One To Watch (20 page)

“Sure, in
college
.”

“What about that editor you met at that book party two years ago? You wouldn’t shut up for weeks about how hot he was.”

“No one’s saying Asher isn’t hot—”

“Aha!” Marin’s eyes lit up. “So you
are
interested in him.”

“What does it matter if I am?” Bea huffed. “You saw him on the boat. He publicly accused me of coming here for the wrong reasons, of wasting his time.”

“And I agree, his methods left something to be desired,” Marin concurred. “But was anything he said actually, you know, untrue?”

Bea sighed. She absolutely hated to admit that it wasn’t. But none of these men seemed to understand just how much it could cost her to be open with them.

“I know what happens when I fall in love,” she said quietly. “And I can’t—last year was so bad, Mar. I don’t know if I can live through that again.”

Marin smoothed Bea’s hair out of her eyes. “You can live a long life never being hurt—and never quite being happy. If that’s what you want.”

Bea shook her head—it wasn’t.

“So try, Bea. Okay? You don’t have to get engaged, you don’t have to give anyone your heart. But at the very least, just promise me you’ll try.”

After a long moment, Bea nodded.

“I promise.”

The next morning, Bea had to get up at an ungodly hour for her date with Sam. Alison dressed her in artfully tattered boyfriend jeans, a whisper-thin Monrow tee, a men’s soft leather bomber with the sleeves pushed up to Bea’s elbows, and vintage Nikes, so Bea knew they were going somewhere casual, but she had no idea where. And Lauren insisted that the surprise not be spoiled—so Bea and Sam were going to be blindfolded for their limo ride to their date.

“Seriously?” Bea asked when a PA produced two black satin blindfolds emblazoned with rhinestones that formed the
Main Squeeze
logo.

Sam looked skeptical, too, but Lauren was having none of it.

“I promise,” she assured them, “you’re going to be more upset than I am if we lose time at your destination, so can you put on the blindfolds so we can get moving?”

And that’s how Bea and Sam came to be blindfolded, led into a limousine with two cameras trained on their every move, and driven clear across Los Angeles at six o’clock in the morning.

“Where do you think they’re taking us?” he asked.

“Maybe some sort of escape-room scenario?” Bea ventured. “Otherwise I have no idea what’s with the blindfolds.”

“I gotta say, this is some real
Eyes Wide Shut
nonsense for a first date.”

“Oh,” Bea deadpanned, “did I not tell you we’re going to a secret murder orgy?”

“Way better than a public murder orgy,” Sam quipped. “Those always end in jail time.”

“Crap, do you think they’ll be mad about all our cameras?”

Bea heard a fluster of movement that sounded like Sam was flailing wildly around the limo.

“Guys! Guys! Did you know they don’t allow cameras in secret murder orgies? Our date is ruined!”

When the limousine finally rolled to a stop, Bea and Sam stumbled out of the limo together, still blindfolded, and were forced to walk another five minutes or so before they stopped for the official unveiling.

“Bea and Sam, welcome to your very first one-on-one date!”

“Thanks, Johnny!” Bea said brightly.

“Now, tell me,” Johnny said smoothly, “do you two have any idea where you are?”

“We drove for about an hour,” Bea started, “and without traffic at freeway speeds, that puts us maybe sixty miles from the compound? But it’s much sunnier and hotter than it was when we left, so that would mean we drove inland, and probably south, too, and if you account for—”

“Okay,” a producer broke in, “that was a rhetorical question. Bea, Sam, can we take that again and have you guys just shake your heads?”

“Damn,” Sam whispered, “remind me to take you with me if I ever actually get kidnapped. What are you, a secret agent?”

“Or a superhero whose primary power is having spent half my life in L.A. traffic,” Bea whispered back as they both shook their heads solemnly, per the producer’s instructions.

“All right,” said Johnny grandly, “on the count of three, go ahead and remove your blindfolds. In three, two, one—”

“Holy shit!” Sam blurted in the same second Bea shouted out, “We’re at Disneyland!”

“I can’t believe this!” Sam guffawed.

“Right?” Bea laughed. “Happiest Place on Earth!”

“You can say that again.” Sam grinned as he wrapped Bea in a tight hug and gently kissed her cheek.

“Worth getting up for a date so early in the morning?”

“Bea, I’d hang out with you anytime. But is the park even open?”

“Technically,” Johnny explained energetically, “the park won’t open to the public for another three hours. But you two get to go in now.”

Sam cheered and hugged Bea again. She couldn’t tell whether he was genuinely into her or just swept up in the thrill of the moment, but Marin’s voice echoed in her mind:
Try.

Okay, Mar,
she thought.
It’s just one date. I can do this.

The first hour inside the park was a mad rush from one attraction to another—Bea and Sam could have quiet conversations in tucked-away corners of the park once other visitors were allowed in, but this private time was the producers’ only opportunity to capture footage of Bea and Sam on the bigger rides, and they weren’t going to squander it. They screamed their faces off on Space Mountain and made spooky noises in the Haunted Mansion—Bea shrieked when Sam aimed a well-timed poke at her middle just as an animatronic ghost appeared beside them.

