Bloom (20 page)

Chapter 45

Thus begins our
excruciating weekend. Between Max’s friends and our housemates, James and I are never alone. When I go to the deck with my coffee in the morning, three people are already there. When James and I walk into town, someone decides to come with us. We think we’ve managed to escape by ourselves to the beach, and we don’t even have our towels down before they are there too, cheerfully wedging their towels between us. If Max had hired a crew to keep us apart they couldn’t do a better job.

And the timing of it is what makes it hardest, because what we did on Thursday is something I really, really need to repeat.

“You shouldn’t have forced me to sleep with you,” James grumbles quietly behind me when we’re at work.

“Did you really just say I ‘forced’ you?” I gasp, rounding on him, but he’s grinning.

“Maybe ‘forced’ is a strong word,” he says, pulling me behind the freezer with his hands at my hips. His lips find mine, and he tugs at the bottom one with his teeth. “But I’m thinking about it at 20-second intervals now, and I need someone to blame.”

“Blame Max and his friends,” I breathe, as he pushes me back against the counter.

“I am going to do such bad things to you once they’re out of here,” he promises. His kiss is harder this time, his hands roaming, finding the hem of my shirt and sliding beneath it. He could convince me to do about anything right now.

“This is the first time I’ve ever wished they made us wear skirts,” I sigh.

He groans. “Thanks for that visual, Elle. I was
already
painfully hard.”

Footsteps approach and we part, reluctantly.

“Just one more day,” I tell him. “We can live until then.”

**

But the next day I get home from the lunch shift, expecting them to be gone, and find them all on the deck, throwing back beers, getting ready to grill out. James sits with them, looking decidedly unhappy.

“Um, I hope one of you is the designated driver for tonight,” I say.

“Why?” asks one of the guys. “Where are we going?”

I look toward James and realize the source of his sour expression. “I thought you were going home today.”

“I convinced them to stay,” says Max, with a little gleam in his eye.

“How are you able to miss this much work?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I can miss a day or two.”

I go back inside before it becomes obvious how intensely disappointed I am by this information.

I’ve never been so happy to see eight people leave as I am when they shout their goodbyes the following day.

“Good riddance. Now get your shit out of my room,” says James the moment Max walks in from seeing them off.

“When did you turn into such a grumpy fucker?” asks Max, heading into James’s room. “I’m going to have to
buy
you some female companionship if your dry spell keeps up.”

“Yes,” I grin at James when Max is out of sight. “We wouldn’t want your dry spell to continue.”

He pulls me toward him by my waistband. “My dry spell is about to end in a big way,” he says against my ear, his low voice initiating that small spasm it does in my stomach. “Go get ready.” We are going back to Lewes for dinner, a dinner that will end the moment we’re sure Max has left for work. I run upstairs to shower, and put on the dress I bought at the start of the summer.

I bounce downstairs and come to a screeching halt in the family room. Max sits in the recliner, looking utterly dejected, and James looks distraught. “Oh my God,” I whisper. “Is everything okay?”

James meets my eye. “Max got fired for not going in all weekend,” he tells me. His shoulders sag. I’m a little surprised by James’s empathy, since he’s spent most of the summer telling Max he should be looking for a real job. He looks as depressed as Max.

“I’m so sorry,” I tell Max. “I’m sure you’ll find something else.”

He nods gravely. It’s the longest I’ve ever seen him go without cracking a smile or a joke. “I’m so glad you guys are off tonight,” he says. “It sounds lame, but I just don’t want to be alone.”

Ah. The source of James’s depression suddenly makes itself clear.

I sit on the couch heavily, brain racing to find a way to salvage this evening and knowing there is none. My dress is short, and rides up. James watches it happen, flinches for a moment, and quietly suggests that I might want to change when Max walks to the kitchen. I shrug. “I’m okay.”

“No, really,” he says, something catching in his throat, a small pleading noise. “Go change.”

I sneak down in the middle of the night, after I’m sure Ginny’s asleep. My hand is on James’s doorknob when I hear Max’s voice come from the couch “Hey,” he says groggily as I jump away from the door, crossing my arms over my chest. James warned me about wearing the thin tank. “What are you up for?”

