"The Most Eligible Bachelor"
Summary: Summer and Seth are leading separate lives now, but what happens when Summer's story for a leading magazine forces them together?
Disclaimer: I'd like to stake a claim on Adam Brody's dimples, but really, I don't own any of the O.C. characters or story lines.
Chapter Six: Spreading the Word
After Summer and Marissa left the crab shack at around 3 p.m., the two decided to take a stroll down the beach. Eventually they found a quiet spot and sat in a comfortable silence with one another staring at the ocean. Summer was wrapped up in thoughts of her best friend's wedding and her d…well, her scheduled 'hang' with Cohen that night. Suddenly, a thought crossed Summer's mind, causing her to burst out into laughter.
"What?" Marissa said, glancing over at her now hysterical friend. After Summer finished her laugh attack, she looked at Marissa, an amused smile entertaining her features.
"Coop? I can't believe I didn't think of this before. I guess I've been too wrapped up in the excitement of everything. Do you remember why I'm here?"
"Sure. To interview Seth, Ryan, and Zach for the most eligible bachelors story," Marissa replied, apparently not quite catching Summer's line of thinking.
"I see a couple of concerns here. 1) I have plans tonight with one of them, who happens to be the love of my life, whose 'eligibility' I wouldn't mind taking away eventually, and 2) One of the two left on the list when you take away Cohen happened to propose to my best friend last night."
"Ohhhh," Marissa squeezed out, before starting up another fit of hysterical laughter with Summer. After a few minutes the laughing ceased, and Summer seemed to get quite serious.
"What am I going to do, Coop? The editor didn't hold back before I left on reminding me that this is a huge feature story, and a pretty big deal at that. How do I tell her that I can't write it?"
"Well, Sum, from the way you talk about her, Charlotte seems to be a pretty understanding lady. I'm sure she'd rather see you happy with a boy that you love than giving her a great story. And she can't really blame you about the Ryan thing. I mean, you're the first person I told, so there's literally NO way you could have foreseen it." When Marissa finished Summer sat silently, nodding knowingly at the things her friend said.
"I guess I'll call her right away to tell her the truth. I mean, it's only," Summer paused looking down at her watch, which was still set to east coast time," 9 o'clock in New York. She'll still be awake." The two friends got up and began walking back towards the pier. Summer suddenly stopped. "Shit, Coop! If it's 9 o'clock in New York, that means it's 5 here! I have two hours to get back to LA in RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC before I meet Cohen for our date at 7!" Summer suddenly started running for the limo that her driver waited in, grabbing Marissa's hand as she flew by.
"Dude, you wouldn't believe how hot she looked, too. I mean, seriously, the way her long hair just fell in waves around her shoulders, and the way that her 'professional' work wear hugged her in all the right places. My imagination was having a field day when she slipped into reporter mode, asking me questions all sexy-like and-" Seth was abruptly cut off by his brother who sat at his desk looking over floor plans.
"Seth, as much as I love and have missed these Summer chats, you're taking it a little too far when you start telling me how bad you wanted to taker her in your office," Ryan said with amusement. "But seriously, it's great that you're going to see her tonight. What do you have planned?"
"Well, I was thinking maybe dinner, a moonlit walk on the beach, but that might be a little too cliché. This is Summer. It has to be perfect. I guess I could take her out on the yacht. Do you think it would be weird when she realizes I named my boat after her? Again?"
"Seth. It's Summer. If she doesn't know by now that she's the girl of your dreams, then she's really been living under a rock." The two sat silent for a moment.
"So, what have you been up to, buddy? I feel like I've been sitting her rambling on about Summer for the last two hours, and you've hardly said a thing," Seth said, trying to distract himself from the fact that he still had no idea what to do with Summer that evening.
"You have. And actually, I kind of have some big news." Seth looked on expectantly. "Last night, I proposed to Marissa," Ryan finished with a small smile playing on his lips.
"You what!" Seth said, shock evident in his voice. "I've been here for two hours, and you just now found it, I don't know, important to mention this to me. Geez, Ryan. I thought I trained you better than that. Oh my Jesus and Moses. So I assume she said yes? And how long have you been planning this!"
"She did. And I guess I've always been planning it. I just finally found the ring and the time felt right. I love her, man," Ryan replied softly.
"This is so great! I mean, it couldn't be better. I assume I'll be your best man, unless you want your real brother, which would kind of be awkward since your future wife shot him in the back so that he wouldn't kill you and you haven't spoken to him since," Ryan shot Seth 'the Look' at this comment. "Right. So, Summer's probably going to be Marissa's maid of honor. Oh man, this couldn't be better. I mean, can you see it? Me, Summer, walking down the aisle together, swallowed up in the romantic atmosphere of a wedding and-"
"And we're back to you and Summer again."
"Sorry, man, but this is so exciting! A wedding! Have you told Mom and Dad yet? Oh, I bet Mom cried, didn't she?"
