Page 17 of Dreaming at Seaside
Chapter Five
“I THINK YOU’RE overreacting.” Jenna sat on the floor at the edge of Bella’s closet, organizing her sandals and flip-flops while Bella dried her hair. “How would you feel right now if you had slept with him this afternoon? My bet is not great.”
Bella turned the hair dryer off and sat on the bed. “I don’t know. I only know that when he stopped, I wished he hadn’t, and when he said that stuff about me not committing, I wanted to run away.”
“Which you did—into the bathroom.” Jenna sat beside Bella and rested her head on Bella’s shoulder. “Why do you have to classify things? Why can’t you just do what you feel and forget commitment or not committing altogether?”
“Why do I classify…? Jenna, you just organized my sandals alphabetically by color. Alabaster, blue, green…” Bella jumped up and planted her hands on her hips. “Because that’s what I have to do right now to make sure I stick to my guns until my life is in order. But it’s not easy, because being with Caden feels totally different from all the other guys I’ve dated combined. Morereal. When we’re together, things feel right, like we’re not just talking about crap or putting on our best faces to make a good impression. It’s like we skipped all that.”
“Because he is real, Bell.” Jenna smoothed a wrinkle in the edge of Bella’s dress. “You invited him to our barbeque tonight, so yeah, he’s a living, breathing guy.”
They were having a community barbeque, and despite her desire for no commitments and her earlier confusion, Bella was excited that Caden and Evan were joining them. She went to the mirror and smoothed her yellow spaghetti-strap sundress, glancing over her shoulder at her butt.
“Don’t worry. You look hot,” Jenna assured her.
“Lotta good that does me.” Bella dragged Jenna into the kitchen, took a bucket of frozen margaritas out of the freezer, and filled two glasses. “Anyway, you’re right. It’s a good thing we didn’t end up doing it. It makes it easier to stick to my plan. No boyfriend will make it easier for me to think more clearly when I’m making my decisions about work.”Liar, liar.
“You know I see right through that, right?” Jenna crossed her arms, jutted her hip out, and gave her the don’t-even-try-to-avoid-the-truth stare she’d perfected in middle school.
“It sounded good though, didn’t it?” Bella arched a brow. “I almost bought it.”
Jenna took a drink of her margarita, and ice spilled down her chin and slid between her breasts. “Ugh!” She watched it disappear into her cleavage. “That feels better.”
“You’re a freak.” Bella threw her a dish towel. “Won’t that stain your Good-Times Barbie outfit?”
Jenna had on a short, black sleeveless top and a tan miniskirt. “That’s clever, Good-Times Barbie.” She wiped her chest with the towel. “What did you want me to do? Fish it out?” She laughed. “Anyway, technically speaking, you could have slept with him without a commitment. You’d have stuck to your plan better if you had done the deed and then said goodbye.”
Bella took out a head of lettuce and began chopping it on a thick wooden cutting board. “You’re doing a great job of making me feel like crap.”
“Don’t you get it? You invited him and Evan to our barbeque. Youareseeing him again. If you had slept with him, then, according to your plan, you’d have left it at that. See?” Jenna stole a piece of lettuce and popped it into her mouth.
“Okay, so you have a point. You’re not as much of a jerk as I thought you were.” Bella tossed the lettuce into a bowl and cut up tomatoes and cucumbers. “I’m not abandoning my plan.”At least I don’t think I am.“We had such a nice day at the flea market and the beach—”
“And his living room. Don’t forget his living room.”
“Shut up.” She tossed a piece of cucumber at Jenna and it stuck to her cleavage.
Jenna snagged it and tossed it in the sink.
“I like him, Jenna. He’s sweet with Evan, and he puts Evan’s needs ahead of his own, which I think is very admirable.”
“Careful,” Jenna said in a singsong voice. “That sounds a lot like,I like him, Jenna, and I hope this leads to a commitment.”
Bella carried the salad outside. “I hate you when you’re right.”
“Hey, Bell,” Jamie, the friend Kurt had stayed home with instead of going to the bonfire, yelled from the quad. “We moved your table and Leanna’s. Tony’s bringing extra chairs.” Jamie’s grandmother, Vera, spent summers at Seaside, and Jamie drove in from Boston most weekends to spend time with her.
“You stole my table before you hugged me hello? Get over here, you pest.” Bella set the salad bowl on the table and opened her arms.
“Good to see you, gorgeous.” Jamie kissed her cheek. The quietest of their group, Jamie, like Tony, was like a brother to Bella. He was soft-spoken and kind, and in all the years they’d known each other, he had never led her astray. She trusted him completely, as did half the world. Jamie had developed a search engine that was second only to Google. “Did I hear that you had a date that lasted all day?”
She shot a look at Jenna.
Jenna held her hands up in surrender. “You know I can’t lie.”
“It wasn’t a date.”Was it?No. She’d been clear about that at the bonfire, but that was before his living room—and before she invited him to the barbeque, which seemed very dateish to her.Don’t admit it. If you don’t say it out loud, it’s not a date. “He’s coming tonight. You’ll like him. He’s a cop, so you can tell him about all the naughty things I do.”
“And send him running for the hills? No way. I almost forgot. Leanna and Kurt aren’t going to be here tonight. Leanna had a big rush order come in, and she said she needed to work late and get up early.”
