Starting across the room, Dr Reid pauses when he catches sight of Holly, who’s now turned to face him. Uh oh, here we go, I think to myself, assuming he hasn’t realised who he’s going to be seeing and now we’re going to have to go through the whole ‘you’re famous!’ routine.
‘But Dr Meyers told me you were almost thirty-six weeks?’ he says, staring at her belly.
‘I know, I know …’
‘What are you talking about? You’re tiny for thirty-five weeks! Why, I’ve got a patient at the moment who’s carrying twins. She’s much larger than you and she’s only thirty weeks.’
Across the room, Holly’s face lights up. ‘Really?’
Dr Reid looks up at her and smiles. ‘Really,’ he says, his eyes twinkling.
I think it’s the twinkle that gives him away, because Holly laughs now and batts her eyelashes. ‘Oh, Dr Reid. I bet you say that to all your whale-sized twin-carrying patients.’
Fifteen minutes later, Dr Reid sits the three of us down on the sofa together.
‘Well, everything looks good. Like I told you, your blood pressure is up a little from where Dr Meyers said it was sitting at last week, but nothing to be concerned about as of yet. Both the babies’ heartbeats are lovely and strong and you seem in perfect health otherwise. What I’d like to do is to see you again tomorrow, just to make sure everything’s continuing on this track and we’ll take it from there.’
‘So there’s no need to go home?’ my dad asks.
Dr Reid pauses for a second. ‘I don’t think so. Unless it would give you some peace of mind.’
‘I don’t think tearing three teenage girls away from Waikiki Beach would give me any kind of peace of mind at all,’ Holly laughs. ‘In fact, I’d probably never hear the end of it.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ I tell her. ‘If you want to go home, of course we won’t mind. We can come back to Hawaii anytime. Like … five minutes after B and G are born. You know, so you can recuperate.’
Holly shrugs. ‘It was a nice try. It sounded like a better excuse than me wanting to stick around and drink mocktails by the water’s edge.’
Dr Reid smiles. ‘Sounds like the perfect prescription to me. Just stick to the fruit-based ones, rather than the cream-based ones, or you really will end up the size of a large ocean-dwelling mammal.’
‘Will do.’
‘Now, here’s my card,’ Dr Reid says, getting up from his armchair. ‘Any time tomorrow’s fine to stop by the office. Just give my secretary a quick call first to make sure I’m not busy with a delivery. Don’t worry about getting up. I’ll let myself out.’
‘Thank you,’ the three of us call out as Dr Reid disappears.
‘I still think we should go home,’ my dad grumbles, before the door even clicks shut.
But Holly just gives him a quick kiss and shakes her head. ‘The nice doctor said I needed my fruit. And where else can I get such great mocktails?’
‘He did not say that and …’
Right. Time for me to leave, exit stage left (through the inner door to our apartment). ‘Going now. Getting pizza tonight. And maybe a DVD. See ya.’
I make my escape. Fast. I know a smoochie poochie coochie scene coming when I see one and while I think that, at sixteen, I should be starting to get over this, something’s telling me it’s the kind of thing you never get over. Kind of a universal, ageless gross out.
‘How’re things next door?’ Nat calls out from the sofa as I quickly shut the door behind me.
‘Slightly too steamy.’ I roll my eyes.
‘Huh?’
Alexa looks up knowingly. She turns to Nat. ‘They only just got married. Remember?’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes. Oh. My feelings exactly.’ I go over and plonk down on the sofa myself. Nat continues to study me. ‘What?’ I ask her.
‘Is it … is it weird that she isn’t your mum?’
‘What?’ I turn my head to give her a strange look. I have no idea what she’s talking about.
‘NAT!’ Alexa butts in.
But I can see that Nat’s not poking fun. ‘What do you mean?’ I ask her, leaning forward.
‘Well, you know, that your dad’s into someone else. That he got married again. And that he’s happy and stuff.’
‘Um …’ I really don’t know how to answer this. ‘Okay. I’m glad that he’s happy. For a long time, he wasn’t happy, you see. Which made me unhappy. And he couldn’t exactly be happy with my mum …’
‘Because she’s dead?’