"I haven't told them yet, Seth," Ryan looked serious. "We're planning on keeping this under wraps until the weekend, and then Marissa and I are going to go to Newport to tell our families together, so if you could try to actually keep the secret this time, it would be much appreciated." The two boys fell silent again, until Seth burst into laughter. "What?" Ryan asked pulling 'the Look' out again.
"Well, first of all, this is so great, because Julie Cooper is going to be your mother-in-law finally. I mean, you'll ACTUALLY be related this time," Seth laughed out, being silenced by Ryan's glare. "But secondly, Summer came to LA to write about the most eligible bachelors on the west coast, one of whom she'll be on a date with tonight and two of whom has just proposed to her best friend." At this, Ryan broke into a smile, realizing the irony of which Seth spoke.
Looking at the clock which read 5 o'clock, Seth suddenly felt very nervous. "Crap, Ryan. I have a date. I have to get changed and ready. I have to make plans. What am I going to do? This has to be perfect. I'm hoping for at least some kind of reconciliation between me and Summer, preferably one where we end up in each other's-" Seth stopped. "Right. I won't share the details. Ok, so I have to go now, but later, we'll talk bachelor parties. I'm thinking Vegas?"
Seth looked back to see his fifth glare of the day from Ryan and laughed his way out of the office to prepare for his date with Summer.
Summer finally stepped out of her limo at 6:30. She had spoken with her editor on the ride back from Newport and told her the new 'statuses' of two of the bachelors on the list. Charlotte, who was a bit disappointed but excited about Summer's date with Seth, assured Summer that everything would be ok. Summer was to go through with her interview with Zach two days later, and the magazine would book her hotel for the next week, which would give their reporters time to compile a new list of bachelor prospects for Summer to interview.
Summer hurried up to her sixth floor room and entered, running immediately to her suitcase. She pulled all of her possible outfits out and changed seven times, throwing the no's in one pile and maybe's in another.
She finally came across a dress that she had snagged from a photo shoot at the magazine. It was an emerald green Chanel cocktail dress, which had been given to Cosmo for a shoot that they were doing with Lindsey Lohan. When the dress didn't quite fit her, Summer had managed to take it home for herself. It had a pretty low neckline, revealing just the right amount of cleavage, and a plunging line in the back that ended right above her tailbone.
After pulling it over head and smoothing out any wrinkles in the fabric, Summer turned to look at herself in the full length mirror.
"I look good," she said, smiling at her reflection. She continued dressing, topping the outfit off with her six inch gold Jimmy Choo sandals and a long gold multilayered necklace. With just three minutes to spare until Seth's scheduled arrival, she touched up the makeup that she had applied for her interview that morning, and spritzed her wrists, cleavage and neck with some Chanel No. 5.
Just as she stuffed her cellphone, breath mints, and room key into a matching gold clutch, the phone rang. It was the front desk telling her that a Mr. Cohen was here to see her. Summer told the desk clerk that she would be right down. Taking a deep breath and a final look in the mirror, she exited the hotel room heading for the elevator.
Seth waited nervously in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel with one white lily clutched in his grip. Over the past two hours, he had decided that he would take Summer down to the pier for dinner, and then they would go for a small trip on his yacht.
As they would be dining at Bambino's, a nicer Italian restaurant, and he would have the most beautiful girl in the world on his arm, Seth decided to dress up slightly from his usual t-shirt and blazer. He wore black slacks and a long sleeve collared pink cotton shirt. He maintained that bit of Cohen by wearing Chucks, but he did go with the clean pair that he had set aside for nicer occasions.
Seth looked at his watch, and just before he was about to go to the front desk to make sure that they had placed in the call to Summer, a vision in green caught the corner of his eye.
As Seth turned his breath caught in his throat when he met the sight of Summer in a beautiful green silk dress with her long chocolate waves falling over her shoulders. As she got closer and closer, Seth couldn't help but take note of how perfect her tan legs looked and how the slinky material of the dress kindly defined all of her curves.
"Good evening, Mr. Cohen," Summer said, smiling coyly.
"Summer, uh, you look, yeah, wow, never in my days," Seth stuttered out.
"Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment," she chuckled back. Noticing the white flower in his hand, a soft smile graced her features and she tilted her head to the side.
"Oh, uh, this is for you. I, I know it's kind of cheesy or whatever, but uh, yeah, I remember that you like these and I thought-" Summer cut him off, reaching for the flower.
"I love it, Cohen. It's beautiful. And thoughtful."
Still in a daze from the sight before him, Seth shook his head, trying desperately to get back to reality. He finally closed his mouth and formed it into a smile. Reaching out, he offered Summer his arm. "Shall we?"
With a small laugh, Summer hooked her arm through Seth's and looked up at him. "We shall." And with that the two were off for their…well, date.
A/N I had to delete and put this chapter back up, because I made a mistake with the time zones. It was stupid, I just wasn't thinking. Anyway, I know that there was a little confusion about how Ryan was engaged and still a bachelor, so I hope I cleared that up this chapter. I'm so glad to read that everyone is enjoying the story. It makes it a lot easier to type. Stay tuned for what happens on the date and on the interview with…duh, duh, DUUUUHHH…Zach. Peace.