He rolls on his back. “What lunch?”
“The lunch we’re having with Brook and Dylan. I planned it last Monday when I called her, remember?”
He yawns. “Yeah, I remember. What time is it?”
“Eleven, but we’re meeting them at 12.”
“How’d we sleep so late?” He stretches his arms out, then turns on his side and wraps them around me.
“I don’t know. I guess that fair really wore us out.” I kiss him. “I still can’t believe you won me all that stuff.”
“If I’d known you wanted a stuffed bear that bad, I would’ve just bought you one. A better one.”
“But this one’s special because you won it for me.”
“Jade, that bear is probably covered in dirt and germs and who knows what else? The shit you get at carnivals is disgusting. You should really wash that stuff. Or just throw it out.”
“I’m not throwing it out. I’m saving it. That’s the first time you ever won me something. I’m going to save it and put it on a shelf and remember the day you took me to the fair.”
“How about you keep it in a box? I don’t want that stuff on a shelf. And I really think you should wash it.”
I laugh. “Okay, fine. I’ll wash it. Because I’m definitely keeping it.” I smile and run my hand down his chest. “And I didn’t forget my promise. You’re still getting lucky. Just not right now. Later.”
He tugs me into him and kisses me. “Later, as in later today?”
“Yes. As soon as we get home from lunch.”
“Then let’s get this lunch over with.” He lets me go and gets out of bed.
“I thought you wanted to go to lunch with them.” I climb out of bed and follow him to the bathroom.
“I do. But I don’t want it to last all afternoon. I have stuff to do.”
I turn the shower on. “Like what?”
He pulls my tank top up and over my head. “Well, after I do you, I have some reading to get done for class.”
“Yeah, I have some calc problems to do. So we’ll eat lunch, have sex, then do homework.” I step in the shower, leaving the glass door ajar.
He turns to the sink and picks up his razor.
“Aren’t you coming in?”
“If I do, we’ll be late for lunch.”
I smile. “That’s true.”
On the way to lunch, I check my phone to make sure they didn’t cancel. They didn’t, and I start to feel anxious.
“I’m kind of nervous about meeting Brook,” I say as I put my phone away.
“Why? She’s friends with Harper.”
“Yeah, but they’re not close friends. It’s not like they talk all the time. They just went to high school together. And Brook was a year ahead of her so they weren’t even in the same classes.”
Garret pulls into the restaurant. It’s a sushi place. I don’t like sushi, but I think I’m the only one who doesn’t. Everyone else seems to love the stuff. I don’t get it. I tried it once and it made me gag. Brook suggested the restaurant and said it was her favorite place in town so I didn’t bother suggesting someplace else.
“Looking forward to the sushi?” Garret smiles as he holds the car door open for me.
“Yeah, you’re funny.” I take his hand as we walk toward the entrance.
“Hey.” Garret’s waving at someone in the parking lot. I look and see that it’s Dylan. I’ve never met him, but I did a quick Internet search of both him and Brook so I’d know what they look like.
“You just get here?” Dylan walks up to Garret.
“Yeah, we thought we were late but I guess we’re right on time.”
Dylan puts his hand out toward me. “Hi, I’m Dylan.”
He’s good-looking, but Garret’s way hotter. Dylan’s about six feet tall, with dark eyes and really dark hair. His hair is almost black and the top is spiked up with hair product. He has a dark tan that makes his white teeth look even whiter. He’s wearing a light green polo shirt, khaki pants, and loafers.
“Hi. I’m Jade.” I shake his hand.
Just as he’s about to say something, a tall brunette in a short yellow dress and wedge heels, holding a phone in her hand, walks up behind him. It’s Brook, but I almost didn’t recognize her. She had wavy, shoulder-length hair in the photo I saw online. But now she has long, straight hair, held back with a pair of giant sunglasses perched on top of her head. She’s really pretty; deep-brown eyes, perfect skin, and long legs like a model. Her dark tan and bright white teeth match Dylan’s, like maybe they went to the same dentist and tanning salon.
