Page 29 of Kissed By Her
Joy made a sputtering noise. “You never said anything when I was making the schedule!”
She was so indignant that it made me laugh.
“This was supposed to be a friend trip, not a hookup trip. If you want to do a hookup trip, I’m going to need to take some more vacation time,” I said.
Honestly, the idea didn’t really appeal to me. The idea of having sex with someone I’d never see again made me so anxious. But kissing a stranger didn’t sound bad. And if my friends wanted to get laid, then I wanted that for them.
“I didn’t mean we should take a separate trip. I was just saying that we might have made a little time in this trip for flirting and maybe more,” Sydney said.
“Well, there’s still time,” I said. “We can hit the downtown and go searching for babes.”
Both Joy and Sydney stared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You sounded like a dude from a really old movie right there and it was creepy,” Joy said. “Let’s not do that if we go out.”
“What would you say, then?” I asked.
Joy thought about that for a moment. “I’d say we were looking for connections. Sparks. Someone that catches your eye.”
“Aw, that’s sweet,” I said.
“Eyes and tits. That’s what I look for,” Sydney said.
“Syd!” Joy and I said at the same time.
“What? Should I lie and say I’m looking for a sparkling personality? The visual is what hits me first. Sorry.”
I shook my head at her, and Joy laughed.
“What do you look for then?” Sydney asked me.
“I don’t know!” I said. I was feeling very put on the spot. “It’s been such a long time since I had a crush I don’t even know if I can get them anymore. I’ll probably just end up some spinster with some cats and my books and I wouldn’t hate that.”
“Spinsters are awesome,” Joy said. “They get to spend their disposable income and solve murders.”
“Sounds good to me,” Sydney said.
The conversation moved on and I was glad. What I didn’t tell my friends was that living alone, being alone, was my greatest fear. What if no one fell in love with me? What if I lived the rest of my life alone? I wouldn’t be able to do it. I just couldn’t.
But I lied to my friends and said I’d be happy to live alone because telling them that I was so scared of the prospect was too embarrassing.
We did one last walk through the downtown (no trawling for babes) and had a late brunch of lobster eggs benedict at a lovely little restaurant.
Packing up took forever because Sydney had to fit everything back into her bags. I wasn’t going to lie, she had brought some useful things, like her first aid kit. Other things she brought, like her waffle iron, were pretty useless in the end.
I made sure to write a little thank you note for our hosts before we checked out and made sure that we hadn’t left anything behind.
“Goodbye cottage,” I said as I closed the door and then dropped the keys in the lockbox.
“We’ll just have to make this a yearly trip,” Joy said, putting her arm around me as we walked to the car.
“I love that idea,” I said.
“Me too. I’ll bring less stuff next time,” Sydney said, closing the trunk with an effort.
“I think my car would appreciate that,” I said as we got in.
