Chapter 6
When Sally returns a few hours later, she finds me waiting, all dolled up, on the chair in my room, trying not to cry.
“What on earth happened here?” she asks.
“The car never came. He never called. Or texted.” I’m feeling pretty shitty and don’t know what to do.
“And you’re just sitting here?”
I throw up my arms in exasperation. “What am I supposed to do?”
Sally is not giving into my victim mentality. “Um, something. You can’t just sit here and take this. You need to get over there and take his dick.”
I shake my head, sinking back into the chair. “He said he’d send a car. He must have changed his mind.”
“And just like always, you’re going to allow a man to decide what’s happening?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, this is exactly what happened with Ains. I know you weren’t, like, super serious about him, but even if you had been, you would’ve waited for him to make the first move. As it was, you allowed yourself to exist in limbo for months, even after following the guy across the globe. And you would have continued to do so if he hadn’t ended things with a very public post about banging another chick.”
“That’s one example.”
“What about Steve from high school?”
I roll my eyes. “I seriously regret every drunken heart-to-heart sesh with you right now.”
“Or Thomas in Bali before you met Ains?”
“Okay, okay. Fine. But what am I supposed to do? If the guy isn”t interested in something, no amount of throwing myself at him is going to change that.”
“You never know until you try.”
“You want me to swim my ass to Merit Island and bang on his door or something?”
“I’ll drive you to the beach.”
In the end, we both decide it’s safer to talk a local snorkel guide into delivering me to Merit Island. The guy warns me that there’s only one beach he’ll be able to drop me on because of the current tide.
That sounds reasonable. It’s a small island, right?
Once I arrive on that beach, however, I’m not quite sure what to do. From the ground, I have exactly zero ability to navigate. I looked at a map before I left, which is lucky considering there’s no reception on this rock, but a shit lot of good that does me when I’m standing on a beach with little to no sense of direction. I know the house is on the north-east side of the island. My compass app still works, so I follow it like a pirate.
Other than my handy compass, I’m in no way prepared for a trek across an island. Instead of packing lifesaving essentials like water, sunscreen, bug spray, or even road flares, my tiny day bag contains my favorite DVD, some fun snacks I snagged at the little shop next to my house, and extra underwear.
It’s nearly dusk, but still so hot that I’m sweating before I even reach the palms at the edge of the tropical forest. Cursing Sally and her stupid plan every step of the way, I follow the tree line down the beach, hoping to find some kind of path or inroad to get me out of the sun. I’ve watched too many scary movies in my life to just traipse off into the woods.
Actually, now that I think about it, this whole situation is perfectly stereotypical horror movie heroine behavior.
What the hell am I doing here?
I do find a gravel road that leads into the forest after walking for about ten minutes. I’m grateful to turn inland and get into the shade the trees provide. I only walk for about ten minutes more before a golf cart pulls up beside me.
“You look like you could use a ride.”
“Oh, yes. Thank you,” I say to the older man driving the cart.
“Hop in,” he says. “Where are you headed?”
“I’m trying to get to Ben Adams’ house.”
The man nods, not looking very surprised.
I suppose there aren’t that many places on this tiny island where a lone woman wandering down a dirt road through the jungle in flip-flops could be headed.
“But can you deliver me a little ways down from the house? So it looks like I walked the whole way?”
I catch an eyebrow raise and some side eye, but the man refrains from giving me any kind of lecture. He drops me off and points me to a massive house on the beach 500 yards away or so.
“Gate’s unlocked, just push it open.”
When I reach the front steps of the house, Ben’s standing in the open front door, arms crossed.
“How’d you know I was coming?” I ask.
“Maxwell is my employee.”
“Traitor,” I mutter under my breath.
“What are you doing here?”
I reach into my bag and pull out the DVD and some of the snacks with a pathetic smile. “Movie night?”
Ben’s features remain unmoved. Over his shoulder, however, a smiling face appears.
“Oh, company?” Avery asks, grinning at me.
“No,” Ben says.
“Yes,” I say. “I just came over to watch a movie.”
The silence stretches for a long moment.
“Great,” Avery says finally. “I got kicked out of my house because it’s girls’ night.”
“Avery was just leaving,” Ben says.
We both look at him in surprise as, in one smooth movement, he pushes Avery out onto the front porch and pulls me into the house, slamming the door behind us.
He slides the deadbolt into place.
“You know, this is my house too, and I have a key. Not to mention the fact that there’s like fifteen other doors that I could use,” Avery calls through the door.
