Page 43 of The Other Side of Paradise

Guess I really wasn’t the only one in the trenches trying to get Allison to talk to a girl. “But,” I said, smiling slyly at her. “We got her talking to someone.”

“Seriously?” She gave me an incredulous look. “And she didn’t put her foot in her mouth?”

I put my hands up. “I thought you and this girl were friends.”

“Ah, it’s fine. She’s mean to me. It’s all mutual. We love each other. Who was she talking to?”

I laughed. “This really pretty blonde girl was out here swimming with her friends, except that she got left behind a little bit when they went to go surfing and she didn’t seem keen on joining. I pushed Allison to go swim with her a little bit, and they got really into talking before the girl’s friends came around and picked her back up. Seemed like they were getting onreallywell.”

I hated that I was a little annoyed at the thought. Jealous, I guess. Allison was off picking people up just like that after talking a big game alloh, I could never talk to a girl,and I was getting ignored left and right. But whatever. Ryan looked skeptical. “Are we sure the girl is, you know… into women?”

“I don’t know. She seemed into it. What was I supposed to do, walk up to her and ask if she was gay?”

“No, probably something… subtler. So,” she said, relaxing, “Allison denied that there was any connection, said the girl was absolutely not interested…”

“It’s like you read her mind,” I laughed. “You know, I’m glad we did this. I feel like we never get, you know, girl time.”

She gestured out towards where Brooklyn and Allison were splashing in the water together, and she said, “Well, plenty of girls now.”

“Yeah, that’s just it,” I said. “You’re always around guys, you know? Like some kind of pick-me. With Oscar and Shane and then all your work friends are men…”

She arched her eyebrows before she looked out to the water. “I’m being charged with not being a girl’s girl, then.”

“Sometimes I feel like the only daughter,” I said, and she snorted.

“This is because I’m called Ryan, isn’t it?”

“I’m just saying, it was a choice that Mom decided to just keep the names she had when she thought you two were both going to be boys.”

“So, what?” she laughed. “You’re glad Shane and I are over so now we can have girl time?”

I nudged her. “We couldreallyhave girl time if you were willing to just play along alittlebit with the boys.”

She gave me a dry smile. “Oh, now who’s defining femininity by proximity to men?”

“Shut up,” I laughed. “I’m just saying, I feel like you got burned so badly you’re not going to date for a while once we’re all back home…”

She grimaced, just a little, her gaze drifting back out to the water. After a second, she spoke quietly, saying, “Yeah, probably.”

“So? You see my point, right?”

She shrugged, not answering. I leaned in closer.

“So?”

She spoke absently, quietly. “You’re not normally this insistent. What’s up?”

“Huh?” I frowned. She kept the light tone.

“It’s not lost on me that you’re normally a million miles from me and now you’re having drinks on the beach with me talking about boys. So, what’s up?”

Well, if we were putting it all on the table, I guess that was what I’d always wanted. “It’s that you’ve always been too good for me,” I said. “And you always had Shane around.”

“Did you not like him?” she said, and I shrugged.

“Not really. He’s full of himself and annoying.”

“You—” She looked at me like I was out of my mind. “You were telling me to marry him. That it was a bummer he wasn’t going to propose to me here.”