‘NAT!!!’ Alexa’s eyes almost pop out of her head.
‘Well, yeah.’ I shrug, almost laughing. In a way it’s kind of nice to have someone put it to me so bluntly. Usually people dance around the whole topic.
‘Okay. That’s all I wanted to know.’ Nat, who seems quite satisfied with my answer, settles back into the sofa comfortably.
But, next to her, Alexa keeps giving her stern looks. ‘What are you talking about, Nat? What’s weird about it? People’s parents get divorced all the time, they get remarried. You know that.’
Nat shrugs. ‘Not my parents. Not your parents. And Nessa’s parents didn’t get divorced either. Her mum died.’
‘As you keep reminding her.’
‘Oh. Um, sorry, Ness. I didn’t think.’
I’m the one who shrugs now. ‘It’s okay. She is dead.’ And just when I think I’m okay with all of this, something weird happens. My eyes dart towards the door that I’ve just come through and I realise that, somewhere deep down inside, there’s a fragment of me that does kind of wish it was my mum next door with my dad. And it’s not that I don’t love Holly – who wouldn’t? It’s just that, sometimes, very rarely, I’ll remember what might have been and I’ll miss my mum just that little bit more than usual.
‘Ness?’ I hear Alexa’s voice and turn my head towards her.
‘Mmm?’
‘Pool?’ she asks. But her eyes are asking something different. More like, ‘Are you okay?’
I nod in answer to both questions. ‘I thought I’d need a nap, but I’m doing okay. The pool sounds good. But the pool and Pringles sound even better. I can hardly believe it, but I think I walked my pancakes off on the twenty steps home.’
Hurriedly, the three of us get changed, slap on some sunscreen and our hats, stock up my beach bag with the essentials (mags, Pringles, bottles of water, sunglasses) and, towel-shouldered, head upstairs to the rooftop where there’s a pool, spa and a small fitness centre.
With a ‘ding’ the lift belches us out onto the rooftop.
‘Hey, girls. Look at the view!’ Nat says before we’re even out on the tiles, and she’s not talking about Waikiki, spread out below us. No. She’s talking about the three guys hanging out by the pool. The three guys who are Jason and, I’m guessing, Seth and Connor.
Nat turns around so her back is to the boys for a second. ‘Bags me the one in the pool.’
‘Bags me locking you in the apartment for the rest of the week,’ Alexa counters, all of our eyes flicking to the guy who’s obviously the best looking of the three.
‘Party pooper.’ Nat sticks her tongue out.
But Alexa’s close to right. These guys are way too old for Nat. They must be a bit older than us – about the same age as Marc, Holly’s nephew. Speaking of Marc, I called him just this morning to see how things were going in LA. Like I said before, he used to live with us, but he’s at film school there now, though on Spring Break at the moment, of course. Holly had tried to convince him that we’d pick him up in the pj on the way to Hawaii, but he’d said he was too busy working on a project and that we’d see him the minute the twins were born.
‘Hey, it’s Nessa, right?’ Jason, sitting on the edge of the pool with his legs dangling in the water, calls out, holding up one hand to shade his eyes.
Nat winks at me before she turns back around again.
‘Choker chain,’ I hear Alexa mumble under her breath. ‘Choker chain. Preferably attached to the bottom of t
he pool.’
‘Hi.’ I wave slightly and the three of us start on over to the edge of the pool.
‘And, um …’ Jason continues.
‘Nat and Alexa,’ I tell him.
‘That’s right,’ he says and, standing there at that moment, I start to get the feeling I don’t think I’m going to like Jason much. It’s not even what he’s said so far. I mean, it can’t be. He must have said, what, less than fifty words to me? No, it’s how he’s said it. He’s just a bit … cocky, as my dad would say. Just that little bit too sure of himself. A little bit too … (as Marc would say, to quote all the men in my life in quick succession) LA. Hmmm. I tune back in as he continues, ‘This is Connor and … Seth. Hey, where’re you going, man?’ he calls out, as Seth starts to make his way out of the pool.
‘The fitness centre,’ Seth says, not looking at either Jason or Connor as he pulls himself out and up onto the tiles. The five of us watch as he towels himself off and starts towards the fitness centre. ‘Nice meeting you, Nat, Alexa, Nessa.’
