Hale Maree (16 page)

I don’t wait. I reach into my front pocket
and feel the wad of bills right away. I know what money feels like,
and I can tell there’s more in my pocket now than I’ve ever laid
hands on in my entire life.

“
I can’t take this,” I say.
Out of embarrassment, I don’t pull it out of my pocket. Amy is
still making out with Landon, but if I were to pull a bank vault
out of my shorts, I’m sure it’d draw attention.

“
Of course you can,” Oscar
says. “You should have nice things, Hale. I want you to. Think of
it as part of the deal.”

“
The deal.” I frown and he
catches it.

“
I didn’t mean it like
that,” he says. “Come on. Have fun with me. Go shopping and get
what you want. Money is supposed to be enjoyed. Go enjoy some.
That’s all I meant.”

“
Okay,” I tell him, even
though I’ve never had that thought about money. Money is meant to
be scrimped and pinched and wanted, but rarely has there ever been
enough in my life to actually enjoy it. My fingertips feel along
the smooth roll again. No matter what I plan to do with it, I’m not
going to make a scene about it here, so I just say,
“Thanks.”

“
You’re welcome,” he says,
as Landon breaks away from Amy and motions to Oscar.

“
Come on, OC. We need to
embark on the Pepto hunt.”

“
We’ll see you back here in
two hours for lunch?” Oscar asks me.

“
Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Amy
jumps in. “Two hours. Like that’s enough time to even look at
anything.”

“
Three hours, then,” Oscar
says. “Late lunch.”

“
Pepto!” Landon complains,
and Amy agrees to three hours, dragging me away by the
arm.

“
Come on,” she says. “We’re
going to have to do some serious power shopping to get done in
three hours!”

#

Spending his money should be easier, but
every time I think of reaching into my pocket, I just can’t do it.
I make excuses to Amy about colors not being right or not liking
the styles, even though the truth is: I like all of it. Unlike the
Salvation Army, when something catches my eye, there is a whole
rack of them in my size.

“
We
have
to go into Jake,” Amy says,
pulling me through the fancy doors of a dark store that has the
deep smell of a man’s cologne. Inside, the store isn’t just racks
of clothes. It has huge potted plants and sturdy shelves that make
the place feel more like a hidden bungalow than a clothing store.
The boy’s clothing is mixed in with the girl’s, so there are
ascending hooks of boy’s board shorts displayed beside a female
mannequin dressed in an eyelet skirt and tank.

“
That’s gorgeous,” she says,
searching for one of the eyelet skirts in her size. “And I think
Land should come back here and get a pair of those board
shorts.”

The idea lights up in my head. One of the
salesgirls walks by, and I stop her to ask, “Can you tell me what
kind of cologne I’m smelling? I could smell it when I first came
in.”

“
Oh, let me see what we have
in the scent burner,” she says, and I follow her as she weaves our
way to the register counter. She chatters at me over one shoulder
while we go. “We have so many different scents, I think this one is
called Force, but let me make sure.”

She ducks behind the counter and then
reappears, nodding. She points to one of the bottles lined up in a
display on the counter.

“
Yep, it’s Force. This one.
Would you like a bottle?”

“
How much is it?”

“
This size is only eighty
nine dollars,” she says. Only eighty-nine. In my world, one bottle
of cologne equals about two weeks of groceries or almost a quarter
of the rent. One of my lungs might’ve just fallen out of my
mouth.

“
I’m going to think about
it,” I say, as casually as I can.

“
No problem,” she says.
“Just let me know if you’d like it, and I’ll ring you up when
you’re ready.”

At least she wasn’t one of those mean types
that raked her eyes over my frayed shorts and faded shirt with a
smug smile. She just grins at me and then flits away to help a guy
who can’t find his size on the rack.

I bury myself in the aisles, back by the
socks where no one seems to come. I figure I better know what Oscar
gave me, in case I do want to buy something. I pull the roll of
bills from my pocket, and almost pass out as I unroll the cash.
It’s all hundred-dollar bills; ten of them, all rolled up like a
stubby, green cigar.

