Manage Me: A Vagabond Romance

by J. D. Fox

  Jacob and I had always gotten along well, but there was an unspoken agreement between us not to delve too deeply into the deep issues. We had fun together; it was how we'd always coped, back to when our dad had died. And as much as I appreciated him making the offer, I really didn't feel the need to confide in him.

  "You're right; I'm enjoying not being known for my name. It's great not being liked for my career or money. But I'm not going off the rails. I'm just taking a break. While working. It's fine."

  "Explain the beard, then."

  I laughed. "Touché. But believe it or not, this thing is pretty popular. The lumberjack look has gotten me a lot of traction."

  "Seeing is believing, bro."

  We'd reached the beach by this point and started looking for a spot to put down our towels. The surf was looking pretty high, perfect water for bodysurfing.

  I looked around for a friendly looking person nearby, and my gaze lit on a brown-haired girl in a green bathing suit reading a paperback on her stomach. "Excuse me?"

  She looked up from her book. "Yes?"

  She wasn't rude, but she wasn't exactly inviting either. "My brother and I are going to go bodysurfing. Would you mind keeping an eye on our stuff? If you're not going to be around for a while, don't worry about it."

  "Oh, sure. My friend ditched me for the bathroom a while ago, so I think I'm good here for a while." She smiled a small smile at me as if to say that this was cool, but she wasn't going to be any nicer.

  "Cool, thanks!"

  Jacob and I spread out our towels, claiming a decent amount of real estate. We dumped the rest of our stuff before I smacked him on the back of the head. "Race you." I turned and started running straight to the water.

  "Are you kidding me?! NOT FAIR!"

  We got to the water and waded in. It was pretty cold, but growing up in the Bay Area had numbed me to swimming in cold water. "You work in corporate takeovers. You know how unfair life is."

  "Screw you. Let's go."

  We made our way further out to the crash zone and spent a good while taking in some great waves. The water might be cold, but the waves were definitely worth it. We stumbled out of the water back to our spot, where the less-than-friendly brunette girl had been joined by a blonde girl with a super high ponytail and, no lie, a yellow polka-dot bikini. The blonde shielded her eyes as she looked at us and said, "Do you guys think that you could get out of the water again, but at, like, half-speed?"

  "Was that an objectifying comment?" Jacob asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Maybe. Is that a problem?"

  "Not as long as you're okay with me objectifying you back."

  Oh God, the rapport had started.

  The brunette rolled her eyes. "Lauren, you're shameless."

  The blonde girl winked at her. "Never said I wasn't."

  Jacob went around the two of them to sit down next to Lauren. He stuck his hand out to her. "Jacob."

  She took his hand with a smile. "Lauren. That's Dakota."

  Dakota raised her hand in a half-hearted wave.

  The two of them started to flirt with an ease that made me jealous as I sat next to Lauren's quiet friend, who rolled her eyes at me in reference to the happy new couple and went back to reading. Thankfully, I'd also brought a book with me down to the beach just in case, and I pulled it out of my bag.

  For some reason, though, I couldn't concentrate on my spy book, and I turned back to Dakota. She wasn't my type at all; I usually went for girls with lighter hair who laughed easily, but there was something about her. She wasn't just easy to look at; she was hard to look away from.

  "Is that any good?"

  She looked up at me and back at the book. "Yeah, pretty good."

  Silence. "What's it about?"

  She pulled it up so I could look at the cover. "It's a historical fiction novel, about the first ever recorded female doctor. She lived in the Middle East."

  "That sounds pretty cool. I don't normally do history."

  "Yeah, that's not really the era of Islam Tom Clancy focuses on."

  Oh, a book snob. Yeah, I wasn't really into the idea of diving into a conversation with this girl.

  "Hey, D."

  Dakota and I both looked up at Lauren. "Jacob and I are going to go grab some food from that spot up the beach. What do you want to eat? Fish and chips?"

  Dakota groaned in anticipation. "That sounds amazing."

