Chapter Eleven Georgia
Eleven
Georgia
When I finish training for the day, I get out of the water and see Daisy, Eden, and Mateo waiting for me, sitting on a picnic
blanket on the sand, drinking seltzers and laughing.
I squeeze out my wet ponytail and climb onto the dock. I need to do a few quick stretches, then I’ll head over to the group.
I’m excited to see them, but wishing Mateo wasn’t here. It’s been such a busy week already; aside from breakfasts and dinners
I’ve barely had time to see Daisy and Eden, and I’m dying to talk to them alone. Specifically about Benny. He’s sweet and
funny and we’ve been meeting early every morning to work on a few drills. Though he clearly has a flirtatious personality,
I think he understands we can only be friends. But I feel this urgency to introduce him to the girls—and especially to Daisy,
since they’re the same age. I’ll just feel a little better if I can set them up. Daisy will be happy, and I can continue helping
Benny without it being weird.
Even though, if I’m honest, it already is a little weird. Like, last night I was on the phone with Rhys before bed, babbling on about my day, and something stopped me from talking about running drills with Benny.
Luckily, Rhys started talking about Mateo, asking if I’ve been helping him get a better sense of Laurel. I told him Mateo
seemed to be enjoying the tennis clinic and that he was driving Daisy home after work every afternoon.
“That’s right, he mentioned he’s been hanging out with her this week,” Rhys said. “Just, you know. Don’t leave him alone with
her for too long.”
“Rhys! What do you mean?”
“Oh, it’s just Mateo. You know what he’s like.”
I don’t pay that much attention to Rhys’s friend group, but I thought I knew what he was hinting at. “You’re saying he’s a player. But he’d
never go for Daisy, right? She’s so young!” I exclaimed, trying not to sound totally scandalized.
“It’s not that out of the question, baby. Mateo hooked up with a sophomore earlier this year. At least one, maybe two, actually.
I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Jeez, you make him sound like a predator!”
Rhys laughed. “Oh, come on. You can see everyone wants a piece of that guy. He’s like a kid in a candy shop. He can have whoever
he chooses.”
Something rubbed me the wrong way about how Rhys spoke about Mateo, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, so we just said our
good nights and I love yous and I went to sleep.
But this morning, I realized what bothered me: Mateo is Rhys’s best friend.
They’re equally handsome, in different ways, and they’re both clearly coveted by nearly everyone they meet.
When Rhys was describing Mateo last night, I couldn’t help but picture both of them strutting around the halls of their high school this past year, seniors at the top of their game, knowing they could have anyone they wanted.
The picture made them look entitled . . .
and obnoxious. If Rhys thought that anyone would be so lucky to hook up with Mateo—wouldn’t that apply to Rhys, too?
Or maybe this was just my jealousy talking.
Rhys says it’s cute. “I like a territorial woman,” he’s always telling me. But—couldn’t he help reassure me by not making
subtle comments like that so often?
I finish my stretches and tip my head, shaking water out of my ears, trying to shake off the unsettled feeling I’ve had in my body all day.
As I walk across the sand, I eye Mateo suspiciously, trying to get a read on whether he’s trustworthy, whether to take Rhys’s
“warning” seriously. He’s leaning back on his hands, his legs stretched out in front of him across the blanket. He’s still
in tennis clothes, as usual. Beside him, Daisy is bouncy and giggly in her gross oversized work T-shirt and cutoffs. Both
of them are looking at Eden, who’s wearing a triangle-printed romper that looks like an ’80s vintage find, and a pair of thick-soled
lavender flip-flops. When I make it over to the picnic blanket, Eden is in the middle of a dramatic reenactment of her fiasco
from yesterday with Leo and the failed prank. Her legs have recovered, thankfully, but her ego? Not so much.
“Hey, guys!” I sit down with them on the blanket, just as Mateo’s saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try again, Eden. You’ve got to take the sabotage up a notch.”
Daisy laughs into her LaCroix can, but I frown.
“Um, that is horrible advice, Mateo! I think Eden learned her lesson. It’s probably time to do what I said from the very beginning
and just have a conversation with the guy.”
Eden blows her bangs out of her eyes. “There is no possibility of a conversation with Leo,” she insists. “Since Spray-Gate, he’s been more aloof than ever.”
I sigh. “What would convince you to talk to him like you’re two adults?”
Eden grins at me. “First of all, Georgia, we’re not adults. And second of all, Leo never once apologized for what happened. How he treated me. He still doesn’t think he did
anything wrong. He thinks our breakup was my fault, and I can tell his opinion of me has never changed. He looks down on me.
The only chance of clearing the air would be if he apologized profusely, and I don’t see that ever happening.”
