Page 59 of On The Beach

"What do you know about Dr. Isabelle Volnay?"

"Well, hello to you too," she quipped. "Only that she was looking for you and needed your help to save someone's life. She sounded so sincere. Why?"

"She found me."

"Oh! And?"

"And nothing."

"There must besomethingsince you called me, and you never call me," she said, amused. "Did she swindle you or something?"

Yeah, she swindled my heart right out of my body!

"No, she didn't. She…we had a thing." My voice was rougher than I meant it to be.

"Nick, darling, I don't mean to be a prude, but I want to just confirm, by a thing, you mean you had intercourse with her?"

I laughed despite the heaviness in my chest. Only Lady Arabella Augustus would be so fucking prim about fucking.

"Yeah, mother, we hadintercourse."

"Is she pregnant?" she asked excitedly.

"I doubt it." But maybe not. I did, for the first time in my life fuck a woman without being suited up. That should've been a big freaking neon sign that I was gone for her.

"What's the problem then?"

"I…I think…I fell in love with her."

She gasped and then, after a long moment, said, "Being in loveislike being pregnant. Either you are, or you are not; there isnothinking. So, are you?"

I groaned. "Yes."

"Wonderful," she chirped. "When's the wedding? Where will it be? Maybe we can have the ceremony here in London and then a reception in Boston or New York. What do you think?"

"I've known this woman for like a few days."

"But you fell in love," Mother asserted.

"In any case, she's gone. I majorly fucked up."

"Of course you did."

My friends weren't on my side, and neither was my mother. I was feeling pretty lonely.

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, darling," she said, immediately switching to that maternal tone that somehow felt both comforting and clueless. "You don't want to fall in love and that means you probably ignored how you felt and then created a situation where she had no choice but to leave. Am I right?"

For a woman who I thought was vapid, my mother could beprettyinsightful.

"Maybe."

"Well then, run along, find her, and apologize."

"And you think that will work?"

"Nick, you're a handsome, intelligent, wonderful boy; I can't imagine any woman not falling all over herself to be with you."

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