Page 26 of The Other Side of Paradise (Story of Paradise #2)
“So, taking off from your resolution to get a hookup, I’m guessing? I don’t think you’re the type to happily distract yourself with another girl when you can’t have the one you want…”
“It’s not like it’s a big serious crush or anything,” I lied, looking away. “She’s just pretty. And I guess she’s my type. I don’t know.”
Nobody believed that. Least of all Brooklyn. She settled for smiling at me, and I fussed with my hands on the bar.
“I mean, she’s just got that whole… you know, wears her heart on her sleeve. She really feels things and stuff. And she’s so enthusiastic about the things she likes, and she’s got all these big dreams and…”
“And this isn’t a serious crush.”
“Fuck me,” I groaned, melting into my hands. “I’d always felt so good about the fact that I’d never had a crush on a straight girl. What am I supposed to do?”
“Would if I could give you a drink, Allison,” she laughed.
” It’s really up to you what to do now. Nothing wrong with spending time with a one-sided crush and just enjoying the feeling of having feelings.
Nothing wrong with drawing a strict line and walking away either.
Nothing wrong with trying to find another girl to distract yourself, and nothing wrong with not wanting to do that anymore.
For better or worse, there’s no rules for this kind of thing. ”
I wished there were. I would bristle at them, but I wished there were. I looked away. “God, it’s stupid. It’s not like I’m giving up on the whole… finding a girl, thing,” I mumbled. “Mostly because…”
I trailed off. Brooklyn read me for filth. “Because Stella’s locked in on helping you with it, and that’s how you get to spend time with her.”
“How messed up is my life?” I groaned, and she beamed.
“Oh, very. What an absolute fucking trainwreck. Do you want a Shirley Temple to make things better?”
“I’m not five years old.”
“Hey, don’t knock the ST.”
I got a Shirley Temple. With an extra cherry. It was a good choice.
“Honestly,” Brooklyn said as I brooded into my drink, “maybe not the worst setup. There’s three potential outcomes, none of which are that bad.”
I looked at her skeptically. She counted off on her fingers.
“One, you succeed in finding another girl, and it distracts you. Two, you don’t, but you get to spend some fun time together with a cute girl you like.”
“What’s option three, then? If options one and two are that I do or I don’t.”
She grinned. “Three is that Stella decides to experiment a little.”
“The—shut up,” I blurted, choking on my drink, my face as red as the cherries. “Don’t say things like that.”
“What?” she laughed. “A lot of girls experiment on vacation. Trust me. I’d know.”
“Don’t give me false hope,” I groaned into my hands. “She’d be way out of my league anyway.”
She looked over my shoulder at the door opening behind me, and she stepped back, preparing to take whatever customer was coming in to save me from this conversation.
“I don’t think she’d be too out of your league,” Brooklyn said, her voice raised more in that we’re wrapping up way, but I still wanted to get in one more protest.
“She’s—” I said, but I had a heart attack when Stella’s voice came from behind me.
“Who? What? Who’s out of Allison’s league? Is there a girl you like who you’re hiding from me?”
“Uh—uh.” I whirled back on where the sight of Stella broke my brain in general, but especially seeing her in a swimsuit again, and before I knew what I was doing, I’d fully checked her out.
Oh, god. I needed an out. “Hi—oh, uh—” I cleared my throat hard enough it hurt.
“I was talking to you in the lobby, like, two seconds ago. What kind of quick-change artist are you?”
It hadn’t been that short. It just felt faster because I’d been texting her. It didn’t matter anyway, because Stella folded her arms and said, “Don’t change the subject. Are you talking about Jessica?”
“No!” I protested, and she narrowed her eyes.
The man with her—there was a man with her.
I hadn’t even noticed until now. It took me a second to place him as Oscar, her brother.
Supposedly Ryan’s twin, but Ryan looked nothing like him, so surely one of them was pulling a fast one.
He didn’t seem to care too much about what was going on, and I’d never envied anyone quite as much. Except for Jacob yesterday.
Stella’s look sharpening pulled me back into the moment, and I protested further. “I’m not—I’m not interested in Jessica. We were talking about… celebrity crushes.”
“Oh, boring.” Stella’s shoulders fell. “Who’s the celebrity crush? This place is kind of luxe, I bet celebrities come around here sometimes.”
Oh, god, now I needed a celebrity crush.
Stella’s face shape reminded me a little of someone.
“Ariana Grande,” I blurted the second I placed it.
I’d be kicking myself if my feet weren’t too busy lodged in my mouth.
Stella laughed, dropping her hand on my shoulder.
“So that’s your type,” she said. “Ariana Grande would be lucky to have you.”
“Okay, let’s not exaggerate,” I muttered, looking away. Ariana Grande could proposition me right here at this bar and I wouldn’t notice if Stella was on my other side.
Brooklyn struck up a conversation with both of them, saving me from any more awkwardness, except for one point where Stella gushed to Oscar about how she was getting Allison a girlfriend and you could join us if you weren’t so boring.
I was so, so grateful that Oscar was boring, because he had no interest in that, just in an IPA and sitting at the bar while Stella got a cosmo and dragged me to sit at the pool with her.
She handed me her drink and jumped into the pool, pinching her nose and going in feet-first, and she went underwater before she splashed up over the surface, and she got me to dip my feet in the water with her.
Tried to insist I share her drink, too, and I had to remind her that I was just on a thirty-minute break and I wasn’t about to show up back to my shift tipsy, and she contented herself with floating in the pool in front of me chatting away, at least until I heard the telltale signs of Ryan showing up—namely, Brooklyn’s voice changing as she flirted with her.
Stella gasped at the sight, and I turned half-expecting someone dying from the sound of shock, but nobody died—just a haircut. Ryan’s, to be specific.
It was a cute look, actually, chopped just above her shoulders, bright and fresh, almost like a longer and more layered version of Brooklyn’s, and I guess I wasn’t surprised Brooklyn was taking her to get queer-coded haircuts like a bisexual bob.
Stella splashed out of the pool, bowling me and about six other people over on her way over to gush about Ryan’s new hair, and I laughed as I watched the whole thing—Brooklyn leaning over the bar practically making heart-eyes at Ryan, Ryan posturing with her new hair, Oscar shaking his head with his little smile he only seemed to get with the siblings, and Stella gushing like it was her job.
Despite how many heart attacks Stella had given me, and despite how much things sucked with Ryan’s breakup and her family, this was some of the most fun I’d had here.
I wondered if Brooklyn could keep Ryan around.
The girl was clearly getting more attached than she wanted to—both of them were—and I was enjoying this little dysfunctional group more than I’d thought I would.
I’d have hated to give it all a clean goodbye.
And that had nothing to do with wanting to be around Stella for longer. Although… I wouldn’t have survived being around Stella for that long.
I shouldn’t have been thinking things like that.
I didn’t need to wish more of Stella into my life, not when it was already all I could take.
I was just seriously down bad for her. So much so that when Stella got back to the pool, dropping down onto the concrete next to me and saying, “Hey—Oscar and I are tagging along for Ryan’s and Brooklyn’s rock-climbing later, do you want to come?
” I didn’t even make a face at rock-climbing.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” I said, trying to sound cool and casual. Trying not to sound like I wouldn’t dream of saying yes normally but that I’d do anything if it meant more of Stella. She grinned.
“Great. I’m gonna suck at it. I hear you suck, too, so we can figure it out together.”
“You heard correctly. I can’t wait.”
I just said I can’t wait about rock-climbing. Stella had done more of a number on me than I’d ever dreamed possible.
Fuck me.