Chapter 21
Even though thoughts about Vince and our kiss had continued to play out in my head all night, the next morning I felt surprisingly rested.
I went jogging along the beach at my usual time and was relaxed and nimble.
Kay had already taken off for her hairdresser appointment in Honolulu by the time I got back.
I couldn’t explain kissing the very guy who was number one on her shit list. Since that kiss I hadn’t been able to think of anything else but his lips on mine.
Out on the court playing a training match against Malia, I managed to block out my emotional chaos.
All the same, during the drink breaks, from time to time I was tempted to look at my phone.
But Vince hadn’t texted. The rational part of me kept reminding me that he didn’t even have my number.
He could get it from Laurie, my less rational thoughts said.
My heart leaped with hope when I saw a message from Laurie waiting for me after the match.
Sorry again for yesterday. That was super lame.
?? Cool that you went to the party anyway.
Hope Vince behaved? (He says, yeah)
Reading his name was enough to get my heart beating faster again.
At the same time, a heap of questions popped into my head and rushed to join all the others that had settled there since last night.
Had Vince told Laurie about our kiss? Probably not; otherwise she wouldn’t have asked if he’d behaved.
But they had to have spoken about the party.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall.
I only answered Laurie once I’d showered and was stretched out on Kay’s couch. All afternoon the sun had been beating down on my head, and though I’d gotten used to the heat, the AC was a real relief.
No big deal. Should have looked at my phone earlier. ??
And don’t worry: your brother was in a good mood for once ??
A really good one, I thought and added a How you doing? afterward because suddenly my reply seemed to be too ambiguous. She reacted immediately.
PMS hitting hard again… Depending on the moment I either want to yell at someone or have churros with sugar and cinnamon.
Grinning, I looked for an appropriate GIF and hit send. At the same moment, I heard someone typing in the door code outside.
“Oh, you’re home already,” Kay said and stepped inside, two shopping bags in hand.
“I finished a bit earlier. Looks great,” I said, glancing at her hair, which was a few centimeters shorter.
Flattered, she eased out of her espadrilles, which she had worn with a pair of mustard-yellow linen pants and a white lace top. “Have you eaten already?”
“I made two avocado toasts for myself.”
“Sounds good. I think I’ll make myself one of those too.”
Barefoot, she shuffled off to the kitchen.
“How’d it go last night?” I could hear the clatter of silverware. “Are Griffin Chipman’s parties as crazy as they’re made out to be?”
“As they’re made out to be?”
“Loud. Crowded. Wild.”
“It was loud, yeah. Crowded too. But wild?” I tilted my head. “Not really. But I didn’t stay that long either.”
I had to think of the trip back. Of our kiss. And, sadly, Kay’s AC couldn’t do a thing about the heat spreading out across my insides.
“That was no doubt a smart move.”
“Hmm.”
I could hear a cutting board being pulled from a drawer.
As she busied herself with slicing the avocado, I distracted myself by telling her about my day.
The match with Malia. What I had to contend with and where I was strong.
All the while stealing glances at my phone, but there was no text from Vince.
* * *
On my free afternoon, I went down to the beach to swim. I convinced myself that I’d be doing something positive for my tired muscles. That it didn’t have anything to do with seeing Vince. That it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that he hadn’t been in touch.
Sundays on Sunset Beach were always busy.
Colorful towels competed with umbrellas, coolers, and tents, and people floating around in the water on air mattresses or bodyboarding back onto land.
Neon-colored snorkels poked both out of the shallows and beyond, near a group of surfers too far out to see if Vince was among them.
“He’s not there.”
I spun around. Like a god straight out of the waves I saw Chip standing in front of me.
I knew the video of his world record, had watched him ride an 87-foot wave.
With sheer physical strength. And nevertheless, my jaw almost dropped seeing him up close.
His upper body naked, in blue surf shorts.
Hot. As. Fuck. As if AI had made a person out of just those terms. For an instant I didn’t know if I should snort sarcastically or laugh dumbly.
“He’s not there,” Chip repeated, and I became aware of the fact that I was still staring at him. Or, well…not him. His perfect body.
“Who’s not there?”
He raised his eyebrows, and his face said as much as, You fucking with me?
“I just wanted to go swimming,” I said, but my voice didn’t come out as strong as I’d hoped.
“Of course,” he replied, his own dripping with sarcasm. “All of a sudden you all had vanished yesterday.”
“We wanted to say goodbye, but no one knew where you were.”
A thoughtful crease appeared on his forehead, but I wasn’t sure if he really was thinking or just pretending. “I might’ve been busy.” His grin was so brazen, it was almost dirty. “So…what’s up with you and hostel boy?” His eyes homed in on mine.
“Nothing.”
Chip tucked his surfboard under his arm. “He’s never brought anyone over to my house.”
