Page 58 of A Quick Stop in Paradise

“Not even a little bit thinking about where she is right now, whether she’s thinking about you?”

Allison groaned. “What’s it going to take to get you to drop it?”

Brooklyn studied her a while longer before, a slight smile tugging on her lips, her eyes a little narrowed, she shrugged. “All right,” she said. “No interest in Miss Jessica, then. I guess we’ll have to keep looking. Do you want to come hang with me and Ryan still, or are you crashing for the night?”

“Come along and third-wheel your date?” she laughed. “Yeah, I’ll pass. Thanks for letting me come along, though. Warn me,” Allison said, shooting me a look, “next time your sister comes along. She’s weird.”

“Like I said, I know that,” I laughed. “I think I specifically won’t warn you, just to see your reaction.”

Allison rolled her eyes, hiking her jacket up her shoulders, turning back in the direction of her car. “Whatever. Have a good night, you two. I’m going to go doomscroll social media until I pass out.”

Once she’d gotten back into her car and started the engine, Brooklyn turned to me with a glint in her eyes. “So,” she said. “Plans for the night?”

“I do, actually,” I said, a quiver in my chest. “And I’d like to ask your… help?”

She smiled wider. “A damsel in distress. My favorite.”

“Oh, I’ve noticed the savior complex. Don’t worry, I find it attractive somehow.” I nudged her arm with a laugh. “So… this is random, but… do you think you’d like to come clothes shopping with me?”

She raised her eyebrows. “Updating your wardrobe, or buying things only I get to see?”

I laughed. “Fornow,the former. I got to talking with Stella… I don’t know. It just made me think. About how much I’ve been presenting myself for other people… for the men in my life, especially. I don’t know. I just want to own myself a little bit.”

She leaned back against the side of her car, hands in her pockets. “You want to look gay.”

“Honestly?” I put my hands up. “Yeah, kind of.”

She broke out into a brilliant grin. “Then you’re asking the right person. Hop in. We’ll stroll down the shopping street while I try to get a read on what kind of gay you want to look like.”

I felt a nervous flurry in my heart. Was this just… a quarter-life crisis? My parents would have a heart attack if I showed up looking too different on top of everything else. But honestly, I just couldn’t figure out how to care. They already didn’t give a damn about me ever since my career change, and I hardly thought they could be more disappointed in me. “That sounds perfect,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze before I stepped around to the other side of the car. “Look at you setting up the perfect date just like that,” I slipped in right before I shut the door, and I buckled in while I waited for her—the car had sat in the heat and was stuffy, Brooklyn’s sandalwood air freshener working overtime to keep it from feeling stale.

She slid into the seat next to me, shutting the door and giving me a resigned smile. “I do have to bring down the mood a little bit, though, I think,” she said. “Now that we’re here. Did you notice?”

“Notice what?”

“Allison. She barely reacted to this whole thing with Jessica. Normally even the slightest interaction with a potential date, or just the suggestion of it, gets her all flustered, shy, awkward. She just brushed it off.”

I shrugged, giving her an odd look. “I guess the girl just wasn’t her type…?”

“So you didn’t notice.” She turned her palms upward. “I’m afraid Allison has a little bit of a crush on your sister.”

“On—what?”

She nodded gravely. “I noticed it at the beach, but I didn’t realize it was already to the point where she doesn’t care about any other girl… that girl locks in hard.”

I shook my head, feeling vaguely queasy. “Oh my god, Stella’s the straightest person I’ve ever met.”

“Such is the lot in life of a queer girl. You don’t know if she got Stella’s number, do you?”

Oh, god, Stella was going to lead on that poor girl to the ends of the earth and back. So much for having that casual encounter after all, as long as Stella was around distracting her. I hadn’t even begun to consider it, but—now that she mentioned it, Allison had been looking at Stella alot.And she really liked that jacket. She’d been a little… goofy and giggly when Stella was around.

Oh, that poor woman.

“Stella…” I started, clearing my throat. “Stella did mention texting Allison updates on…”

“On?”

“On how her hookups with men were going.”

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