Had To Be You (12 page)

Matt stopped short again, scowling at her as he raised his voice.

“Excuse me?”

“No, excuse me.” Rory stopped as well, pointing past his shoulder as if he stood right in her way. “Because I’m going this way.”

“Well, I’m going that way!” Matt mimicked the move by pointing in the opposite direction.

“Be my guest!” She brushed past him, sending one last parting shot over her shoulder. “After all, you don’t need my permission,
hon
.”

“I don’t need anyone’s permission, okay?”

***

Receiving a few strange looks from those passing by on the street, Matt turned to stomp off towards the bar, glancing back once to glower at her retreating form on the distant sidewalk.

He couldn’t say he’d exactly been looking forward to the moment Amanda and Rory met, but he’d certainly hoped it wouldn’t go down quite like that. He wanted fair warning, to be better prepared.

They were different, but not drastically so. They shared certain vague physical similarities as well as a few personality traits. Rory, however, always had something else going on right below the surface, an intriguing, enticing shimmer in her incredible aquamarine eyes, and a spark of fire hidden beneath her calm exterior.

Sure, it made it unpredictable—exciting, even. But when you play with fire, you eventually get burned. He always got burned.

Matt had been on edge all day, ever since he’d woken up. He finally had to acknowledge that it was their conversation at the bar last night. For a moment, it felt like she was still, after all these years, trying to let him down gently. And that bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

The public boat slips were filled, crowds of tourists lined up, taking a break from the hot sun with a cool drink. Casey was behind the bar mixing rum cocktails.

“Hey, did that refrigeration guy call me back about the problems with the temperature controls on the cooler?” he asked with a lingering scowl.

“I don’t think so. Not yet.”

He muttered under his breath.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll be in my office.”

He dropped down into his seat with a weary sigh, tapping out a rhythm on his desktop as he stared blankly at the phone. He didn’t know how much time passed before he glanced up to see his brother Danny appear through the door in full uniform.

“Hey. You’ve got a good early crowd out there, huh?”

“Yeah,” Matt agreed without much conviction. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure? Must be pretty important for you to abandon your post at Dunkin Donuts.”

“I just wanted to stop in to ask about this party at the Benson’s.”

Matt almost laughed, swiping his hand down his face. This was going to be great, just great.

“What’s the matter with you?” Danny tilted his head curiously.

“Nothing,” he said curtly. “What did you want to ask?”

“Mom just wants to know if she should be bringing anything and what time we should be there.”

“Um, it starts around five, I guess,” he replied, frowning. “They’re hiring caterers, though, so she doesn’t need to bring anything. I’ll call her to let her know.”

“All right.” Danny moved to go.

“Hey, you know what?” Matt suddenly called after him. “I’ve decided I do want a bachelor party after all.”

His brother stopped, glancing back in mild surprise.

“You do, huh?”

“Yeah, and not only that, but I want a bachelor party with ridiculous amounts of booze.” He got out of his chair, lifting a finger into the air to emphasize his point as he began to pace the room. “Booze and gambling and…” He hesitated, furrowing his brow before he burst out. “Cigars!”

“Cigars?” Danny echoed with a dubious frown.

He continued undeterred, gathering momentum. “I want a bachelor party with booze and gambling and cigars—and strippers!” He clapped his hands together. “Lots of strippers.”

“Do they come in lots?”

Matt ignored him, adjusting the waistband of his pants with bravado before he dropped back down to sit behind his desk.

Danny regarded him a moment through narrowed eyes.

“You sure everything is okay?”

“Everything is great. Could not be better.”

“Okay, then. I’ll get right on that. See you later.”

And that’s when Matt realized things could not be worse.

SEVEN

“So, this is fun.”

Rory glanced at Jill over the rim of her red plastic cup. She wasn’t really dressed for the beach, as always in her sky-high heels, wearing a tiny shorts and a sheer top, her hair a gorgeous mass of long blonde spiral waves. Then again, this wasn’t really the beach—rather just a city version of it created in the courtyard of Kevin’s apartment by his roommates to celebrate the end of the college year.

She only pressed her lips into a thin smile in response, still eyeing Matt as he talked to another scantily-clad blonde across the way. They were standing close together in the glow of the outdoor fire pit.

“What do you think of Trevor?”

Rory’s first impression of Jill’s new college beau was that he was a conceited prep school pretty boy, but she certainly wasn’t going to tell her that.

“He seems nice.”

“Which means you don’t like him.”

“I didn’t say that,” she assured her friend with a soft sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little distracted, I guess.” Her gaze slipped away, drawn back to Matt. “How long has he been seeing this one? Did he bring her with him for the night, or did he just meet her here?”

Jill shook her head. “You talk to him more often than I do.”

“Yeah, but we don’t talk about that stuff.”

“So, Ethan seems like a great guy.”

“He is.” Rory shook off her obsession with Matt’s apparent date for the evening long enough to remember she brought one of her own. “He’s a double major, political science and economics.”

“Impressive.”

She narrowed her eyes, her focus unwillingly drawn back. She couldn’t help but notice the ample amount of cleavage on display. There seemed to be a distinct pattern in his very recent dating history and as far as Rory could tell that pattern was to date girls as drastically different from her as possible.

Or maybe that’s really what he wanted all along.

“Do you think those are real?”

Jill tilted her head, studying them as well.

“Hard to tell from here.”

Suddenly, she let out a little shriek, lifted right up off the fake beach sand as Trevor snuck up from behind to hook an arm around her tiny waist. He swung her around, right into an open-mouthed kiss.

“I’m going for a refill,” Rory said, abruptly turning to head for the keg.

