Chapter Four
"I'd love to see your apartment Summer," Marissa states.
Summer had gone downstairs to get her mail the next day and Marissa seemed to have the same idea, Summer shakes her head, "I dunno, that's probably not a good idea. It's a mess, how about when the cleaning lady comes next week?"
Marissa nods, "sure, if that's what you want. I should go, I promised Tyler I would make pancakes with him."
Summer nods and once Marissa is gone she sighs, what she wanted was them to go away to move back to California or to at least leave the apartment building. But that wasn't going to happen, a realization that Summer had made nearing four o'clock yesterday morning along with the realization that the sooner she told Seth the easier it would be. What a crock, the easier it would be, it was going to be hard no matter how quickly she told Seth, and she could already see the expression his face. Betrayal would be written there and then anger and Summer didn't know if she could handle seeing it there.
'Just suck it up Roberts,' Summer mentally berates herself, 'go up to his apartment, invite him to dinner and then you can tell him.' Taking a deep breath Summer does exactly that.
When Seth doesn't answer Summer moves to the next apartment down, and knocks on the door. Seth is the one to answer the door and he looks shocked, "Summer, what are you doing here?"
"I knocked next door, there was no one there so I thought I could leave a message with Marissa and Ryan..." Summer responds.
"Oh," Seth nods, "well then I guess you could just give me the message. Come in."
"Could you just come out here?" Summer asks.
Seth shrugs, "sure." Once he's closed the door behind him he asks, "what's up Summer?"
"There's some things we need to talk about," Summer states. "So I thought maybe we could have dinner tonight?"
Seth nods, "sure. Where?"
"There's a nice Italian place close to here," Summer responds, "I'll meet you in the lobby at seven."
Seth nods, "great, I'll see you then. Do you want to come in? You can meet the infamous Timothy."
Summer shakes her head, "I can't, I have things to do to get ready for work on Monday."
"Sure," Seth nods and Summer can tell he's a little bit puzzled by all of this. "I'll see you at seven."
"Okay, good, I'll see you."
"Could you be freaking out anymore?" Joseph sits in Summer's bedroom as she very nearly tears apart her walk in closet looking for something to wear to dinner with Seth.
"Probably," Summer sighs. "I don't know if I can do this tonight, it's going to kill him to know that he's had a daughter for the last five years and I never told him. He's never going to be able to forgive me."
"You don't know that..."
"I do know that," Summer responds. "He skipped town when Ryan moved back to Chino..."
"And that's got to go with you how?"
"Betrayl...he felt that Ryan betrayed him and I did betray him."
"Maybe he'll understand."
"Joseph you don't understand, I know him, he's going to hate me."
"Then I'm going to give you the best advice I can in this situation," Joseph states solemnly. "Tell him and get it over with, if he's going to hate you then just do it."
Summer throws a blouse at Joseph, "thanks."
Joseph catches the shirt, "don't wear this tonight." Getting back on topic he states, "if he's going to get mad either way then just get it over with and stop worrying about it."
"I can't stop worrying about it," Summer sighs.
Joseph gets up off of Summer's bed, and wrapping his arm around her shoulder he leads her to the bathroom, "you take a nice soothing bath. I'll find you something to wear."
Summer nods, "okay, okay..."
"Do you feel better?" Joseph asks when Summer walks out of her bathroom wrapped in her terry cloth robe.
Summer nods, "I'm a little calmer."
"Good, now I had Janine run to the store and pick you up a dress," Joseph states gesturing to the bag hanging on her door.
"Joseph, I don't need a new dress," Summer responds and then can't help but think about how five years ago she would have insisted on buying a new dress.
"Well this is a birthday present from me," Joseph returns.
"My birthday was last month," Summer responds.
"Well then don't expect anything next year," Joseph states before kissing her. "Listen when Janine came over she said she found me a date tonight, mind if I run? You only have half an hour until you have to meet him anyway."
"It's fine, go on, I'll call you tonight." Summer urges. Once Joseph is gone Summer takes out the dress Janine had picked out for him, it was a red dress that knew had just come in and cost a fortune. And when she pulled it on it was clingy, low-cut and sexy, something Summer definitely wasn't used to wearing.
"Summer, you look..." Seth stops, unable to find the words to complete the sentence as he stares at her.
"Thanks," Summer offers a brief smile, they had barely said more then a couple of words to each other on the ride to the Italian restaurant Summer had chosen.
"So what did you need to talk about?" Seth asks as the waiter sets down a basket of bread.
"Why don't we wait until we order?" Summer suggests.
"Okay," Seth returns and she can feel him bouncing his knee nervously under the table. The time in between then and ordering went a lot like that, Seth's knee bouncing and Summer breaking tiny pieces of bread of the bread stick and slowly eating them.
"Okay," Seth breaths deeply once the waiter has left after taking their order. "What's going on?"
Nervously Summer fidgets with her bracelet, "in Newport I just left..."
"You left a letter," Seth states. "A letter that read something like so, um the opportunity presented itself and I'm moving in with my mom. That was the extent of your letter."
"It's not like yours was any better, Seth," Summer snaps in self-defense. "So, Summer, I really care about you but I just can't handle it here so I'm going to Tahiti."
"It doesn't even compare Summer," Seth begins his defense. "First of all, I told you where I was going. You understood the circumstances around my leaving. And most importantly I came back. You disappeared for five years, five years Summer."
"I had reasons Cohen!" Summer exclaims, but once she realizes that a part of the restaurant is watching her she lowers her voice. "I didn't just pick up and leave Seth."
"Is that why you asked me to come here?" Seth asks, "to tell me why you left Newport five years ago? Because, Summer, I don't know that I care."
"You'll care," Summer sighs. "Trust me, you'll care."
"How can I trust you? You left."
"So did you. You left first, how could I have trusted you?" Summer hisses and both of them fall silent. "Forget it, I'm going this tonight. And you're paying for the dinner we aren't eating." With her words, and on the verge of tears Summer hurries out of the restaurant.
Just as she's hailing her taxi her cell phone rings, glancing at the caller ID and seeing that it's her mother's number Summer takes a deep breath, trying to sound as normal as possible so Brynn doesn't suspect that anything is wrong. "Hi sweetie."
Seth, who had quickly thrown down several twenties hurries out of the restaurant after Summer, feeling bad for upsetting her when she obviously had something to tell him. But he keeps his distance when he realizes she is talking on a cell phone.
"What? Mom. Mom slow down, I can't understand. Mom, please stop, you're...you're scaring me..." Summer sounds on the verge of a breakdown, "Mom, what happened to Brynn? Okay, put Devin on." Summer takes a shaky breath as the phone must be in the process of being passed. "Devin, please tell me what's going on. Oh my God. Is she...oh God...I'll be there as soon as I can...okay, bye..." Summer flips the cell phone shut before covering her face with her hands, "oh my God."
Seth comes up behind Summer, "what's wrong?"
"Cohen," Summer jumps and then does something unexpected, throwing her arms around Seth's neck she sobs.