Seasons in the Sun
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Authors: Kristen Strassel
Seasons in the Sun
By Kristen Strassel
Copyright @ 2013 Kristen Strassel
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to
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Published 2013 by Fast Foreword, a Foreword Literary imprint.
Dedication
For Liz, who needed the backstory.
My bike skidded into the alley beside the café. I knew I was late. I leaned it up against the building, pulled my damp braid away from my neck, and fanned out my shirt.
“Where have you been, Callie? Your shift starts at nine. No excuses. I’m not going to treat you differently than anyone else on the staff. It sets a bad example.” My mom was rolling out dough on the table. There was flour on her apron and in her hair. It had obviously been a busy morning. She barely looked up from her work as she acknowledged me.
I looked at the clock on the wall. 9:15. “Sorry.” I mumbled as I grabbed my apron. “Where do you want me today?”
Mom sighed, pausing for a minute to think strategy. “Barista station.”
Not so bad. I figured she’d give me something I hated to punish me for being late. My mom ran a tight ship. The Magnolia Café was her dream in action and she wasn’t about to let anyone, including me, screw it up. But I loved making the coffee. It was what we were known for. I liked helping the island wake up. The regular faces became more recognizable each day.
This was my first summer as an official employee. I’d worked behind the scenes for years. I was thrilled to be old enough to be a real part of the team. Even if it I was working for my mom, I wanted to make a good impression.
“Guess what? I met the twins.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Caroline’s niece and nephew. Taryn and Tristan.” We rented the guest house on Caroline’s sprawling property. I’d been hearing stories about Caroline’s family my whole life. Her sister was a model, married to a movie star. Did it get any more glamorous than that?
“Oh.” Recall was written all over her face. My mother found Caroline’s family less impressive than I did. We didn’t even have a TV in the house, that’s how much she cared about Hollywood. “Were their parents there as well?”
“I don’t know. I just saw the twins.”
“Did Caroline say anything about the party?”
“What party?” I had no idea what my mother was talking about.
“Never mind. She wouldn’t say anything to you, anyway.” I felt like a little kid for the second time this morning.
I headed out front to relieve Olga, the early morning barista. Keisha, my cousin, was tidying up behind the counter and restocking the muffins and bagels. She came every summer from Jamaica to work with us at the Magnolia.
“What’s going on, girl? You’re late.” She hip checked me playfully as I walked passed her to the coffee station.
“So I hear. Good morning to you, too.”
“Ha! You were fired, you know.”
“Yeah I’m sure.” Where else was my mother going to find such willing, well trained, underpaid labor?
“You missed the hot Australian dude. That man can eat his croissant in my bed any day ….”
I giggled and swatted at Keisha. “Oh! That reminds me. I met the twins.”
“What twins?”
Apparently I was the only person who was excited about this. I was starting to feel a little foolish telling everyone so enthusiastically about my meeting. “Caroline’s niece and nephew. Tristan and Taryn. From California.”
“Oooooh, the movie star kids.” Now I had Keisha’s attention.
“Yes.”
“Tell me all about them.”
“I don’t know, it was quick. We didn’t say much. But Tristan is really good looking.”
“Oh yeah? How old are they?”
“Gosh, I don’t know … Caroline said they weren’t much older than me, but they looked like they were about twenty five.”
“All those famous people have botox and nose jobs and boob jobs … did the girl have a boob job?”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to check out her chest for you.”
“God, I’d love a boob job. Instead I got a big ass. So how good looking are you talking?”
I blushed a little bit as I started making a nonfat caramel latte for Janis, one of the regulars. “Really good looking. Like I didn’t know it was possible to be that good looking.”
I could still feel where Tristan squeezed my hand while he looked me right in the eyes, making my knees knock. I could still smell the spiciness of his cologne.
“He must be gay then.” I was a little mortified by that. I shot a quick look at Janis, who was smirking at our conversation. I added her extra whipped cream before she even asked.
“What?”
“Anyone from California who’s that good looking has got to be gay, girl. Get used to it.”
“How many people have you met from California?”
“None. But I know. I read Perez Hilton.”
Who? “Is he on NPR? Because that’s all I ever get to listen to and you know it.” My mom ran a tight ship at home too. We didn’t have cable and I got homeschooled. My pop culture knowledge was embarrassingly nonexistent.
“Oh yeah, I forgot I was back in the stone ages for a minute.” Keisha rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying, that’s how it is.”
