Superfan (Brooklyn #3)(49)

“You are a perfect man.” I pop open the can of Coke. “And I will endeavor to keep all your other dirty secrets private.”

“Which dirty secrets?” Rebecca asks, laughing.

“Yo! Silas! Get your booty over here!” Castro yells from the sand.

I put a hand on his hip and nudge him toward the game. “Go on. I swear I’ll behave. I won’t tell them about the time you cut your thumb—”

This bit of silliness is cut off by Silas’s mouth, which is suddenly on mine. I receive a blazing kiss. It’s a very effective form of censorship. With his hot mouth on mine, I can’t actually remember what I was saying.

“Dude, leave the poor girl alone for ten minutes!” Leo yells from somewhere nearby.

Silas breaks our kiss, and for a split second we’re staring into each other’s eyes again, wondering where the nearest bedroom is. But then I blink. “Go on. Show me how you’re a legend at sportsball.”

“Try not to do too much damage to my rep, okay?” He grins, pivots like a ninja, and jogs off toward the guys.

“You can play too, you know,” Georgia says. “I made it through five eliminations today.”

“My personal best is three.” Rebecca sighs. “My coordination is legendary. And not in a good way.”

“Unless we’re doing manicures,” Georgia argues. “I’m the one who’s not allowed to apply polish anymore.”

“That’s just because you don’t care enough to do a good job.” Rebecca turns to me. “I have to put Netflix on in front of her so she won’t get up and walk away in the middle of a manicure.”

“Well, I’m very busy!” Georgia argues.

“How’s that manicure holding up?” Rebecca asks, grabbing her friend’s hand for an inspection.

“Fine.” Georgia tugs her hand away like a naughty child.

I eat another skewer and wonder if I can just stay here on this beach permanently.

“The chef is flagging me down,” Rebecca says.

“Want me to handle it?” her friend offers.

“Nope. You stay here and nibble. I’ll make sure that dinner is almost ready.” She gets up.

“The hardship!” Georgia says, taking her spot. “More margarita?” Georgia says to me. “Oh—you’re drinking soda. Never mind.”

“Thanks, though.”

“Hey, I didn’t make them. So Silas was a bartender? I feel like we should be exploiting that more often. What’s his specialty?”

“Mojitos,” I say, even though it’s the only drink we’ve made together.

“Yum.”

“But let’s talk about your job and the obvious fringe benefits,” I say, as another hockey player dives for the ball. He sort of flops onto the sand, somehow casting the ball into a neat arc with his foot. All the other players cheer.

“I do have a gorgeous workplace,” Georgia says with a happy sigh. “The office itself is okay too.”

“I can see how it might keep your spirits up.”

“Oh, they’re up.” She gives me a smile. “Do you work with a lot of hipsters in music?”

“Well, sometimes. My job definitely has its star-studded moments. But mostly I write music at home in yoga pants and bunny slippers. If I had coworkers, maybe I’d be more skilled at human interaction.”

She laughs. “You have Becky, though. Your publicist.”

“I couldn’t manage without her. Lately she’s doing the work of three people. But poor Becky doesn’t know how she’s missing out.” I watch the athletes clowning against a tropical sunset. “All Becky sees is my grumpy ass, day in and day out.”

“Well, you’ve had some chaos lately. A recent breakup. That must be heartbreaking.”

“Uh… Heartbreaking isn’t the right word.”

“I guess that’s good, right?”

“Sure. Although if I were truly heartbroken, I’d be less embarrassed. I should have walked away a long time ago.” Brett never loved me. He probably isn’t even capable of love.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. For a long time I confused his attention with love. He made my life easier, so I let him. I wanted a minder, and he wanted the job.”

“I can see how that could happen.”

I steal a glance at her. “Can you? It’s okay if you’re just saying so to be polite. Because I didn’t follow any of my own hunches. But in my defense, I always thought you had to be a meek person to end up in a controlling relationship. I didn’t know it could happen to cynical people like me.”

It happened, though. I grew up with nobody. Before Brett, nobody in my life had ever tried to take care of me. When he did, it seemed like a miracle. Even if I knew in my gut it wasn’t love, it still scratched an itch that I’d had all my life.

“I’ve never been with a controlling man,” Georgia admits. “But I have been young and stupid.”

“Yeah. I guess it just stuck to me a little longer. This isn’t even the first time I broke up with Brett. But it sure will be the last. Every time I walked out on him, it was because I suspected him of cheating. But it was always just a feeling I had. I never could prove it. There would be a weird lipstick stain, or a night out of town that wasn’t easily explained.” Or a voice in the background of a phone call. I’d ignored a lot.