Then Summer Came Page 7

  I slid my phone open and touched the pad of my finger to Emily’s name. She didn’t answer. I ended the call and tried her one more time. No answer. I hoped she was okay. I shook my head; she must’ve really hit it off with that Jared guy.

  I checked for any texts from Derek, and closed my phone with a frown when I saw that there weren’t any. It pissed me off that he just didn’t show up to the club like he’d said he would, but then he couldn’t even be bothered to text me or call me to let me know why. He was busy, I got it, but he could’ve at least texted me.

  I walked into Derek’s living room and went to grab my purse and the shoes I’d left.

  “Nice hair.” I jumped—he scared the shit out of me. It was still early and I hadn’t expected him to be awake yet.

  “Jesus, Beck! What?”

  “Nice hair,” he repeated.

  He wasted no time to jab me. Six in the morning, eleven at night, during a funeral, it didn’t seem to matter to him. There was no bad time to aggravate me.

  I eyed his bare chest and unbuttoned jeans, and my throat tightened.

  “Do you always walk around half dressed?” I decided to jab him back.

  “I’d say half naked,” he corrected, “but I’m an optimist, so…”

  I just shook my head and grabbed my stuff. He was so freggin’ sarcastic.

  “What the hell are you wearing?” I asked when I bent to get my things, and I saw his feet socked in fuzzy, bright-purple socks.

  “Oh,” he said looking down at his wiggling toes. “Lidia left your socks on the table, and my feet were cold.”

  I laughed out loud at him, and he rolled his eyes. “Keep laughing and you might not get ‘em back.”

  I held my hand over my mouth trying to conceal just how hard was laughing. “I just never expected to walk in and see you in my socks, is all.”

  It was the cutest damn thing I’d ever seen.

  “What? Derek never wears your socks? Women have the best socks!”

  “Ha!” I cackled. “My socks aren’t Armani enough for Derek.” I took one more look at his feet and shook my head. “You’re so strange.” I grabbed the rest of my things and headed to work.

  Chapter Eight

  After three days, Emily had finally returned my phone calls, but Derek had yet to call or show his face. Em said she’d finally had her finals. I should’ve known; she always shut down when it came time for a test or something.

  I was bundled up in my own bed for once. It’d been a while since I’d actually slept in my own sheets.

  Em was telling me about the guy she’d met in the freshman hall, and I was intently listening to the details of his abs, ass, and arms, or “The Three A’s”, which were the very first three things that caught my almost-shallow friend’s eye.

  “Mom and I are leaving tomorrow morning for Roseville. Do you want to go see Grandma with us?” I asked, knowing Emily wouldn’t miss it. She loved my grandmother. “She’s making Macaroons.”

  “Grandma May and homemade French Macaroons? Uh, yeah. I’m down!” she cheered.

  “Awesome, we’re leaving around noon, so meet me at the apartment around that time.”

  After I hung up, I got everything ready for our trip and headed to bed.

  I woke up pretty early the next morning and was just waiting on Em to get to the apartment so we could head out. Mom was already there, pacing around the apartment commenting on the fact that I didn’t have even once piece of art in the entire place.

  I heard a distant, muffled buzzing. I realized it was my phone, but I had no idea where it was. I finally remembered leaving it in the bathroom, and I went to retrieve it. There were four missed calls from Derek. I pushed the call back button and waited anxiously for him to answer. I was super curious about his call.

  “Hey, Lis. I am so sorry I haven’t called, honey. I’ve been on the phone almost nonstop for three days, and our foreign accounts doubled overnight. So, I had more to do than I could ever explain on one phone call.”

  I sat quietly, letting him finish his expected strand of excuses.

  “Are you mad?” he asked when the call went quiet and all we could hear was breathing. “Lis?”

  “Well, you promised to be at the club, and that was three nights ago! You haven’t called or anything!” I tried not to yell, but I was angry. “Did you really not have even two minutes to spare for one phone call?”