  Lauren and Jacob jumped up and walked off in the direction in the beach stand that sold fried seafood and fish tacos. We had a good relationship with them, keeping their cards on the check-in desk. They had the added benefit of not being weighed down with the kitschy tourism of Fisherman’s Wharf.

  As we waited for them to come back with the food, Dakota and I continued to read side-by-side in a silence that, surprisingly, never struck me as awkward. I wanted to say something to her, but something about her attitude made it clear that she didn't feel like being approached. At one point, her phone buzzed. When she checked it, she gave a dismissive snort, but I saw the look on her face immediately before she shoved it back into her bag; a mixture of disappointment, frustration and outright anger.

  "Everything okay?" I asked, hoping to get a little more insight into this woman.

  "Nothing that bears worrying about."

  Damn, this woman had as much give as a brick wall. I had to admit, though, that it made her that much more appealing.

  We continued reading quietly together until Lauren and Jacob got back with a massive amount of food. Lauren put a foldable box full of San Francisco classics in Dakota's lap.

  "Fish and chips, and I got us some tacos to share."

  Dakota laughed. "You know me too well."

  As we ate, we learned more and more about the girls. Lauren did most of the talking; that they'd been randomly assigned as roommates in their freshman year of college and that they'd been inseparable ever since. Lauren had worked in retail for a few years while also building up to being a writer and actress.

  "Dakota, what do you do?"

  Dakota was quiet for a moment, looking at Lauren for a moment before turning back to Jacob. "I'm... in a career transition. Figuring it out."

  Ah, she was probably a spoiled daddy's girl. I noticed that the bag she'd brought to the beach was of one of those expensive brands I'd seen at our high-end resorts in Miami, and the college they'd mentioned was an expensive private school. You either needed great grades or a great wallet to go there; usually both.

  Dakota crumpled the food wrappers into the foldable cardboard box. "Lauren, we should get going if we want to check in at that place downtown."

  Jacob's ears perked up. "Where are you staying?"

  Dakota pulled up a page on her browser. "The Metropolitan Hostel."

  "Oh, that place is a dump. You guys are NOT staying there."

  Lauren raised her eyebrows at him. "Do you have another suggestion?"

  Jacob gave a shit-eating grin. "My brother works at a hostel a few blocks up. We know the owner really well, and could probably get you guys free beds for a few nights."

  I rolled my eyes at Jacob. There was no way I was going to be able to persuade Hartley to open another hostel if Jacob was giving away beds for free. He already thought it was a money pit.

  The girls looked at each other, interested, and Lauren looked back at Jacob. "Sound great! Is it close to here?"

  I nodded. "Five blocks up and one over. It's called Bay Beds Hostel."

  Dakota's mouth quirked up. "Catchy. I like the pun."

  "I'm guessing you guys want a private room?" I asked, pulling out my phone to text Drake.

  "No, it's okay. Do you guys have a shared dorm?"

  "It's all good. It's on the house."

  "Then we'll definitely take the dorm."

  We stared each other down for a moment. "Okay, dorm it is then." She was stubborn, but not entitled. I'd need to add that to my list of things I was learning about her, including a surprising frugality. Had Daddy chewed her out
one too many times about over-spending? This girl was definitely interesting.

  I texted Drake to tell him that they were coming, and put my phone away.

  Dakota stood up and put her book in her bag. "Should we go and check in, Lauren? I could use a shower." Lauren got up too, looking at Jacob reluctantly.

  "Don't worry; I'm staying there too. I'll catch you later."

  She smiled brightly at him and skipped over to where Dakota stood, waiting, with an impatient look on her face. She looped her arm through her friend's and pulled her after her toward the nearby parking lot.

  "Damn, that Lauren...." Jacob flopped onto his back with a dreamy look on his face.

  "Dude, you look like a smitten teenager. It's weird." It was. I'd seen Jacob have crushes for his whole life, but I'd never actually seen him look...dreamy.

  "Dakota was cute. What did you think?"

