Page 8 of Tonight's the Night
“Woah, woah,” I say, spinning around and putting my hands up. I make a “T” fortime out. “What makes you think I want to have a three-way?”
“Uh.” He hooks a hand around the back of his neck and shrugs meekly like he’s been caught with his hand in the cookie jar or sneaking an extra mini fun-size candy bar from a bowl on someone’s front porch on Halloween. “You, or Emily, orsomebodysaid you wanted to do something you’d never done before. Threeway? E? You wanna do some ecstasy tonight? What isit?”
“Get the helloutof here,” I laugh, shoving him squarely in the chest. He doesn’t budge. “You thoughtthat? No,God,no.”
I cradle my forehead with my fingers. Apparently he thinks I’ve been deflowered off at college, which is a fine assumption for him to have made. I was about to go upstairs with this guy and try to force myself to make out with him and he’s trying to induct me into varsity-levelsomethingwhen I still have the training wheelson.
And I can’t help but think that what I was about to do would have been a betrayal. A betrayal to myself, a betrayal to Joshua. It’s not right to kiss someone when you want to be kissing someone else. Again - is this an immature or a mature stance to take? I don’tknow.
“Sorry for doing this to you again, Elijah,” I say, giving him a hug. “You’re a good guy. You’ve always been nice to me. I don’t want to act like some tease or something, but there was a little bit of a miscommunication here. I’ve got togo.”
He bends down and I think he’s going to give me a kiss on the cheek, and I prepare to pull away from him but he just offers his hand to me toshake.
“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” he says. Then he turns around and grabs the hips of a girl walking by him. I recognize her vaguely from…around. She giggles in his arms and he assaults hermouth.
Okay, this is just not for me. This whole scene. I may be nineteen, but I’m not into the party scene, now it’s confirmed, and whether it’s because I’m totally hung up on Joshua or because it’s just not in my DNA, it’s not happening. I take my beer outside and sit at the edge of the pool, letting my toes skim across the water and forgetting the hot tub. I look out past the pool at the stunning ocean with the moon low in the sky and making everything sparkle. Out in the distance on the beach there’s a bonfire and the crackling wood and fire smell fresh and renewing. A salty, warm breeze tangles through my hair and I feel myself shiver a little. It’s a stunningevening.
I slide my phone out of my back pocket and bite my lip, hesitating for a moment before pulling up the contact for a girl who was my manager at the restaurant I waitressed at in high school. She owns a catering company now and she told me to reach out any time I was looking for a little extra cash. My aunt keeps tight control on the meager sum of money that my parents left to me—and will until I am 21—and rules her own finances with a tight fist. The moment I turned 18 she told it was time for me to get a job. She didn’t pay enough attention to me to know that I’d been waitressing on the weekends and evenings for three years prior to that and already had a small savings that I’d been able to amass for myself. She didn’t even know that I’d planned to go to college in California. My good grades even landed me a scholarship — another fact she was unawareof.
But I’m calling my contact now not for extra money, though that’ll be a nice bonus, but because I need a little diversion. Maybe an ongoing gig that’ll last all summer. That would benice.
She answers after the firstring.
“Meg’s Catering Services!” she answers brightly, if a littleexasperated.
“Do you always answer your personal phone like that or is this now purely a businessnumber?”
“Angela?”
“Yep,” I say, “it’sme.”
“It is so good to hear from you! We haven’t talked in the longest time, but I always wonder when you’re going to call me. How is California treatingyou?”
I stand up and walk along the edge of the pool, dipping my toes through the water and flicking some droplets ahead ofme.
“I’m actually back in East Hampton at the moment,” I say, cradling my elbow with the neck of mybeer.
“No kidding, I guess I figured you’d stay out West,” she says, then her brain catches up with her mouth. I guess I’m not the only one who noticed I never really found my place here. “Sorry, you know what I mean. Anyway, how is school, how areyou?”
“I’m good, it’s good, everything’s really good. I was actually wondering if you had any gigs coming up? I mean, I know I’m probably at the very, absolute bottom of the totem pole, but I thought I’d just throw my name out there in case you happened to haveanything.”
“Hm. I actually have something you might like.” I hear some papers rusting around in the background. “Yeah. Joshua Stevens is having a private event tomorrow night and his budget is always, like, basically unlimited. He loves having as much help at these things as he can get. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that you’re gorgeous and young and pretty andexactlyhistype.”
The world around metilts.
“His type?” I say in a smallvoice.
“Yeah, he always asks for an all-female staff. I think it’s a charity fundraiser thing tomorrow. Anyway, you in? I’ll be there doing all the prep and everything and I’d love to seeyou.”
Fuck the diversion, I think, because I am suddenly feeling very territorial. If he wants young girls at these parties, I am going to have to be there to make sure none of them try to take my man. I’ve never felt jealous like this before. Is it wrong that I kind of like the feeling…just alittle?
“I’min.”
“Fantastic. I’ll text you all the details and everything. Oh! And get this, you have to wear a bowtie and a black dress. The black dress I get, but the bowtie? I guess he thinks it looks classy or something? He’s so weird. Hot but weird. Anyway, I’m so glad you’rein!”
My heartdrops.
A bowtie? I wore a bowtie toprom.
“Me too,” Iwhisper.
“Great! Text you the details. Can’t wait to seeyou!”
“Yeah, me too.Bye.”
I clutch my phone to my chest with shaking fingers. A bowtie. It couldn’t be because ofme…
Itcouldn’t.