“What exactly did happen?” Mateo asks.
I jump in again. “Not your business, Mateo.”
“Fair enough. You’re the boss,” Mateo says.
“Georgia!” Daisy bursts in. “You’re being rude.”
“No, I’m not!”
“Sorry, Mateo. Ignore her,” Daisy says.
Mateo looks back and forth between us. “Okay, no way. I’m not getting in the middle of whatever’s going on here. Georgia’s
right, anyway, I should let you three have your girl talk or whatever.”
He starts to stand up and dust sand off his shorts.
“You’re leaving?” Daisy says.
“Yeah. See you tomorrow, kid.” He nods to all three of us and heads out.
“Thank god he left, I really need to talk to you guys!” I tell them.
But Daisy is pouting. “You didn’t have to send him away like he’s in trouble or something, jeez. You treat him like he’s our
employee.”
“I didn’t! I do not! He left of his own free will!” I retort. “It’s almost dinnertime anyway! And besides, why are you so
worried about Mateo’s feelings all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know, maybe since we made out?” Daisy says defiantly.
My jaw nearly falls off my face, and dread lands like a pile of dirty laundry in my gut.
“Whoa! What?!” Eden’s saying, bouncing on her knees. “Daisy, no way!”
She nods, blushing, still annoyed with me but also unable to hide a proud, beaming grin. “Literally today after work, before
we came to pick you up, Eden.”
Eden looks aghast. “But you let me have the front seat! I rattled on about my day the whole time we drove here, I had no idea.”
“It’s not like we were gonna hold up a sign,” Daisy says, wrapping her arms around her knees.
“What does this mean?! Was it amazing?” Eden demands.
“Wrong question,” I cut in. “Daisy, what were you thinking?”
Daisy glances between the two of us. “For your information, yes, it was amazing. And to answer your question, Georgia, I guess I was thinking why not?”
I sigh and shake my head, trying to control my reaction. “Daisy. I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this!”
“What can’t you believe? That a guy like him would even be interested in me, when he could have anyone? I thought you’d be
happy! Imagine if I start dating Mateo, and you’re with Rhys. How perfect would that be?”
“Oh, that is nauseatingly cute,” Eden says unhelpfully.
“Eden, no. Do not encourage this. Mateo is way too old for her. And Daisy, no, I’m not happy. Mateo is a nice enough guy,
but you shouldn’t trust him. He’s a player and he’s going to Cornell in the fall. He’s a smart, ambitious guy and—”
“And he’s out of my league, you’re saying,” Daisy finishes. “Wow, thanks for sharing your true opinion of me, Georgia.”
“Why are you twisting what I’m saying? I’m saying you deserve better. A good guy your age who is sweet and fun and not quite so . . . experienced. Guys like Mateo, they expect things.”
“Like what?” Daisy asks, glaring at me.
“Like sex,” I hiss at her. I’m extremely aware that I’m the most experienced of the three of us. Obviously—I’ve been with Rhys for
nearly three years now. Eden’s had her share of hookups but nothing serious, and she never got that far with Leo before they
broke up. I know she lost her virginity at some point last year, but she basically swore off going all the way since then.
As for Daisy? Not even close.
Eden starts laughing. I glare at her. She is actively not helping right now.
Daisy rolls her eyes. “Georgia, you sound like a Victorian book of manners.”
“No way. Edwardian, maybe.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Just please, Daisy, I want you to be careful with your heart. That’s all.”
“Kinda sounds like you want her to be careful with her cooch,” Eden says.
“Well, that too! They’re related!” I shout, exasperated.
Daisy and Eden look at each other, and then at me . . . and then we all start laughing.
“The sacred cooch-heart connection,” Eden gasps out through her laughter.
“Stop calling it that!” Daisy squeals, swatting at Eden.
Still laughing at myself, I try to calm down. “Look, sorry, I’m just being a protective big sister, okay? And also, I’m annoyed
because I have someone else I wanted to set you up with. He’s this really cute kid your age named B—”
“Georgia, it’s okay.” Daisy puts her hand on my arm to stop me. “You don’t have to set me up with anyone. I think I like Mateo.”
Now it’s Eden’s turn to squeal. “You do?! That is pretty fast. What about Guacamole Boy?”
“Guacamole Boy?” I ask. “Who’s that?”
Daisy glares at Eden, and I feel a flash of annoyance that they have some secret code I don’t know about. “No one. Just a friend. I know it’s fast and I’m just figuring out what I think about him. But I promise I’m not getting too carried away, okay? Could you please trust me for once?”
“I do trust you,” I tell her. “Just . . .” Clearly, now is not the right time to force-feed Benny on her. It needs to feel