Holy shit.

It comes back to me; all of my dad’s talk
about the Maree’s and their money, but it wasn’t so real until this
second. I know they gave my dad a truck and lawn equipment, I know
Oscar has a nice car, but the beach house isn’t over the top, and
Oscar doesn’t act like he’s sitting on Fort Knox. He talks to me
like we’re equals. Although, looking down at the pile of cash in my
hand, it’s obvious that in some ways, we’re nowhere near equal.

“
Hey,” Amy calls to me,
looking over a shelving unit stacked stylishly with purses. “You’re
buying socks? Are you kidding me?”

“
No,” I tell her, stuffing
the money back into my pocket. “I was just thinking of getting
Oscar a bottle of cologne.”

“
Good little girlfriend,”
she beams. “I should probably get Land something too.”

At the register, I pay for the bottle of
Force, and Amy gets the eyelet skirt, a pair of sunglasses, a red
string bikini, and a bottle of the same cologne for Landon.

“
Now we won’t know whose man
is who’s in the dark,” she giggles, and I laugh, but I hope I don’t
run into Landon that way. She glances down at my small bag with the
cologne in it. “You’ve got to get more than that! Come on, Haley,
I’m going to make a shopper out of you, if it kills me!”

Amy doesn’t shop for herself after that. Her
entire focus is on me. She drags me into another clothing store,
where I break down and buy a full-length nightgown. I had planned
to spend Oscar’s money on gifts for him, but Amy keeps insisting I
need to buy something for myself. I pass by all the lacy, satin
gowns until I find the one I want.

“
You’re classy, not slutty,”
Amy applauds me, eyeing the gown. It’s got spaghetti straps, and
it’s made from lime green cotton, although there is some shiny lace
work over the chest. Even so, the gown is one that I could’ve worn
in front of my father without blinking an eye.

“
Totally not slutty,” I tell
her, giving the cashier another hundred-dollar bill.

“
Oscar really bank rolled
the trip, huh?” Amy asks, motioning to the bill. “That was nice of
him.”

“
I guess,” I say. “It’s kind
of embarrassing, actually.”

“
Really? How
come?”

It’s a fair question, considering I led her
right into it with my previous admission, but it is too complicated
to answer without explaining everything, and I really don’t know
Amy that well. But I’m starting to feel a connection to her. Maybe
it’s just because she’s stopped blaming me for Sophia, or because
she seems so comfortable with me. I’m really starting to like how
quick she is with her comebacks, and all the attention she’s giving
me. Most of all, it feels nice to have another girl to talk to, in
Sher’s absence.

“
I forgot to bring any cash
with me when we came up,” I answer. I feel a little guilty for not
telling her the whole truth, but Amy just nods.

“
Good story,” she giggles.
“I’m going to have to remember that one for next time we
come!”

I steer Amy away from Loot
and into a men’s shop across the cobblestone sidewalk. I buy Oscar
two pairs of plaid pajama bottoms, in hopes that he’ll keep them on
at night, but no shirts. On the way to the register, I add a bunch
of the little stuff I find on display: a money clip, a silk tie
with a weird design that Amy assures me is totally
boss
, and a ridiculously
fancy flashlight with an LED bulb that should shine further than
the lantern we took to the beach.

Amy curses under her breath as she checks
her phone. “It’s time to go meet them,” she says. “And we didn’t
even get to check out Loot yet.”

She’s so disappointed that I feel guilty for
having dragged her into the men’s store. I grab her arm and pull
her in the direction of the make-up store.

“
Come on, we can be a little
late. We’re girls, right?” I say, and Amy laughs as we walk through
the front doors.

#

We’re ten minutes late when we get out of
Loot, and Amy’s phone rings. She fishes it out of her purse and
puts it to her ear.

“
Hello?” she says sweetly.
The volume is down so low, I don’t know who it is, until she says,
“Hi OC. Relax, we’re coming. We just had to make an emergency stop
at Loot, since Haley took so long buying you presents.”

