“They’re rescues. It started as six, but she added three more this spring.”
“How does one rescue a hermit crab?” he asks almost reluctantly, and I smile, wide, remembering it well, since I was her lookout the day she stole Big Gina and crew last summer.
“She stole them.”
“Why…why would she steal hermit crabs?”
“They were being mistreated. It’s actually super unethical to sell hermit crabs the way they do, and they’re deceptively hard to keep alive. The majority end up dying, hence the rescue mission. So, if you sell them at the shop, there’s a good chance Claire is going to want to rescue those.”
“And by rescue…” We both move out of the shop and down the boardwalk, headed back toward Daytrip.
“Steal. She would steal them, and I’d help her because it would be fun.”
He looks at me, blinking once, but I just smile sweetly.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to tell your boss that.”
“We’re friends right now, not boss and employee,” I remind him with a gently hip check and a smile. When he doesn’t argue my claim, bliss explodes in my chest, but it quickly deflates when a familiar face comes into view.
“Fuck,” I mumble.
“What?”
“My arch-nemesis,” I explain. A small laugh leaves his lips, and I don’t even have time to bask in the beauty of it because I’m too busy focusing on stupid fucking Cecelia Stevens, the biggest bitch to grace Seaside Point.
I pride myself on being a girl’s girl, but sometimes, a girl is just a bitch who hates other girls. When that happens, I then have free rein to hate her, and I hate Cecelia. Her family and mine have a long history of animosity that started when her father tried to date my mom, and my mom chose my dad instead. I don’t know why he’s so mad about that, since they would never have worked together, but it’s a long, deep-seated legacy of hate that has continued between the Stevens and Taylor kids.
“Where?” He looks across the way, but I tug at his arm.
“Stop, don’t look!” But my luck must be hiding, because Cece spots us instantly, a smug smile spreading on her face as she makes her way over to us, an extra sway to her steps. “Oh, god, she’s coming our way.”
“Who is?” Graham says, looking around in confusion, because he might be a business genius, but he’s still a boy.
“The bottle blonde, I say through gritted teeth. “She’s my number one enemy; her family and mine have despised oneanother since the dawn of time. Her dad is the one who tried to cancel your permits, and you fired her brother,” I say.
“Ahh, so we hate her.”
Some sick part of me greatly enjoys thewein that statement.
“So much,” I agree.
“Why is she coming over this way?” he asks. I bite back a groan, instead putting a sweet smile on my lips and looking up at Graham as if I don’t even notice her.
“Because she’s a bitch, and I hate her, and she wants to rub salt in whatever wound she can find. Can we head back to the office as naturally as humanly possible, so it doesn’t look like I’m trying to avoid her?”
“I—” he starts, but my hopeful naivete is long gone when my name is called in that annoying, squawky voice.
“June? June Taylor? Is that you?” I tighten my jaw and sigh, turning toward the voice and giving her a tight, fake smile. “It is!”
“Cece,” I say, not able to have any real excitement in my voice. “How are you?”
“Oh, I’m just great! You know, summer off, getting to get my tan on.” She waves her hand down her stupidly perfect body, a bikini top holding in the perfect boobs her dad bought her as an eighteenth birthday present. In a moment, her face goes a bit mean, and a small smile spreads on her lips. “So sorry you were fired, June,” she says, not a single ounce of apology in the words. “I hear you’ve got a little art side hustle going, though. How fun!”
For as long as I can remember, she has always been able to find and grind all my sore spots with perfect accuracy. Normally, I can brush it off, but right now, I’m tired, and I’m hot, and I’m in front of Graham, who I want to think I’m cool and fun and likable, not some loser who got fired and is now selling silly little art projects to keep the lights on.
Kill me now.
Kill me right fucking now.
