Page 15 of Hot Stuff

“You met someone.” His laugh had always been easy. We were opposites in that way.

“I did,” I confessed because there was no reason to deny it. I hadn’t just met someone. I was almost positive I’d met the one.

“Fuck, man,” he chuckled. “I should have known. When you kick your feet up and put your hair down, you really know how to live.”

“Jesus, I don’t even know what that means, Abe.” I laughed.

“So… tell me about her. Is she a local from Poppy Beach? Another tourist?” I opened and shut my mouth because it hit me. Abel had been living in the beach town for about two years. He might even know her.

“Her name is Karol Rivas,” I said slowly, hoping like hell he didn’t know her in any way. Especially in the biblical one. I’d hate to have to rip my best friend’s eyes out.

“She sounds familiar… wait… Does she work for the city? The rec center?”

“Yeah.” I swallowed, hoping he wouldn’t say he’d dated her. Abel was a good-looking son of a bitch. I knew he could have his pick of women, but for some reason, he lived like a goddamn monk.

“She’s…”

“What?”

“Kinda young for you, don’t you think?” he asked, serious for the first time since I’d answered his call.

“What?” I frowned.

“I mean, man… she’s what? Twenty-one?”

“No,” I said a little too defensively. “She’s twenty-five,” I corrected. He snorted.

“Okay, but that’s still a big difference.”

“I know that, but… I don’t know.”

“How about you explain it?” he suggested, and I did.

I found myself doing something I’d never done before. I laid it all out. Baring myself, letting me be as emotionally vulnerable as I could be, and shockingly enough, Abel stayed quiet. There wasn’t a sarcastic comment or joke made. He simply listened to every word I had to say. He didn’t interrupt and tease. By the time I was done telling him just how incredible Karol was and all about the way I felt with her, the line was quiet again.

“Abe? You still there?” I asked, feeling a little self-conscious. Through the years, we’d had heart-to-hearts, but with both of us pretty much confirmed bachelors, it’d never been about women.

“So, this… this isn’t just… a hookup? Or a summer fling?”

“If it were, you think I would be home alone and talking on the phone with you?” I asked, and he whistled again.

“Damn, Dan. Look, I know this is going to come off wrong, and I don’t want to burst your bubble or anything, but?—"

“I’m leaving?” I guessed

“Aren’t you? I mean, you could stay longer. You know the condo’s available for you. But the whole point of your trip was to figure out your next move.”

“I know.” And I did.

“I just don’t want you to get in over your head and hurt a good woman in the process.” And that right there was why Abel was my best friend. He said it like it was without sugar-coating it, and because it was sincere, you didn’t get offended by his candor.

“I get that, too. I do. But…”

“You can’t walk away from her?”

“Man, I know I just met her. But, Abe, that first night… man, I was on the balcony and saw the back of her.”

“Right?”

---