Page 53 of The Other Side of Paradise
“You could try it out,” she said, gesturing across the gym. “You know Allison has a crush on you.”
I snorted, scrunching up my face at her. Allison was fun and all, but—well, I doubted she’d buy me talking about how it’spretend flirting.“She does not,” I said. “She’s really into athletic girls, right? Girls like Jessica.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that was a lie,” she said. “She hates athletics. Brooklyn and I just wanted to give her a hard time.”
I grinned. “Hating athletics doesn’t mean you hate athletic people,” I said, elbowing her again. “I’m not remotely athletic, but who doesn’t like a strong guy with a six-pack?” Oh, god, I was being so straight again. “Or maybe you’re too gay for that. A strong girl with a six-pack.”
She pursed her lips. “I’m still attracted to men.”
“Oh yeah. Right.” Bisexual. I knew what that meant. She laughed oddly, furrowing her brows at me.
“Are you having this much of a hard time with the concept of bisexuality?”
I was getting put on blast. I put my hands up. “I just haven’t known anyone bisexual before!”
“You probably have,” she said. “Sometimes they just pass as straight. You know, statistically speaking, like half the queer community is bisexual women.”
I frowned. “That’s not true.”
“It pretty much is. There’s a lot of us.”
Okay, it still sounded like an exaggeration, but I guess she was the expert, not me. I huffed, hunching my shoulders. “Okay, okay,” I said. “I’m sorry. So what is Allison’s type, anyway?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think she really has atype.I’ve honestly never heard anyone talk about atypeas much as you do,” she said, pulling a face. “But she’s a pretty… romantic kind of person, so, probably someone like that. Someone artistic, probably.”
Oh, god, that was me. I frowned, looking across the gym, at where Allison struggled trying to hold onto the wall, thinking back to the texts—Allison sharing her paintings with me like it was the best thing to ever happen to her. How much she’d appreciated meknowing what to look for,as she’d called it.
I wasn’t about to be the kind of dick who heard a girl was gay and was likeew, do you have a crush on me,so I’d never really even entertained the possibility, but actually, maybe that would kind of explain why Allison had always been so awkward around me and not other people. Why she freaked out and seemed to trip over her words and blushed all the time and why she freaked out over me flirting with her and why she seemed like she was dying on the spot when I talked about her sexual preferences and…
Wow, okay, yeah. Maybe it was kind of obvious in hindsight. “Huh,” I said, quietly. “Yeah, I could see it.”
Ryan looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “Could see what?”
“Her, like that.” I opted for a non-answer, sounding like I was just talking about Allison’s type, but she picked up on what I actually meant, based on what she said, carefully, after a long, considered moment.
“I never really got why people make a big deal of someone having feelings for you. I’ve been friends with guys who I’ve turned down before. I kind of forget about it, honestly. Doesn’t really feel any different from, like… someone who wants you to go rock-climbing with them but you don’t want to. You say no and you don’t go rock-climbing, but it doesn’t make things weird knowing that they’d want to go climbing if you were interested.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Isclimbinga metaphor?”
“I meant it literally, but whatever you like. I know what Allison would rather be climbing.”
I snorted, elbowing her. “Oh, god, stop,” I laughed, even though part of my mind wondered if Allisonhadthought about climbing me like a tree. I mean, it was her prerogative if she wanted to. Didn’t take anything away from me if she did.
“What?” Ryan laughed. “You’ve apparently taken to asking me every question about all the times I’ve slept with Brooklyn, so the subject is clearly on the table.”
Allthe times she’d slept with her… damn. I didn’t think she had it in her. “Wait, so when did you two first get it on?” I said, and she shifted awkwardly.
“Day before yesterday…”
Busy bees. “All the times you’ve slept with her, huh?” I laughed. “In a couple days? Guess she is good in bed.”
She groaned, a hand to her forehead. “I… won’t deny it.”
I laughed loudly, looking across the gym at where Brooklyn hopped down from the wall. “I love this for you,” I said. “Brooklyn, huh… you know? I can kind of see it.”
“Oh, you were expecting me to hook up with a hot bartender woman,” she said dryly.
“Um, no. But you know, just, this. You and her. She’s really just…out there.With who she is. You always did hate veiled things and people not saying what they really mean.”
