Page 28 of My First Time Fling

“So?” Mark said, his eyes searching my face when I hung up a few minutes later. “Is everything okay? You sounded surprised, whoever you were talking to. Is your mom alright?”

“That wasn’t her,” I answered absently, staring at the phone in my hand. Had that really just happened? “It was the bed and breakfast owner. Out on Summersea Island. He’s not taking that other offer. He said something about shady contracts and financing and—honestly, I didn’t really understand it. But he’s not selling to them.”

“That’s amazing!” Mark reached out and took my shoulder, shaking me slightly. “Hello? Earth to Jesse? That’s good news, right?”

“I think so.” I blinked and looked up. “He asked if I could come out there this weekend to talk things over. See if we could find a way to make this happen. He was kind of vague about that, though. I wonder what he meant.”

“Who cares what he meant! That’s not just good news, it’s great news. Obviously, you’re going.”

“Yeah,” I said, shaking my head in wonder. “Yeah, I guess I am. It does mean I’ll have to miss our Saturday run, though, unless…”

I trailed off. That was a stupid idea. There was no way Mark would say yes, and even if he would, I couldn’t ask without seeming creepy.

“Unless what? What were you going to say?”

“It’s dumb.” Itwasdumb. But happiness and disbelief were bubbling in my chest, making me want to throw caution to the winds. Fuck it. I’d say it anyway. “I was going to say, unless you wanted to come with me.”

Mark blinked, and I felt those bubbles start to pop. Why the hell had I said that? He was never going to say yes.

Well, at least I still had the visit to look forward to. If that other offer really had fallen through—

“Yeah,” Mark said, pulling me back to reality. “Why not? That sounds fun.”

“Wait, seriously? You want to come to Summersea with me this weekend? Are you sure? It won’t mess up any of your plans, or put a wrench in things with Gigi?”

“Gigi will be thrilled,” Mark said. “And she’s always on my case about how Ihaveno plans, and to be honest, she’s right. So there’s nothing to mess up.” He grinned. “It’ll be like a mini-vacation. I’ll see if I can dig up some of my old road-trip playlists.

“Okay,” I said, trying to make sense of what had just happened. In the space of five minutes, this day had completely turned around. “Okay, yeah. Awesome. That sounds great.”

Not only was Mark not weirded out by Tanner’s creepy insinuations, he was volunteering to spend a weekend with me. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve this, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse, or gift road trip, in the mouth. I was just going to be happy about it—happier than I’d been about anything in a long, long time.

10

Mark

“Awatched pot never boils.”

I turned from my post by the living room window and saw Gigi standing in the hall, her arms on her hips and a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth.

“What?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I’d heard her right. My mind had been…otherwise engaged, to put it mildly. “Did you say something about a pot?”

“Nevermind, sweetheart.” Gigi shook her head. “I was just thinking that you looked nervous. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I answered, not entirely paying attention. I’d already turned to look back out the window. “Everything’s fine.”

Jesse was supposed to be picking me up for our weekend road trip and he was a few minutes late. No normal person would think anything of that. But then, I wasn’t particularly normal. So of course, I’d started thinking about everything that might be about to go wrong.

Jesse might have changed his mind. Might have decided the trip would be awkward with just the two of us. And I couldn’t say I blamed him.

Part of me, a small part that I was trying not to listen to, almost hoped that was what had happened. Because if I never went on the trip, then I would avoid all the other potential fuck-ups just lying in wait for me during the rest of the weekend.

It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, telling Jesse I would go with him. It sounded fun, getting to spend a whole weekend with him and getting to be out of town and away for a while. I’d always liked the freedom that traveling brought, even if it was only a couple of hours away by car.

But then I’d had to explain to Jesse that I wanted him to drive, without trying to make a big deal out of it. I’d told him that I just wasn’t used to highway driving and that I hadn’t been getting very good sleep recently. I’d said I was afraid I might drowse off and get into an accident.

That was at least partly true. I had been sleeping even worse, ever since agreeing to this damn trip. I couldn’t stop worrying about what would happen if I had a panic attack while we were out there. There’d be no way to hide it from him. And what if the bed and breakfast put us in rooms right next to each other, and I woke up screaming?

“Mark, honey, it’s okay to be nervous.”

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