Page 32 of The Other Side of Paradise
“Just come on,” I laughed, but there was still a thick feeling in my throat as we walked across the beach, the sand warm under the soles of my feet and between my toes. Wasn’t enough to distract me, though, and after a second, I said, “You can genuinely just like smack my hand away if I keep grabbing you and stuff. I know I have, like, zero boundaries, and I’m working on it.”
“No—it’s fine.” She hunched her shoulders, eyes straight ahead, resolutely not looking at me.
“All my friends back home are all, you know, the hugging type, thecome up behind you and grab you from behindtype, hitting your ass while talking about how good you look, kind of people.”
“I’m sorry, what was that last one?” That finally got her to look at me. I laughed.
“You know, it’s all just fun and stuff.”
“Uh… uh-huh. That sounds like a different kind of fun.”
“I have a great ass and so do a bunch of my friends. We’re not ashamed of it.” My voice fell into something more serious. “But yeah, I’m sorry, I’m trying not to be all grabby and stuff.”
“I, um, I really don’t mind. Just, uh…” She scratched her head, stopping under the shade of a little wooden structure, and she looked down at where she kicked sand over the corners of the structure’s concrete foundation. I stopped, looking at her,waiting for her to finish, and when she didn’t, I leaned back against the wall next to her.
“That sentence go anywhere?”
“Eventually.”
“Take your time. Should I get a drink first?”
She laughed, and she shook her head, cleared her throat, and she said, “It’s just, um—well—er.” She pulled in a sharp breath, and she said, “It just—reminds me of somebody, is all.”
“Oh.” I wrinkled my nose. “I’m sorry, that sounds awful.”
She gave me a weird look. “I didn’t think you were the type to hate being reminded of people as a general concept…”
I folded my arms. “I kind of assumed you meant a bad experience with somebody touching you in ways you don’t like, but go off.”
“Oh. Yeah, no, not… uh, not necessarily.” She looked away. “This, uh, this girl who was really touchy-feely and I thought she was really into me, and then it seemed like she wasreallyinto me, if you, uh, you know what I mean.”
I stared for a second. “Like, you fucked.”
“Well, yeah.” There was the blush again. I wondered what the girl was like. She kicked at the sand again. “Only the next day I figured out she had a girlfriend.”
“Open relationship?”
“Very closed.”
“Yeah, well, there goes that hope. That sucks.” I relaxed back against the wall next to her. “I don’t want to remind you of that creep.”
“It’s less that and just, um…” She shrugged, looking out at the ocean. “It reminds me of the part where I feel guilty. I wish I were more like Brooklyn sometimes…”
“What, putting up the girlfriend? Did they have a bad fallout?”
“No fallout…” She hung her head. “I still haven’t told the girlfriend.”
I frowned. “She cheated with you, and you didn’t tell her girlfriend?”
“I don’t know why I would,” she said, her voice defensive, hugging herself tighter. “She’d never believe me anyway. Ellie was way out of my league anyway, and they have this whole picture-perfect Instagram relationship, so the girlfriend would just be like,fuck off, my beautiful perfect girlfriend wouldn’t sleep with some ugly loser like you.”
“Didsomeone say that to you to make you think that? Because if so, let me know so I can kill them.”
“Psh…” She looked away. “Now it’s you with the romantic flirting angle, I see.”
“It’s good to know you’re into that.I’ll slay your enemies.Very dark-romance vibes.”
“I mean, it’s just, this girl was really pretty. Like, seriously just… you know… Instagram model vibes. And I probably should have known she wouldn’t really be interested in me. But I’m a dumbass, so I got my hopes up for a minute there. And her girlfriend would never believe it. Maybe if I looked like you, she’d believe it, but me?”
