Page 57 of Britta & the Beach Boy
“Oh, yeah. Something like that. I definitely felt off after dinner.” That’s not an outright lie. My worlddidget tipped on its axis. “Did you have fun? How was Rhys?”
Stella rolls her eyes. “Let’s just say my decade-long crush on him is officially over.”
“What! Why?” This news is almost as surprising as Dex’s proposal.
“He’s soooo boring in real life and full of himself. Every time I asked him a question, he’d give me a one or two-word answer. I tried to ask him about the AFL—”
“—What’s that?”
“Exactly. That’s the game they were watching last night. No one’s heard of it besides Australians, so obviously I had questions.” Stella gives her shorts an annoyed tug, then sits back down.
“Maybe he was just into the game.” I take the stool next to her to wait for my cup of coffee to finish brewing.
“You can watch a game and have a conversation at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive. It’s not like you’re going to distract the players from throwing their ball in the right direction.” Sometimes Stella likes to be the center of attention, so I take what she says about Rhys with a grain of salt.
“Dex was weirdly quiet too,” she says. “Not I’m-too-cool-for-you quiet, like Rhys, but not as funny as he usually is. Did something happen at dinner?” She holds my eyes. I look away.
I stare at the French press, willing it to finish and give me an escape, while also debating if I should tell her. Probably not, but I’ve got to tell someone, and Stella is right here. Plus, for as much as she talks, she knows how to keep a secret.
“He proposed to me last night,” I blurt.
Stella sips her coffee, unfazed. “Proposed what?”
“Marriage.”
Her eyes go wide, and she sets her mug down so hard, coffee flies out. Whatever the opposite of unfazed is—fazed?—she’s that. She’s extra fazed. Fazed and confused.
“He asked you to MARRY him? Like with a ring and someone recording the whole thing?”
“Not quite that. More like, ‘let’s have a business arrangement where we get married so I can be an American and you can buyAnnie’s.’”
“Shut. UP.” She slides off her stool, splays both hands on the counter, and leans so close I can smell the vanilla lotion she likes. “HeProposaled you? Like in that movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds and the eagle that snatches the dog?”
I reluctantly nod. I should have never let her watch that movie when we were younger. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Britta, please tell me you said yes.Pleasetell me you’re the star of your own real-life romcom that co-stars the current World’s Greatest Surfer, who also isAustralian.” Stella grabs my shoulders and shakes me. “I need all the details. All. Of. Them.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I’m surprised to see Dad is calling. We’ve already got a call with the whole family scheduled tonight to talk aboutBritta’s,which somehow slipped my mind until right this minute. Maybe because I’m still a little in shock about being proposed to. By a famous, world-champion surfer—as Stella just pointed out—which puts my “no” in a more questionable light.
I click on the answer button and Dad’s face pops up before Stella can shake anything else out of me. “Hi Dad! Say hi to Stella!”
I turn the phone and Stella’s face transforms from a searing glare at me to her biggest smile for my dad.
“Hi, Uncle Pete! Britta’s got big news!”
I flip the phone around so fast I drop it. As I scramble after it, I mouth,don’t say anything,to Stella. She cups her ear like she can’t hear me, and I get close enough for her and only her—not the rest of my dad who’s asking where I went—to hear me.
“I told him no.” I cover her mouth before aWHAT??can explode from her mouth. “I will tell you everything after this call.”
“Fine,” she mumbles through my hand.
I carry the phone to my room and shut the door, then put on a smile for my family. “Hi! It’s so good to see all of you.”
They respond with muffled hi’s. Something is off. They’re too quiet and not making eye contact. Even Georgia isn’t smiling, and she smiles all the time. She’s kind of known for it. Literally, it’s a thing she’s famous for.
Dad puts his screen closer to his face. “Everyone is already here, so we called you now instead of waiting until tonight.”
“Ohh-kay.” The very-serious vibe is making me nervous.
