Page 95 of The Other Side of Paradise
“You did a good job with her,” I laughed quietly. “And I guess this part is difficult, but I think it needs to happen. I think… you can do it right, even if it’s not easy, and be a lot closer with her for it. She wants that. And she’s worth it.”
He spoke lightly, saying with a carefree ease, “Next you’ll be telling meyou’reseeingher.”
“Huh—” I stood rigid, hand clenching on the coffee. “N-no. No. Huh? No. Me and Stella? No. That’s not, um… it’s… no.”
Shit, shit, shit. I needed to shut up. He looked at me with his eyebrows raised, and I burned. I needed to fix it. That was too obvious. I couldn’t keep just saying no. I had to change the subject. I looked past him and saw the garden, and I pointed.
“The… did you know the botanical garden here contains over 250 different species of native plants?”
“Does it,” he said flatly. Why the fuck did I go with the botanical garden brochure? I burned.
“With ten being endemic species whose only habitat in the world is this island.”
“Mm.”
“It’s a beautiful place to visit.”
“Are you sleeping with my daughter?”
“Which one?” My voice came out way too high. He stared, and I put a hand over my face. “Jesus Christ, I wasn’t trying to—I didn’t mean to—no.” Humiliating myself was okay at this juncture, just so long as I had any vaguely redeeming shot at maybe outing Stella alittlebit less. “No, I just have a huge crush on her. I should be so lucky. But she’s straight, so I’ve just spent this whole time together having a heart attack every time she talks to me, so, um… yeah, you can take my word for it when I say she’s areallygood person.”
He stared for a long while before he let out a short laugh, turning back to the horizon. “Well, she had apparently been talking about wanting to have a… vacation fling. I figured at least better it was someone with a lick of sense in her head than that meathead lifeguard she was talking about.”
Oh. Uh. Huh. Maybe he was okay with it. Did that mean he approved of me sleeping with Stella? I mean… probably not. He only said a meathead would be worse. I was pretty meatheaded, but I wasn’t going to say that. “I, um, appreciate it.”
He hung his head. “Can you tell her I’m sorry? I know you’re right. I don’t want to be the kind of person for her that her grandparents are. She told me I… was… infantilizing her. That I got an image of her when she was a child, and I’ve been trying to force her into it. And I guess I deserve that. I just… want to dobetter. I’m sick of everybody talking behind each other’s backs, too.”
I softened, leaning against the railing with him, breathing in the cool wind that swept off the ocean, mixed in with the scent of the garden. And its 250 unique species. “I think she’ll really appreciate that,” I said. “I don’t know if she’ll be ready to address the whole thing right now, but… I think she’ll appreciate that.”
He pushed off from the railing, turning back towards the stairs. “Thanks, Allison. I appreciate it. Just don’t hurt her.”
“Huh—” I shot him a look as he walked away. “Hurt who? Stella? What… why would I? What do you mean… huh?”
He didn’t answer, disappearing down the stairs, and I burned with awareness. Did that mean—was he—as in, like, that I was dating her, and he wanted me not to do anything that would hurt her? But then—if that were—huh?
I wasn’t thinking about it. Nope. Not thinking about it. Nope nope nope.
Chapter 24
Stella
The day was moving all too quickly. The whole week was. For someone who’d dragged her feet not wanting to go on this vacation, I was awfully reticent to leave now.
I mean, why wouldn’t I be? I was going back to a boring-ass summer where all my friends were either traveling or at this internship that I wasn’t going to, and I’d be spending my days doing nothing but missing this place, missing everything that happened here, missing… well, missing Allison.
I was so pissed off we only got a couple days together. I didn’t know what was happening, what these feelings all were or how to interpret them, but I guess it didn’t matter now, did it? I’d be on a plane tomorrow, and it would be like all of this had never happened.
But for now, I was at a beautiful spot on the beach, and Allison was here in a cute little black bikini, stripping her coverup shirt off as she came down the sand towards me. I sat up from the beach towel, waving at her, and she waved back, pointing to my Solo cup and making an inquisitive face. I nodded, gesturing pouring it and pointed at her, and she laughed, coming down the rest of the way, moving slowly,before she lunged in the last instant, catching me off-guard and grabbing the cup before I could.
“Not throwing water at me this time,” she laughed, taking off, and I sputtered, jumping up to my feet laughing as I stumbled on the sand running after her.
“Allison! That’s mydrink,dammit, give it back!”
We took a long run down where the water was up to our ankles, pale gold at the crests of the tiny waves coming in with the early sunset light on the water, and I managed to catch up with her this time, grabbing her around the waist and holding her into me, kicking and squealing with laughter as she tried to pull free.
“Give me that—” I took the cup, and I wrestled it from her hand to take a sip, laughing. “My god. What am I gonna do with you?”
She grinned, relaxing back into my grip, resting against my front. “Apologize very seriously and very sincerely for dumping water on me.”