“He didn’t bring me. You invited me,” I reminded him.
“But you came together and…left together.”
“Because we’re neighbors?” I shrugged, and hoped my cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.
“Two weeks ago that would’ve been reason enough not to bring you,” he shot back amusedly.
“He. Did. Not. Bring. Me.”
Only now did I realize I’d followed him down to the water.
“Hmm,” Chip said and bent down to tie his leash. But he didn’t tie it around his own ankle. He tied it around mine.
“What are you doing?”
“You and me are going surfing.”
“What? No! I don’t know how to surf.”
“I’ll give you a crash course.”
I shook my head, then my ankle, and Chip laughed.
“Come on, it’ll be fun!”
“Yeah, because I’ll keep on falling over.”
“Happens to all of us.” He put his board onto the water. “Step on up, Harry!”
“Harry?”
“Herzog-Riggs is kinda long.”
I looked at him blankly.
“Herzog-Riggs. He-Ri?” He tapped his forehead. “Well…?”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t keep from cracking a smile. At the same time, Chip said, “Hey! Here’s our hostel boy himself!”
He greeted Vince, who’d dropped his own board into the water not fifteen feet away, with the shaka gesture. Vince stared back at us, then turned to the ocean and began paddling outward.
“What was that all about?”
I realized I’d said it out loud only when Chip quipped, “I think he wanted to be the one to teach you how to surf.”
I was about to dismiss Chip’s comment with another eye roll, but then I realized how it must have looked to Vince.
In no uncertain terms I’d made it clear that I didn’t want to learn how to surf when he’d asked.
I’d brought up the risk of injury. Fears.
And now here I was with a leash around my ankle, screwing around with Chip—just one day after we’d kissed.
I tore the leash off my ankle and waded out into the water until I could swim without hitting my knees on the sand.
“Vince! Wait!” I called after him and made a few powerful strokes in his direction.
But he was already too far away, and the waves were too strong. Water kept hitting me in the face. My eyes burned, and my nose itched. I puffed up my cheeks in frustration.
“You want me to pass something on to your neighbor?” Chip called out to me as he paddled past. “Or…clear something up?”
“No, I’ll do it myself.”
He raised his right hand in farewell and paddled on as I made my way back to shore. It took almost an hour for Vince to come back out of the water. I’d sat down on the sand and let the sun dry me off. My skin grew taut, and whenever I ran my tongue across my lips, I could taste salt.
“Chip’s still out there,” Vince called over to me, putting down his board.
“I was waiting for you.”
“You sure?” He sounded angry.
“Of course I’m sure.” I got up and took a few steps toward him. “Listen, that wasn’t what it looked like.”
He shook the water out of his hair, and some of it flew in my direction.
“You’re saying you didn’t want to go surfing with Chip after turning me down for it being too risky?” Snarky.
“That was just an excuse!”
“What was an excuse?”
“All that stuff about being too risky,” I mumbled, stepping from one foot to the other.
He looked confused, and I couldn’t blame him.
“I’d had a…dream. A really uncomfortable dream. Where…well, okay, no, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all, to be honest.” My cheeks began to glow. “But a bit…unsettling.”
“A nightmare?”
“Umm…no. Not a nightmare.”
He frowned.
“It was…a different kind of dream,” I blurted out. “Doesn’t matter. In any event, it was like that dream was becoming real, and that made me panic.”
Unable to follow, he held up his hands. “Sorry. Don’t get it.”
“It’s super embarrassing.”
“What?”
I procrastinated, even though I knew I wouldn’t be getting out of it.
“In my dream, you and I went surfing.” I looked up at him, my eyes half-closed. “And then something…happened.”
“Happened,” he repeated, distracted for a second by another surfer coming out of the water behind him and giving him the shaka sign.
“Between you and me,” I croaked once he was looking at me again.
For a few seconds he still didn’t understand. Then realization flickered across his face. “Oh!” His eyes grew wide.
“We didn’t… I mean, it wasn’t…” I buried my face in my hands. “This really is so totally embarrassing.”
“Hey…not half as embarrassing as my little jealousy attack there, if that’s any consolation.”
I peeked through my fingers. “Jealousy attack?”
“What would you call it?” He rubbed his nose, and a few grains of sand stuck to his wet skin. “I’m a total idiot.”
“No, you’re not. I mean, it looked like I just didn’t want to go surfing with you.”
“Yeah, but after last night… Sorry,” he said, and it sounded so sincere that I didn’t want to take the discussion any farther.
Instead, I got an idea. “On a scale of one to ten, how wiped out are you?”
“Umm…no idea. Seven?”
“Does that mean you’d still be up for giving a total newbie her first surf lesson?”
His face brightened. “I think that seven just became a four.”