Page 28 of The Other Side of Paradise (Story of Paradise #2)

I snorted, scrunching up my face at her. Allison was fun and all, but—well, I doubted she’d buy me talking about how it’s pretend flirting. “She does not,” I said. “She’s really into athletic girls, right? Girls like Jessica.”

She laughed. “Yeah, that was a lie,” she said. “She hates athletics. Brooklyn and I just wanted to give her a hard time.”

I grinned. “Hating athletics doesn’t mean you hate athletic people,” I said, elbowing her again. “I’m not remotely athletic, but who doesn’t like a strong guy with a six-pack?” Oh, god, I was being so straight again. “Or maybe you’re too gay for that. A strong girl with a six-pack.”

She pursed her lips. “I’m still attracted to men.”

“Oh yeah. Right.” Bisexual. I knew what that meant. She laughed oddly, furrowing her brows at me.

“Are you having this much of a hard time with the concept of bisexuality?”

I was getting put on blast. I put my hands up. “I just haven’t known anyone bisexual before!”

“You probably have,” she said. “Sometimes they just pass as straight. You know, statistically speaking, like half the queer community is bisexual women.”

I frowned. “That’s not true.”

“It pretty much is. There’s a lot of us.”

Okay, it still sounded like an exaggeration, but I guess she was the expert, not me. I huffed, hunching my shoulders. “Okay, okay,” I said. “I’m sorry. So what is Allison’s type, anyway?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think she really has a type. I’ve honestly never heard anyone talk about a type as much as you do,” she said, pulling a face. “But she’s a pretty… romantic kind of person, so, probably someone like that. Someone artistic, probably.”

Oh, god, that was me. I frowned, looking across the gym, at where Allison struggled trying to hold onto the wall, thinking back to the texts—Allison sharing her paintings with me like it was the best thing to ever happen to her.

How much she’d appreciated me knowing what to look for, as she’d called it.

I wasn’t about to be the kind of dick who heard a girl was gay and was like ew, do you have a crush on me, so I’d never really even entertained the possibility, but actually, maybe that would kind of explain why Allison had always been so awkward around me and not other people.

Why she freaked out and seemed to trip over her words and blushed all the time and why she freaked out over me flirting with her and why she seemed like she was dying on the spot when I talked about her sexual preferences and…

Wow, okay, yeah. Maybe it was kind of obvious in hindsight. “Huh,” I said, quietly. “Yeah, I could see it.”

Ryan looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “Could see what?”

“Her, like that.” I opted for a non-answer, sounding like I was just talking about Allison’s type, but she picked up on what I actually meant, based on what she said, carefully, after a long, considered moment.

“I never really got why people make a big deal of someone having feelings for you. I’ve been friends with guys who I’ve turned down before.

I kind of forget about it, honestly. Doesn’t really feel any different from, like…

someone who wants you to go rock-climbing with them but you don’t want to.

You say no and you don’t go rock-climbing, but it doesn’t make things weird knowing that they’d want to go climbing if you were interested. ”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Is climbing a metaphor?”

“I meant it literally, but whatever you like. I know what Allison would rather be climbing.”

I snorted, elbowing her. “Oh, god, stop,” I laughed, even though part of my mind wondered if Allison had thought about climbing me like a tree. I mean, it was her prerogative if she wanted to. Didn’t take anything away from me if she did.

“What?” Ryan laughed. “You’ve apparently taken to asking me every question about all the times I’ve slept with Brooklyn, so the subject is clearly on the table.”

All the times she’d slept with her… damn. I didn’t think she had it in her. “Wait, so when did you two first get it on?” I said, and she shifted awkwardly.

“Day before yesterday…”

Busy bees. “All the times you’ve slept with her, huh?” I laughed. “In a couple days? Guess she is good in bed.”

She groaned, a hand to her forehead. “I… won’t deny it.”

I laughed loudly, looking across the gym at where Brooklyn hopped down from the wall. “I love this for you,” I said. “Brooklyn, huh… you know? I can kind of see it.”

“Oh, you were expecting me to hook up with a hot bartender woman,” she said dryly.

“Um, no. But you know, just, this. You and her. She’s really just… out there. With who she is. You always did hate veiled things and people not saying what they really mean.”

She took a second before, carefully, she said, “She is… very nice to be around,” and I looked over at her.

“Are you hooking up with her, or are you… I don’t know, actually dating her?”

She pursed her lips, a soft blush spilling out over her cheeks.

God, Ryan was catching feelings on vacation.

For a hot lesbian bartender fling. Bisexual bartender fling.

