“I will,” he adds with a sly smile.
A high pitched eep forms in my throat. Luckily, I don’t think he can hear it over the radio Katia put on too loud to make people leave. Right on cue, she comes back from the storage room. She stops and gawks at the gorgeous, muscular man who’s evaluating our yogurt choices.
“Which is your favorite, Jaz?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder.
Katia does a double take between me and him, her large eyes getting even wider.
“I like espresso the best,” I say. “But I also do the plain if I’m in a toppings mood.”
“Great choices,” he says. He pours a bit of each into his cup and wanders over to the toppings.
There’s a variety of candy, nuts, and cereal in little bins at our dry toppings bar. Then there’s a refrigerated section with fresh fruit, whipped cream, boba, and dessert pieces. Last, there are hot toppings with warm sauces.
Katia slinks up to my side and whispers sharply. “Who is that?”
“Aaron. He’s a… friend of the family.”
“You have better family than I do,” she says. “That would be an amazing rebound.”
She goes to refill the M&M’s before I can argue.
“Excuse me,” she says, stepping around Aaron and giggling.
He gets out of her way and gestures toward the bins. “All yours,” he says.
His Nashville accent is more pronounced, or maybe I’m just prepared for it.
I’m watching him evaluate the toppings when my phone dings. I look down and it’s a message from Cari.
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Cari
So sorry! I can’t get you right now. Can you take Lyft? I’ll pay for it.
I groan and it’s loud. Much louder than intended. Aaron turns, so does Katia.
“What happened?” she asks. Her doe eyes are filled with concern. We were never close until we bonded over Paul wanting to see other girls, and now I’m sure she thinks my groan has something to do with him.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I say. “Just that my ride bagged.”
“Man, I’d drive you, but I’m being picked up,” Katia says. “I can ask Lee…”
“Nah, it’s not a big deal. I’ll call Lyft,” I say. There’s no way I’m going to third-wheel her date.
Aaron places his yogurt on the counter. I eye the toppings he picked: chocolate candies on the espresso fro-yo, with some almonds and pretzels. Maraschino cherry sauce and chocolate brownies on the vanilla side. Classic.
“I can give you a ride home if you want,” Aaron says. His voice is deep and reverberates through me.
“It’s okay,” I say, being polite.
I stare at him and it’s like his skin doesn’t even have pores. He’s just so perfect. He stares back and raises his eyebrows, and I realize I forgot to tell him the total—my only job right now. He hands over a credit card and I remember (barely) to ring him up. I flip the screen toward him. He leaves a huge tip on six dollars of fro-yo. There’s nothing I can do to stop him because it’s already processed.
“You really didn’t have to do that,” I say.
“Not a problem,” he says. “And dropping you off is no big deal.”
“Is it on your way home?” I ask.
He smiles. “No. But it’s not far. I live downtown.”
“Oh. I don’t want you to have to go out of your way,” I say.
I can feel Katia’s eyes on me like: Wtf, take the ride with the smoking-hot guy who knows you somehow. But I hate inconveniencing people. Even if he looks like he’s been sculpted and I just want to find out how his nose is that straight. Paul had to get his nose fixed after breaking it playing soccer, but I doubt Aaron’s had surgery. He has the easy confidence of someone born perfect. Cari is that way too. Like they have never once tripped down the stairs… or over a gift table.
“No pressure,” he says, “but I’d feel better if one of my sisters was driven home by someone she knew rather than by a rideshare.” He shrugs and picks up his yogurt.
My dad drives for them, but even he says I need to be careful. Just commonsense things like not ignoring a gut feeling on a driver and paying attention to the route. My gut feeling on Aaron is he’s a nice guy who is unreal hot.
He takes a bite as he stands in front of me. “You were right about the espresso. It’s really good.”
“How many sisters do you have?” I ask.
“Three. All younger,” he says. “We’re like steps: twenty…” He points to himself. “Eighteen, sixteen, and a real bratty fourteen.”