  "I don't know. I don't really think she was for me. She was pretty rude."

  "I think she's just shy. Lauren said she's always been reserved."

  "Either way, I don't chase girls who aren't into me." At least, I never had before.

  "Well, at least we know one thing for sure."

  I looked at him curiously.

  "That beard definitely doesn't work the way you think it does."

  Chapter 6

  Dakota

  "Ryan was pretty cute, don't you think? Could be fun for you..." Lauren mumbled around her toothbrush that night as we got ready for bed."

  "I don't think so. He seemed kind of judgmental at dinner." I spat into the sink and started putting away all of my toiletries.

  After getting to the hostel and checking in with a guy named Drake at the front desk, Lauren had gone up to the dorm and put everything into the lockers provided with each bed. After a quick shower, we'd met up with the guys for dinner at a cute Italian place around the corner where Ryan said you could get the best cioppino in the city. The food had been delicious, and I'd been happy to see Lauren getting along with Jacob so well. I'd seen her flirt so often that by this point it was nothing new, but there was something different about her vibe with Jacob. She didn't have to try with him. At one point, Ryan had made a comment about my purse being nice.

  "Thanks, Lauren got me her employee discount at the boutique where she worked."

  "Oh, dang. I didn't realize you bought it for yourself. I thought it must've been a gift from your parents or something."

  I stared at him. "Do I give off a daddy's girl vibe or something?"

  "No, that's just an expensive bag, and you're not working right now. In my line of work the young women I meet who carry stuff like that and aren't working are usually having their trips bankrolled either by a father or sugar-daddy."

  "Meet a lot of young women in your industry, do you?"

  "I might've met my share," he said with a cocky wink in my direction.

  I raised an eyebrow at him. I couldn't tell whether he was trying to flirt with me or push me off, but either way, I just didn't have the time or space for another cocky asshole in my life.

  "How nice for you. I hope you don't tell them all that."

  He cocked an eyebrow back at me over his knowing smirk. "You're very judgmental; you know that?"

  "Back 'atcha."

  Thus had ended any other attempts at conversation, and Ryan and I had each acted as individual third wheels until the dinner had ended, and we'd found ourselves on the street, each checking our phones as his brother and my best friend kissed each other thoroughly in the street and ignored us for a good minute so we could all go back to the hostel separately for some unknown reason.

  "He wasn't that bad. I actually think he was trying to be nice to you. Your resting bitch face was really intense today; he was probably intimidated."

  We left the bathroom together and headed for the beds waiting for us in the large dormitory down the hall.

  "I'm so tired I can barely think. It was so cold in the car last night. I didn't even know it got that cold in California."

  We'd stopped at a random spot on the beach between Santa Barbara and San Francisco and had managed to throw most of our things into the front of the car, so we could put the back seats down and stretch out. It was our third night in the SUV, and I'd started getting used to sleeping curled into myself like a shrimp, but it wasn't exactly comfortable. The worst, though, had been the cold. I didn't think Lauren and I had ever gotten as physically close as we'd been in that car.

  "I think it was the wind coming from off the ocean, and my car isn't air-tight. I'm happy we're staying here though, aren't you? This is a cute little place."

  "Yeah, it is. The dorm isn't too overcrowded, either."

  Lauren got into her bed, and though I was staying in the top bunk above her, I sat down next to her so we could talk strategy.

  "What do you want to do tomorrow?"

  "Well, Jacob asked me to spend the day with him, but I can always tell him no..."

  "No, you should! I'll take advantage of that nice lobby they have in the building and do some journaling. Let's at least try that cute soul food place on the corner for breakfast though, yeah?"

  "Totally! That guy Drake said they've got great beignets."

  "Okay, part of my journaling is officially going to be making a list of all the amazing carbs we need to try while we're here. Make sure to ask Jacob if he's got any recommendations."

  "Definitely will. Maybe Ryan will take you to lunch, and we can each get to know a Baxter brother?"

