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“Guess I better take you up on that now because once the festival starts, you’ll probably be busy.” He grunted and shook his head. “You’re thirty-four. Time to start settling down instead of just fooling around, don’t you think?”
I’ll admit that for the first few years I lived here, I was very busy during festival season. Vacationing women were perfect for what I was looking for at the time. Namely no-strings sex and for them to leave when it was over. And even though I haven’t done that in a long time, Pop still brings it up every year.
The truth is, I’d settle down tomorrow if I found the right woman, but no one in Seaside fits that description. Maybe someday.
Chapter Two
Eve
“I can’t believe you’re leaving us.”
Anjannette draped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me in for a dramatic hug as she said those words.
“I’m only going for the summer.”
She pulled away to look me in the eye.
“That’s too long. I’ll miss you.”
“And we all know you’re going to go out there, fall in love with the town handyman, and stay in Seaside forever,” Keera said.
“That only happens in Hallmark Channel movies. My life isn’t that romantic. Never was.” I shook my head. “Writers are told to write what they know. I don’t know what ever possessed me to write romance.”
“Well, you’re very good at it so there must have been some romance in your life at some point,” Anjannette said. “Even with my shitty exes there were a few decent moments.”
“John and I started dating in college so having a pizza date before sex instead of getting a booty call at midnight was considered romantic.”
That led to a whole conversation about pathetic pick-up lines and bad decisions. Although Anjannette and Keera have both recently found happiness with amazing men, they had tons of stories from their dating days. Sophie is the opposite. Like me, she married young and divorced a couple decades later. Unlike me, there was no infidelity involved in the breakup. She and her husband just drifted apart and decided to call it quits. So, the stories she’s sharing are all recent as she jumped back into the dating scene with both feet in the last year.
Sad to say, I don’t have anything to add to the conversation. Other than John, I only had a few boyfriends in high school. They all know what happened with the former and there’s not much to tell with the latter.
“I honestly don’t know how I wrote anything interesting before I met you ladies. My life is so boring compared to yours,” I said. “You don’t have to worry about me never coming back. I need your stories for inspiration. That is, if I ever start writing again.”
“You’ll get there. You have to.” Keera pointed at me then Sophie. “Now that you got me hooked on the genre, you two better never stop writing it.”
“I’m going to Seaside to hopefully get the creative juices flowing again.”
“Maybe some other juices will flow while you’re there too,” Sophie bobbed her eyebrows. “It might not end like a sappy TV movie, but I’m sure there’s a sexy handyman or veterinarian who’d be up for a summer fling.”
“That’s not on my agenda. I’m going to spend time with my aunt and focus on writing.”
“Not for nothing, maybe a good fuck is just what you need,” Keera said. “It might inspire you.”
“I’m not really ready for that. Or maybe I’m just scared.” I shook my head. “I don’t know, but the thought of having sex with someone besides John freaks me out. I mean, there are men I find attractive, but I don’t feel that need or desire like I had way back when with John.”
“My first time post-divorce was weird, but it wasn’t bad,” Sophie said. “Maybe you just need to fake it ‘til you make it. You know, find a guy and just do it. The first time is always the hardest. After that, it’s smooth sailing.”
“You at least had a college experience or two before you got married. John was my college experience. Before him, I’d barely seen a penis, much less touched one.” I rested my head in my hands. “I’m forty-two and I’ve only had sex with one man. I’m basically a unicorn.”
No one commented on that and I looked up to find three sets of bewildered eyes staring at me.
“Oh God, I’ve stunned you into silence.”
“It’s not that,” Anjannette said. “Your life is just so different from mine so I’m trying to put myself in your shoes. Honestly, I could see myself feeling the same way you do.” She put her arm around my shoulders and squeezed. “Just make sure that if the opportunity does present itself, you’ll at least consider climbing some hot handyman like a tree.”
I burst out laughing. Her tone was so serious then she ended with that.
“I promise.”
