Page 76 of Those Summer Nights (Sweet Cravings 2)

Chapter 22

Saturday

Two hours later, I was walking out into the sunshine with a brand new phone. About 30 minutes into standing around and waiting to be helped, I had considered coming back. Saturday afternoon probably wasn’t the best day to go. Especially since I had Tuesdays and Thursdays off, which had to be less busy. But at that point I had already waited a while. Besides, now it was done. And two hours was a short amount of time to waste given the fact that I’d wasted 21 years on my dad. Now I was free. I wasn’t even going to give him my new number. Not that he’d be missing it…he never called me anyway.

I pulled out my phone from the bag and squinted at the screen in the sun. It was an older model than the one I used to have, but it was surely just as good. It’s not like I needed all the new fancy camera functions. I wasn’t exactly the type that was taking selfies for Instagram nonstop like the girls I had just passed on the boardwalk.

The tech guy helping me had tried to transfer all my contacts into my new phone and I practically had to tear it out of his fingers. I didn’t need all my old contacts. All I needed my phone for was communicating with three people – my mom, Kristen, and J.J. That was it. And by communicating, obviously I meant texting because calling people was th

e worst thing ever. Phone calls should have been un-invented years ago, if un-inventing things was a thing. And voice mails. Don’t even get me started on the demonic ways of voicemails. Anyone who leaves voicemails should be bitch-slapped into next week by the phone they used to commit such a heinous crime.

I pulled out the piece of paper I’d scribbled my important numbers on, which had caused quite the eye roll from the tech guy, and put them into my new phone. And then I shot off three texts, letting the only three nice people in my life know how to contact me now.

Kristen responded immediately. “New phone? Exciting! But do you know what’s more exciting? The package that showed up an hour ago with your name on. Get your ass home before I give in and open it myself!”

I thought about what on earth it could be as I walked down the boardwalk. But it only took me a few seconds to realize what it probably was. Well, there were two options really. Either it was anything I’d left at my dad’s house that he wanted to get rid of, which may have been one book or something else small. I’d never even had my own room at his new house. Whenever I’d visited when I was younger, I was always sent to the guest room. How fitting since that’s how he views me. I was too naïve to realize it at the time. I’d just considered the room temporarily mine since I didn’t live there. For years I’d always given him the benefit of the doubt when I should have been throwing hot coffee in his face on a daily basis.

The other option for a surprise package wasn’t quite as insulting. Maybe it was the stuff I’d asked Aiden to ship back to me. If that was the case, it was good news. It meant I got all my stuff back and that he was most likely done calling me nonstop. I smiled to myself. He couldn’t call me anymore even if he wanted to. I had a new number. Win win all around. And if it was my stuff from his apartment, that meant I could wear that cute dress I’d left in his closet. Otherwise I’d surely be squeezed into God knows what of Kristen’s. Not that she had too much time to torture me. J.J. was supposed to come pick me up in less than an hour.

I walked up the steps to my apartment. As I rummaged around in my purse for my keys, the door flung open.

“You have to see what’s inside before I die!” Kristen said as she thrust the box into my hands.

It wasn’t what I was expecting at all. There was no mailing or return address. And it wasn’t a standard brown shipping box. It looked more like a clothing box but it was wrapped in a sparkly white wrapping paper with a pink satin bow.

“How do you even know it’s for me?” I asked. I had never gotten a present wrapped so elegantly before. Not even for my sweet sixteen. Kristen was probably wrong. It was probably dropped off at the wrong house.

“Oh. That. One sec.” Kristen disappeared into our apartment.

I kicked the door closed and followed her.

“It came with a note.” She handed it to me.

“You read it?”

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not freaking mail fraud, it didn’t even come via the post office. The present was just sitting on the front step when I got back from work. So I had to look. How else would I have known it wasn’t for me?”

Fair point. “So who is it from?”

“See for yourself.”

I opened up the envelope, ignoring the broken seal from my nosy roommate. I smiled as I read the words.

You said you had nowhere to wear it. Now you do.

-Your lifeguard

Your lifeguard. I pulled the note to my chest. I had no idea what the card was referring to, but the butterflies had erupted in my stomach. I felt like I might be flown away with how fast they were flapping. J.J. was the sweetest man on the planet.

“Freaking open it!” Kristen begged.

I laughed and tugged on the satin bow. It felt so expensive between my fingers. He hadn’t started his fancy new job yet, and I hoped he wasn’t spending money he didn’t have. I tore the wrapping paper and lifted the lid to the box.

I could feel tears welling in my eyes. It was the beautiful blue dress I’d been looking at when we’d gone shopping together. It was sexy and over the top and ridiculously expensive and…the nicest thing I would have ever worn. You said you had nowhere to wear it. Now you do. I blinked faster so I wouldn’t start crying. He had said we were just friends when we’d gone shopping. But he remembered the dress I’d been looking at and that I said I had nothing to wear it to. He’d been paying such close attention to me and I’d been completely unaware. I ran my hand across the fabric before lifting the dress out of the box.

“Wow. That color is stunning,” Kristen said.

The same color as his eyes.

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