He swipes his phone and shows me an incredibly beautiful family standing by a lake. He’s in a blue button-down and his sisters are in light blue dresses, and there’s an older woman with them who must be his mom.
“What a gorgeous family,” I say. “Did your dad take the picture?”
“No. He was deployed. My mom really raised us. And she’d have more than a word with me if I didn’t offer to drive you or at least wait with you to make sure the driver looks okay.”
And I’m charmed. He’s almost offensively charming.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to upset your mom…,” I say.
“You shouldn’t.” He smiles. “She’s one tough lady.”
“She must be so proud of you,” I say.
He smiles and looks down at the counter. “She’s glad I made it.”
There’s something off about the way he says it. It feels like there’s more, that I got a glimpse under his surface, but I don’t know him well enough to ask. He smiles again and his expression shifts back to unaffected and pleasant.
The older couple leaves and now it’s just the college students left.
“Eff this,” Katia says under her breath. She walks away and suddenly it gets darker in the store as she turns off the lights.
The girls get the very subtle hint and leave.
“Excuse me for a minute,” I say to Aaron. “We need to shut everything down, but… stay right there.”
“Sure. Take your time,” he says.
Katia and I run through the remainder of closing the store, from putting away the refrigerated toppings to tallying the register. I’m not sure who wants to get out of here more—me or her.
I keep glancing at Aaron, certain I imagined someone that good looking who’s content to sit and wait for me. Paul flipped if I wasn’t ready to go when he came to get me. Not in the store, of course, but in the car afterward. I used to text him after we finished closing just to make sure I wouldn’t keep him waiting. I’d sit outside alone and that never bothered him. And it never occurred to me to mind because he was going out of his way to drive me.
Maybe I should’ve expected more.
I lock the back door of the shop and we all go out the front. We stand in the muggy air, the three of us facing each other.
“Thanks for lettin’ me hang out, ladies,” Aaron says.
“Anytime,” I say.
“You should come by again,” Katia says, giving me the world’s most obvious stare.
And I thought my family was bad.
A second later, and not a moment too soon, a Jetta pulls into the parking lot.
“Well, there’s my ride,” Katia says. “You two have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
She departs with a wink and gets in the car. She leans across the console and kisses the person I assume to be Lee. So, yeah, I’m trying not to be uncomfortable with the make-out session in front of me and Aaron next to me. But where am I even supposed to look?
A very long minute later, the Jetta reverses and drives away with a honk.
“So what did you decide?” Aaron asks. “Lyft, or can I bring you home? I’m good with either. I don’t want you to feel pressured to get in the car with me. No make-out session required.”
I laugh and my phone dings.
I fish around in my purse, but now I’m totally thinking about making out with Aaron. I miss my phone several times.
“Sorry, let me just
see if this is Cari,” I say.
His eyebrows knit. “Who?”
“My sister,” I say.
“Oh. Carissa. You call her Cari?” He smiles. “You guys are cute.”
“Maybe, but she’s the one who bagged on driving me home. So I don’t exactly find her cute right now.” I finally locate my phone and unlock it.
It’s not Cari. It’s June. Emily is upset and June wants to go over there tomorrow. I’m volunteering at the animal shelter, but I’m sure I can fit it in. I’ll text them back as soon as I get home.
I drop my phone into my bag.
“Is she busy with her boyfriend?” he asks.
“Cari?” I say. “No, she doesn’t have one. I don’t think she’s ever had one.”
For all her obsession with romance, my sister has never had a real relationship.
He raises his eyebrows. “How’s that possible? Even my youngest sister has one. I don’t like that Cam the Snot Monster has a boyfriend, but I’ve accepted it. Kind of.”
He makes a face and I laugh. There’s something sweet about the way he talks about his sisters, even the one he’s calling a mucus goblin. It’s protective without being overbearing.
“Um, if your offer still stands…,” I say.