“Hi! You must be Jade.” She comes over and hugs me. So she’s like Harper in that respect. Harper hugs everyone.
Brook has to really lean down to hug me. I’m guessing she’s at least 5’10, even taller with her heels. And her boobs are huge. They pressed against me when she hugged me and felt hard, like they might be fake.
“Nice to meet you.” I have to look up. Otherwise I’m directly eye level with her boobs. “Sorry it took me so long to call you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She smiles, then looks at Garret. “And you’re the famous Garret.”
She shakes his hand. I’m glad she didn’t hug him. I don’t want those giant boobs rubbing against my husband’s chest.
“I’m not exactly famous, but yes, I’m Garret.”
“Are you kidding? At my old college, every girl on campus was obsessed with you. You must have girls following you around all the time.”
Brook’s really smiling at him, almost like she’s flirting. I don’t think she is. I think she’s just one of those girls who’s super friendly and outgoing, which sometimes comes off like flirting.
“I don’t get recognized much here,” Garret says.
“Don’t the people at Camsburg know who you are? I don’t know how they couldn’t. That reality show was huge.”
“I haven’t had anyone come up to me and say anything about it, so I guess they didn’t watch the show.”
“I watched every episode. I loved that show!” She flips her hair back.
Flipping your hair is a flirting technique, isn’t it? I read in a magazine that it was. And she’s still smiling at him and staring at him. So maybe she is flirting with him. With Dylan standing right next to her. And me right next to Garret.
I try not to judge people right away, but they say first impressions are everything and so far, I’m not sure I like this girl.
Dylan takes Brook’s hand. “We should get a table. We can talk inside.”
The two of them walk ahead of us inside to the hostess stand. Brook’s dress is really short and very tight. It shows off her perfect butt and those legs that seem to go on forever.
I glance over at Garret. He’s not even looking at Brook. Instead he’s looking at me, pulling me into him and kissing my cheek.
“You still nervous?” he whispers as Dylan talks to the hostess.
“No, I’m good.”
“Right this way.” The hostess motions the four of us to follow her. She takes us to a booth, then waits for us to sit down and hands us the menus. “Your waiter will be here shortly.”
Brook’s sitting across from Garret and I’m across from Dylan. Something seems off. When Garret and I used to go out with Sean and Harper, the guys would sit across from each other, leaving Harper and me face-to-face so we could talk.
“Maybe we should switch places,” I say to Garret. “That way it’s easier for you to talk to Dylan.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He steps out of the booth and we switch places. Dylan’s turning off his phone and doesn’t notice. Brook’s also messing with her phone but her eyes dart up when Garret and I switch seats. She looks disappointed. So she wanted him to sit across from her? What did she think was going to happen? She’d play footsie with him under the table? He’d stare at her boobs all through lunch? Maybe I’m reading too much into it. She has a fiancé. She’s not interested in Garret.
Once we’re settled in our seats, Dyl
an asks Garret about a football game that’s on TV later today.
Brook sets her phone down and says, “Do you come here much?”
“To this restaurant? No. We’ve never been here.”
She opens her menu. “It’s really good. Well, not as good as the places in LA but good for here.”
“So does your family still live in Malibu?”
“Just my mom. My parents divorced years ago. My mom loves being single. Right now she’s dating this guy she works with.”
“She’s an actress, right?” Harper told me Brook’s mom was an actress but I’d never heard of her.
“Yeah, she’s on Creston Hills. Do you watch it?”
Creston Hills is a daytime soap opera. I don’t watch soap operas so I’ve never seen it other than when flipping through channels.
“No, I haven’t seen it.”
“My mom plays a woman who runs a perfume company. Her character sleeps around a lot so she gets a new guy to make out with almost every week.”
“I think that would be weird.”