  “I really didn’t, Lis. I would’ve called you every day if it were possible. Please don’t be upset. It was just a rough few days. I had some really important things going on. Let’s just forget about it and have dinner together. We can go to your favorite restaurant and then we can spend the whole night at your place. What do you say?” He sounded hopeful.

  I was upset that he’d not called, but I was elated that he was finally going to sacrifice whatever all-important shit was going on at the office to be with me.

  I sighed, surrendering. “When?”

  “I’m finishing up this presentation and then I’ll have to catch Walden up. I’ll change and meet you at the restaurant at five, okay? I’m finishing up now.”

  “Can’t we do it tomorrow?” I asked, disappointment trailing the question. “I was about to leave for Roseville.”

  “Oh…” he sounded surprised. Rather it was because I’d made other plans, or because I was kind of telling him no, I wasn’t sure. “No, babe. I have to catch a plane in the morning at eight. I have a meeting for the new foreign accounts. I was going to spend all evening and night with you and leave Wilshire first thing in the morning to catch my flight.”

  “Are you sure you’re going to come?” The doubt in my voice was thick, and as much as I didn’t want him to hear it, I also really wanted him to hear it.

  “I’m leaving in less than an hour. I promise.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Lissa,” he grumbled, “I will be there. Five o’clock!”

  Another sigh left my mouth, heavier this time. “Okay.” It sounded almost disappointed, but I was thrilled that he was going to spend the day and night with me. I was reeling and it was hard not to let it show.

  The phone call to my grandmother was easy, but my mom was pretty upset that I wasn’t going. Grandma was as sweet as ever, saying she was sad not to get to see me, but there’d be other times. “You should spend time with Derek while he isn’t busy. I’ll be here when you’re ready, dear,” she’d said in her extremely humble and sweet voice.

  Em called to tell me she was stuck in traffic, and I told her about Derek’s plans. She was happy for me and said she was still going to Roseville with Mom, if Mom didn’t mind. They promised to call when they got back home, and I went to get ready for dinner with Derek.

  

  I circled my fingertip around the rim of the glass. It was my fourth glass of wine, and I was getting impatient. A man in a suit rounded the corner with the restaurant’s hostess, and my heart slowed when I saw it wasn’t Derek.

  He was an hour late. An hour! I’d called him at least half a dozen times and there was no answer. I had just been sitting at Rex’s, one of my favorite places to eat, sending the waiter away every fifteen minutes, waiting for my promise-breaking fiancé.

  “Lissa?” Mik was standing next to my table looking down at me. “Hey, what’re you doing here?”

  I smiled at him, but I was in a pretty cruddy mood, at that point. “Derek was supposed to meet me…”

  “He didn’t show?”

  I shook my head. “Nope.”

  He offered an almost-silent apology.

  “Who are you here with?”

  “No one,” he shrugged, “I was just picking something up.” He held up a fancy silver and maroon box, wrapped in a perfectly-tied, white, silk bow: the consistent, unmistakable wrappings of a pie from Rex’s.

  “You gonna eat that whole pie by yourself?” My eyes shot from his casual, pajama-like outfit and back to the pie.

  He laughed. “I just really like their pies. I u
sually get one every week.”

  “Well,” I smiled up at him, “you could eat your pie here…with me?”

  His eyes widened slightly, like he was surprised I’d asked. “You do look pretty lonely.”

  I huffed. “Well, I didn’t say all that…”

  He pulled the intricately-engraved wooden chair out and took a seat just as the waiter returned to ask me if I was sure I didn’t want anything.

  “Two plates and two forks,” Mik told the high spirited waiter. “You like caramel pie?” he said looking to me that time.

  I smiled, and I saw my phone light up. It was Derek. I almost didn’t answer, but I couldn’t help it.

  He said sorry at least thirty times. What was his excuse? The foreign accounts were being offered a higher number somewhere else. Like I cared.

  Mik sat forking pie into his mouth as Derek explained himself, and then he had to go.

  “You sound pretty mad…” Mik said as I stuffed my phone into my clutch.

