Nothing But Trouble (Malibu University Series)(35)
By 9 p.m., bodies start pouring out of the building. I spot Alice walking between a pixie with light pink hair, a collection of tats, and a few piercing––and Shady Sean. Their feet stop when they spot the Jeep. Two curious stares directed at me. His more aggressive than curious.
Nah, bro. Not on my watch.
I’m not going to make a scene. That wouldn’t be cool and Bailey would get the wrong idea. And I like her. We’re friends. Good friends, I’d say after Saturday night. I don’t want to do anything to screw that up. Shady dude, however, is now on notice.
She looked so low-key sexy laughing at the Santa Ana winds blowing her hair up that I almost leaned over and kissed her. It took everything I had to stop myself. Talk about a gut check. Yeah, that would’ve gone over real well.
And this only days after we agreed to be friends. And it had to be done. She had that look in her eye and I was seconds from pushing her down on my bed and fucking her till we both fell into a coma, consequences be damned. And there would’ve been a whole bunch of them. It did surprise me, though. How readily she agreed. My first impression of her that night was that she was into me. Though in hindsight it may have been wishful thinking.
An image of Alice laughing, little white teeth showing, floods my brain and I get a semi. Damn. This is the wrong time and place for this to be happening. With no other way to remedy the problem, all I can do is shift and adjust my sweatpants. Lesson learned––I need to get laid and soon.
Alice turns to the other two, says something I can’t hear, and they move in opposite directions: Pink-haired girl to her Prius in the parking lot, shady dude down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. He eyeballs me as he walks past the Jeep.
Atta boy. Keep walking, shithead.
“You’re still here?”
She looks confused, cute and confused. “Bailey, you look confused. When I give someone a ride I don’t dump them off in front of a strange building and burn rubber out of the parking lot.” Those big brown eyes of hers blink. I sigh. “You might find this hard to believe but I don’t like to see my friends wind up on the side of a milk carton.”
“Have you been here the entire time?”
I hold up my iPad. “Most productive hour and a half of studying in a long time. I’m nailing this chem test. Get in.”
The confused look hasn’t left her face yet. Nonetheless she gets in the car.
“You hungry?” I bite down on the inside of my cheek to school a grin that I don’t think she’d appreciate. “’Cause I’m starving.”
She shrugs. “I could eat.”
Alice
“Hope you like seafood,” Reagan mentions as we get out of the Jeep in front of a restaurant called Neptune’s, a cute open-air restaurant made to look like a shack with picnic tables and a very long line of people waiting to order.
“I do. But I’ll try anything,” I tell him as we take our place in line.
Skepticism crosses his face, closely trailed by bewilderment. “You’ll try anything?” he repeats. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a girl say that.”
The arched, disapproving brow cannot be helped. It’s an automatic reaction when men get stupid. “Welcome to the twenty-first century where shit like that no longer flies. I didn’t peg you for a meathead.”
He rolls his eyes. “I’m not, believe me. Nothing’s hotter than a woman that knows what she wants and goes after it. But I honestly have never heard a woman say she’ll try anything, especially when it comes to food.”
I shrug, satisfied with his answer. “Why not, right?”
“Why not?” he repeats. He’s back to disbelief. “That’s another thing girls never say. You’re full of surprises, Jersey girl.”
“What’s the harm in trying? I mean…you may never get another chance. Carpe diem and all that stuff.”
He shoots me a strange look. I’m about to ask him what it means when the person in front of us steps aside. It’s our turn to order and we both go for the fish tacos, Reagan’s meal three times the size of mine. He hands the guy behind the counter a fifty-dollar bill and when I argue and try to hand him money, he body-blocks me and murmurs, “I don’t like eating alone. You’re doing me a favor.”
I highly doubt it, but I’m too tired to argue.
Carrying our food, he leads me to a table on the outer edge of the lot and sits on the tabletop. “Up here. You’ll see why.” When I’m slow to move, he smiles down at me and pats the spot next to him.
I get up on the table next to him, park my crutch against the side, and what I see next takes my breath away. A galaxy of flickering lights spilled against a patchwork of midnight blue and gunmetal gray. From our modest perch, we have a perfect view of the darkened coastline.
“Wow.”
“I know. Almost as awesome as it is during the day.”
“I’ll have to come back with my camera,” I say and bite into my fish taco. Eyes rolling to the back of my head, I moan. “Almost better than sex,” I mumble with a mouthful and wipe the sauce that drips out the corner of my mouth with my napkin.
“If food is almost better than the sex you’ve had, then you’ve been having it with the wrong people.”
Uhhh…Am I discussing my sex life with him? No. Not happening. Should I tell him I haven’t been having any other than with myself? Definitely not. I let his comment slide away nice and easy. Silence is my friend and I embrace it. The inevitable strange awkwardness happens for a while, but I ride it out until he ends it.