It was just easier to agree with her. “Whatever. he didn’t seem gay. Not like I’d know if he was anyway. But I don’t think so.”
“I guess between the two of us, we’ll find out, right?”
Keisha had been on the lookout for the twins ever since I told her about Tristan. Three years older than me, at seventeen, she was easily motivated by the promise of a good looking guy.
Tourist traffic picked up quickly that summer with business at The Magnolia as brisk in June as we usually saw after Independence Day. The two of us worked non-stop to keep up with the demand. My mom always tried to give Keisha and me the same days off so we could spend time together, and she held true to her promise.
We ransacked the kitchen cabinets packing a cooler for the beach. I made sandwiches, and Keisha packed snacks. We could never possibly eat everything we brought, but a girl liked to have options, right?
“We should go see if Taryn and Tristan want to come to the beach with us.” Keisha announced as she poured crackers into a plastic bag.
“You think?” My eyes widened.
“Yeah, I think! And if they come, boys don’t wear shirts at the beach.” She raised her eyebrows. “We can take turns putting sunscreen on his back.”
I wish she had announced this plan earlier. I would have put a little more effort into myself. I’d just thrown on my suit and pulled my unruly hair back into a messy bun. The beach would make me gross anyway. Keisha looked gorgeous in her orange bikini and matching sarong, which was stunning against her dark skin. Her long micro braids were skillfully wrapped around each other to form a pony tail.
Sometimes, I was jealous of her for being fully Jamaican. I wasn’t fully anything. I was half Jamaican, half Irish. My hair, though course from my Caribbean heritage, was light and conflicting against my seemingly tanned skin. The beach and the summer sun bleached out my hair and deepened my skin color, and just made everything more confusing.
I knew there was no stopping her once she got a plan in her head. I sighed and readied myself to accompany her in sexually harassing our new neighbor.
“Make two more sandwiches. I’m going to run next door and see if they want to come.”
She was out the door before I even had a chance to protest. Not knowing what else to do, I sliced more bread and began dressing it.
With the cooler fully packed, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself while I waited for her return. It seemed pathetic to watch for her in the window, so I started moving everything we needed out to our little wagon we used to transport our goods down the road to the beach. Leave it to Keisha to find a way out of the heavy lifting, whether it was intentional or not. I pulled out my book at sat out on the deck until she returned.
Twenty minutes later, Keisha’s laughter announced her arrival. Either she wasn’t alone, or she’d lost her mind. Thankfully, she wasn’t alone. I looked up from my book to see Taryn and Tristan were in tow, smiling along with whatever story she was telling them.
“We’ve got company! Cal, you’ve met Taryn and Tristan already.” I wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement, since she knew I had. “Got everything? Let’s go!”
I loved Keisha, but she had a habit that drove me nuts. Any time she was nervous or trying to impress someone she talked nonstop. This was one of those times. This was all new to the twins, who seemed to be hanging on her every word. Keisha took the lead on the way down the road with Taryn and Tristan following her. That left me to drag the wagon full of all of our crap down the rocky road. I lagged behind. They were just far enough ahead to be out of earshot and to make me feel totally left out.
Sweating and miserable, I trudged along, falling farther behind the trio with every step. I had to watch the road to make sure the wagon didn’t hit a rut or a rock and topple over.
“Want me to take that?” Tristan had stopped and waited for me to catch up as the girls rattled along.
“No, I’ve got it.” I don’t know why I said that. I wanted nothing more than for someone, anyone, to take the damn wagon.
“Okay, I’ll rephrase that. Let me take that for you.” Tristan reached out for the handle, brushing my hand as he took it. I could feel its warmth as I quickly pulled my hand away.
“Thanks.”
“I should have taken it before. I didn’t see it. Then I was like, wait a minute, we’re missing someone, and saw you back here with the wagon.”
“It’s all right.”
“No! You shouldn’t be doing the heavy lifting out of all of us.” I didn’t know what he meant by that, so I didn’t say anything and just kept walking beside him.
“So you do you live here year round?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you do around here?”
“I go to school and work.” It seemed like a weird question.
“You work? How old are you?”
“Fourteen.” I said almost apologetically. At that moment, I felt about ten.
“You look younger than that.”
“Oh.”
Tristan must have picked up on the fact that he’d made me feel self conscious, so he tried to qualify his statement. “It’s just that in California, girls look like they are twenty-seven when they’re twelve, you know?” He realized he wasn’t gaining any ground with that comment, and he changed the subject. “Wait, you have a job at fourteen? What kind of island is this?”