“No, sorry, it expired.…” He looks at his wrist, which doesn’t have a watch. “Five seconds ago. Darn. You were so close.”
He smiles slowly and hits a button. The lights of a fancy red Audi flash. He gestures toward the car.
I follow him to the passenger door. It has all the sleek lines of a car that costs too much. “Nice spaceship,” I say.
“We haven’t even blasted off yet.” He raises his eyebrows once and I look away, shyly. He opens the passenger door and closes it behind me. I half fall, half sit in the seat, but let’s pretend that didn’t happen.
The interior is all leather and space age. I feel cool just for being inside it. And for the first time in my life, I want people to notice me. I want people to see that I’m in this hot car with this gorgeous guy. I want attention. I want kids who were at that bonfire in middle school to walk by right now. Especially the one who said, “Not you, never you.” Because even though Aaron’s just being nice, they wouldn’t know that.
Aaron syncs his phone and loads directions to my house. I wonder how he knows where I live, then I remember he was at my party.
My stomach knots at being alone with him and this close. He smells like an October day—the moment when the humidity suddenly drops and the air is crisp. And he seems to be leaning a little farther toward me than necessary, but then he sits up straight once the directions start.
“Seriously, thanks for the ride,” I say.
“No problem. I was hoping to see you anyhow,” he says.
“You were?” I ask. “Why?”
I sound as shocked as I am. Nervousness tingles up my spine.
He laughs, reverses, and follows the turn-by-turn. “Well, I was thinking if you were free Saturday night, you and your family could come out to a game.”
“Oh,” I say. We’ve never been to a Minor League game, and I don’t really watch baseball, but it could be fun.
“I’m pitching on Saturday,” he adds.
“Oh!” I say. It’s way, way too loud.
His eyes dart over to me.
“I’d love to,” I say at normal volume. “I don’t know what my parents are up to, but I’m sure Davey or Cari will want to come.”
“Great. I’ll have three comped tickets waiting at the window. Just say you’re my guests.”
“That’s really sweet, but we can pay for them.”
“I get family tickets and mine is in Nashville. It’d be nice to see some familiar faces in the crowd.” He glances over at me. “Especially when they’re so pretty.”
I’m grateful for the dark because I’m sure I’m blushing redder than the car as we blast off to my house. But going to his game wouldn’t be a date. Not when we won’t even talk to each other. He’s just being kind and he needs friends in town.
I think.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The next morning June shows up at my door right on time. She’s going to take me to see Emily, then give me a ride to the shelter. Cari promised she’d pick me up after my shift… this time.
Turns out, she’d accidentally scheduled an hour-long Bachelor Reddit AMA for last night rather than tonight. I can’t believe so many people have things to ask my sister, but I’ve seen her accounts explode with notifications, so it’s just something I don’t understand.
Her abandoning me didn’t turn out badly, though, because Aaron was there. He and I listened to old country the whole way home, and we exchanged numbers. I have no idea why someone like him would be interested in me, but I’m trying not to overthink it. The same way I’m trying to not overthink hanging out with Justin tomorrow. It’s not possible that two boys would ask me out in one week, so I’m rolling with it.
I crash into the passenger seat of June’s silver Ford Mustang, and she hands me a Dunkin’ iced coffee. There’s also a hazelnut cappuccino in the cup holder, which must be for Emily.
“Have you been able to get in touch with her?” I ask.
June shakes her head. “Not today. She said yesterday that everything was a mess and didn’t text back, hence the drop-in.”
“What do you think is up?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” June says. “Maybe something with her sister or her mom? Can’t be a boy because she hasn’t dated anyone since Shawn—thank God.”
I purse my lips. That disaster was kind of on me.
Paul and I had introduced Emily and Shawn. They hit it off right away but quickly became the most dramatic teen couple. Screaming, crying breakups, passionate makeups, jealous outbursts, all of it kind of a miniversion of her parents—which we could never point out because she would’ve lost it.
