Page 20 of Plot Twist
When Sophie came back from the gas-station bathroom and buckled herself in, Dash held out his hand and said, “Gummy me.”
“Excuse me,” she shot back. “Please, don’t be vulgar. I am alady, sir.”
“You’re right.” He put his hand on the steering wheel, shifted slightly in the seat, then reextended his hand. “Gummy me,please.”
“That’s more like it.” She placed a handful of sour gummy worms in his palm, the edges of her nails just skimming him, and he popped the candy into his mouth.
“You have to try one,” he said through a mouthful. “Just one, otherwise it’s not a proper road trip.”
She glared at him but, to his amusement, she reached her hand into the bag and pulled one out. “Is this what you want?” She shook the gummy worm at him, a disgusted look on her face. “You want to watch me eat this sugary little worm?”
“I absolutely do.” He popped another one into his mouth and smiled. She tilted her head back and dangled the worm above her lips before dropping it into her mouth.
“Are you happy now?” She chewed and her face contorted as she tasted the sour and sweet of it.
“Areyouhappy now?” he said back.
She continued to chew. “These are good, actually.”
“Told ya.” He raised his eyebrows as he maneuvered the car back onto the highway. They were getting closer to Ojai, but he wondered if there was some way he could convince her to just hang out with him. He didn’t want her to miss an opportunity for growth and more content, exactly, but he liked being next to her. He hadn’t talked to someone else for this long a stretch of time since...he couldn’t remember. And he’d told her about his dad, which he never brought up with people.
“How do you think your experiment is going?” Dash asked.
“I have four thousand followers, which isn’t nothing,” she said. “I just don’t feel closer to finding an answer for my book. I mean, seeing my first ex was fine, I guess? I’m just not used to analyzing my behavior that way, and I’m not totally sure I’m doing it right.”
“Do you think this ex we’re driving to see might help?” He snuck a glance at her, which he realized he’d been doing a lot of while they were driving. She was easy to look at.
“He was the first person I ever dated.” She brushed the sugar off her fingertips. “But I think his memory of our relationship is a little different from mine. I don’t want to think about it too much. I might end up psyching myself out.”
Dash nodded. He could change the subject. “What’s the best date you’ve ever been on?” Why the hell was he asking this ridiculous question? “Just because, ya know, you’re revisiting all of these exes.”
Great save, Dash, that doesn’t make you sound weirder.He readjusted himself in the seat and let out a heavy sigh. He was not used to small talk.
“Oh, hmm.” Sophie tapped her index finger against her chin. “Well, Ned grew up on a ranch and was into horseback riding. He took me riding one time and it started to rain, but we ended up having fun.”
The image of Sophie in the rain and on a horse was doing something very specific to Dash, and he reached a hand down to release some of the pressure against his jeans.
“Oh, but Jewel always brought me to interesting places, like, they loved rock climbing, so they taught me how to climb on a weekend trip to Yosemite.” Sophie cocked her head as she thought a bit more. “Hmm...but Carla knows a lot about astronomy and took me stargazing at the planetarium once, which was also super sweet.”
“Which ex is Carla?” Dash hadn’t heard that name before.
Sophie shook her head, then studied her hands as she answered. “She was my longest relationship. We dated for close to a year. If there’s anyone who I could see a second chance with, it’s her.”
He frowned. Something about that made his throat go completely dry. Was he actually jealous? No, he couldn’t be jealous of the fact that Sophie had dated someone and might want to date them again. Still, he was suddenly choked up. He reached for the bottle of water in the cup holder, undid the cap, and took a sip. “I’m hearing a lot about what all of your exes like, but what about what you like?”
Sophie blinked, then sat back in her seat. “How do you mean?”
“Like, if I were to take you on a date, where would you want to go? How would you want to spend the day?” He was phrasing this in a very weird way, because apparently, he wasn’t capable of a normal conversation when he was with Sophie. He should just let her do the talking from now on.
Sophie stared at him, then shrugged. “Well, I mean, obviously I love books. It would be cool to do, like, a literary tour of LA. Maybe hopping around to different places? Like Joan Didion’s house in Hollywood. And Nora Ephron used to love eating at Langer’s Deli downtown. And then getting to visit all my favorite bookstores—Book Soup, The Last Bookstore, Chevalier’s, and ending at The Ripped Bodice, which is my actual happy place. That would be a perfect day.”
She gazed off somewhere in front of them with the hint of a smile that caused the apples of her cheeks to pop. He imagined what it would feel like to make her happy like that, like she had nothing in the world to ever worry about.
“It’s cool that books are your life. Not everyone finds their thing that way.” Dash certainly hadn’t.
“Do you want to be acting more?” she asked.
No, he absolutely did not. Just the thought of having to read a script made his shirt collar way too tight. “No, I’m done with acting.”
