15. Giselle
Aloud splash to Giselle”s left sent a shiver racing up her spine. She couldn”t imagine jumping into the freezing pool waters, even with the sunny weather. The iced mocktail in her hand brushed goosebumps down her arm in the mid-January afternoon.
After the rush of the holidays, most people returned to work or school, which included Jude.
Giselle invited him to spend time at her place before he returned to the city. Ever the gentleman, Jude had obliged her with his time split between her and his parents. Two weeks of unfettered access to Jude resulted in dozens of polaroids hung to the corkboard in her bedroom, enough baked goods to put the nearest three bakeries out of business, and a lingering ache in her stomach from laughing harder than she had in years.
Jude left behind memories to keep her company as if he knew the most intimate shape of her loneliness. Maybe he was just as lonely as her, looking for someone to fill the space.
Giselle set her mocktail on the bar when the stool beside her squeaked as Daisy spun around. She held a garnished pineapple whiskey sour in her hand and wore a cat-like smirk on her red-dipped lips.
”I needed this. Thanks for inviting me. And thank your boyfriend for picking up the tab.” Daisy clinked her glass against Giselle”s, languishing slow sips of her boozy beverage.
”Thanks for coming. I”ll pass your thanks to Jude when I see him tomorrow. He suggested I call you up.”
”He sounds like a keeper. Any chance he has a brother or a same-age cousin you could introduce me to?”
Giselle snorted. ”No on the brother, but I can keep an ear out for a cousin or a best friend”s availability.”
”You”re the best.” Daisy”s head rolled back with a groan. ”It”s already been a long week. It”s Tuesday. I deserve a drink before business calls me to the conference room.”
”How long until that happens?”
”Depends on when my co-lead decides to show up. Knowing him, it”ll be cutting it close.”
”I don”t know how you do it. The corporate world seems. . .” Giselle trailed off, witnessing a kid in superhero swim trunks land a belly flop in the closest pool. Ouch.
”Cutthroat? Exhausting? Full of self-absorbed people who chase the bottom line and their personal stakes above all else? Yes, to all of the above,” Daisy remarked, as unflappable as they come.
”I was going to say stressful, but sure.” Giselle coughed when some of her fizzy soda slid down her throat too fast. Her chest buzzed, but not in a fun way.
”It can be. Corporate work wasn”t my dream originally, but it changed my life. Besides, nothing like a little fire under your ass to kickstart a hustle. . . people understand that in the working world.”
”If you say so. People are complicated, full of surprises and unexpected nuances. I”ve learned that people aren”t always who or what they seem on the outside.”
”Is that so?” Daisy perked up and fixed her sunglasses, moving them up the bridge of her nose to rest on her head. Her eyes—closer to the shade of aged whiskey catching the dim light when confronted by sunlight—darted around at the busy poolside. ”See, I pride myself on how people wear their tells on their sleeves. I read them like an open book. But tell me a story about a stranger and all the secrets they”re hiding.”
Giselle raised her brow. ”Is that a challenge?”
”Call it a friendly game of people-watching while we enjoy our drinks? We already swept through Boutique Block and grabbed lunch at Abalone. We haven”t gotten any entertainment beyond that couple”s public break-up while out to lunch.” Daisy hummed innocently, yet her grin screamed trouble.
Giselle spun her stool around, legs dangling over the edge, and searched the crowd. Strangers hung around the pool with the sun out in full force, the interconnected threads of their stories jumbling together like a knot in her favorite yarn. However, a few well-timed pivots untangled all the noise until she landed on a girl sitting at the pool”s edge across from the bar.
She pointed to her, guiding Daisy to her chosen protagonist in an untold story. ”Her, sitting on the sidelines? She”s daydreaming about returning to college because it”s her final semester, and she has no clue what she wants to do with her life. She”s facing a choice to either follow her heart or do what her parents want for her. She”s torn, fighting her feelings.”
”Tale as old as time,” Daisy clicked her tongue, spinning around on her stool with a laugh. ”She does have that deeply contemplative stare, and I don”t think the water is that interesting.”
”Neither do I. Your turn.” Giselle sipped her drink and stirred the remaining ice in the faint traces of soda and syrup.
Daisy downed her cocktail and signaled for a refill. Her eyes jumped around the lounging chairs and the bodies bobbing in the sparkling cerulean waters.
She settled on a duo, sharing a chair with sunscreen smeared on their hands. They eyed one another with the unmistakable look reserved for passion-filled lovers, complete with lingering touches across bare skin. While the young man buried his face into her hair, the young woman”s eyes flitted toward her phone, and something dark slanted across her features.
”See those two? They”re a couple, but something isn”t right. The girl”s having an affair. Either he”s her affair partner, or he”s her oblivious boyfriend, painfully unaware of how his girlfriend is slipping away,” Daisy said.
