Then Summer Came (4 page)

I’d even gone back for the pizza he’d offered, and then he offered for me to join him for pizza again a few days later. 

Beck turned out to be really nice company.  It was refreshing to have someone in the apartment, other than me.  He’d even ordered me breakfast with his order Thursday morning.  “Hope you aren’t allergic to eggs or anything,” he’d said sleepily and pointed to a plastic covered platter sitting on the kitchen counter. 

I’d not seen Derek in over a week.  Not even one time.  He’d promised to try to make time as soon as he could.  I talked to him before bed Monday night.  He was bitching about all of the new people his assistant had hired, but also bitched that the people who had tenure were so confident in their position that they didn’t really
work
anymore.  He had to go abruptly, some…catastrophe or something. 

The next morning, I woke up and went into work early to get the designs ready for the show the next day.  My assistant, Gina, was a big help, as usual, and Mom’s assistant, Mitzi, was running around like a headless chicken, as usual.  I was definitely thankful that I had the calm, cool, level-headed assistant. 

I can still remember Mom’s Tenth Anniversary Show when Mitzi found out that the dress line was all made with the wrong fabric.  She paced in circles for thirty minutes until she started yelling at herself in the mirror, and then she just burst into tears, only to find out that Mom had the line made in two different fabrics at the last minute.  She was a little too much of a loose cannon for me, but Mom adored her, said she was “the best in the business.” 

When everything was all set for the show, I called Emily to remind her that Mom wanted her to model a few of the dresses.  She was stoked all over again and promised to be there early to try on the designs. 

I asked her to hang out with me and eat popcorn all night, but she said she had to keep on track studying for exams or she would lose a day and wouldn’t get all of her studying in before the week of the exams.  “I haven’t even licked a guy in three days, Lis,” was how she’d justified it.  She was always extremely serious around exam time.  I’d only seen her once over those last eight days. 

After work, I went straight home and called Derek.  He picked right up and said he had a few minutes he could talk. 

“So what are the chances of us spending some time together tonight?” I asked, hopefully. 

“I can try to get away for a couple of hours.  What were you thinking?”

I was suddenly glowing.  “Well, I was thinking…I bought some new sheets…”

“Oh really,” he played along.  “Well, let me see what I can do, okay?”

“Call me back.”  I hung up and darted into my bedroom and began stripping the bed down.  I got the new sheets from the closet, pulled them onto the bed and smoothed them out flat.  I thought it’d be best to spend the night in bed in my apartment, since Beck was living downstairs now.  I was sure he’d appreciate it if we didn’t have sex, for the first time in a month, thirty feet away from him.

I laughed inwardly at the thought.

I gathered up candles from around the apartment and ran downstairs to get some matches from the front desk. 

Kaylee, my favorite girl form the front desk, was working and she grabbed some for me.  We talked about my mom for a minute and I promised I’d get her a dress and a pair of my heels.  She loved Mom’s clothes and always raved about them to me.

I took the elevator back up, and on the way to my room, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. 

I pulled it out to answer.  “Hello?”

“Hey, babe.”  It was Derek.  “I have to finish up some paperwork tonight.  Apparently, the new account that Eric signed for yesterday was under, and Walden and I have about seven hours’ worth of paperwork to do.”

“So, you can’t come?” I asked making sure he heard my disappointment. 

“No, honey, I’m sorry.”

“Derek, please.  Can’t something wait just one time?”  I stopped in the middle of the hallway, a few feet from my door, and threw my hands in the air, like, he could see me or something. 

“Babe, I wish it could.  Maybe if it wasn’t such a big ‘something’, but this is urgent.  Look, I will make time, and we can go out tomorrow night, or stay in, whichever you prefer.”

“Is it such a crime to want to see you tonight?  We haven’t been together in over a month, Derek.”  It was childish for me to complain so much, but I just wanted him to forget about work for once. 

“Lis, you know I want to see you, too, but tonight is just not going to happen.  We have too much to do.  I love you so much, and I will see you tomorrow, okay?” 

