Page 19 of The Other Side of Paradise (Story of Paradise #2)

“No—it’s fine. I was just a little surprised, is all.”

So she said, but her voice was thick with unspoken things, and I tried to push it away by saying, “Come on—I wanted to show you something.”

“Is it the ocean? I’m aware of it.”

“Just come on,” I laughed, but there was still a thick feeling in my throat as we walked across the beach, the sand warm under the soles of my feet and between my toes.

Wasn’t enough to distract me, though, and after a second, I said, “You can genuinely just like smack my hand away if I keep grabbing you and stuff. I know I have, like, zero boundaries, and I’m working on it. ”

“No—it’s fine.” She hunched her shoulders, eyes straight ahead, resolutely not looking at me.

“All my friends back home are all, you know, the hugging type, the come up behind you and grab you from behind type, hitting your ass while talking about how good you look, kind of people.”

“I’m sorry, what was that last one?” That finally got her to look at me. I laughed.

“You know, it’s all just fun and stuff.”

“Uh… uh-huh. That sounds like a different kind of fun.”

“I have a great ass and so do a bunch of my friends. We’re not ashamed of it.” My voice fell into something more serious. “But yeah, I’m sorry, I’m trying not to be all grabby and stuff.”

“I, um, I really don’t mind. Just, uh…” She scratched her head, stopping under the shade of a little wooden structure, and she looked down at where she kicked sand over the corners of the structure’s concrete foundation.

I stopped, looking at her, waiting for her to finish, and when she didn’t, I leaned back against the wall next to her.

“That sentence go anywhere?”

“Eventually.”

“Take your time. Should I get a drink first?”

She laughed, and she shook her head, cleared her throat, and she said, “It’s just, um—well—er.” She pulled in a sharp breath, and she said, “It just—reminds me of somebody, is all.”

“Oh.” I wrinkled my nose. “I’m sorry, that sounds awful.”

She gave me a weird look. “I didn’t think you were the type to hate being reminded of people as a general concept…”

I folded my arms. “I kind of assumed you meant a bad experience with somebody touching you in ways you don’t like, but go off.”

“Oh. Yeah, no, not… uh, not necessarily.” She looked away. “This, uh, this girl who was really touchy-feely and I thought she was really into me, and then it seemed like she was really into me, if you, uh, you know what I mean.”

I stared for a second. “Like, you fucked.”

“Well, yeah.” There was the blush again. I wondered what the girl was like. She kicked at the sand again. “Only the next day I figured out she had a girlfriend.”

“Open relationship?”

“Very closed.”

“Yeah, well, there goes that hope. That sucks.” I relaxed back against the wall next to her. “I don’t want to remind you of that creep.”

“It’s less that and just, um…” She shrugged, looking out at the ocean. “It reminds me of the part where I feel guilty. I wish I were more like Brooklyn sometimes…”

“What, putting up the girlfriend? Did they have a bad fallout?”

“No fallout…” She hung her head. “I still haven’t told the girlfriend.”

I frowned. “She cheated with you, and you didn’t tell her girlfriend?”

“I don’t know why I would,” she said, her voice defensive, hugging herself tighter.

“She’d never believe me anyway. Ellie was way out of my league anyway, and they have this whole picture-perfect Instagram relationship, so the girlfriend would just be like, fuck off, my beautiful perfect girlfriend wouldn’t sleep with some ugly loser like you. ”

“ Did someone say that to you to make you think that? Because if so, let me know so I can kill them.”

“Psh…” She looked away. “Now it’s you with the romantic flirting angle, I see.”

“It’s good to know you’re into that. I’ll slay your enemies. Very dark-romance vibes.”

“I mean, it’s just, this girl was really pretty.

Like, seriously just… you know… Instagram model vibes.

And I probably should have known she wouldn’t really be interested in me.

But I’m a dumbass, so I got my hopes up for a minute there.

And her girlfriend would never believe it.

Maybe if I looked like you, she’d believe it, but me? ”

I raised my eyebrows, hands on my hips. “I look like a homewrecker?”

“What—no. Just—I shouldn’t have even said that. Just, you know, you’re really pretty and everything, and, well… yeah.” She shifted against the wall, fussing with the edges of her cute little one-piece swimsuit. I studied her for a second before I said,

“You’re plenty pretty.”

“Yeah, I know, I know, we’re practicing flirting…”

“No, I mean it,” I laughed. “You have a really pretty smile. You’re very cute and sweet. You are really pretty, you just don’t acknowledge it.”

“Psh…” She hunched her shoulders higher, burying her face against one, looking away from me. “I guess that’s the polite thing to say in this situation, isn’t it?”

“And you look hot in a swimsuit.”

She put a hand over her face. “This isn’t the point.”

“The point is that this girl is apparently a huge asshole and won’t react well to you talking about her girlfriend cheating, and it reminds you of the whole situation when I go grabbing you.”

“It’s… um… it’s not like I don’t want you to,” she mumbled. “Just that I, uh… I’ll probably be all tense and awkward at points, but it’s not about you, and, um…”

“It really is okay to not want me to.”

