Page 37 of A Quick Stop in Paradise

“I will. Take it or leave it.”

Dammit, there was no getting past her. I took my drink from the bartender and walked towards the girl in question, feeling like I’d forgotten how to move my body and use words. The girl was by herself—should have been an easy in. And yet I felt like the weight of the world was up against me.

I’d done this kind of thing before—going up to strangers and introducing myself to ask questions and get to know them. I just had to see it as an interview with a potential lead. I let out a long breath before I slipped in next to her, catching her eye with a smile. She returned the smile, eyes gleaming. Light eyes. Like Brooklyn’s. Christ, I wasn’t supposed to be thinking of her right now.

“Hey there,” I said. “Do you mind if I stand here a bit, try not to get trampled on the floor for a second?”

“Have at it.” She had a deep voice, a little raspy. “Cute dress.”

“Thanks. It was on clearance at Zara.” I tugged at the hem a little. “It’s not exactly the style of the place here, but it was the best I had. You’re clearly much more… suited.”

She grinned, leaning against the wall. “Getting out of your comfort zone?”

“You could say that. What’s your name?”

“Carmen. And you?”

“Ryan.”

“Nice to meet you, Ryan. What’s prompted you to get out of your comfort zone?”

I didn’t know why the hell I told the truth. “My boyfriend cheated on me as soon as we arrived for vacation with my family, so I dumped him, my family took his side, and now I’m off to explore my repressed sexuality.”

She whistled low. “Hell of a story. Guess I’m glad you’re… bouncing back?”

“Yeah, well—it’s thanks to Brooklyn.” God, I wasn’t supposed to be talking about Brooklyn. “She’s, uh—she’s actually the one he tried to cheat with,” I said, trying to explain as if that made it better—I just didn’t want it sitting out there like Brooklyn was just some hot girl I couldn’t stop thinking about. So I dug my grave further. “She found out he had a girlfriend, so she came and told me about it, and, uh… well, she’s been kind of looking after me. Let me stay the night at her place instead of staying with my ex. She’s a regular here, so she, uh… she took me here.” I normally knew how to talk to strangers. I seemed to have lost that ability.

Carmen grinned, staring wordlessly at me for some time, before, lightly, she said, “So Brooklyn’s showing you how to hook up with a girl.”

“It’s not like that.” I mean, it was. I just wasn’t supposed to be leading like that. I wasn’t trying to go up to a girl in a club and sayhey, wanna fucklike some kind of creep. Though I guess it was what I was after… ostensibly? I didn’t want to sleep with Carmen. The thought felt gross. “I just told her, you know… I never really got the chance to be with a woman in my regular life, so while I was on vacation… I mean, I guess the answer’s yes, it is like that.”

“Girl, you want to sleep with Brooklyn. Just say it with your chest.”

I put a hand to my forehead, leaning against the wall with her, groaning. “I thought I’d be able to do this better.”

“You’re cute, but I’m not looking to be someone’s distraction. She’s straight?”

“She’s very definitely not.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Not interested in you?”

“I don’t… know.” I fussed with the drink in my hands. “She’s definitely out of my league. And it feels a little weird that my boyfriend tried to sleep with her and nowIwant to, uh…”

I didn’t know what temperature my face was. Someone needed to tell the physicists, because I think I could have jumpstarted nuclear fusion. Carmen grinned wider, clearly having the time of her life with this. I think she was enjoying my breakdown over nothing more than she ever would have enjoyed hooking up with me. “And now you want to sleep with her?”

“Well.”

She laughed. “Shy, huh? Not repressing your sexuality anymore probably goes hand in hand with sleeping with women. Kind of the whole deal.”

“I’ve just been a bit… proper, maybe. For quite some time.”

“Is Brooklyn here?”

I answered her question with a glance across the club, to where I got a stomach-stabbing spike of jealousy seeing Brooklyn at the bar laughing it up with a tall, cute blonde who I suddenly despised with every fiber of my being. “She’s, uh,” I managed to say. “She’s the one with the dark bob, crop top… over with the blonde girl.”

“Shit, I can see why you want to try hooking up with a girl when she’s the one around.”

Jealousy spike number two. This was… unbecoming of me. I wanted to go pick up Brooklyn and carry her out of here. Still, I sighed with a lopsided smile at Carmen, relaxing back against the wall. “You see what I mean.”

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