I sighed loud enough that I knew he heard the exasperation.  “Fine…” I said and hung up the phone.  I was so mad at him I didn’t even tell him I loved him.  I was just so tired of always being waitlisted by his job. 

I went back into my apartment and fell back on the sofa in a slouchy, mopey manner.  I would just pout in private. 

I heard someone knock on the door.  I got up and practiced a smile on the way to open it. 

Lidia made me dinner sometimes and brought it over to me.  I was pretty sure that since I’d expressed my loneliness to her—just to get her to stop washing Derek’s sheets—she felt sorry for me.  She even brought me banana bread and fresh fruit sometimes. 

I smiled tightly, trying to mask my suffering.  I didn’t want to make her feel any sorrier for me than she already did.  I opened the door, and Beck smiled at me. 

“Oh, hey.”  I tried not to sound so excited to see him…
to see Derek
.

“Hey…uh…listen, I heard you out here on the phone…” he trailed off, and I looked away feeling a little humiliated.  “Sorry, I was coming up to see if maybe you would want to show me around the city tonight…and I heard you talking to Derek.”

I shook my head, indicating he hadn’t offended me.  “It’s alright…”

“So, did you want to maybe show me around?  I’ve been here for over a week and I’ve done
nothing
.”  He smiled his charming smile, and I nodded.

“Sure, I could do that.  I don’t have anything else to do.  Just let me change and I’ll meet you downstairs in fifteen minutes.”

Chapter Four

Beck waived at me from across the lobby as I came out of the elevator.  My stomach spun as I watched him walking toward me.  He looked so much like a casually dressed Derek that, just looking at him, I was almost mad at him from thoughts of our phone call.  His jeans were dingy looking and hugged him perfectly, the sleeves of his t-shirt were pushed back to his elbows, and I could see all of the closely-spaced, tattooed words that swirled around his arm.  His hair was loose and sexy, and I wanted to slick my fingers through it, until it pinged at me that it wasn’t Derek I was looking at. 

“I got us a cab,” he said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder as I approached him.  “I thought we could stop somewhere and maybe I could get a few drinks down you, loosen you up a bit?”

“Oh, you’re trying to get me drunk?” I joked.

“I think you probably need it, judging from your phone call a minute ago.”

“Well, you’d be right,” I admitted.  “Did you have someone you wanted to invite?  I could show you both around?” I offered, feeling a little weird about being out with him alone all night.

“No, I don’t usually ‘invite’,” he grinned.  “I’m a grab-n-go guy.” 

I laughed at his wink, and we climbed into the cab. 

We hadn’t really talked about anything personal since we’d met, so I didn’t know enough about him to decide where to take him.  But I took him around to see some cultural and artsy stuff—at his request.  We went to Watts tour, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and the Venice Canals Walkway before it started to get too dark.

Our next stop was my favorite place to see a movie in Hollywood:  ArcLight.  You can pick out your seat ahead of time, and they always have great movie choices.  Beck loved that they had a bookstore and café, and we stopped into both so he could look around and check out the women—I’m assuming.  “There’s no wrong place to pick up women,” he’d said when I caught him ogling a perky brunette in a lacy camisole, scoping out the romance section. 

It was completely dark when we left, with only the neon bulbs of the nightlife signs glowing all around us. 

Derek called to see what I ended up doing.  I told him I’d been showing his brother around, and he said he thought it was a great idea.  “Go have fun,” he’d said and thanked me for showing him around the city.  I really wanted to punch him after that.  I was glad that he wanted me to have a good night without him, but I was still pissed that he couldn’t be bothered to just take the time away from work. 

“You ready for a drink…or nine?”  I asked Beck. 

He laughed.  “I was thinking…
higher
.”

I took him to my favorite club, The Mayan. 

“Why this place?” he asked as we went through the metal detectors. 

“I like the bands that play here, and the drinks are cheaper.” 

I watched almost every woman eye him as we entered.  It made me feel a little jealous because I knew that it could’ve just as easily have been Derek they were looking at—it kind of was.  He made sure to shoot winks and smiles at them as he complimented the club’s decor.