“I mean, it’s not like it’s something I want to associate with her.”

I stared at her for a second before I said, softly, “So, you want to override the association with her, then.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay… I get it,” I said, and I paused for a beat before I said, “So you’re asking me to feel you up.”

“No—that’s not what I meant—” She put a hand over her face. “That wasn’t—I didn’t say that.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Oh, so you don’t want that, huh?”

“Oh my god.” She groaned into her hand, and after a second, she said, “Only if, uh, you know, fair’s fair.”

“Oh, you want to feel me up, too,” I said brightly, and I turned away. “You can slap my ass if you want to, you seemed interested in that.”

“Thanks, I won’t. Flattered by the offer though.”

I laughed. “Thanks for telling me,” I said. “I’ll support you with facing things with that girl. And with getting over it.”

She winced at the mention of it, but she nodded. “Yeah… thanks. You’re, um… you’re very sweet, actually.”

“ Actually? What, because I seem bitter?”

She laughed. “No, spicy.”

“Ooh, nice one. I like that. You’re getting better at this.

” I clapped a hand on her shoulder, and when she tensed up, I kept it there this time.

Some chaotic part of my brain told me to move down lower and squeeze her ass just to see her reaction, but thank god, sense prevailed.

“Now, let’s put your skills to the test.”

“Huh—my skills—what skills?”

“Your flirting skills. There’s a girl I need to know your opinion on.”

“Oh…” Her shoulders dropped lower, like she was relaxing, breathing out. “Um, sure, I guess. Who is it?”

“She’s so hot. Come on.” I moved my hand between her shoulder blades, and I guided her walking a little awkwardly along towards the water’s edge up the beach a little bit, where I found her—the same girl I’d tried pointing out to Oscar just the other day, right here on the same beach, out with her friends again, except this time, her friends had gone out to surf, and she’d been left behind, apparently not interested in surfing.

Which left her hanging around awkwardly clearly wanting someone to talk to, and she was seriously sexy, and at this point, I was only willing to entrust the hottest girls in the world to Allison.

“Her,” I said, stopping Allison up in where the surf was cool over my feet. “In the red bikini, blonde ponytail.”

“Uh… okay.”

I shot her a look. “What do you mean, okay? Not your type? She looks so athletic.”

“Uh, yeah, about that, I, uh…”

I laughed, giving her a playful shove on the back. “Oh my god, you’re shy,” I said. “Go, go. This is your chance.”

“Huh—you want me to hit on her? What makes you even think she’s gay?”

“It’s worth a try, right? People like to try new stuff on vacations. She’s hot, right?”

“I mean, she’s fine?”

I huffed. “Okay, fine! You’re not into her! So which girls here do you think are hot?”

“Uh…” She looked around the beach, gesturing vaguely. “I don’t know. They’re all… fine?”

“Seriously, nobody at all? There’s a million hot swimmer girls here and not one is your sexy athletic girl crush?”

“I’m not really… uh… athletic girls aren’t really my…”

“What? Brooklyn just said they are your type. What is? ”

She looked at me, briefly, before she blushed, looking away, hunching her shoulders. “Uh… yeah. Yes, actually. Yeah, you got me. I’m just, uh, shy. You know—I’m not athletic so I feel like they’d judge me.”

I pushed out a long breath, some sensation I couldn’t name tangling in my chest, and I put a hand on her shoulder. “God, you should have just said so,” I laughed. “So you do think she’s hot, you’re just too shy.”

“Um… yeah.”

Was I disappointed? I didn’t know why. I’d finally gotten Allison to admit to it, and I was going to send her off to hopefully score that hot hookup she was after.

I’d get some time to go talk to boys—I’d been talking to Allison and Ryan and Brooklyn this whole time, and I hadn’t gotten the chance to actually approach anybody.

We’d both get our chances to do some flirting, check back in, it’d be great. Everything I was after here.

I probably just didn’t want to be left alone with my thoughts. Sitting with my thoughts wasn’t what I excelled in, especially not after the whole thing with Dad that I’d been running away from all day. And just… ugh.

“We’ll check back in,” I said, looking back over my shoulder towards Ryan and Brooklyn, only to find the two of them gone.

Probably up for drinks. I’d check the bar up that way and, if they weren’t down to hang out, guess I was off to do some flirting.

“You go talk to her, I’ll go find someone to talk to, and we’ll reconvene to see how it went.

Unless your new swimmer girlfriend wants to take you back home with her, in which case… see you tomorrow.”

She rolled her eyes with a huff, her face bright red, and she stomped out into the surf. “Yeah, yeah—sure—right. Okay, Stella. But this isn’t going to lead to anything. I’m doing this to humor you.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. Have fun,” I called laughingly after her, but I didn’t know why there was this pang like I kind of hoped she was right.

Ugh. I was just lonely. And stupid. And I didn’t know how to do anything about that. But maybe I could bat my eyelashes at some cute guy and he’d do something about it.