It was a long senior year.
But it’s a short drive to Emily’s house. She lives around the block from Paul. I don’t like the idea of being in his neighborhood, but at least we’re in June’s new Mustang and not my borrowed Corolla.
The Reyes family, like a lot of people in Winter Park, has a ton of money. I’m not sure what Paul’s parents do other than be rich and flaunt it. I used to be super self-conscious about parking the Rolla beside a Bentley and a winged Mercedes. Before that, I’d be embarrassed when my mom came to get me in her beat-up old Honda. And I hated thinking that way. I don’t care about flashy things, and I was grateful for the ride. I’m proud of my mom and dad for working so hard. But… I noticed.
Paul never tried to make me feel better or worse about it. But he would make little comments about eating in my car, saying it was “just” a Corolla. Maybe he didn’t know those comments hurt.
He messaged again this morning, asking if we could talk, and I haven’t answered yet because, for one, Emily comes first, and two, I don’t know what to say. We’re not supposed to talk until August, and against all odds, I’m enjoying this break. Something tells me seeing him won’t do me any good.
I push the thoughts away as we pull up to Emily’s circular driveway. June grabs the cappuccino and we ring the bell. Elaborate chimes echo through the interior, and after almost a minute, Emily finally answers.
Her hazel eyes are red rimmed and she’s still in pajama pants and a tank. She has the same complexion as Cari and is nearly as tall, but she’s slouching right now.
“We brought you a cappuccino,” June says, holding it out like a peace offering. Emily looks her way but doesn’t take it.
“Come in, I guess,” she says.
“Are you okay? What’s going on?” I ask, after we close the door. June and I linger in the enormous entryway.
“Parent drama,” Emily sighs. She paces around on the marble floors like she’s trying to warm the tiles with her feet.
“Are they… not getting along again?” June asks, diplomatically.
“Not getting along” is the understatement
of the year. One day when we came to pick up Emily, her mom was tossing her dad’s stuff… off the second-floor balcony.
Emily finally stops pacing. “No. It’s worse. They want to try one more time.”
I wrinkle my brow. I thought her parents getting back together would be a good thing. For a while that was all Emily wanted—just to have her family whole again.
“And you don’t want that anymore?” I venture.
Her eyes become glossy. “No! They collapsed my whole world because they couldn’t ‘make it work.’ And I accepted it. I accepted that ‘adults change’ and that ‘we all needed to let go.’ And now they want to try? Now they’re all second honeymoon because they’re ‘ready’? Seriously? It’s such bullshit.”
I don’t know what to say. My family and June’s family never went through anything like this. The best we can probably do is let Emily vent and be here to listen.
Emily finally takes the cappuccino but pauses before she takes a sip. “You know, some people don’t need a second chance when things ended for a reason.”
She stares at me, and her words sink in and sting. But she’s not talking about me, right? Things didn’t end with Paul—not exactly.
“Last night they had me sit with them at Lantern & Jacks and gave me the ‘why are you upset, honey’ faces, and I can’t take it,” she says. “I’m not going through this again. They’re the exact same people they were a year ago, and if they’re going to do this, I’m going to move out. Jaz, are you still getting a place in August? Would you want to move now?”
Both June and Emily turn their heads toward me. Put on the spot, I say what comes naturally.
“Uh.”
Brilliant. But I’m spinning on the fact that she randomly went to Lantern & Jacks, a place booked solid for months. My mind turns to Eugene, who I’ve determined is never going to text me. But now is not the time for that.
Moving. Right. I don’t know. I don’t know a thing. I put the whole situation on pause until August 1. It doesn’t make sense for me to move if I’m not with Paul, since living at home would save me a lot of money. I could even help with my parents’ second mortgage if I didn’t owe any rent.
“I don’t know…,” I say. “I… so much is going on.… I haven’t really thought about moving since before the party.”
The Jasmine Project Page 10