Giselle gasped, ”You don”t actually think that?”
”I do. She has guilt written all over her face whenever he isn”t paying attention, so either she”s gaining a conscience, or the pretending is wearing down on her. Cheaters eventually succumb to their guilt.”
”That”s. . . sad.”
”You say sad. I say realistic,” Daisy remarked, her voice losing its humor. She shrugged, reaching over her shoulder for the newly delivered drink.
”Fair enough,” Giselle said, scooting off her stool to stretch her legs and back. Her muscles ached from all the walking down Boutique Block, carrying half a dozen shopping bags courtesy of Daisy”s generous spending. ”My turn?”
”Yes.” A clipped laugh from Daisy dragged them back on track, and Giselle scoured the crowd. She settled on a small family in matching Hawaiian shirts, flocking around the pool with eyes nearly bulging out of their heads.
”That gaggle over there? Clearly, they”re tourists. . . but I”m convinced they”re from Europe and imitating what they assume is American vacation attire. Today is their first day in California, so they”re not accustomed to the heat versus the colder weather of their home country. But they”re so excited to be out here, looking forward to hitting all the tourist traps in the city. I assume they”ll do one of those cheesy tour buses with all the traffic at every street but won”t stop smiling for a minute.”
”Sounds like a reasonable deduction. I agree.”
”Yay! I told you, I”m not half-bad at this game.”
”No, you”re not. But I”m about to blow your mind with my pick. . . him.” Daisy didn”t spend as much time combing the crowd before pointing toward one of the cabanas, singling out none other than James. ”Oh, where do I begin with him?”
”Him?” Giselle choked, wishing she had the excuse of her drink to hide behind. Daisy hadn”t taken her eyes off James, who pivoted in a tight circle while barking at his phone.
Daisy tossed her head back, cackling, ”Yes, and by the pressed polo and khaki shorts he”s wearing, I”m guessing he”s either a finance bro or has major fraternity energy and a different major. His pastimes include spending his rich daddy”s money, drinking cheap liquor, and loudly explaining either stocks or World War II historical facts to unsuspecting women. Oh, and that haircut tells me that his barber hates him. . .”
She continued, but Giselle couldn”t hear another tidbit from Daisy”s insights. Laughter pooled in her throat, spurred on by the accuracy of her friend”s comments.
Her fingers twitched toward her phone but refrained. Although Jude would likely find Daisy”s assessment equally hilarious, she shouldn”t bother him during school hours. She knew how much school mattered to him.
However, her eyes lifted enough from her drink to see James staring in their direction. Her direction. The tight line of his lips dragged the rest of his features down while he ended his call.
Then, against all odds, he began to walk. . . toward the bar. Giselle”s heart launched into her throat, lodging between her tongue and voice box. Silenced by shock, she reached for Daisy”s shoulders and shook her.
”. . . Are you good? You look ready to throw up.”
”Uh, funny story actually.” Giselle swallowed, but trying to explain didn”t happen before James rounded the last corner of the pool. She focused on his eyes, which darted between her and Daisy with vastly different looks.
His gaze darkened and raked up Daisy”s exposed legs, peeking out from the tight hem of her pencil skirt. A sliver of tongue swiped over his lower lip, but the bob of his Adam”s apple incriminated him.
Yet, his gaze softened when switching to Giselle. His mouth pulled into a downturned pout, and he, a grown man, pulled what Giselle might describe as ”puppy dog” eyes. Ick.
Giselle”s stomach churned hard but fought the urge to heave. Lucky for her, she chose juice instead of hard liquor. She gripped the counter when James stopped before them, clasping his hands together.
”Giselle, can we talk? Please.”
”I don”t think that”s a good idea.”
”I wasn”t aware you two knew one another,” Daisy remarked, but Giselle missed any gleam of remorse in her eyes. ”Care to introduce me?”
”I”m Jameson Calloway,” James introduced himself before Giselle could stop the conversation. ”Giselle”s my high school sweetheart.”
”Was. The keyword you failed to use is ”was” after you dumped me several months ago,” Giselle corrected. Her comment brought Daisy to stand, towering next to Giselle while her posture turned aggressive.
”Ah,” Daisy barely said a word, yet the sound carried exacting weight. If her tone became any sharper, she might be wanted for manslaughter. ”So, we’re done here then.”
”Giselle, I need a few minutes of your time. Please hear me out.”
”Really? Haven”t you stolen four years worth of time I can”t get back?”
”Please. I”m begging.”
Daisy”s hand against her opposite shoulder roped Giselle closer to her, huddling together for a quick whisper. She hummed, ”Alright, do you want me to tell this dirtbag to take a hike, or should I give you a few minutes to hear him out?”