‘Um, yeah. You too,’ I say as he passes me by. Nat watches him leave, open-mouthed (he really is the best-looking one and that exit from the pool – well, I can hardly blame her). Beside me, Alexa also watches him go, before her eyes slowly flick to mine and her eyebrows raise. ‘What was that about?’ her left eyebrow says, while her right eyebrow says, ‘Oh, Ness. He is sooooo your type.’
The next hour or so turns into a bit of a party, with the five of us hanging out in the pool, on the sun loungers, in the pool, on the sun loungers (well, there’s only so much sitting in water a gal can take, you know!). As we chat, I start to get over my initial dislike of Jason. I can see we’re never going to be best friends, but he’s okay. Both he and Connor seem like reasonably nice guys, though I have to admit there are a few things they say that don’t quite add up. For a start, one minute I’m talking to Jason and it seems like they’re renting the place upstairs, and the next minute I hear Connor telling Nat that it’s Seth’s father’s apartment. And are they at film school, or not? I think it’s Connor who tells me that all three of them are in their second year of film school, but then Jason just says that they’re all at college together.
When I ask Connor which film school it is, he’s kind of evasive. He ends up talking about the school itself, but never saying which one it is, and I only realise this afterwards. Hmmm. It’s kind of weird that I can’t make sense of what’s going on. Still, I shrug it off. I’d just look silly if I started questioning the two guys endlessly, like I was running some kind of an interrogation (pass me that lamp, will you? Oh, and those clamps). We’re all having a good time (well, except for Seth, who never comes back from the fitness centre), so I let it slide. I’m probably just being over-cautious again. You know, because of the Ben/Ned/Justin thing. It’s not like I have to date these guys. I just have to sit in a pool with them. So I let it all go, sit back and enjoy the sun on my lounger. And then the pool again. And the lounger again and then the pool …
Another half hour sees my fingers getting decidedly pruney for the second time today, so I decide I might try something else. It’s then that I spot the sauna at the other end of the deck, partially hidden by a wooden screen. I jump up, towel in hand.
‘I’m off to boil my brains out in the sauna. Um … you two want to come?’ I feel a bit prudish not including the guys in my invitation, but how well do I know them, after all? I’d feel a bit weird being locked in a tiny steamy room with two guys I met about an hour ago. Then again, I tell myself what my dad would say about me having a sauna with two older guys I met about an hour ago and decide I’m right after all. Or even if I’m not right, at least my allowance is safe and I still have a lot of Hawaiian shopping to do.
‘No thanks,’ Nat pipes up, sitting cross-legged in the pool’s beach entry.
‘I’ll stay here.’ Alexa gives me an ‘as if I’m letting this one out of my sight’ look before I head off and I try not to laugh.
I trot on over the warm deck till I get to the sauna, turn it on and settle myself on the top bench inside.
I don’t last long.
There’s just something about saunas and me that don’t mix well. I keep trying them out, to see if I’ve got over it yet, but somehow I never seem to. I’m not sure what it is. I love the smell and the heat, but the tiny room thing – shudder. I think that might be it. It’s something about the heat, about it getting hotter and hotter while I’m in such a small space. It’s all a bit Hansel and Gretel – like someone’s trying to cook me. Within about five minutes I’ve moved from the top bench to the bottom bench. Within another five minutes I’m sitting on my towel on the floor. And another five minutes after that, I’m bursting out the door and running for the plunge pool around the corner from the sauna, also shielded from the view of the pool by the wooden screening.
Yeeeaaahhh! With a hop, skip and a jump I’m at the side of the plunge pool and am ready to leap in. Except … oh.
I stop in my tracks. ‘Sorry. I’ll, um …’
‘Don’t be silly. There’s plenty of room.’ Seth shuffles over.
I hesitate. I really want to get into that plunge pool, but Seth didn’t look like he wanted company before. ‘Really? It’s okay?’
Seth’s eyes laugh. ‘I won’t bite. I promise.’
‘Well, okay.’ I start towards the steps.
‘Oh no. You’ll never get in that way. You have to jump. That’s why it’s called a plunge pool.’
