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I turn and glare at Devon.Why did she have to say all that?
“You’ve got to narrow your eyes more if you want to look mad. And you’re smiling. Did you know that? Flatten your lips.” I try both. “This isn’t working. Maybe suck in your cheeks?” I try that too and end up in a comical fish face. We both double over laughing. She coaches me on how to look intimidating while we wait for Sadie to return with the next round of drinks.
“You need to reapply,” Devon passes me a tall white spraycan of sunscreen after another failed attempt at glaring.
The spray comes out like a fine foam and disappears into my sun-warmed skin without leaving a greasy sheen. “Are you sure this is sunscreen?” I ask.
“Yes, I got it from my dermatologist.” Devonwouldhave fancy dermatologist sunscreen.
Sadie returns with the drinks, and I hold the can out to her. “Sadie, you’ve got the check out this sunscreen sorcery. It doesn’t even smell bad!”
Once our SPF is reapplied to Devon’s satisfaction, we throw back the round of tequila shots.
“Now, details about sexy motorcycle guy, please,” Sadie chimes.
“Heissexy, isn’t he?” I agree and then gasp, throwing a hand over my mouth when I realize what I’ve admitted. The second tequila shot has eased my apprehension, and the third tiki drink doesn’t hurt either.Hmm. That’s kind of a lot of drinks. How long have we been here? A few hours?Words flow easily, and pretty soon I’m spilling every detail that’s happened between Luke and I. Sadie eats it right up, and Devon smiles knowingly as my stories go on.
They indulge me with my usual complaints. The smug smirk he always wears and the fact that he’s impossible to upset. He’s a cocky know-it-all. He’s always around. Likealways. He acts like he owns the place. Devon interjects to point out that he does own the place.Not helpful. He doesn’t know anything about Palm Springs. Sadie points out that I didn’t either when I moved here.Again, not helpful.
“In the moment, when he threw me over his shoulder because the floor wasunsafe,” I interrupt myself, “which, by the way, I call bullshit. The floor was fine. I fucking had on shoes.”Does that make sense?“Had fucking shoes on.”That’sbetter. Right?“My feet were fine! He just wanted an excuse to manhandle me. Anyway, I was livid. But I haven’t stopped thinking about that strong, sculpty”Is that a word?“Scultpled.Sculp-tedbody ever since. And then when he was holding me again the other night—”
Devon cuts me off. “Again?”
“What other night?” Sadie asks.
Trying to avoid this exact interaction, I’ve kept my mouth shut about the whole falling-off-the-table incident. Now, though, I can’t rememberwhyI didn’t want them to know. They’re my best friends.They should know.I giggle to myself, and then I give them every detail, even how it gave me butterflies when he walked back in with that ladder.
Something clicks, and for the first time in months, I run out of insults and bad shit to say about Lucas Pine. The alcohol releases the tight hold I’ve been keeping on every kind or soft thought that dared to bubble up about him,and there have been plenty, and now I’m thinking them out loud at my friends.Why was I keeping this in?
I confess how attracted I was to him the first moment I saw him, that by the time I found out who he was, I’d already pictured him fucking me in three different positions. Sadie chokes on her drink at that little detail. I point out that he changed his order from coffee to Americano after I made him an Americanoonce. He’s a good tipper. He holds the door open for everyone. He has a skill for showing up in the parking lot exactly when I’m carrying something heavy and always carries it for me.
The floodgates are open now, and I gush about him and Betty, showing Devon and Sadie all the many, many photos I’ve snuck of Betty on my phone when Luke wasn’t looking. “He’s good to his dog, likesooogood to her. Sheadores him.”
“Dogs are supposed to be good judges of character,” Sadie says, nodding along with me.
“Ezzackly! It’s so weird. How can she be the sweetest, best cared-for dog I’veevermet, and he’s a jackass? It doesn’t make sense!” The people in the spot next to us look over at me.Maybe I yelled that last part.
“Maybe he isn’t a jackass,” Sadie shrugs.
“Shit,” I grumble, “If he’s not, that means I am.”
“You’re not a jackass,” Devon says, adjusting the umbrella above us for maximum shade, “but it’s time to move on. Hating Luke isn’t a great look on you.”
“You have a really irritating habit of being right all the time. You know that?” I ask, moving from laying on my back to sitting up on my lounger, pulling my legs into a crisscross. I’m dizzy for a moment as my vision takes a second too long to catch up.
“I do,” she says, with a self-satisfied smirk.
She was right about me taking a few days off, too. I needed this. Time outside with my friends, relaxing, laughing, and spilling secrets. Having a good drink.Or five or six good drinks. Whoops.
Devon passes me a glass of water. “Drink this, babe.”Where did that come from?I don’t remember her getting up. I down it in a few gulps, and she immediately passes me another.
“Should I apologize for being so harsh?” I ask, and I can hear my words slur.Shit.
“Of course,” Sadie says.
At the same time, Devon replies, “Absolutely not.”
~