I noticed that his smiles always seemed to be a little shy looking.  Even his winks were sort of modest.  I wondered if that was part of his seduction process.  Did he always just play the shy card?  Whatever card it was, it seemed to work. 

“This place is huge,” he shouted over the band’s playing. 

“Yeah, it’s three floors,” I pointed.  “It’s way hot up there, though.  I usually just stay down here unless I have to use the bathroom.” 

I squeezed through a large crowd of people, and I felt a hand grip onto my jeans.  When I came out the other side of the crowd, I noticed it was Beck’s hand.  I smiled at him, and he loosened his grip.  “This place is packed,” he yelled over the pulsing music, but I basically just read his lips. 

I leaned in to yell into his ear so he didn’t have to lip read.  “I love it!  It’s always packed and super loud!  It’s the best!” 

I grabbed his arm and headed to the bar where it was a little bit quieter.  “Is scotch okay?” 

He nodded and I ordered us a round.  We took a seat at the bar and I pointed at the floor.  “There are
three
different dance floors!”

“You seem to know a lot about the clubs…” he observed.

“I used to stay out all night.  We’d sleep until about seven, a few hours before the clubs would open, and then we’d get ready and go out until they closed down around three or four.  Good times!”

“Oh, so you were a club slut?” 

“No,” I laughed. 

“I’m just kidding,” he patted my knee and laughed at my expression.  “So you really used to drag Derek out here?” 

“No, I meant my friend, Emily, and I.  We loved everything about Los Angeles’ nightlife, but I met Derek and she enrolled at Pomona, so…”

“I get it,” he smiled and grabbed his glass from the bartender and shot it.  I downed mine and he ordered another round. 

“Do you dance?” he asked me. 

I eyed the dancers on the floor.  “I love to dance!”

“Well, go!  Let’s see what you got.” 

I shook my head and laughed.  I needed a few more shots in me first. 

“Oh, come on,” he teased, handing me my next glass.  I tilted it back, handed it to him and made my way to the floor.  I could feel the music pounding from my toes to my head.  It was one of my favorite local bands, and I hadn’t seen them play in over six months. 

I mixed into the crowd of pumping dancers and let the music take control.  I really did love to dance.  It let you forget everything else for a moment; you could just focus on the music and the moves. 

I could feel the heat radiating off of the tightly-packed bodies as I danced by myself.  I loved the feeling of a loud, crowded club.  A girl jumped next to me and screamed the words of the song, and she grabbed me and pulled me into her sloppy dance.  I was laughing the whole time as she twirled me, and then a guy mixed in with us.  He grabbed our hands, twisting us, and then he fell to the floor and spun into a break dance.  We clapped and cheered him on.

We danced like that for the rest of the song, and I made my way back to Beck.  He was grinning from ear to ear.  He laughed and handed me another scotch.  “You weren’t lying; you really do love to dance!  I haven’t seen you that relaxed since I met you.”

I shot the fiery liquid and slid the glass back across the bar.  “Do
you
dance?”

“I do, but I’ll leave it to you for now.  I’d hate to look like a fool when you barely even know me.  That’s just embarrassing.”

“Oh, come on,” I threw his words back at him.  I pulled him and he gave in almost immediately and followed me back to the floor. 

I loved the feeling of being drunk, and I just wanted to dance.  He was anything but stiff once we’d started dancing.  He seemed to love it as much as I did. 

There was a group of around twelve people, dancing next to us, and I was pretty sure they frequented the night scene.  They had routines, and I felt like I’d seen them before.  They were fun to watch, and Beck and I cheered them on as they danced. 

More than a dozen girls, of all ages, twisted their tiny asses up to Beck, grinding on him.  Every time I turned around one was latched onto his neck like a starving piranha.  He lip-locked with almost every one of them, but he seemed to restrain himself every time he looked up and saw me.  At least he was considerate of the fact that I was the one who was out with him.  I mean…I wasn’t
with him
…but he came with me, and he seemed like he was trying not to third-wheel me.

There was so much scotch and laughing that the night started to blur.  We headed out to the cab when the club started to close down at about two in the morning. 

I clambered back into the cab and lay over in the seat.