Page 23 of The Other Side of Paradise
I think she was making fun of me. But it sounded affectionate. I guess I could work with that. “I respect a strong will. I guess you can have your way with me. No—” I blurted, hands up, face burning. “That wasn’t—that didn’t come out right—”
She snorted, and she broke out into a laugh, covering her mouth. “Wow, forward. Girls will love it.”
“Uh. I’m so sorry. I just meant—you said you always have your way, and you wanted to take me… I mean, not like… I mean…” The more I talked, the worse it got. I should have gone out and drowned in the pool. Stella leaned against the desk, and my soul left my body when she winked at me.
“Oh, I will,” she said, and my stomach dropped out.
“Uh… huh?”
She laughed. “I’m joking,” she said. “Oh, god, you really are embarrassed. You’re so red right now. I’ve gotta get back to my room real quick now that we’ve changed plans. I guess I’ll stop teasing you for a hot sec.”
“If—if you want me to get my foot out of my mouth and talk normally, it might need to be more than a hot sec.”
She beamed. “Yeah, take your time. You can have all the hot secs you want.”
Stella making wordplay about me having hot sex was not helping the blush situation. I was never going to be back to a normal temperature. I gave up, putting my hands up. “Yep—just going to go sleep my way around the whole island real quick, get in every other girl’s bed and then I’ll get back to you.”
She laughed, standing up, taking her phone out. “Well, make sure to tell me all about it after your shift. In the meantime, let me get your number.”
Right. Stella’s number.
I wasn’tmakingit to the end of my shift. I was going to hyperventilate and die. Probably aforementioned death by arousal. Jesus Christ.
Chapter 9
Stella
Allison was kinda fun once she wasn’t so shy. I wondered if she was just awkward talking to guests outside of work, and she was just finally shifting to see me as a person instead of a customer. I’d have to ask Ryan if she’d been similarly awkward with her or if it was something about me.
Either way, I was just glad to hang out with a girl who felt like hanging out with a girl. Ryan had always patronized me and treated me like I was a silly kid any time I tried to talk about boys, dating, sex, whatever—she was too good for all of that.
Well, I guess I wasn’t talking about boys so much with Allison. But it wasn’t any different to talk about girls instead. Besides, less competition for whatever sexy guys I might have bumped into on the beach.
What was most important was just that I didn’t have to go feeling like the only one who wanted to havefunand do girl stuff. And if Allison could give me that, then I’d gladly spend this whole vacation with her, especially now that I’d gone on a bridge-burning spree yelling at Grandma and turning down an invite from half my family. I felt good about it, honestly—like I’d stuck it to the man and finally done my own thing—and betweenthat and making friends with Allison, I had a little bounce in my step, putting some music on in the hotel room while I got dressed and touched up my hair and makeup, singing along to the best songs with a tube of mascara for a microphone.
And then my spirits, sailing high like a bird, whacked into the glass and fell twitching to the ground when a knock on my door wasn’t Allison but instead my dad’s face looking hard-edged at me when I opened it.
“Oh. Hey,” I said, pulling the door back a little bit—defensively holding it half-shut.
“Can I come in?” he said, not even any preamble.
“I thought you were going to brunch.”
“We’re going after the matinee instead. Since our morning got a little rearranged…”
I couldn’t help myself. I’d never been able to keep my stupid mouth shut. “Why did it need to rearrange, again? Me and Ryan not going doesn’t need to change the whole schedule.”
He sighed. “I don’t want to have this conversation out in the open.”
“I was just heading out to meet someone.”
“It’ll be quick.” He pushed on the door, and I fumbled with surprise, losing my grip on the door as he swung it open and stepped past me. I turned with a knot in my throat to where he walked past me, looking around and making a face at the room. “You think it looks like this at a trailer park?”
“Oh my god, Dad, I was just getting ready to go out. I was rummaging through my clothes and stuff, it makes a mess. I didn’t realize I’d have company.”
He shut my suitcase, and I bristled. When he went to adjust my unmade bed, I stomped forward and snatched it from his hand.
“Don’t touch my bed.”
