or not, he had to know how losery this situation was. “We’re coming. Stay there.”

I hung up and stared at the phone.

“I’m not going,” Sam said. “This guy is a dick. It’s almost morning.”

“It is morning. I guess we’re just waking up early today. I need you to drive me so I can get Dax and his car.”

Sam hit his head against a throw pillow. “I don’t want to.”

I held up my pinky finger. “Friendship ring says you do. I can’t leave him stranded.” I slapped his leg. “Come on.”

“You know if I hadn’t broken up with Camille I wouldn’t be here to help you out.”

“I have to pee. Warm up the car.”

I changed into a nicer hoodie and yoga pants, brushed my teeth and hair, and pushed Sam to his car. Red Rock Casino is a locals casino, close to Red Rock Canyon, only ten minutes from
my house. The mystery was why Dax was there, when there were twenty other casinos closer to
his
house. Or why he was at a casino at five in the morning, period.

We found Dax on the roof deck of the parking lot, lying on the hood of his car, arms open, legs wide. Asleep.

Sam screeched his tires and barged out of his truck. “I drove down. I get the honors.” He slapped Dax on the shoulder. “Hey, buddy.”

Dax shot up and looked around wildly.

“Sam, stop,” I said, annoyed.

“You have a little too much to drink again? Need your girlfriend to bail you out
again
?”

Dax lay back on his hood and closed his eyes. “Sam. Thanks for helping me out this fine evening.”

“Do you know how good you have it?” Sam got up in Dax’s face, but Dax just lay there all serene, a little smile on his lips. “Holly is like my sister, you punk. It’s Valentine’s Day and you’re hanging out here, instead of with her?”

Dax propped himself up on his elbows. “You’re right, man. I messed up. I’m not going to argue with you because there is nothing to argue.”

Sam looked confused. “Well, yeah, right. There isn’t.”

“Don’t worry.” Dax patted Sam’s shoulder. “Tonight sobered me up plenty.”

“Well, I mean, whatever.” Sam yanked his arm away from Dax. “I’m not trying to give you a public service announcement here. Just get it together.”

Thankfully, Dax saw how serious Sam was and did not salute him. I couldn’t handle another person getting punched in the face today, especially when the person was my boyfriend. My drunk boyfriend. Every girl’s fairy-tale Valentine’s dream come true.

Sam helped Dax off the hood of the car and into the backseat. Dax handed me the keys. “So, you drive me home and Sam takes you back?”

“No. You can come over to my house to sober up, then drive yourself home in the morning. Or afternoon.”

Dax slumped against the backseat window. I thought he was asleep until he finally said something. “I sabotaged this, didn’t I?”

“This?”

“Us.”

I didn’t look back at him. “I don’t know, today was a really insane day in, like, every avenue of my life, and I need to process what is going on.”

Dax nodded and looked back out the window. Two minutes later he said, “I meant it, you know. When I said I love you.”

I tried to keep my voice calm, but all that came out was a whisper. “You did?”

“Absolutely. I’m in love with you,” Dax said, all matter-of-fact. “Deeply, madly, wonderfully, truly, irrevocably … I’m sorry, I’m slightly intoxicated, so those are the only adverbs I can come up with right now. But I am. To the point it hurts. Hurtily? That’s not a word, is it?”

“You are drunk.”

“Honestly. Painfully. Truthfully. Regrettably. That’s, like, ten, so I can’t be that drunk.”

I paused, a beat, an eon. It’s just, he knew he was going to say that, he had all the buildup and could plan out the timing and words. Words aren’t as smudgeable as feelings. Once something is said, it’s forever said, and this wasn’t the time. It wasn’t
my
time.

“Dax, I don’t want it to be like this.”

“Me drunk? Or me in love?”

I glanced at him, in the rearview mirror. I wanted him to be more but I could accept that he was less, as long as this following-in-his-alcoholic-grandfather’s-footsteps ended now. He looked like a knight who had taken an arrow in battle, pale and hunched over, with a brave face. “Why were you at Red Rock? You said you’d call, you’re drunk, I’m driving you to my house … what happened?”

Dax’s expression went stoic. “No reciprocation to my declaration. You’re tough, Nolan.” He splayed himself across the backseat. “I promise I had plans to be a decent person this evening. I was going to surprise you, I didn’t even know with what yet, but I was thinking about it all week. I’m not saying this to get points, because an I-was-going-to means nothing if there is no outcome. But then I got that phone call and your brother got in the fight. When I went back to our chapel, we had a busy day, a real busy day, and Poppy said he wanted to take me out to celebrate.”

“Did you get the message I left on your voice mail?” I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. “We had a good day too.”

“Yeah. I got it.” He paused. “That’s great. Let’s talk about that in a bit.”

“Sorry to interrupt.”

“No, ma’am. Never be sorry.”

We were almost to my house now, and my hands were slick against the steering wheel. Mom wasn’t going to be okay with me bringing Dax home at 5:30 in the morning. What would we even do, sit on the couch? I glanced in the rearview mirror. Dax’s eyes were half-closed, his arm crossed over his chest.

“Hey, it’s almost sunrise. Let me take you somewhere and we can talk. My house probably isn’t a good idea with you like this.”

Dax gave a sloppy salute. I drove over to the lake and to my spot. I didn’t get ceremonial as I led Dax to my little patch of grass. I didn’t tell him how special this spot was to me, how I’d never brought someone I liked (loved?) here before.

Dax lay in the dead grass while I got us both water bottles and little doughnuts at the minimart. He smiled when I handed him the drink.

“Thanks. I’m seriously feeling better now. Physically. I was just playing some slots after my grandpa left, and this cocktail waitress kept offering me free drinks and didn’t even card me. I’m not stumbling drunk, just I-shouldn’t-drive drunk.”

“But you drink often enough that you know your levels of drunk,” I said.

Dax bit into a doughnut, white powder on his lips. “I haven’t had anything to drink since that party. I’m not like that. Not like this. It’s just my world came crashing down a little tonight, and when you’re cloaked in despair, a free Jack and Coke sounds like a nice idea.”

“Why were you cloaked in despair?”

“I’ll tell you, but come lie down first. We need a happy moment.”

I settled into the crook of his arm. He smelled like casino. Underneath that, he smelled good. Like Dax.

“Look at the sun.” He pointed at the horizon. “That’s a good one.”

The sunrise was much more than a good one. The sky glowed, all oranges and pinks, the clouds wisps and whispers. I hadn’t visited my spot enough lately. I slid my hand under Dax’s shirt and felt the hair I’d seen yesterday, felt the lines on his abs. He cupped my face and gave me a tender kiss. He tasted like wintergreen gum and whiskey, or what I guessed whiskey tasted like.

“Do you like it here?” I asked.

He rubbed my hair. “I like anywhere with you.”

“This is my spot.” I tickled his arm. “My number-one favorite place in the city of Las Vegas. If you don’t love it here, you are a heartless fool.”

“Hey, it’s great. Yellow grass. Green water.”

“I come here. To think. Count things. Be alone. Be happy.” I lowered my voice. “You’re the first person I’ve brought here.”

He raised his neck and looked at me sideways. “If this place is so important to you, maybe we should leave.”

“Why?” I sat up. “I thought we needed a happy moment.”

He picked at a piece of grass. “That’s about to end.” He sighed. “Holly. First I want you to know I told you I love you, well, because I love you. But also because once you hear this, I don’t want you to think I didn’t.”