“But I thought we were going to—”

“Melissa,” he said through his teeth. “Whatever we did last night and whatever was said is a scratch. It’s like it never happened. Do you understand?” It sure as hell felt like it never happened. If only he could take the entire night back.

He saw the tears in her eyes and he knew he should try to sound a little more sensitive but this was a disaster. All he could think of now was how he was going to fix this—was this even fixable?

“You can deny it all you want, Salvador. But it did happen, more than once and you loved it.” She took a step forward, her tears—probably fake—gone now. “And don’t say you forgot you had a little girlfriend because you texted her just before you f**ked me.”

His stomach nearly gave out and he glanced down at his phone, scrolling quickly to his texts. He found the thread between him and Grace and nearly choked at what he read. The first one he sent was just after two in the morning.

Having so much fun I may never come home.

She didn’t respond until fifteen minutes later.

Then don’t.

To his horror, his next text was even worse.

I’m really busy right now...if you know what I mean. ; ) Can’t text anymore.

She didn’t respond after that, but he had missed calls from both her and Alex. More than one from her which meant this last call that he’d let go to voicemail wasn’t her first that morning. “You need to go.” He hurried to the door. “I really hope you keep this between the two of us. Nobody needs to know, Melissa.”

She smiled as she reached the door he held open for her. “Don’t worry I won’t be telling your little girlfriend. By the look on your face when you read your texts, something tells me you already did.”

“Nope. And I appreciate you keeping this between just us. I don’t even want Jason to know.”

She walked out and turned around to face him. Sal fought the urge to slam the door in her face. “He probably already knows. He was pretty out of it himself, but he saw us together.”

Fuck. Who else had seen? “I’ll take care of him. Just don’t tell anyone else… please.”

She turned around and stalked away without saying a word. Sal closed the door and began the damage control as soon as possible. He called Alex first.

Alex sounded anxious. “Hey. You okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you. Grace is worried. She said she got a couple of drunken texts from your ass, then hadn’t heard from you since. She’s been calling you, too.”

Sal put his hand on his forehead and paced. The continued throbbing of his temples didn’t help the thinking process. He desperately needed to figure out how to deal with this mess. “Is she mad?”

“No. Why? What the hell did you text her?”

“Nothing. Just drunken gibberish. Did she say anything else?”

“That’s it. Just said she was worried and asked if I’d heard from you.”

“All right. I’ll call her.”

He called Jason next. No answer, so he called the phone in his room instead. A very groggy sounding Kat answered. “Hey, Kat this is Sal. Sorry to wake you, but I need to talk to Jason.”

“Hmm hold on.” He could hear her trying to wake him and then Jason moan. This was no good. He probably had no clue either about last night’s events.

Finally he was on the phone. “Sal?”

“Yeah, dude. Hey, what happened last night.”

“We drank too much and…” Jason paused. “Aw, f**k my head is pounding.”

“How’d I get back to my room?”

“The girls, I guess. All I remember was falling then being dragged back to the room by Kat and one of her other friends. Not sure how you got back, man. I was out of it.”

Sal heard Kat say something about Melissa. “What was that?”

Jason chuckled then moaned. “I guess Melissa got you back to your room.”

Sal held his hand to his forehead. “Did anything else happen last night that I should know about?” Mostly Sal was digging for anything anyone else might have seen, like him and Melissa making out or something in public.

“Nah, that’s it. After that it was lights out.”

With no more helpful information and Jason saying he was going to be sick, Sal hung up, his stomach in knots, wondering what was the best way to go about this. He hated to lie but there was no way he would tell her the truth. The truth was he was drunk and didn’t remember sending the texts. He’d start with that.

Hitting speed dial to call Grace, he took a deep breath. The pounding of his heart was now drowning out the pounding in his head.

“Hello?” Hearing her voice made him feel even guiltier.

Maybe he should’ve done the cowardly thing and texted her instead. “Gracie, baby. I’m so sorry about those texts last night. I had way too much to drink and I don’t even remember sending them.”

She was quiet then asked, “Who were you so busy with?”

“No one.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “It was all guys. Bunch of stupid, drunk ass guys.”

She was quiet again, intensifying the angst he felt, then finally spoke again. “Even if you were drunk, why would you text that to me?”

That’s what he didn’t get either. The thought that maybe Melissa had sent them crossed his mind but he couldn’t know for sure. All that mattered now is that the texts had been sent and the damage was done. What he needed to work on now, was making sure Grace forgave him. “I don’t know. I’m an idiot. Honest to God, I don’t remember much about last night at all.”