Page 5 of The Other Side of Paradise
He gave me a wry smile. “Oh, I see. Vacation fling. You do you, Stella.”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. There’s tons of hot girls here. Like, look at her!” I gestured to a few people standing not far away, a tall woman with a cherry-red bikini and sandy-blonde hair in a loose ponytail, all sun-kissed bronzy glow. “In the red swimsuit. She’s hot, right?”
“Eh… you can have her.”
I shot him a look. “What? I’m not… what are you talking about?I’mnot interested in her.”
Ryan’s voice interrupted, and I looked back at where she said, “What are we arguing about?” while walking up the beach towards us, slick with water, and dropped down next to me, a bright smile on her features. Maybe I was the only one being a scowling jerk on this vacation.
“Just Oscar the Grouch,” I said. “Areyouinterested in hooking up with people? Is that why you don’t care if Shane is proposing?”
Ryan wrinkled her nose, settling into the sand. “I’m… patently not. It’s not that I don’t care if he’s proposing, I just don’t think he is.”
“So youdowant him to, you’ve just given up all hope.”
“It just still feels early… I don’t understand the rush. Neither of us is going anywhere.”
I sighed, rolling my eyes. “It’s like nobody cares about romance. I feel like the only adult with a bunch of awkward teenagers. You two are supposed to be older than me.”
Ryan gave me a patronizing smile. “Sometimes it’s just more… low-key. You stick around and get comfortable. I think that’s nicer than the new-couple phase where it’s all passion and excitement all the time anyway.”
“That’s just a convenient excuse for not caring. Do you even like him?”
“Of course I do. He’s my boyfriend. Why are we having this conversation?”
“Because,” Oscar said from my other side, “she’s looking for a justification to go hook up with strangers.”
I swatted him again. “I don’t need a justification. I’m doing it anyway.” I stood up, dropping the sunscreen bottle on my towel and leaving my sunglasses with it. Back when I’d had prescription sunglasses, I wouldn’t have left them carelessly like that, but these were cheap things—despite what the front desk girl who seemed so nervous I thought it must have been her firstday might have thought, I could go just fine without the glasses as long as I wasn’t trying to read anything. “You two can sit together and talk about work and… whatever you do. I’m gonna go find a cute guy in the water or something.”
“Uh-huh,” Ryan said, shifting closer to Oscar in my absence. “Have fun, then.”
They moved on instantly to whatever they were talking about without me—work or whatever. I didn’t get what it was about Ryan. Maybe it was some kind of nominative determinism, where she’d been named Ryan and proceeded to act like she had nothing to do with girl things. Mom had been expecting the twins to both be boys, and had settled on Ryan and Oscar, and when one popped out a girl, apparently she’d just stuck with it. I think Ryan got it into her mind then that she was removed from all these silly girl things, always so serious and just caring about work, talking to Oscar and Shane and all the other men.
I spent a lot of time feeling like it was me against the whole family. Whether it was me versus the twins, me versus my parents, me versus everybody who wanted everything to be business, or me being the only one who wanted to do thingsher ownway instead of following along in the family’s neatly defined footsteps, I felt awfully lonely sometimes for being surrounded by so much family.
The more I thought about it, the better an idea it seemed. One little vacation fling. Even if just to get my own agency back. Dad wouldn’t be telling me how to handle things with my hot summertime hookup.
At least, I hoped to god he wouldn’t.
Chapter 3
Allison
I knew we had trouble when Brooklyn messaged me askinghey, can we call real quick?
Brooklyn wasn’t one for phone calls—she was alltext if you need me, come see me in person if you really need me, and call me if somebody’s dying.The last time she’d asked to call had been when her bartending coworker Laura had thrown up in Brooklyn’s car and she’d had to ask me to pick up the person she’d been going to drive somewhere while hauling Laura to a bathroom. I kinda hoped this wasn’t that.
“All good?” Gavin said, and I looked up from the phone, waving him off.
“Yeah—well, probably no. BB’s got trouble. Gonna call her.”
Gavin raised his eyebrows high. He’d finished his shift at the same time I had—we usually finished at the same time, which was how we’d ended up friends outside of work too, grabbing another overworked and tired front desk staffer or housekeeper to hang out at one of the cafes close to the resort or schedule an activity somewhere. Today had been tile painting, something I’d done a million times and had even volunteereda couple times helping run sessions at. The demonstration component had ended a minute ago, leaving us all around the long table under a blaring AC and long windows blocked out with palm leaves, when I’d gotten the text from BB, and Gavin set down his paintbrush. “Calling her? Is she dying?”
“Dunno, man. Hope not. Who’s gonna make me pizza if she does?” I stood up. “I’ll step out to call. Watch my spot?”
“Will do.” He gave me a dazzling smile. “If you don’t come back, I’ll steal your drink.”
“Okay, I’d complain if I hadn’t taken your chips while you were off flirting on Saturday. Thanks, G.” I slung my bag over my shoulder, pushing out through the door—the organizer, an old white lady named Sherry who wore a bandana in her hair so regularly I thought it might have been part of her skull, looked concerned my way but didn’t stop me, clearly trusting me more than she trusted the smattering of tipsy tourists laughing loudly as they painted. I got to the back terrace and leaned up against the wall, covering my ear against the noise of the busy bar across from the workshop as I put the phone to my other ear. Brooklyn picked up in no time.