She shrugs. “I wouldn’t mind it. But I can’t act. I tried when I was younger and I was horrible. So I decided to go into public relations. I want to be a publicist someday.” She checks her phone. “So Harper said your major is chemistry.”
“Yeah, it was but I—”
“Hold on.” She puts her phone to her ear. “Ashley! I totally meant to call you the other day. How was Maui? Did the shoot go okay?”
I feel Garret’s arm around my shoulder. He leans over. “You know what you want to order?”
“I haven’t looked at the menu yet.” I open it up. All I see is sushi.
“How about this?” He points to an entree that has beef strips and green beans sautéed in a sauce. “It’s the only thing on the menu I thought you’d eat.”
I smile at him. “You searched the menu trying to find something for me?”
“I did.” He squeezes my shoulder.
“Thank you. That’s very sweet.”
“No problem.” He kisses my cheek, then sits back in the booth, his arm still around me as he talks to Dylan.
I look over and see Brook watching us. She’s still on the phone. She stops talking just long enough to give her sushi order to the waiter, then returns to her conversation. Dylan and Garret order sushi as well and I order the beef strips.
While Brook talks to Ashley, I try to join in Garret’s conversation with Dylan but it’s all about sports and they seem really into it so I just sit there and wait for Brook to finish her call. She finally does when our food arrives.
She stares at my plate. “You didn’t order sushi?”
“I don’t really like sushi.”
“Who doesn’t like sushi?” She pauses, like she realizes how rude that sounds, and says, “I mean, have you ever had it?”
“Yes, and I didn’t care for it.”
“Not everyone likes it,” Dylan says. “My roommate in college hated it. He couldn’t even look at it. So whenever he pissed me off, I brought sushi back to our room and ate it right in front of him.” He laughs. “Brandon. I miss that guy. We had some good times.”
“Brandon was an idiot,” Brook says.
“Yeah, but he was fucking hilarious. Just the look on his face sometimes was enough to make me laugh.”
“So when did you two meet?” She waves her hand at us, but directs the question to Garret. “You must’ve known Jade before you were dating Ava. You and Ava didn’t break up until March, right?”
Brook is completely obsessed with that reality show, which wasn’t even reality. Some actor who looked like Garret just pretended to be him. But maybe it wasn’t just the TV show she liked. Maybe she liked the bad-boy Garret that was in the press all last spring. From the comments online, it seemed like a lot of girls liked that version of him.
“I’d rather not talk about Ava,” Garret says.
“She seemed like kind of a bitch.” Brook leans forward, angling herself toward Garret. “I could never figure out why you two were together.”
Dylan nudges Brook. “He doesn’t want to talk about his ex.”
Brook ignores him. “There was so much drama on that show. My girlfriends and I loved it. In fact, a couple weeks ago, there was an all day marathon of it with the original episodes from high school followed by the new ones. I spent the whole day watching it.”
Is she serious? Who would watch that stupid show in reruns? And why was the cable channel replaying it? Maybe that’s why those girls were following Garret around at the fair. They’d probably just watched all the episodes. I didn’t even consider the show would be replayed like that.
“Did you get paid much?” Dylan asks. “I always wondered how much those people on reality shows make.”
“I didn’t get paid.” Garret takes a drink of his soda.
“Really?” Dylan laughs. “So you just wanted to be on TV, or what?”
Garret shifts a little in his seat. I can tell he’s annoyed with Brook for bringing this up. “I didn’t want to do the show. Ava dragged me into it.”
“You know what you need, Garret?” Brook asks, but she doesn’t wait for an answer. “You need a publicist. Someone who could show people the real Garret. The media made you out to be a villain last spring but I can tell you’re not like that at all. I could make some calls and set you up with a PR agency in LA. I’ll call my mom’s agency. It’s one of the best—”
“No.” Garret cuts her off. “I don’t want that. I’m trying to stay out of the media.”
“Why? You had a huge fan base. You could use that to your advantage someday.”