I want to kick her. It was supposed to be a
surprise.

“
Alright, already. We’re
coming!” she ends sullenly, clicking off the call. It rings before
she has a chance to drop it in her purse. She frowns and puts the
phone back to her ear.

“
What now?” she asks. “Oh,
get me a diet and the taco salad, no tortilla bowl. Yeah, just the
salad, you know, leaves in a regular bowl? Get one for Haley too.
She’ll love it. Okay, bye.”

“
We’re having Mexican?” I
say.

“
Hope you don’t mind me
ordering for you, but this salad is the best in the world. You’ll
thank me, I swear.”

“
Sounds good,” I tell her,
because I don’t care what I’m going to eat. I’m more excited about
giving Oscar his presents.

The restaurant is a longer walk than I
expected. When we get there, Oscar pulls out a chair for me and I
get tangled with the waiter who is trying to drop off our food.

“
Would you step back,
please, and let the lady sit down?” Oscar asks. The waiter,
affronted, gives a stiff nod, but when Oscar stands, the waiter’s
eyes shift submissively to his feet. Oscar’s body is powerful, and
I hadn’t really noticed it before, but when he throws his shoulders
back, he’s intimidating too. Once I’m seated, Oscar leans toward me
and says, “I gave you the money to enjoy yourself.”

“
I did,” I tell him. I don’t
go any further, and Oscar sits back with a smile, but doesn’t ask
me anything else. His phone rings, and he pulls it out of his
pocket.

“
Is it her again?” Landon
asks, but Oscar shakes his head as he stands up and walks away from
the table, with his phone to one ear and his finger blocking the
other.

“
Her who?” Amy says, picking
up her fork and stabbing it into the tortilla-bowled salad.
“Remember, I said no tortilla?”

“
I told them,” Landon says
with a shrug. “And who do you think it is? Sophia’s been blowing up
his phone for the last hour. Hasn’t she called you?”

“
Yeah,” Amy says, pushing a
fork full of taco salad into her mouth. “She’s just sad. I think
he’s doing the right thing by just letting her walk it off. I don’t
know why she’s taking it this hard. Whenever I got turned down, I
just went to the bar and picked another guy.” Amy smiles at Landon.
“How do you think I got you?”

“
I think it just happened so
quickly, it was crazy for both of us,” I say. I really have no
right to say anything, to interject myself into this circle of
friends that predates my four-day relationship to Oscar.

“
It did happen pretty much
overnight, didn’t it?” Amy agrees, and I’m instantly sorry I opened
my mouth. Even though Amy’s words are more curious than vicious,
her gaze makes me squirm as she asks, “How do you think anyone can
fall in love that fast?”

Oscar comes back, and lays his phone done by
his plate as he takes his seat. He puts a cloth napkin across his
lap and says, “What did I miss?”

“
Not a thing,” Landon says.
I notice he’s only got water in front of him, with a lemon wedge
floating in it.

“
Not eating yet?” I ask in
order to change the subject.

“
We ordered a bread basket,”
he says, rubbing his gut. “That should do it for me.”

“
Did you talk to Soph?” Amy
asks Oscar. She pokes around her salad instead of looking at him,
like it’s no big deal.

“
No, just business. Dull
stuff,” he says.

“
Have you talked to her at
all?”

“
No,” his voice is a little
more stern. “And I don’t plan to.”

“
Just saying, it’s probably
for the best at this point.”

“
I think so.” Oscar says. He
jabs his fork toward my salad. “Any good?”

“
It’s fine,” I tell him.
It’s a salad. But when he smiles, I smile back, and the salad ends
up being exactly what Amy said it was—the best in the
world.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

OSCAR FLOPS ACROSS OUR BED. He’s followed me
upstairs, when I said I was going to put away the stuff I bought. I
was planning on hiding one present under his pillow, but with him
laying on it, hiding anything is kind of impossible.

“
So,” he says. “Amy said you
bought me presents?”

“
I did. But you can’t have
all of them right now.”