“All I’m going to say is that after our talk, I want you to give Lexi a chance. She has seen the light and realizes that the stuff she got up to in high school doesn’t fly in the real world. I told her the quickest way for you to get mad at her was for her to pull her ‘mean girl’ act. You do realize that she’s scary-smart, don’t you?” Brook asked.
“I know that she’s a master manipulator. Lexi tried to pull a crying jag on me, and I called her on it. When she figured out it wasn’t working, she stopped instantly. It was a little unnerving,” I shared.
“Don’t be mad, but I might have given her too much information.”
“This can’t be good.”
“I told her you were struggling with us being apart,” Brook said hesitantly.
The light bulb came on.
“Brook!” I complained.
“We had a long talk about that, and I made a suggestion.”
“I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“I’m betting you’ll be fine with it. Remember your safe word?” she asked.
“Pineapple?” I asked, confused as to why I might need that.
“I haven’t given it to anyone. But if you hear it, just know that I gave it to them, and I approve of whatever happens,” Brook said.
I blinked a few times as I tried to get my brain around what she’d just offered.
“Does it count if they say it in normal conversation? Like if I take Halle out to dinner, and she sees they have ham and pineapple pizza …”
“If you want to risk it, go ahead,” she said mysteriously.
I looked behind me to make sure Cassidy hadn’t somehow snuck into my room and was about to do evil things to me. I could see Brook sending our little ninja to exact revenge for her.
“Whatev. I can’t wait for you to get out here,” I said.
“Remember when you told me your fantasies?” Brook asked.
I drew a blank. Not that I couldn’t come up with about twenty in the blink of an eye; I just didn’t remember what I’d shared with her.
“Maybe you should fill me in,” I suggested.
“You said you would like it if I could bring other girls to you,” she reminded me.
It came flooding back to me. Mr. Happy seized control of the body, and my head nodded up and down. Then the big brain put the brakes on.
“The idea was we would do those things together.”
“I know the logistics don’t work with me here. That was why I suggested you set up your tablet so I could watch.”
That explained her voyeur fetish that I was confused about. I still wasn’t convinced, but it wasn’t worth arguing about. It was enough that she was giving me and my needs the attention necessary to come up with this elaborate plan.
We talked for another half hour as she caught me up with everything going on at Lincoln High. Brook said that Dare had hit a growth spurt and that she’d teased him about having high-water jeans on Friday. He said his mom would take him shopping this weekend.
Johan and Zoe had officially announced that they were dating. This was a surprise to no one. Even I picked up on that budding romance. I think Zoe just needed to be convinced that she and I were not happening. Of the girls I dated last year, she had been the one most upfront about her desire to go out with me exclusively. We both knew that Zoe and I would have worked out if that was how it had all played out. In a lot of ways, she was what I probably needed, someone to ground me. Zoe had a way of listening to me and helping me just to slow down. A good example was her having me work with the horses; it gave me a chance to think things through. I also felt comfortable praying with her.
But I didn’t need to look back and regret the decision to date Brook. In the end, I’d made the right choice.
◊◊◊
Brook had needed to get to bed. I put on my swimsuit with the idea of swimming some laps to tire myself out. Adrienne and Tyler were out back by the pool, drinking wine, while my dad had a scotch.
“There he is,” Tyler said.
“I thought I would get some exercise,” I said and got into the pool and did just that.
When I was done, I got out of the pool, dried off, and joined them.
“We’re taking off tomorrow. I wanted to thank you and your dad for having us for an extra week,” Adrienne said.
I sat back and reflected on how beautiful it was here. If I were back home, it would probably be snowing. While it wasn’t hot, for us Midwesterners, it was warm enough to enjoy being outside. We were the same bunch who would be out trying to get a suntan in the spring as soon as the temperature reached fifty degrees. That was one more element I needed to factor into my equation as to where to play ball: the weather.
I wished them all a good night and headed to my room to get some sleep. I had to be on set tomorrow to start the next episode of the J-drama.
◊◊◊
Chapter 9 – That Directional School Sunday December 11
We had our usual read-through today. Mr. Otsuki was up front, giving us this episode’s plotline.