  “Well, I skipped out on my grandmother to spend the night with him and now he’s catching a flight out tonight.”

  Mik nodded his acknowledgment. “Well, that’s pretty shitty.”

  I snorted. “Shitty” was an understatement.

  “Pie?” He handed me a fork and I sat to work on the whipped-cream topping.

  We had nearly demolished Mik’s pie. It was dark outside, and the dinner rush had begun to pour into the restaurant.

  I noticed a cute blonde eyeing Mik from over his shoulder.

  “Mik,” I said through my teeth and shot my eyes toward the ogling admirer.

  He looked over his shoulder, and there was a shy smile on his lips when he turned back around.

  “What? She’s pretty,” I pointed out.

  He was shaking his head. “She’s just not my type,” he said, still smiling.

  “What, pretty isn’t your type?”

  He continued shaking his head, chuckling now. “She’s just not my type.”

  “Okay,” I jokingly rolled my eyes and finished off my piece of pie.

  Mik walked me home shortly after. I thanked him for staying to eat with me and headed for my shower. I was upset about Derek, but I tried not to think about it. I just enjoyed my long, hot shower.

  My phone was ringing when I got out and I ran to answer it, assuming it was Derek, again. But I should’ve known better.

  “Em?” I answered. “You and Mom make it back, okay?”

  “Yeah, she just dropped me off at the dorm. I wish you would’ve come, but we had a really good time.”

  “Good! How was Grandma?”

  “She was great!” she chirped. “She sent you back some macaroons. I’ll get them to you tomorrow, since I’ll see you anyway.”

  “Tomorrow?” I asked. We hadn’t made plans.

  “Yeah!” she exclaimed. “I’m having a Fuck Finals Party! You have to come! Please?” she begged.

  I laughed at the blatant title of her party and said I would try to get away from work.

  

  Getting away from work was much easier than I thought. Even traffic was on my side. I got home pretty quickly and began my ritual of drinking water as I searched for my outfit. That proved to be the time-consuming part of the night. I had a billion outfits, but nothing looked right. It was irritating, but I finally settled on a thin, sequin top that sparkled silver and black and a cobalt-blue, stretched-tight, spandex skirt.

  “You’re late!” Emily stood in her doorway frowning, clutching a party cup, the other college partiers swarming behind her. “But the outfit makes up for it,” she added eyeing my outfit, and she pulled me in. “Here’s a beer to get you started. I’m gonna go mix you a drink.”

  I saw a few of my old friends and went over to catch up. Emily returned a few minutes later with a clear glass full of something brown. I finished my beer and sipped the bitter brown drink while we talked.

  Alan, an old friend, came over with shots, and we downed them and went back to dancing. I think every song I’d ever liked played back-to-back, and we danced and drank until the room started to spin. It’d been a while since I’d had more than a glass of wine or two, but the past month was full of drunken nights, which helped me cope with Derek’s absence.

  I was standing beside the door when someone banged on it. I stared at it for a second—I think I was verging on forgetting how things operated at that point—and then reached to open it, sloshing my Long Island Iced Tea on me.

  Big brown eyes smiled down at me. "You look like someone I know," I joked at Beck. "Two someones!" I corrected, flinging two disoriented fingers into the air.

  Chapter Nine

  "Are you drunk, Lissa Auburn?" he said, touching a finger to my cup.

  "I am wasted, Beck…" I searched my brain. “Beck…”

  "You can't even remember my last name, and it's soon to be your last name!"

  I shrugged. “What’re ya gonna do?” I leaned against the door facing to keep from falling. “What brings ya by?”

  “I was bored,” he shrugged, “thought I’d swing by.”

  I just stared at him, unintentionally of course. His five o’clock shadow was dark and gave him an edgy look; it looked good on him. He was donned in his usual dingy, torn, dark-blue jeans and a long-sleeved, navy thermal with the sleeves shoved up to his elbows. I always loved when Derek would wear long sleeves and push the sleeves up. It brought attention to all of the rippling muscles and swelled veins in his arms that pushed so many buttons inside of me.