Dylan turns to her. “Like how?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe he could run for office.”
I bump Garret’s leg under the table. He needs to say something to get her off this topic.
“People vote for a familiar face and name,” she says to Garret. “That’s why celebrities always win elections. You could be governor someday. Or maybe be a senator. I could totally see you doing that.”
“I’m not interested in politics,” Garret says.
“Yeah, he hates politics,” I say. “And politicians.”
Brook’s phone vibrates on the table and she picks it up. “Giselle! Oh my God. How are you? I haven’t talked to you forever. Did you find a dress?”
Dylan rolls his eyes. “Brook’s addicted to her phone. I’ve tried to get her to turn it off when we go out to eat, but having it off makes her so anxious it’s better to just let her keep it on. She even sleeps with the thing.” He mouths the words ‘hang up’ to her. She just smiles at him. He looks back at us, shaking his head. “Total addiction.”
Thankfully, the phone interruption ends any more talk about Garret going into politics. I can’t believe she said that. If she only knew the real story.
Brook remains on the phone as she eats her lunch. Garret notices and quits talking about sports so I can join in his conversation with Dylan. We talk about Camsburg and then Dylan tells us about the college he went to in LA.
Dylan seems like a really nice guy. I figured he would be given that he went out and got that stuff for me when I was sick. But even if he hadn’t done that, I’d still think he’s a nice person. Brook, on the other hand, isn’t as nice as I thought she’d be. I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t think she’d ignore me all through lunch. She didn’t even look in my direction. Instead, she either looked at her phone or stared at Garret.
After we leave the restaurant and are standing in the parking lot, Brook goes up to Garret and says, “Would you mind if I got your picture? My friend, Giselle, loves you and I told her I’d send her a photo.”
“Um, no, I don’t think so.”
“Please. It won’t take long.” She hits the camera icon on her phone.
Garret glances at Dylan.
“She won’t let you leave until you agree to it,” Dylan says. “She’s very persistent.”
“Okay, fine.” Garret stands ne
xt to me, his arm around my waist.
“Can I get one with just you and me?” Brook bites her bottom lip and tilts her head. Very flirtatious. No doubt about it that time.
Dylan doesn’t even notice as he swipes through his phone.
Garret looks annoyed. “Sorry, but I really don’t like my photo being taken so I’ll have to pass.”
“But why?” Brook uses this whiny tone that makes me want to slap her.
“I just don’t.” Garret takes my hand. “Jade and I need to go, but we’ll talk to you guys later.”
Dylan waves, but doesn’t look up from his phone. “Yeah, see ya.”
As we’re walking to the car, I glance back and see Brook with her hand on her hip, pouting because she didn’t get her way. She watches as Garret opens my door, and doesn’t take her eyes off him until we drive away.
“I don’t think I can be friends with her,” I say to Garret.
“I don’t want you to be friends with her. She’s a bitch, and I don’t say that about many people.”
“You thought so, too? I thought it was just me. I thought I was being overly critical. I was trying to give her a chance but she wouldn’t even talk to me.”
“Yeah, what the fuck was that about? She talked on the phone the entire time. Did she even say anything to you?”
“A few things when we first sat down. And then her phone rang.”
He shakes his head. “Fucking rude.”
I didn’t think Garret would react this way. I wasn’t even sure he noticed what was going on over on my side of the table, at least not during the first half of the lunch when he was engrossed in sports talk with Dylan.
“You seem really mad about this.”
“I am mad. Brook treated you like shit. She was a total selfish bitch.” He brings my hand to his lips and kisses it. “Nobody treats my wife like that.”
“I thought you’d tell me to give her another chance. You’re all about giving people second chances.”
“Yeah, well not her. Don’t even talk to her anymore. If she calls, just ignore her.”
“Wow. You really don’t like her. I don’t either. I can’t believe she acted that way. And did you notice how she was flirting with you?”
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