Page 12 of Those Summer Nights (Sweet Cravings 2)

to be hanging out with lifeguards all night and didn’t invite her. She’s violent like that.” I stared at him, trying to see if he was sympatico with her murderous ways.

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

What a normal answer. I shot Kristen a quick text telling her to meet me there. She was going to lose her mind. It was good I’d invited her, because after her toast to hooking up with sexy lifeguards all summer, I’d be on her shit list for sure. This way I wouldn’t wind up dead in a ditch and I’d make Kristen happy too. Plus it would make it less date like and more like a friend date. Which my mind could handle.

We started walking again.

"You are so lucky. I live in that big apartment building over there." He pointed to a building in the distance. "And I have three roommates. It's fun, but it's also kind of annoying."

He's not a murderer. He's a nice, apartment-living guy with living roommates.

"So, you just needed a job to pay rent, which means you're not saving up money for school?"

"No. I got a pretty decent scholarship. And my dad is paying for the rest of it. I haven't seen him that much since my parents got divorced when I was a kid. But he loves throwing money at me, not that I ever ask him to." I was rambling. I had a tendency to do that when I was nervous. I shrugged my shoulders to make it seem like what I had just said was normal.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. It's better that way.” It wasn’t. I was pretty sure he was paying for my college so I wouldn’t bother him and his new family. Paid silence. “Honestly, he's kind of an asshole."

He laughed.

God he had a nice laugh.

"Okay. Tell me more."

"I mean, what do you want to know?" I wanted to ask him questions. I already knew everything about myself.

"Well, why are you here for the summer? Why didn't you stay in California?"

"I don't know.” Lame answer. “It's complicated." Lamer answer.

"That means you do know, Jellyfish Girl." We stopped outside one of the Grottos pizza joints on the boardwalk. I knew of at least two more within walking distance. It was kind of ridiculous. But their pizza was amazing so I didn't mind. We walked past the hostess and went into the outdoor bar portion of the restaurant. Some of his lifeguard friends greeted him. I was waiting for someone to say his name, but none of them did. This was so frustrating.

He pulled a stool out for me at the bar. I sat down and he took the seat beside me. The bartender came over.

"What would you like?" my lifeguard asked me.

"Whatever you're having is fine."

He turned to the bartender and ordered two beers.

Before he could press me, I decided I should ask him a question. "So, are you in school?"

"No, I just graduated. I start my real job in the fall." The bartender came back with two beers. My lifeguard took a long sip.

"You wanted one last fun summer?"

"Something like that." He smiled at me. "So are you going to answer my question? Or do I have to get you drunk first?" It looked like he winked, but I couldn’t be sure because he was still wearing his sunglasses.

How could I possibly word the answer to his question? That my boyfriend of two and a half years had cheated on me at the beginning of last semester with some girl with huge tits? I thought he was my forever. We had talked about our future all the time. I thought he was going to propose on the night I walked in on him in bed with someone else. He was the first person to befriend me on campus and all of his friends kind of just adopted me. When we split up, those friends turned out to not actually be my friends either. The rest of spring semester had been lonely and unbearable. I hated SMU. And I hated California. I didn't want to go back. But I also didn't want to switch schools with only one year left. I needed to finish some degree. I was close enough on a few majors, I just needed to choose which one. Was that what he wanted to hear?

"You probably have to get me drunk first,” I said instead of telling him the whole depressing story.

He laughed. "Okay. I'll see what I can do. Let's try a different question then. Do you have any siblings?"

"No, I'm an only child. Well, kind of. I have half-sisters. But they’re a lot younger than me and I rarely ever see them.” I looked down at my beer. “My dad’s new family.”

"Okay. Kind of an only child of divorced parents. Do they live around here?"

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