  "Are you gonna invite me in?" he laughed, waving his hand in front of my face.

  I tipped my cup and finished it off. "Well sure," I said in the most southern accent I could mimic. I wobbled on my pumps as I maneuvered around the partiers, and Beck caught my elbow and helped me to the kitchen.

  “Why don’t you take those off?” he suggested, pointing at my heels.

  I gasped, playing up offense. “A girl doesn’t abandon amazing shoes like these because she’s had a few drinks!”

  “A few?” He raised a brow at me. “I don’t think you have the right understanding of what ‘a few’ is.”

  I wobbled and grabbed his shirt to steady myself. “You’re right!” I decided with an animated hand gesture. “More drinks, less heels!”

  He held my arm as I maneuvered and pulled off my favorite black heels. I tossed them in the corner and grabbed a cup. "Here!" I handed him the cup full of whatever had been in the bottle on the counter. “Drink up!” I shouted over the stereo.

  "I don't think the music is as loud as you think it is," he said, grinning at me.

  "Then maybe I should turn it up!" He smiled and turned his cup up not seeming to care what was in it.

  Beck disappeared a few times throughout the night—mingling, I assumed—and then he'd reappear with a new drink and a different girl under his arm. I stayed by Emily's side, mostly because she was dragging me around trying to get me as drunk as possible. I tried, a few times, to get her and Beck together so I could finally introduce them, but the dorm was huge, and it was proving impossible. Getting them in the same place always seemed to be difficult. They were together inside the same four walls more than once, yet I couldn’t manage to find them both to introduce them.

  I slipped away and stumbled my way into the kitchen. Beck was casually leaned back against the counter listening intently to the flirtatious blonde in front of him. She had one hand securely hooked into the front of his jeans and was running the other all over his abs and chest as she told her story.

  My heart skipped a little at the sight of how sexy he looked all slouched back. It made me miss Derek, and I wanted to touch him the way the blonde was touching Beck.

  I was mad at Derek all over again for not coming.

  Beck glanced over and smiled when he spotted me. I raised my glass at him, tilting my head toward him, and he shook his head and pushed the blonde away. He sauntered past her over to where I was. "You're still loading up, I see."

&nbs
p; "Aren't you?" I asked and tried to hop onto the counter; I just needed to sit down.

  "Need help with that?" He said and grabbed my waist and sat me onto the counter, where I was eye level with him.

  "So, do you have some secret stash of women here somewhere?" I slurred, wiping my hair out of my face.

  "No, do you?” he laughed and leaned in to my ear, “‘Cause that’s something I’d be interested in."

  "Ha!" I cackled. "I'm not the one with a different, random on my arm every ten minutes!"

  “Random? What’s with that? You said it the other night, too.”

  “That’s what I call all the gross chicks you’ve been banging,” I shouted and grabbed a bottle that was standing on the counter beside me.

  He stared at me and just raised his eyebrows with a smirk. "Is that jealousy I hear?"

  "I'm not jealous!" I argued.

  "Could've fooled me."

  "Well, now, that’s not a difficult thing to do, Beck." I rolled my eyes and jumped down from the counter, but my knees were numb and I fell into him. He caught me and pushed me upright, laughing.

  "See, look, you just want to be close to me."

  I looked up at him, reached and gripped the collar of his shirt with both hands, and pulled him to me. "I'm not attracted to you, Beck!" I said straight into his ear, just to be sure he heard me.

  He pulled his head back just until our eyes met. "Are you sure?" He asked, looking down my nose, his breath hot on my face.

  I chewed the inside of my lip, but it couldn't distract me from the tantalizing grip he had on my waist, and the way his chest felt under my hands wasn't helping at all.

  “Oh my God!” Emily shrieked. "Derek! I can't believe you came!" She ran to our sides, knocking over almost everything she came in contact with, people and all. "I could kiss you! Lis totally needed this!" She patted my cheek and smiled happily at me. "You don't look excited," she said, her smile sagging.

  "Em, he's—"