The Shippers(78)

At that, he turned and saw me. Still wearing Ashley’s morning-after dress, I’ll add. The one I’d slept in.

As he turned to confront me, the cruise dudes looked up and noticed. “Hey,” Beer Me called out, waving like we were old friends. “It’s Short-Shorts.”

I gestured toward Pork Pie like What the hell? and then said to Beer Me, “Are you just going to let him harass her like that?”

Beer Me looked nervous. “Isn’t he just … flirting?”

“That is not flirting,” I said. I looked over. “Right, Beer O’Clock?”

Beer O’Clock shrugged uncomfortably.

“Flirting,” I explained, “is enjoyed by both parties.”

The cruise dudes nodded, like they hadn’t thought of it like that.

But Pork Pie wasn’t in a personal growth mood. He took a few menacing steps toward me. “Why are you butting in?”

“Because she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“How do you know what she wants?”

“Everyone at this taxi stand knows what she wants—except for you.”

He tilted his head to crack his neck, and I heard it. “It’s not your business, though, is it?”

“It’s the business of the Sisterhood,” I heard myself say, as if it were some real organization I might report him to.

But Pork Pie didn’t find the Sisterhood intimidating in the least.

“Just leave her alone,” I said. “Take a snorkel lesson or something.”

He squared his shoulders and stepped closer to me. “I don’t remember asking your advice.”

“It’s free. You’re welcome.”

In the background, slightly out of focus, I could see the woman giving up on her cab and walking away.

I’d had her back—but now who would have mine?

Because the madder Pork Pie got, the more menacing he seemed.

It’s a crucial life skill for women, learning how to read men. You have to tune your radar to distinguish between harmless idiots and harmful ones. You need to be able to tell the difference.

The cruise dudes who’d mooned me? Harmless.

But Pork Pie?

With him, my danger radar went off.

And as soon as I felt it, without ever deciding to, my first instinct was to look around—for Cooper.

Who wasn’t there. Of course.

What was there instead was a cab pulling up. And now that he’d driven away the headphones girl, Pork Pie was next in line.

But did he really deserve to go next, after his poor behavior?

As the cab came to a stop, I slipped past them all, opened the back door, and slid in.

Saved by the cab.

I waved to the dudes through the window, extra glad to be escaping, as I mouthed a not-sorry “sorry,” and Pork Pie squinted at me like I was his new prey.



* * *



THE TAILOR WAS easy to find, and I dropped Ashley’s dress off, no problem. I texted the family group chat that Yolanda the seamstress said it would be “an easy fix” and she’d have it back in plenty of time—and Ashley texted back a GIF of a cartoon rabbit hugging another rabbit so hard that they both fell down.

So—crisis de-escalated.

Ashley was better.

And my dad, now embarking on his second chance with my mom, was better.

But I was pretty sure I … was worse.

Things with Cooper were worse, at least.

As I walked the streets of town, passing restaurants, and shops, and open markets with vendors selling everything from straw hats to beaded cover-ups to woven beach blankets, I had the feeling like I’d missed my chance to catch Cooper.

I sent a text but got no answer. I tried calling but got voicemail.

Even still, my eyes scanned endlessly for him while my brain churned through all its new input. Was it really possible for him to kiss me like that and then just leave? Had he finally given up on me? And could I even blame him?

It was so much to process.

Cooper had been my first kiss.

Not only that, he’d been rescuing me—again, as always—from disaster.

Of course Finn didn’t remember our kiss. He hadn’t been there!

He’d ditched me.

That kiss wasn’t Finn’s. It was Cooper’s. And it always had been.

I guess Cooper hadn’t told me the truth about that day at first because he thought I’d be embarrassed. And even when I kept going on and on about imprinting on my first kiss, Cooper didn’t know it was that kiss I’d been talking about.

No wonder he’d been so shocked when he found out. And then Finn showed up after the talent show and dragged me off as Cooper tried to stop us and tell me—but I chose Finn over him? And then Cooper thought I slept with Finn under the influence of false information?

Cooper had every right to be horrified by it all.

Technically, the person I should have been chasing all this time was Cooper.

Not that he would have wanted me to chase him, necessarily—but he was definitely robbed of some proper credit.

And what a near miss on Finn! Good thing he had a terrible personality and a texting addiction, or I might have slept with him for no reason. Whew!

Though, it had been an honest mistake on my part.

I’d been blindfolded, after all. And ten years old.