by Dyan Sheldon
I said, “Whenever I think one of us is going to ask the other one out, you run away.”
Gabe said it wasn’t like that, and, in any case, he didn’t run; he simply walked very quickly. He said that the time he came to my house he was all set to ask me out but he hadn’t expected ZiZi to be there and it completely threw him. In more ways than one. “I made such a complete fool of myself that all I wanted to do was leave,” said Gabe. When he came to Chelusky’s to see me, he was going to try again, but that time he hadn’t expected to discover that I was dating Dillon Blackstock.
It was a little complicated explaining how I’d come to give the guys at work the impression that I had a boyfriend whose name was Dillon. “I know I should have said I’d made a bet with ZiZi, but it seemed easier to let them think I was dressing differently because of a boy.”
Gabe said I was probably going to think he’s a jerk, but that was what he thought, too. “When I saw you in town that time? You looked so – you know. I thought I’d waited too long to say something. And then in Chelusky’s… Then I knew for sure I’d missed the shuttle.”
I said, “I don’t think you’re a jerk.”
The day after the wedding-reception-no-one-will-ever-forget, ZiZi and I called the bet a draw. Each of us figured she was right. Which probably we are – more or less. We both always said a woman is judged on how she looks; but we didn’t deal with that fact in the same way. It was as if we were standing on opposite sides of the same mountain, trying to work out how to get across it. The bet had made each of us see things from a new perspective. ZiZi said there was no way she’d give up her dresses, her make-up and her curls, but that she knows that none of those things define her as a person; she can use them rather than be used by them. “Plus,” said ZiZi, “I figure you have an advantage if you look all girly but have a kick-ass attitude because they’re not expecting it.”
I’d learned a couple of lessons, too.
I wasn’t going to stick with the pink and the hour-long beauty regime, but I was letting my hair get a little longer and putting on a little make-up and wearing a dress every now and then. It doesn’t mean I abandoned all my principles; it just means that I also have longer hair, make-up and a couple of dresses, and if anybody thinks that implies that I’m naturally better at cooking than theoretical physics they’re in for a major surprise. There’s more than one way to solve most problems; there’s more than one way to be a girl.
On the night of the Howards Walk High School’s Astronomy Club outing to view the Perseids, Gabe picked me up after supper and we drove out to a bluff overlooking the beach. We spread the blanket on the ground. We lay on our backs, staring up at the busy sky, feeling as if we were swimming through the stars.
“This is fantastic.” Gabe reached for my hand. “You want to know the truth, I’m glad no one else wanted to come. It’s better with just the two of us.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that.
ZiZi
Loretta’s right, change is the nature of the universe
After Mr Schonblatt got out of the pantry and Mr Bagley went to his room and changed his clothes, things pretty much went back to normal (in a weird kind of way!). The kitchen staff swore up and down that they didn’t know how he got locked in the pantry. They figured someone shut and locked it without thinking in all the chaos and rushing around, and then no one could find the key for a while. I doubt that Mr Schonblatt believed them, but he went along with it. At least the air conditioning was back on, and anyway, he had Mr Bagley to worry about. (Mr Bagley is a man to make a few minutes in a pantry seem like a vacation in Hawaii.) We finished serving dinner and they had the toasts and the speeches and then almost everybody went outside to dance the night away. Everybody agreed that Mr Bagley had been pretty psycho, plus he’d been drinking, and that bringing down the swan was just an unfortunate accident. So I didn’t get into trouble for that, either.
And Dillon was totally thrilled with the footage he got. He said it just showed how things had a way of working out, didn’t it? If Tobias’s cousin hadn’t given up his year in the wilderness after a month (too hungry, too dirty, too tired of chopping wood and getting wet when it rained), Dillon would have missed the wedding and my Emma Goldman moment (I couldn’t believe it, he knows who she is!).
But here’s the thing. When Dillon and I looked at what he’d shot, it was pretty obvious that I’d backed Mr Bagley into the swan. Maybe not consciously, but pretty deliberately. Dillon said he didn’t think I had it in me. (Who did?!) “I always thought you were one of those girls who depends on guys to take care of them.” Mainly that was his opinion because he was always seeing me when there was some guy doing something for me. And because I was so girly. (Girly and helpless isn’t his type. His first girlfriend wants to be a fighter pilot!) “I thought you were a princess like my sister-in-law. I never thought you’d stand up for yourself like that.” Quel ironic, or what? “I guess I should’ve known if you were friends with Loretta, you must have more going on, but I always saw you hanging with some jock.”
I said I hoped he wasn’t going to have a problem now that Loretta and I had settled the bet and I was going to go back to looking like a girl again.
He said, “No. No problem. You’re still you.”
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To read Dyan’s blog, or for information about her other books, visit her website: www.dyansheldon.co.uk
Other books by Dyan Sheldon
And Baby Makes Two
Away for the Weekend
Bursting Bubbles
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Confessions of a Teenage Hollywood Star
The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love
I Conquer Britain
Just Friends
My Perfect Life
My Worst Best Friend
One or Two Things I Learned About Love
Planet Janet
Planet Janet in Orbit
Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America
Tall, Thin and Blonde
The Truth About My Success
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.
First published 2017 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2017 Dyan Sheldon
Cover photographs © Iryna Hramavataya/Alamy Stock Photo, YAY Media AS/Alamy Stock Photo and Mikalai Bachkou/Alamy Stock Photo
The right of Dyan Sheldon to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-6966-3 (ePub)
www.walker.co.uk