“Water,” I croak. And then I run back upstairs empty-handed.

**

The next morning Max is cheerful again. “We’re having a party,” he announces. “You guys have your early shifts, right? We’ll get things going and by the time you get here it’ll be in full swing.”

This is good news. There are ample opportunities to sneak off during a party. Or even before one, as James suggests. He catches me in the kitchen at work, pulling me around the corner so we’re out of view, wrapping his hands around my waist and sighing against my mouth. “This has been the longest,
hardest
four days of my life,” he groans.

“Just a few more hours,” I promise. “We’ll stay at the party for a bit and then sneak off.”

“I don’t think I can wait that long,” he says.

“You know, if we just bit the bullet and told everyone, none of this would be necessary.”

“Elle,” he exhales, resting his forehead against mine. “You know we can’t.”

“Fine,” I sigh. “But just so we’re clear, I don’t care if they know. And I’d feel better about it if you didn’t care quite so much.”

**

James is tense as we drive home. “I’ve never been so worked up in my life,” he says. “So I’m gonna warn you right now: the first time is going to be fast and spectacularly unrewarding for you.”

This situation only worsens when we get home and find ourselves face-to-face with Nick The Lifeguard. (I suppose it’s for the best that I never wound up dating him — it’d be awkward to still be referring to him as “Nick The Lifeguard” in bed. Or at our wedding.)

“Who invited you?” hisses James.

“James!” I scold.

Max claps a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “I did. Who do you think I’ve been hanging out with ever since you suddenly became so
busy
all the time? But now that you’re here I need help. Something’s wrong with the keg.”

James shoots me a quick warning glance as he crosses the deck, leaving me alone with Nick.

“Still seeing that guy?” he asks with a little smile.

“Yes.”

“Is he coming tonight?”

“Um, no,” I stutter. “I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t think so.”
Smooth, Grayson
.

“Then he won’t mind if I keep you company, right?”

“Well, actually,” I say, “he probably would.” He
definitely
would, I think, looking at the storm cloud hovering over James’s head as he watches us.

“Well,” says Nick cockily. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

He’s easy enough to talk to, or would be were my attention not entirely focused on the slutty blonde currently flinging herself at James. It’s not his fault, but she perches herself on his chair and holds her balance with her hand on his arm. I’ve seen her hovering around the bar before with that same gleam in her eye, as if she has some secret knowledge of him that I don’t.

And James is glaring at me, as if there’s anything I can do about Nick. Every time I try to separate myself from him he follows me. Even when I go to my room to change out of my work clothes I find him waiting at the bottom of the stairs. At this rate I will never be alone with James.

Nick has been telling me about some elevator prank, and when he pulls out his phone to show me the video I’m momentarily engrossed, able to forget about James and the blonde for the first time all night. I laugh and lean in closer to see the video, and this is when James decides he’s had enough.

In three steps he’s crossed the deck and is towering over us. “Elle,” he says in clipped tones. “May I speak to you for a moment?”

Nick looks a little alarmed, and a little pissed, as I excuse myself. We go beneath the deck, in the sand and the darkness, the sound of our words drowned out by the music above us.

“What the fuck is going on up there?” he seethes.

“Nothing is going on,” I snap back. “What’s up with you and that girl?”

He rolls his eyes. “Nothing. She comes into the bar to hang out sometimes.”

“You say that as if it somehow explains why she’s hanging all over you and makes it reasonable.”

“You know I’m not interested in her.”

“So it’s okay for her to hang all over you and Nick to follow me wherever I go, but it’s not okay for us to tell anyone we’re dating? Maybe if it mattered to you a little more you we wouldn’t be in this position.”

“Stop,” he demands, his hands threading through my hair. He pushes me against the siding, his mouth on mine, and I am enveloped by him: his weight and his hands and his scent and his tongue, the need for him consuming me, my heart beating so hard in my ears that I no longer hear the noise above us. I wrap a leg around his thigh and pull him closer, feeling that spasm in my stomach when he grows hard against me.

