Becoming Amanté

XII

The Big Day: Mexico

I awoke on the bathroom floor with my head pounding and my vision blurry. I forced myself to get up so I could relieve myself into the toilet. After I was finished, I headed out to the main room to see the guys scattered all over the place.

"Cugino..." Daunte groaned  (Cousin)

I went to look at my watch for the time, but it was missing.

"We need to go." I announced to the room

I wasn't sure what time it was, but I was sure we were late and needed to make our way to Italy now.

All of them except for Giorgio groaned before getting up. While everyone was getting ready, I was looking for all of my things. We didn't come with much, just the clothes on our back and our wallets.

I eventually found my wallet, but it was empty. All of the cash and cards were gone, including my ID. I returned to the boys, who had the similar problem. My headache grew and I rubbed my hands over my face.

"Who were those girls?" I asked Daunte

"Just some dancers from last night." he answered

"Well, they robbed us."

"Che cosa vuoi fare?" he asked me (What do you want to do?)

I thought over it for awhile as everyone waited for my word. Langston was the only one who didn't know what I was thinking.

"We don't have time to worry now, let's go." I instructed them

As we got what was left of our things, Giorgio pulled me to the side.

"Abbiamo un problema." he told me (We have a problem.)

"What is it?"

"They took the ring."

"What ring?"

"Drew's ring."

I took a deep breath. Giorgio was holding Drew's wedding ring because it was his job as my best man. I needed to get on that plane now if I we were going to be in Italy tonight, but I needed to get Drew's ring back. And getting Drew's ring back meant doing things in front of her brother.

"What should I do?" I asked him

"I think that you should go be with Drew and let me handle this." he told me

"Show up to our wedding without a ring? I might as well not show up at all."

"We can buy a temporary ring, present it at the wedding, and give her the real one later."

"So what, I go to Italy without my best man?" I asked him

"You know what she'll do to you if you don't show up."

"I'm going to show up." I said adamantly

He looked at me, then shook his head. He turned to the men in the room and told them what we were going to do.

"Drew's ring is gone and we're going to get it back. Then we'll head to Italy."

"Do we have time for that?" Langston asked

"We're going to have to make time." I told him

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We started our journey back at the strip club that we visited last night. All we wanted was the ring and we would do what we needed to get it back. I pulled Langston to the side to speak with him separately from the group.