“Go home,” Ben calls over his shoulder without taking his eyes off me.
I smirk at him. “So, movie night?”
“What are you doing here, Victoria?” Ben asks again.
“Well, the car never came.”
“I know. I never sent it.”
“Well, that was kind of rude. You said you would.”
“No, what I said was that I couldn’t make you any promises.”
“Well, I thought you were talking about some imagined future relationship or something. I didn’t know you meant the car.”
He crosses his arms across his chest again.
“Do you want me to leave?” I ask, feeling suddenly very foolish for having shown up here.
“No, I don’t want you to leave.”
Relief pours through me. “Well, you don’t look very happy that I’m here.”
“It’s not that I’m not happy you’re here. I just got to thinking about it and decided it would be better for both of us if we just let this be.”
“Let it be…”
“Over. Let it rest. It was fun, but I’m not sure it’s the right choice for either of us.”
“Well, you don’t get to make decisions for me. And I disagree.” I jot that little line down in a mental notebook to show Sally later. She’s going to be so proud.
“I seem to remember you being quite pleased with me making decisions for you.”
I feel my cheeks heat as his words conjure up images of our night together. And our morning. “That’s different.”
“Oh really?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, since you’re in charge now. What did you have in mind for us this evening?”
The sudden change in his tone and the direction of this conversation takes me a bit by surprise. I scramble to pull the DVD back out of my bag. “Scary movie?”
“Is that a disc?”
“Yeah. You must be old enough to remember DVDs”
“I’m just surprised you are.”
“I also brought snacks.” I pull the colorful packages out of my bag and hold them up.
Ben’s eyebrows go sky high as he examines the loot. “Snacks, huh?”
“Yup. You can’t tell me you don’t like Combos. Everyone likes Combos.”
“I haven’t eaten a carb since I was your age.”
“You know, if you keep referring to my age so much, I’m going to get the idea that you have something of a younger woman fetish.”
Ben lifts his eyebrows, and I can see him holding back a smile. “There’s no DVD player in this house, but I’m sure you can find something on one of the streaming channels that will suffice.”
And with that, he turns and leads me down a long hallway into a massive living room with vaulted ceilings and enormous windows looking out over the ocean. There’s a row of white rimmed French doors that open the room up to the sea breeze.
A set of decadent looking, cream-colored couches sit in a horseshoe around a low wooden table, with comfy chairs scattered about. The cool tile floor is the color of wet sand, ornamented here and there with long, colorful shag rugs. I can just see into the open kitchen from where I stand, over an island with a row of cushion topped stools.
“Wow,” I say, unable to hold in my awe.
“Yeah, it’s really something.”
“You guys own this house together?”
“Did your homework, huh?”
“Yeah,” I say simply, caught up in the sassy character I get to play around this man. “Did you?”
I don’t know why I say it. It’s easily the stupidest thing I could’ve ever said. Why would I suggest he look into my background?
I quickly try to distract him, hoping the idea won’t sink in.
“You live here?”
“I live in New York.”
“This is your vacation home?”
“Something like that.”
“Okay, Mr. Mysterious. Do you like scary movies?”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever watched one.”
My mouth falls open in horror. “Never?”
Ben shrugs, crossing the living room into the open kitchen and heading for the fridge. “Drink?”
“Yes please, what do you have?”
“Most things.”
I laugh at the man’s inability to elaborate. “I’ll have a White Claw.”
“I don’t have that.”
“I’ll have whatever you’re having then.”
I make my way over to the massive television and start fishing around for remotes.
I hear a clink behind me and turn to see Ben setting down two rocks glasses, half full of amber liquid onto the table behind us.
Of course.
“How do you turn this thing on?”
“Just tell it to turn on.”
“Television, turn on.”
The television turns on.
Wow.
I walk back and settle myself onto the couch, lifting my drink, and taking the tiniest sip of the room temperature liquor. “Mmm, warm, straight, booze.”
“You said you wanted what I was having.”
I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to the television. “What streaming services do you have?”
“I’m not sure,” Ben says.
“You don’t watch TV at all?”
“Not really, but the guys do.”
“Okay.” I turn back to the television. “Television, put on Netflix.”
The television obeys.
Perfect. “Television, scary movies.”
I scan the screen until I see something I think will be appropriate for a newbie. “Television, Zombieland.” I turn to Ben. “Is it safe to assume you’ve never seen this one?”
“That would be a correct assumption.”
“You’re going to love it.”