  "Yeah, that's not going to happen. He made some stupid comment about my bag being expensive, and how therefore this trip must be bankrolled by Daddy. Maybe he should talk to his brother about flashing that stupid Rolex all over the place. He was a jerk and hypocrite."

  Lauren stared at me with a knowing little smile. "Methinks you doth protest too much-"

  "Don't Shakespeare me."

  "I think you're into him. You had that whole lumberjack fantasy in college; maybe it's time to indulge it."

  I got up from the bed and started making my way up to the top bunk. "No thanks. I'll find a different lumberjack."

  I heard a snort from the bottom bunk as I settled myself into an actual bed for the first time in three days. "Good night, Dakota."

  I smiled as I fell asleep.

  ***

  I stifled a yawn as I got up and stretched next to my claimed table in the lounge next to the lobby where guests in the hostel could come and go for tea and coffee throughout the day. The beignets were sitting heavily in my stomach; back home I never ate delicious fried carbs for breakfast, and the divergence from my normal routine was affecting me more than I thought I would. I'd drunk a latte with my breakfast, but it was looking like more coffee was in order. I looked doubtfully at the coffee machine: working at a Starbucks in college and years of crappy conference coffee had turned me into a coffee snob.

  "It's actually excellent coffee," said the only other person sitting in the lounge, a sweet-faced young woman journaling at a table nearby. "Drake just made it fresh."

  "Sounds good. I'm dying for a kickstart. Do you need anything from the kitchen?"

  She held out her mug with a shy smile. "A refill? I drink it black."

  "Coming up."

  I went to get my mug of coffee and doctored it to my exact specifications before filling her mug with hot coffee. I brought it back to her table and set it down in front of her, causing her to look up from her diary. "Thanks."

  "No problem." I stuck out my hand. "I'm Dakota."

  "Great name! I'm Amelia."

  "Nice to meet you, Amelia. How long have you been here for?"

  "A few weeks, by this point. Drake's my husband, and he just became the manager."

  "Oh, cool! When did that happen?"

  "A few days ago. The whole thing was kind of a happy accident. Ryan was having trouble with the check-ins on the night we got here."

  "Incompetent, huh? Must be Ryan."

  She grinned. "Rubbed you the wrong way,
did he? Sounds like Ryan. He's actually really smart though."

  "Right. What does he do around here?"

  "Oh, he's the owner."

  I stared at her in disbelief. "That homeless-looking dude I met on the beach owns this place?"

  She shrugged. "So Drake says. I haven't really had a conversation with him, though; he's nice with the small talk, though."

  "Hmmm." I sat down at the table I'd claimed before and took a sip of my coffee. "So what do you do?"

  "I'm a writer. So is Drake, actually."

  "Oh, cool! So am I. Well, trying to be. What do you write?"

  She looked bashful. "Poetry, actually. Drake's a novelist. What about you?"

  "Historical fiction is my favorite. At this point, I'm just kind of organizing my thoughts."

  "Awesome. Why don't you join me at this table? Sometimes it's helpful to have a sounding board to bounce your thoughts off of."

  I looked at Amelia, thoughtful. The only person I knew in this city's out on a romantic adventure, and I hadn't had anyone to talk about my writing with in years.

  I picked up my mug and moved it over. "Well, if you don't mind."

  Chapter 7

  Ryan

  I finished my run and bent forward in front of the hostel, breathing in deeply. Even though I'd technically been outside of my usual routine for a while, I hadn't given up on my runs. There was no way I'd have been able to survive any of the different times in my life had it not been for the energy release brought on by copious exercise. That feeling of restlessness was generally curbed by a busy schedule, which generally went hand-in-hand with managing large-scale resorts; therefore, it made sense that, given my more relaxed days, that itchy feet feeling was beginning to come back. I knew I'd never be able to tell Hartley, though; if I breathed one word to him he'd convince me to head straight down to Big Sur with no time to waste, and the kicker was that I'd actually go. Hartley had always been good at getting me to do what he wanted when he knew which buttons to push.