This was so not on my bingo card. “I had a feeling you’d go straight to go be in love together forever…

” she said with an awkward sigh. “She lives here on the island, and I do not. No amount of enjoying what’s happening here would make me want to do a long-distance relationship. ”

Ugh, right. Not the situation to catch feelings. “Yeah… again with that. That sounds really lonely.”

“It does,” she said with a little sad sigh. “She seems generally happy, but whenever she’s talked about it, it seems like…”

She trailed off, and I filled in the gap. “Like she wishes she had something serious with someone.”

“I think it just starts to feel aimless… arbitrary,” she said, her gaze off into infinity, “after a time.”

Huh… that sounded miserable. Nothing true love couldn’t fix, though. I elbowed her. “You travel a lot for work,” I said, and she laughed awkwardly.

“I am not getting into a serious relationship with this girl I met on Monday,” she said. “Go… go say hi to Allison or something. She’s looking like she never wants to touch a climbing wall again. I bet if you go around then she’ll be motivated again.”

Right. Because she had a crush on me. How about that?

I guess I really wasn’t doing too badly on the island after all, if I had gotten someone to want me.

I jumped up to my feet, a laugh spilling out as I threw Ryan a look over my shoulder.

“So, I’m guessing you and Brooklyn are busy tonight and just want to get back to her place after this. ”

She reddened further, putting her hands up. “What would be the point in denying it?” she said, her voice almost irate in embarrassment. I grinned.

“Have fun, you two,” I said. “I’ll take Allison to go look for cute people tonight.”

She looked away. “She’s not going to notice any girls as long as you’re there with her,”

“I’m not the only girl on the island,” I said, ignoring the weird lump in my throat. “She’ll find someone else she thinks is cute. Someone artsy and romantic.”

Ryan sighed, rolling her eyes. “All right, whatever. Tell Allison I said she’s doing great. Make sure it sounds patronizing.”

“I will,” I laughed, and I made good on my promise—got to the other side of the gym just in time to miss Brooklyn when I wanted to ask her a million probably inappropriate questions, grabbing her stuff before heading back towards Ryan, and I caught up to Allison at the bottom of the wall, where she looked at me and her whole demeanor changed when she saw me.

Like she would if she had a crush on me.

Was it weird that it was kinda fun? Maybe I was just shallow and wanted an ego boost. “Hey,” I said.

“Ryan said you’re doing great. Really patronizingly. ”

She snorted. “Appreciate you passing that along.”

“I do love keeping people informed,” I said, my hands on my hips. “Like how you could have told me Ryan and Brooklyn have been hooking up this whole time.”

She flinched in surprise, eyes wide, before she broke out laughing, turning to face me and stepping back from the wall. “I wasn’t about to out Ryan,” she said. “So she finally owned up to it?”

“When did they start?”

“The night before that whole fight in the lobby where your grandma wanted to get me fired… Ryan had been there talking to me beforehand about how Brooklyn was screwing her senseless.”

“Oh my god, that woman,” I laughed, arms folded. “I cannot believe she’s been doing this right under my nose.”

She laughed, shrugging. “She’s still coming to terms with her own sexuality, as near as I can tell. She never actually told me she’s queer directly, she just danced around it and implied it, that whole thing.”

“What a loser. I love it. I’ve been trying to convince her to have a vacation fling, and she went and beat me to it.”

She scratched her head. “Yeah, I had to work really hard to keep a straight face when you kept talking to her about all that kind of thing…”

Well, I guess I was fully a part of the little unit we’d all formed here now. I laughed. “Hey, Allison?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to hook up?”

“Huh—” She went red enough it verged purple, pupils dilating. “What?” she said, her voice thin and awkward and high.

Yeah, that was a crush for sure. I grinned. “Ryan and Brooklyn are already getting it on, so, you know… I’ve got to hurry up with finding you a girl.”

“Oh.” She was quiet for a solid two seconds before she said, “Yeah. Right. Yes. Um… yep. Uh-huh. I mean, I’m open. That’s the goal that I said I… had.”

Oh my god, she sucked at lying. I can’t believe I didn’t notice. “So, tonight?”

“Tonight what?” she squeaked. I folded my arms.

“What do you think? Getting laid.”

“Um… that’s a tall order?”

“Don’t be a quitter. Ryan and Brooklyn are going back to their place in a bit to go fuck like animals, so let’s finish up here with Oscar and let him go have his coveted alone time so we can get you out somewhere for a hookup.”

She scratched her head. “I still don’t think that’s going to happen, but I, uh, I’m not keen to stay and climb more, so… lead the way.”

She would tell me to lead the way. She did love it when someone gave her instructions. I mean, based on what I’d just learned, she probably really wanted me to give her instructions.

Well, I guess that was what I was off to do. Maybe that meant she’d listen.