"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 Fifteen: The Great Wall of Summer
After walking on the beach for a couple of hours and thinking about things, Summer headed to the pier and called Maury to pick her up. As they drove to Seth's, where her luggage had been moved earlier in the day, Summer told a questioning Maury about the dilemma she was facing.
"Since we broke up 6 years ago, I worked my ass off in college and at the magazine. I've done everything over the past 4 years at the magazine to get an opportunity like this," Summer said, sounding truly conflicted. "It's just not fair. I mean, in some ways, I wish I never had to come back. But then, there's Seth," she finished, trailing off.
"Well, I'm going to sugar coat it, you're in quite a bind, Ms. Roberts," the driver replied.
"Maury, it's Summer."
"Ok, Summer. Ask yourself what means more to you," he paused contemplating something. "Actually, scratch that. Ask what means the most to you right now. At this point in your life. Obviously you and Seth have something that comes once in a lifetime. From what little I've seen, the way you look at each other is unbelievable. The way you are when you talk about him. I know that you love him."
He glanced over at Summer, who stared out the window. "Now, you have to think, if your love has lasted through everything that it has already, will it ever not last?" he finished softly.
"I see your point. It's just this situation—it's impossible," she said frustratedly.
"I'm going to make a suggestion," the driver said, pulling up in front of Seth's building. "Tonight, just go out and have a great time. And tomorrow, try to think about it again. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to make a huge decision like this."
"Thanks a lot, Maury," Summer said, offering him a sweet smile before getting out. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should wait until tomorrow."
After Summer had arrived at Seth's she took a shower and began getting ready to meet her friends. Seth arrived home at a half an hour before game time to a locked bathroom door.
"Summer, are you almost ready?" he said, knocking to see if she was alive.
"Yeah, Cohen, five more minutes." Six minutes later, Summer walked out of the bathroom, dressed to kill in a deep plum cocktail dress with silver sandals and jewelry.
"It was worth waiting the extra minute," Seth said, smiling in awe at her. Summer just rolled her eyes and collected her purse and a sweater for her shoulders.
"Let's go, Cohen, we can't let them wait all night," she said, walking towards the apartment door.
"Whoa, is something wrong, Summer?" Seth said, confused at her cold demeanor and lack of kiss.
"No, I just don't want to be late," she said, ending any discussion that was on the brink of being started.
"Ok, then." Seth grabbed his keys, wallet and a jacket and walked swiftly out the door in an attempt to keep up with Summer.
Suddenly stopping, she turned around, thought evident in the wrinkle lines on her forehead. "Do you think Rooney and Blanche will get along?"
"I locked Rooney in my bedroom. He's fine in there for the night," Seth responded, hoping to segway into more conversation.
"Ok, good," Summer said shortly, continuing the walk towards the sidewalk to the spot where Maury and Charley were meeting them. He stood for a moment, staring after her, knowing before the night was over, he would have to break down the wall that she had obviously built up throughout the course of the day.
Ryan and Seth were walking back from the bar carrying theirs and the ladies fourth rounds when Seth's night took a turn for the worse. Things were already pretty rocky between he and Summer, seeing as she had said no more than 17 words in his direction the whole night (yes, he counted), but when he returned to the table with drinks for himself, Summer and Charley to find some young, attractive, water-polo looking guy sitting—actually, in HIS chair next to Summer—flirting with the love of his life, he was pretty upset.
"Oh, Cohen, thanks for the drink," Summer exclaimed tipsily, taking it from his hand and turning her attention towards the guy of Seth's nightmares. He cleared his throat before taking the seat next to dousche-bag the wonder boy. "How silly of me," Summer said, giggling. "Cohen, Ryan, this is Aiden. Aiden, Ryan, Cohen."
"Nice to meet you," Seth said through gritted teeth.
"You too, man," Aiden said, shaking Seth's hand and then greeting Ryan.
"Aiden is a personal financial planner for the Harsky, Stitch and Rott corporation," Summer said, eyes locking with Seth's.
"Well, nothing beats a good financial planner," Seth said dryly, maintaining eye contact with Summer.
"I feel like I'm stepping on some toes here. I'm just going to go sit back over by my friends," Aiden said, standing up.
"No!" Seth and Summer said in unison. Summer reached her hand out and placed it on Aiden's arm. "We would all love it for you to stay here. Wouldn't we guys?" Summer said, motioning towards her friends. Everyone just stared until Seth spoke up.
"I think it's a great idea," he said, turning away from Summer and starting in on a conversation with Charley.
Besides the tension
between Seth and Summer, the night was pretty fun. After about 4
hours, everyone was pretty drunk, even Ryan, so the group decided to
call it a night.
Aiden tried for Summer's number in the end,
but she casually declined, before she, Charley, and Seth piled in the
back of the limo. Seth and Summer were the first stop.
"You two be good now," Charley said teasingly, giving them each a hug.
"That shouldn't be a problem tonight," Seth mumbled defeatedly, shutting the door and waving goodbye to Maury. He and Summer ascended the stairs in silence, and when they reached the apartment, Summer made a beeline for the bathroom with her pajamas and toiletries and locked the door behind her.