She certainly didn’t begrudge Jill a little fun and romance, but was feeling a bit sour tonight when it came to love.

It appeared that she and Matt were both still negotiating and navigating their way through this unfamiliar territory in the wake of their breakup. They had their share of slip-ups and some backsliding. Yet now he seemed to being moving full steam ahead.

Waiting for a loud group to move out of the way, Rory came to a sudden halt as she approached.

Of course, he would have to be right there.

Matt met her gaze rather warily, but reached out with the keg nozzle in his hand to refill her cup.

“So, this Evan guy,” he said, topping off her beer. “He’s got a lot to say.”

“It’s Ethan,” she corrected him, instantly and irrationally aggravated. Anyone would seem quiet in comparison, with his inability to ever shut up. “And sometimes it’s about quality and not quantity. He’s actually a very skilled conversationalist.”

“That must be nice.” Matt filled his own cup to the brim. “For you, I mean.”

“Yes,” she took a small sip, “it is a refreshing change not to have to limit my vocabulary to small words.”

He paused to cock his head and smirk.

“And are you implying that was for my benefit? Because I really could’ve done without any at all.”

“Right,” she scoffed and turned to walk away. “Finding a girl you can engage in an actual, mature conversation with? That’s just a little too much work for you, right?”

“No,” he replied, following, “it’s just that some girls insist upon making everything as difficult as humanly possible.”

“Sorry,” she shot back. “Despite the relatively high number you’ve managed to date in the last six months or so, we can’t all be that easy.”

“And despite the relatively low number you’ve managed to date, we can’t all be that dull.”

Rory gasped in mild indignation. “The guys I’ve dated are not dull!”

“If you say so,” he chuckled in that sardonic, skeptical way—the way that made her want to throttle him. “And if you really want to know? She’s the one who asked me out.”

“Yes,” Rory replied dryly, “I believe I heard mention of her charity work.”

Matt lowered his beer from his mouth, his eyes an unnervingly intense blue in the partial glow of the fire.

“You might be surprised to know how many girls I date are actually the initiators in the relationship.”

“And you would be shocked to know how little I care.”

“All I’m saying is that you should get your facts straight,” he continued. “You suddenly want to try to label me as some kind of womanizer, Rory? Fine. Whatever. Just be aware that, more often than not, they’re the ones pursuing me. Not the other way around.” He let out a somewhat self-congratulatory sigh. “So, put that in your pipe and smoke it.”

“I think it’s obvious I’m not the one hitting the pipe.”

“Let the record reflect, you’re the one who wanted a break. Okay? I swear, you can drive a guy absolutely frickin’ nuts. Just being around you is like—it’s like—”

“Like what?” she demanded to know. “Because no one is asking you to be around me, Matt! I only came over here to get a beer. You’re free to go.”

“I realize that,” he said, narrowing his eyes sharply. “But some people don’t just run away from every little conflict or difficult conversation.”

“Oh, and I do? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Actually no. You said it—not me.”

His sudden calm demeanor only infuriated her even more, especially when he was kind of right.

“You act like you want certain things, Rory…with me, or with us. You give every sign and indication and then, suddenly, when we’re actually close to maybe being at that place? You don’t.”

“If you want to talk about repeating patterns of behavior, Matt, maybe you should take a good look in the mirror!”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s like you go out of your way to choose the biggest bimbos you can find, like you enjoy parading them around wherever I’m going to be. Maybe that’s what you really want. I don’t know. Either way, it’s kind of pathetic if you ask me.”

“Yeah, like that’s really my criteria—what would Rory think? Talk about an exercise in futility. We’ve been broken up for how long now? And I still have no idea what you want from me.”

“It’s simple. Nothing. That’s what I want from you. Okay?”

“See, you say that.” His eyes narrowed again. “Yet then you do things like get pissed off every time you think I might be kissing someone else.”

“I couldn’t care less who you kiss.”

“That didn’t seem to be the case when you were home last. Of course, you were the one doing the kissing then.”

Her lips parted, eyes narrowed, instantly betrayed by the flush of heat creeping up her face.

“Really? Because I seem to recall it the other way around. You were kissing me. In fact, if you want to talk past history, Matt, it’s almost like you’re physically incapable of not kissing me.”

He gave her a look to indicate she might be hitting below the belt, but Rory didn’t care.

“Funny how I seem to be resisting the urge just fine right now,” he shot back with a scowl. “In fact, my lips couldn’t be happier at the moment—way over here, nowhere remotely near yours. My lips are actually whistling they’re so happy not to be kissing you.”

With that, he began to blow out the notes of an upbeat musical tune. One eyebrow arched, Rory only watched him for a moment with a deeply disturbed frown.

“You should really talk to somebody,” she muttered finally.

“Maybe I will!” he said without missing a beat. “Because that’s just one more thing my lips would rather be doing!”

She rolled her eyes, shoving her cup of beer at him before turning away. “Speaking of things I’d rather be doing.”

His shoulders slumped, glancing down at the cup in his hand with some confusion. “Where are you going?

“Anywhere you’re not!” she tossed back over her shoulder.

“Fine!” he shouted back. “Because I won’t want to kiss you there either!”

Rory stopped, lifting her hands to let them drop.

“You know, you are just so…”

“So what?”

Turning around, she marched straight back to him. Grabbing the front of his shirt in both her fists, she lifted up on her toes while pulling him down, her mouth meeting his in a searing, soul-baring lock of lips.

***

Rory rolled over, adjusting the down pillow under her head to gaze up at the ripples of sunlight on the ceiling, listening to the soft crash of the surf. Stretching her legs to slide against the cool cotton sheets, she moved to the edge of the bed to dig through her bag for her phone.