“It feels like weeks,” he says hoarsely. His hand snakes between us, running over the outside of my thong. He groans when he feels how ready I am, and in an instant he’s unzipping his shorts and pushing my thong to the side. I’m bracing for it, barely restraining a whimper of impatience as I wait. “God I’m not gonna last long,” he says as he presses against me.

Feet come thundering down the stairs.

“Campbell?” one voice shouts. “Where are you? We saw you come down this way!”

He punches the siding. “I’ve had it,” he says.

“Just go,” I sigh.

“No, I’ve fucking had it. Let’s just leave. We can stay in a hotel.”

I laugh. “That’s crazy. It won’t be much longer. Twenty minutes, tops.”

“Come to my room as soon as you can,” he whispers. “And I don’t want you sitting there letting that jackass look down your dress until you get there, so find someone else to talk to.”

Then he turns and strides toward the stairs, zipping up his shorts as he answers their shouts.

**

It isn’t long before Nick finds me, before I’m in the exact position I was before, sitting next to him with James across the deck shooting me daggers. “What was that about?” he asks.

“He’s just a little overprotective.” I guess, technically, this is not untrue.

Max’s former boss Rob shows up. Both Ginny and I are in his face within seconds. “Why are you here?” I ask.

“Whoa, there, girls. Max invited me.”

We both turn to Max. “He
fired
you. Why’d you invite him to the party?” Ginny demands.

Max shrugs. He’s shockingly Zen tonight, for someone who was so despondent 24 hours ago. “He’s still a cool dude,” says Max, punching Rob in the shoulder.

I return to my perch, shaking my head.

“He’s totally losing it,” I whisper.

“Do you think he’s doing drugs?” she asks.

“Did you ever think he
wasn’t
?” I snort.

Nick’s saying something to me. Something I miss entirely because I am staring at James, and he is staring at me, with an unhappiness in his eyes that I would give anything to remove. And then suddenly Nick’s hands are on my face and he’s turning me toward him. I have no idea what he was saying previous to this moment. I only hear the words “then he won’t mind if I do this”, and he kisses me. It’s so wholly unexpected that for a moment I simply don’t understand what the hell is happening. I try to pull away, but there’s suddenly nothing to pull away from.

He’s on the ground, with James punching him repeatedly in the face.

Max dives on him, grabbing his arms, and Dan is quick to follow. “Dude!” Max shouts. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m getting that asshole off my girlfriend,” James replies. “That’s what I’m doing.”

Everyone on the deck goes completely silent. Shockingly silent, as if someone hit a mute button on the entire city. And then Max’s triumphant laughter rings out.

“What the hell?!” Nick shouts at Max. “You didn’t say he was gonna hit me!”

James and I look at each other, and slowly turn toward Max.

“Did you orchestrate this, Max?” James asks.

Max is doubled over. “Hell, yeah. I orchestrated the whole thing! I was sick of the two of you sneaking around. Figured it was time to blow you out of your hole.”

“She’s your
girlfriend
?” hisses Ginny. She turns to me in astonishment. “Are you saying that
Elle
is your girlfriend?”

“Yes,” says James. He looks at Max and Dan. “And I’m sorry. I know I told you to leave her alone and I know it makes me a hypocrite. I just … ”

“You just what?” snaps Ginny. “Because I can’t believe I’m hearing this shit. After the way you threatened everyone away from us both, you were with her all along?”

“I love her,” he says, and my head snaps up. His eyes wait for mine, bleak and anxious. He loves me. He just told everyone on this deck that he loves me. In spite of how awful and embarrassing the whole thing is, I smile back at him with my heart in my eyes, and his face loses the haunted look it had. “And no, we weren’t together all along. But we are now.”

Ginny turns to Max, coolly. “And you’re okay with this?” she asks.

His brows come together. “Why wouldn’t I be okay with it? They’re perfect together.”

“Because he’s your
best friend
?” she suggests with such venom that for once even he seems speechless. She turns back to me. “And you – Allison warned me about you. About all of this. And she was right. So how many boyfriends, exactly, do you have? And how many have you stolen from someone else?”

“Ginny, stop,” says James. He pulls me to my feet and wraps an arm around my waist. “I broke up with Allison before Elle and I ever got together.”