“I can’t believe you poked me again!”

“Too soon?”

Bea laughed, and Sam threaded his fingers through hers. It was the first time she’d held hands with a man since Ray grabbed her hand in the Lyft home last summer, and she was surprised by how easy and uncomplicated it felt, by how carefree the vibe was on this entire date. After they’d been on a few more of the big rides (and narrowly averted catastrophe when Bea’s mic pack got stuck in the safety bar of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), they went to the Jungle Cruise to slow the pace down a bit and build in some time for conversation.

“Have you ever been to Disneyland before?” Bea asked as they drifted past a bamboo forest.

“Just the one in Florida. I grew up in New Jersey, so that was closer.”

“New Jersey, really? You don’t have an accent.”

Sam raised an eyebrow at Bea. “When’s the last time you heard a Black guy talk like Snooki?”

Bea laughed. “Touché.”

“Nah, my parents were really into the whole prep-school thing, not a lot of kids with accents where I’m from.”

“Really? Like you wore a blazer to school every day, the whole bit?”

“Oh, big-time. The blazer, the polo shirt, the
loafers.
”

“No.”

“Yes. When I finally got to college, I was so happy I didn’t even know what to do with myself. People wearing sweatpants! To class! All my dreams were coming true.”

“And, um, when did you graduate from college?”

Sam laughed. “Okay, I see you. Yes, I am the youngest guy in the house. I graduated from college two years ago.”

“Which makes you …”

“Twenty-four. Six years younger than you, right? Is that so much?”

Bea shook her head, but truthfully, she wasn’t sure.

“And what have you been doing for the past couple years?”

“I went right to Teach for America after college, I taught fifth-grade math and coached the girls’ basketball team, which was basically the best thing ever. So I finished that up last summer, and now I’m figuring out what comes next.”

“And you think what comes next might be a wedding? A family?”

Sam shrugged. “My whole life, my attitude has been to say yes to everything. In college, a professor of mine recommended me for an internship teaching English in Cambodia, and it turned out to be the best summer of my life. That’s what made me decide to apply for Teach for America. A few months ago, I was walking through a mall when I saw they were recruiting guys for
Main Squeeze
. My buddy told me I should apply, and I was like, ‘Sure, why not?’ I thought it would be funny. Now here I am. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something.”

“That you were meant to be on reality TV?”

“No, not that.”

He held Bea’s gaze—and part of her wanted to lean in and kiss him, to let herself believe that this sweet, incredibly attractive man was actually into her. But something in her gut told her not to, that this wasn’t the time, that maybe he was pretending. Like Luc, like Ray, like her. So she pointed out a fake tiger in the fake jungle on their fake adventure, and they let the moment pass. But Sam brought the conversation up again a few minutes later as they poked around the Mad Hatter’s Haberdashery, trying on increasingly large and ridiculous hats.

“What about you?” he asked. “You’re ready for marriage, kids, that whole bit?”

Bea pulled on a huge stuffed clownfish hat that was at least twice as tall as her head. “Marriage, yes, I think so. Kids, for sure eventually, but probably not right away. With my career, I’m lucky to travel all the time—London, Paris, New York. So I’d probably want to wait a few years.”

“Hmm, sounds like our timelines might not be so different,” Sam said. “Now, tell me what you think. This is the one, right?”

He was wearing a humongous Goofy head that dipped so low it covered half his face—Bea burst out laughing.

“If your goal was to make me take you more seriously, I’m not sure this is doing the trick.”

He reached out his arms and stumbled blindly toward the sound of her voice.

“What if my goal was just to make you happy?”

In the end, they went with the classic mouse-ear hats: Mickey for him, Minnie for her. As they stood in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle to film their last few shots before the park opened to the public, Sam pulled her close to him, near enough to feel the contours of his muscled body against her. This didn’t feel as straightforward as holding hands—it felt risky and exciting and decidedly un-platonic. Was it what she wanted? Was it way too much? Or was it even real?

Bea closed her eyes. “Do you think you’d like me if we were somewhere else? Instead of on TV?”

“If someone said, Hey Sam, here’s this hot boss career lady who works in fashion so her looks are always on point, she loves roller coasters and drives a convertible and wants to figure out how to balance family with trips to London and Paris? Um, yeah, I’m pretty sure I’d be interested.”

She looked up at his handsome, youthful face, his silly mustache that somehow worked on him, his Mickey ears and goofy smile.

“And you?” he prompted. “You think you’d like some guy who’s two years out of college and lives with his parents and has no idea what he wants to do with his life? You think I’m such a catch?”

“Wow, you live with your parents, huh?”

“Yeah, I left that part out earlier.”

“You really know how to charm a girl.”

“Nah, I don’t know. But I’m trying to figure it out.” He dipped his head, leaning his forehead against hers. “I really want to kiss you right now.”