‘Oh, um. I guess you’re right.’ I eye the pool suspiciously. I know how cold these things are. I’ve braved them in the past.
‘Quick. Before you cool off too much from the sauna. Go! Go, go, go, go, go.’
I realise Seth’s right. So, with another yeeeaaahhh! I jump on in without thinking.
‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.’ My teeth chatter when my head resurfaces and I finally find I can speak again. ‘Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod.’
‘Cold, huh?’ Seth laughs.
My teeth still chattering away, I nod. Hard.
‘Apparently it’s really bad for your blood pressure.’
I take a deep breath, becoming more accustomed to the cold now, and sit on the ledge across from Seth.
‘Really? I’ll have to tell Holly to stay away then. She’s my stepmother. She’s pregnant with twins and we’re kind of worried about her blood pressure.’
Across from me, Seth looks kind of taken aback. Too much information at once, maybe? But then he moves around in his seat and when he focuses on me again, his expression has changed. ‘That’s no good. Is she okay?’
‘We think so. They’re checking her out again today and if her blood pressure’s gone up again, we’ll go home, I think. She’s being obstinate, though. She wants to stick around for the mocktails and the shopping.’
Seth laughs. Then …
Silence. The two of us look around the deck, as if we’ve left something interesting to say over by our towels. ‘I’m, um, sorry we intruded before,’ I end up blurting out.
‘Sorry?’
‘Well, you know. You left in such a hurry. I figured you didn’t want us around.’
Seth sits up now. ‘Oh, no. It wasn’t that. Sorry if it looked like that.’
‘Oh.’
‘It was … it’s just Jason and Connor.’ He looks away.
‘Did you have a fight or something?’ The words come out before I can clap a hand over my mouth. Oh great. How old do I sound? About five years max is my guess.
‘No, nothing like that.’
‘Right.’ That’s your cue to shut up, Nessa.
‘Let’s just say they can get on your nerves. They can be a bit of a handful sometimes.’
‘Ah, now that I can understand,’ I say. ‘Maybe Alexa and I are lucky we only have one Nat with us. Not two.’
‘The fun-loving type, is she?’
‘The boy-crazy type, more like it.’
Seth looks like he knows what I’m talking about. ‘I’ve got a s
ister like that. She’s fourteen.’
‘Yeah, Nat’s fourteen too.’
‘Maybe it’s a fourteen-year-old thing.’
‘I think it’s more of a fourteen-year-old Nat thing. She’s one of a kind.’
Seth laughs again. ‘Now that you mention it, so’s Cookie.’
‘Cookie?’
‘My sister’s baby name. She had a bit of a thing going for cookies. She’s been trying to drop the name forever, but it isn’t working. Her real name’s Johanna.’
‘Oh.’
‘Well, I’d better be getting out. I’ve got some work to do.’
‘Okay. Nice talking to you.’
Seth smiles back at me as he gets out of the plunge pool. ‘You too, Nessa. Have a good vacation. I hope your stepmother’s blood pressure stays okay.’
‘Thanks. And I will!’
I watch Seth as he grabs his towel and disappears around the wooden screen, headed back towards the pool. Hmmm. That’s funny. No weird vibes from him at all, like I’d got from Jason and Connor. He seems like a nice guy. A genuine guy.
Maybe Alexa’s right eyebrow knew what it was talking about after all?
‘And then Jason said –’
‘Nat, if you mention either Jason or Connor one more time tonight, I’m going to smother you with this pillow,’ Alexa butts in, holding said pillow up threateningly from the opposite end of the sofa.
‘But …’
‘No buts. And no more Jason. Or Connor. Here. Have some more pizza. A lot more pizza.’
‘You’re just trying to shut me up.’
‘You think?’
‘Now now, children. Play nicely,’ I intervene and the pair of them both end up glowering at me in the half-dark, like I’m the baddie. ‘Right then. Maybe we should put the movie on?’
‘Good idea. And let’s all remember it’s rude to talk during a movie.’ Alexa gives Nat a knowing look. ‘What did you pick out in the end?’
‘How to Marry a Millionaire,’ Nat says, holding up the DVD box.
How to Date a Millionaire Page 4