”Let me have a few minutes with him to see what he wants. We haven”t spoken since the break-up, so I”m mildly curious.” Giselle sighed. She might regret allowing James to waste more of her time, but closure might await her.
Giselle deserved to be free of him and the questions he still held over her.
Daisy nodded, and she released Giselle from the huddle. She stepped forward, slinking toward James like a hungry lioness on the prowl, ready to pounce on her prey.
She tipped his chin with her index finger, so he met her eyes from his otherwise cowering stance. She rivaled him and forced him onto the defensive under a stern glare. ”I have a business call to take. When I return, I expect you to say your piece and leave Giselle alone for good. Am I clear?”
”Yes. . . yes, ma”am.”
”Pleasantries won”t save you from me,” Daisy said to him before turning back to Giselle. “If you need anything, you can call me.”
”I”ll be alright,” Giselle remarked, forcing her voice to stay strong. Her hands clenched in fists at her side, beckoned by the rush of blood through her head. Adrenaline pumped through her veins and dosed her hard, tossing her heart straight into the heat of the moment.
In James” pitiful pout, weeks of sobbing until the point of passing out flashed in her mind. Giselle waved each instance away hard, not keen to remember how broken she felt in his absence. Four fucking years swept down the drain, but she”d learned it was for the best.
She learned more about herself in a fake relationship than she had ever in her real one. . . if she could even call it that.
Daisy marched away to take her phone call and give Giselle space to talk. Between her and James, the air hung thick with unspoken anger and something sadder; call it wishful thinking, but Giselle swore she tasted a twinge of regret mixed in the loaded silence.
Giselle crossed her arms over her chest, glancing at James. ”Alright, talk. You said you had something to say to me, so I”m giving you this one chance to speak.”
James shuffled closer, which Giselle didn”t react to. At least, she tried not to show him anything. But when he reached for her hands, she shoved him away—no touching allowed.
He whined. ”Come on, baby. . . it”s me.”
”Don”t ”baby” me. I”m Giselle to you for these five minutes. That”s it,” Giselle scoffed, downright offended. ”I might not be law school-bound, but I”m far from an idiot. Don”t treat me like one.”
”Fine. Giselle, I”ve made a huge mistake. I”m so sorry that we broke up how we did.”
We?
There was no ”we” when it involved James breaking up with her. He acted all on his own with no help necessary from anyone else.
”So, you mean when you dumped me on our date night because you didn”t take me seriously but likely wanted to sleep with other girls without a girlfriend bogging you down? I know you were probably cheating while we were still together and got tired of keeping me around. It’s easier to go wild when you don’t have a loving girlfriend expecting you to be loyal, huh?”
Giselle”s voice rose in pitch, and volume followed behind it. The bartender and a few neighboring people perked up, and their eyes turned into hungry, silent spectators, intrigued by the drama.
James shushed her and raised his hands. ”Yes, okay. I lied about why I wanted us to split but realized how wrong I was in letting you go. You meant everything to me, b—Giselle. Don”t let go of what we have.”
”What did we have? A one-sided relationship where I invested so much into you for crumbs? Name one time you supported me half as much as I did for you,” Giselle remarked, speaking from the one place that never steered her totally wrong.
Her heart.
She didn”t need to make eloquent points or defend her perspective like most arguments they had in the past. James no longer had the authority to make her feel small.
”Giselle, that”s. . . not entirely fair.”
”Oh? And tell me this: did you realize the mistake you made before or after Jude and I began seeing one another?”
”Now, you”ve crossed the line.”
”I”ve crossed the line? Oh, you”re hilarious.”
”I”m serious, Giselle,” James growled at her and jammed his hands into the oversized pockets of his khaki shorts, looking more like a toddler mid-tantrum than a grown man. ”You went and dated my rival out of some twisted form of revenge, and that makes you as bad as me.”
Giselle averted her eyes, not trusting herself to laugh in his face. Finally, she understood the undertones bugging her. James never left the mentality of high school, where he was king of the world with his trust fund and superficial charm. Neither he nor the others chose to leave high school in the rearview mirror, even though they moved on with their lives to bigger and better.
”Does it? Exactly how long had you considered leaving me before you pulled the trigger and stomped on my heart? A month? Several? A year? Longer?” Giselle questioned, but the flash in James” eyes at the last accusation lit a match in her chest. All the air rushed out of her and sucked the flame dry, leaving her empty.
A year. Over a year.
”A while. Does that really matter? You”re sleeping with my rival!” James whined, throwing his hands up. More people stared at them like some real-life soap opera, leaving Giselle with enough regret for hearing him out.
”It does matter because I”m not some doll you can discard when you get bored of playing with me. I won”t run back to you when you want me because you”re lonely, horny, or some other emotion you want me to solve for you. Go find someone else because I”m not interested,” Giselle said.