Seth went to his room and picked up his cat, who purred softly as he petted him. "I wish Summer would be more like you," he said sadly. He set the cat down on his bed and changed into his pajama pants and undershirt. When he came out of the bedroom, Summer sat on the couch in her silk pajamas, the remote in one hand and the other petting Blanche. After many moments of silence, Seth decided to talk.
"So, are you going to tell me what tonight was all about, or are we just not going to talk and go to sleep wandering?"
"He was just a guy I was talking to at a bar," Summer replied nonchalantly.
Seth shook his head, "As disappointed as I am that you would flirt shamelessly with some chest-shaving dousche bag, I was actually referring to your avoidance of me all night. And the fact that something is clearly wrong with you."
"Seth, for the last time, nothing is wrong," she said sternly.
"Ok, now I know you're lying."
"How's that?"
"Well, the only times you call me Seth are when you are a) pissed at me, b)having a moment with me, or c)trying to avoid telling me what's wrong. Since the first two possibilities seem out of the question, I think the latter is the most reasonable assumption. The second thing is, every guy knows that when you ask a girl what's wrong and she says that it's nothing, there is always something wrong."
"Cohen, whatever you just rambled out is illogical. So I would suggest that if you value your life, quit asking me what's wrong," Summer snapped with full attitude.
"I hope you're not threatening me with a rage blackout, Summer, because as scary as they can be, they've never caused me to stop annoying you," Seth said back, still relentlessly seeking the truth from her.
"That's no lie. You are ALWAYS annoying," she said, trying to cut him deeper.
"Ok, so now you're insulting me. Again, I ask, What. Is. Wrong?" Seth stared Summer down, trying, at no avail, to catch her eyes, before finally walking over to kneel in front of her and force her to look at him. When Summer met his gaze her eyes filled up with tears, and Seth became more worried than he had been all night.
He reached out and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her. He soothingly rubbed her back, and held her at arm's length, sweeping the hair form her eyes. "You can tell me, Summer. Whatever it is," he said softly.
Summer sat for a minute more in his arms, getting back her composure before reconstructing her wall. "Cohen, I said leave me alone, so just do it. I'm sleeping on the couch, and you're sleeping in your bed, so why don't you go there?" she said coldly, pushing away from him.
"Fine," he replied, rejected, as he stood to go to his room.
It was 1 a.m., approximately two hours since the Seth/Summer blow out, and Seth lay in his bed with Rooney on his chest, still unable to sleep. He tried desperately to think about what could be bothering Summer, but every time he constructed a new solution in his head, he quickly shook it away.
The only thing he could think was that she might have regretted the two of them sleeping together and being together since she'd been in town, but he was unwilling to accept that as the motive of her bipolar behavior. Sighing to himself, he continued to stare at the ceiling thinking of what had went wrong throughout the day.
Meanwhile, Summer lay on the couch with Blanche nestled in her arms. She didn't know why she was resorting to the classic Roberts defense mechanism, but she couldn't help it. She didn't know what she was going to do about her Seth/job predicament and until she knew, she was not going to be sharing her bed with anyone.
But the more she thought about it, the more she thought of how unreasonable she was being. After all, Seth didn't do anything wrong. Yet she was still punishing him. And if she slept with Seth tonight, like, ACTUALLY slept, it wouldn't be that bad. And it still wouldn't be in HER bed, anyway.
Letting out a deep sigh and cradling Blanche in one arm, Summer threw off the covers and stepped off of the couch, softly padding towards Seth's room. When she opened the door, she thought Seth was sleeping, so she slowly creeped towards the bed. At about the halfway point, she was stopped in her tracks.
"What are you doing, Summer?" Seth asked, in a surprised voice, as he brought himself up to a sitting position.
"Hi," she said, attempting a small smile. She threw her glance to the floor. "I was just, well, we," she motioned to Blanche, "were just cold, so we were going to join you in bed."
A soft smile began to form on Seth's lips and he couldn't resist a joke. "I knew you couldn't resist me for a whole night, Summer Roberts. You're so predictable," he sighed, laying back in bed and pulling back the covers for her.
Summer placed Blanche at the foot of the bed near Rooney and hopped into bed with Seth. They lay on the pillows facing each other, Seth's arms around Summer, Summer's legs around Seth. Before he could ask the question forming on his face, she laid her fingers on his lips. "I promise, when the time comes, I will tell you what's going on, but until then, just hold me."
Seth paused, taking a moment to take what she said seriously before finally resigning to give her time. "I think that is something that I might actually be good at it," Seth said, smiling before taking her into his arms.
"Well, I didn't' say you were good at it," Summer joked, laughing into Seth's chest, relieved to have postponed the inevitable decision for another day.
A/N This chapter got a little cheesy at the end, but I hope you guys liked it. I wanted to let everyone know/give me advice about the idea of turning this into a series. I'm not sure that I want to cut the story short by having Seth and Summer somehow live happily ever after at the end. I'm thinking of making a trilogy. Let me know what anyone thinks about this stuff.