I laughed. “I’ve had a job for years, but not officially. It’s my mom’s restaurant. Keisha works there too.”
“Oh, I wonder if that’s the same place my aunt got us jobs.”
That was the first I’d heard of it if the twins were working with us. “The Magnolia Café?”
He thought for a second, “That sounds familiar. I don’t know. She decided we needed to have a job.”
“Well, we could use the help. It’s been super busy.”
“I don’t know how much help either of us will be.”
We’d arrived at the beach at that point, and Keisha and Taryn had already picked a spot. They were looking up at the sky to find the sun so they could position their chairs and towels accordingly. I knew the ritual well. Summer was the time of year to live on the Vineyard, and spending it at the beach was my favorite thing to do. I looked up as well out of habit after I pulled my lounge chair from the wagon. We were angled away from the tide for the time being. I straightened out my chair and pulled it next to Keisha’s. The twins had just brought towels. Taryn spread hers out on the other side of Keisha. Tristan paused before picking his spot, and went to my right, away from the girls.
Keisha made a dramatic show of untying her sarong and revealing her bikini. She looked exotic and gorgeous. Taryn looked equally good in a suit just as small as Keisha’s. I sighed, pulling out my book and settling into my chair. Tristan pulled off his shirt before he settled on this towel. Keisha whacked me as it made its way over his head, exposing broad athletic shoulders and a narrow waist.
“Damn,” she mouthed when I turned to see what she was fussing about. I shot her a look and went back to my book. But I had to agree with her, damn was right. I snuck a look at him over the top of my book as he lay down on his stomach, blushed, and darted quickly back to my book before anyone noticed.
“Where’s your suit?” I wasn’t sure if Tristan was talking to me or not, but I was the only one not in a bikini. My suit was a tank top and shorts. It was as scandalous as my parents allowed.
“This is it.” I wasn’t sure if he was intentionally trying to make me feel uncomfortable, but he did a fantastic job of it.
“That’s cool.”
Keisha and Taryn had hit it off, and were chatting and laughing nonstop about things I couldn’t follow. I guess it was just my day to feel out of place. Tristan hadn’t brought anything with him to pass the time, no book, no iPod, and I could tell he was getting restless by the way he was fidgeting and looking around at everything. I could see him out of the corner of my eye and it was distracting me from my reading.
Okay, I was watching him out of the corner of my eye and he was distracting my reading. Looking at him was way better than anything in my book. Before the other day, I thought people that looked like him only existed in books.
“So what do you do around here?” He asked again.
“What do you mean? I told you already.”
“For fun.” He smiled. I felt my cheeks redden, and not from the sun.
I looked around at all the people on the beach, who’d come from all over the world to enjoy this spot for their vacation. They were relaxing in chairs, playing volleyball, swimming, digging in the sand. I didn’t know how the answer wasn’t obvious to him. “Um … this.”
“That’s it?”
“Pretty much.”
“Do you surf?”
“I swim.” “I hear the surfing’s supposed to be pretty rad here.”
“I think people usually go up to Squibnocket. I don’t think the waves are big enough for surfing here. That’s what I’ve heard, anyway.”
“Hmmm.” Tristan seemed disappointed. “So working and laying in the sun, that’s it, huh?”
I didn’t think anything I said was going to impress Mr. California. “Sometimes, I go see my dad’s band play, but other than that, yeah. I guess I’m pretty boring.”
“No, you’re not boring,” I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks again. “What kind of band does he play in?”
“A blues band.”
“Right on.” Finally, Tristan seemed to approve. “So you go to bars to see him? I guess things do happen fast around here.”
“Well, restaurants. I go with my parents, so it’s not like I’m doing anything too wild and crazy.”
“Yet.” He smiled at me.
Not being sure how I should answer that, I went back to my book. Keisha had never totally left me in the dust before, and it bothered me. Taryn I didn’t know well enough to have an opinion about. I was frustrated, feeling like such a kid around the others who had all turned out to be the same age. . I flipped over on to my stomach, put my book down and shut my eyes for a while and tried to make sense of the morning.
Most of all, I didn’t know what to make of Tristan. I peeked at him a few times and caught him looking back at me. He didn’t try to hide it, he smiled. I couldn’t help but smile back. I tried to keep my heart from racing. He intrigued me. He made me feel uncomfortable, a little flustered, and all these new things I didn’t even know the words for. There was so much about him I didn’t understand and I wanted to know. He felt like a challenge, too.
I think I liked it.