James frowned. ”What happened to the girl who used to tell me how much she loved me every day?”
”Gone.” Giselle turned her face away from him, overcome with adrenaline filling up her head. Her stomach flipped over at the pressure in her temples, ready to tumble whatever lunch she had left. ”I don”t love you anymore. Frankly, I don”t know if I ever did.”
Those words knocked down the first domino from how quickly James” face shifted. From the wounded act to unbridled, undeniable rage, he switched from the victim to something else entirely. . . and none of it boded well.
”So, you were lying during our entire relationship?”
”No. I realized what real love is. You never showed me, and Jude does a much better job. He loved me as a friend and as a lover.”
”Fuck Jude. He”s only dating you to get revenge on me.”
”Jude likes me as a person, and that’s why he and I are together. He treats me with way more respect than you ever have.”
James pinched his nose and sighed angrily. ”But this is. He wants to one-up me because of our rivalry. . . and you”re stupid enough to fall for him. You”d understand if you knew the truth about the history between him and me.”
Giselle”s stomach twisted hard until she couldn”t breathe, but she heard more than enough. Character spoke volumes, and James couldn”t lie to her when her heart witnessed Jude for who he was.
She stepped closer and shushed him hard. ”If I remember correctly, you refused to explain your problem with Jude all the years we spent together. I asked all the time, and you shut me down. So, why should I care what you think?”
James” nose flared like a bull ready to charge, but a body interjected between him and Giselle. The faint glimpse of sandy blonde hair sprung a well of relief in Giselle”s chest. Daisy.
”Time for you to go, James. It wasn”t a pleasure,” Daisy remarked coolly, but her tone did more of the talking than any words could. Even with his issues, James stalked off without another dig at Giselle or Jude.
Giselle watched his figure retreat into the throng of pool-goers, waiting until he vanished to let the pent-up emotions go. As her arms curled around her waist loosened, the adrenaline rushed out of her faster than it arrived. Her body slumped as she grabbed her drink off the bar.
She downed the mocktail in one go, ignoring the sugary flavor on her tongue. Her knuckles ached in their loose grip around the glass, so she slid it onto the counter. ”Thanks for coming back.”
”Do you want to talk about it? I know a thing or two about kicking scum to the curb,” Daisy asked.
”He sucks,” Giselle sighed. “I can’t explain everything now, but he dumped me for not being ‘serious’ enough and then proceeded to continue seeing other women.”
Daisy scoffed. “Ugh, what a jerk. Cheaters will never make sense to me. If you’re unhappy with someone, tell them and leave instead of leading them on and putting them at risk.”
“I think that’s all the socialization I can handle for a day,” Giselle mumbled while rubbing her forehead until the dull throb soothed.
”Of course. Let”s tell the bartender to close our tab. . . and thanks for having me.”
”You”re fun to be around, Daisy. I like being friends.”
”Good. I”m so glad.” Daisy signaled to the bartender to close their tab. Giselle grabbed her purse and glanced across the way, eyes flitting toward the door. However, she spotted a guy slightly older than her gazing at her and Daisy.
Medium brown hair framed his pronounced, angular features in a square jaw and the narrow bridge of his nose. Much like Daisy, he stuck the male model look down to the forearms greedily clinging to a buttoned shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the bevy of onlooking girls from their nearby perches.
”Someone”s staring at us,” Giselle remarked. Daisy”s head snapped over her shoulder, doing a double-take when she spotted the stranger. A groan escaped her, and she closed her eyes.
”That”s Jensen, the most annoying asshole on the planet,” Daisy mumbled.
”That”s Jensen?” Giselle whistled. ”Promise you won”t hate me for what I”m about to say?”
”I’m sure it”s nothing I haven”t heard before.”
”He”s handsome. He looks like a marble statue that came to life and escaped from the museum, you know? But I would say he’s my type.”
Daisy scoffed playfully. ”Says the girl with a cute boyfriend. It”s painfully obvious what your type is. . . and how you dated below your league with your ex.”
Jude popped into Giselle”s mind, stacked next to James” blustery red scowl from their encounter. Heat inched up her neck, but a cold spot washed over her within moments.
She had gotten an ”apology” from James. It hardly qualified as a good one, but it was one, nonetheless. Had she completed her end of the bargain?
James” apology had been haphazard, filled with accusations, and little use to her. After the exchange, emptiness greeted her with open arms, and perhaps she should keep his words to herself for now.
Giselle swallowed, even when Daisy waved to her and said her goodbyes. She mouthed them back, finding her tongue unavailable to work. Instead, Jude”s name slipped into her head over and over.
She needed to figure out how to tell him what happened. Her end of the arrangement was up, but his wasn’t.
Not yet.