The apartment was as advertised: cozy and not horrible. Wyatt helped Lucy move her things up the three flights to their small dwelling. The rooms were furnished, if sparsely. Wyatt had the room on the avenue where their building faced. The room had larger windows which gave more light but carried the sounds of traffic from the busy road below. Lucy's room was on the side street. Darker and quieter, the room suited her. She hung her two good dresses in the closet, beside the favorite silk wrap that she couldn't leave behind. Then she unpacked the rolling suitcase Wyatt had insisted on carrying, and she was done.
Wyatt leaned in the open doorway to her room. "I was gonna see if you wanted any help settling in, but it looks like you've got things covered. You sure do travel light..." His eyes asked a question. Lucy took advantage of his polite lack of directness and shut down that line of inquiry.
"That's me. All I need is my computer and room to write. No baggage." She smiled brightly then said politely but dismissively. "Thanks for your help."
He looked taken aback but straightened up. "Sure thing. Say the word if you need anything."
Lucy closed the door after he left and settled down at the small desk with its single hard chair. She stood up and tugged at it until it was centered beneath the window. She could just barely see palm trees swaying and a hint of deep blue. She found herself thinking about eyes that color and shook herself to wipe away the thought. Sleeping with a housemate is a recipe for disaster.
She dug out her files and tried to work on the historical short story she'd begun during her last semester at school. But after a few moments she found herself distracted by the thought of the artist character that had come to her at the cafe. She started taking notes on his studio and the characters he painted in his little island home.
She hesitated, Is it strange to keep writing this when it was inspired by Wyatt, now that we are living together? She shook her head. This is entirely different, Wyatt is a mechanic, Liam is an artist and a painter. Broad shoulders and a dimple do not a personality make. She went on writing, quieting that small voice that tempted her every so often to go out and see what living with her new room mate might actually be like. Plenty of time for that.
Wyatt's friends threw him a housewarming party. Lucy told him she'd make herself scarce, not wanting to be in the way. Wyatt had other ideas.
"Please come! It's going to be a campfire on the beach. You'll love it. And they all want to meet you."
"What you do you mean? They don't even know me?"
"I may have mentioned you once or twice."
Wyatt glanced away. Lucy got the strange impression that Wyatt was embarrassed, but the expression disappeared and he gestured expansively to the apartment. "Besides, what else are you doing tonight?"
Lucy winced. Was it that obvious she knew no one but Wyatt yet? "I'm afraid I'll be out of place."
"My friends don't bite. I can almost guarantee that you will hit it off with Jiya."
"How come?"
"Well, she's scary smart."
"Like me?"
"Maybe."
That evening, Lucy made her way to the party. The wind whipped at Lucy's hair. Her feet sank into the sand. Wyatt had said the party would be at the first fire circle after the pier. She saw light flickering and the sound of laughing voices carried to her. She saw what she thought was Wyatt's silhouette putting logs into the fire.
Nervous she stopped, still wondering if this was a bad idea. Nothing worse than knowing no one at a party. She stood listening to the sound of the ocean. She wanted to meet people and this was a golden opportunity. I've got to start meeting people somehow. Why not start with Wyatt's friends? She thought. Plus, a small voice in her mind added, you get to spend time with Wyatt. He wanted you here... She tried to squash that thought down as unrealistic. But she walked to the circle of light surrounding the fire with a bit more lift in her steps.
"Lucy! You came out!" Wyatt scrambled up from a squat folding chair. The chair half folded as he stood up catching on a string dangling from his shorts. Wyatt had reached his hand out in Lucy's direction but pivoted back to disentangle himself.
Lucy took in the scene. A semi-circle of occupied chairs extended around the fire interrupted by a large cooler on a large blanket with several bodies lying or sitting on the hummocked sand. The cooler was half-open, filled with beer cans and ice that glittered with reflected red and golds of the flames. During Wyatt's distraction, Lucy saw a hand wave her over. She moved that direction gratefully. A slim woman with beautiful, large dark eyes greeted her and shooed a fellow in a hoodie with the enigmatic word #clockblockers on it out of a seat next to her.
He stood but said exasperatedly, "Where am I supposed to sit?"
"There's room on the blanket, Rufus. Be nice to the new girl."
He sighed. As Lucy sat down, feeling guilty, the woman stood up and put her hands around Rufus neck, smiling broadly at him and gave him a sound kiss. Rufus returned the kiss and sighed again, this time in contentment. As she sat back down beside Lucy, he mumbled something about just wanting to be with his girlfriend, then turned to Lucy and told her she was welcome to sit down in a tone that convinced her he really meant it. She settled in to let her eyes adjust as he someone made room for him on the blanket.
"Hi, I'm Jiya."
"Jiya? Oh, I heard about you."
"Really? From Wyatt?"
"Yeah, he's the only person I know around here yet." She glanced around the fire. A few people were opening up a package of hot dogs and skewering them on a set of overlong forks. Two girls napped with their arms around each other on the blanket. A trio in peeled back surfing skin suits argued over where they should hit the beach tomorrow. She recognized no one. Her eyes found Wyatt who nodded and waved her way. She smiled back, reassured somehow.
"You really are the new girl, aren't you? You're from north somewhere, right? San Jose or something. Want a beer?"
"San Francisco. Sure." Jiya gestured to her boyfriend who nudged someone beyond the cuddling couple. They grabbed a beer and tossed it across the blanket, vagely in Jiya's way.
Jiya reached for it but deftly grabbed the can from the air. She handed it to Lucy saying, "Here ya go. Watch that!" She spoke too late as Lucy opened the tab and beer gushed out in a foamy guyser. Lucy held the beer out, first trying to sip it but she was not in time to avoid spilling it all over her lap. She pushed it away from herself, only to pour another foaming burst onto the Jiya's shoulder and neck.
Jiya shrieked in laughter, and several others joined in. All eyes were suddenly on their corner of the circle. Lucy stood up, embarrassed. She missed Jiya offering her a towel. Lucy made a somewhat incoherent apology and walked out of the circle, towards the water.
She rolled her eyes at herself. Stupid, stupid. The first thing you do when you meet anyone is embarrass yourself. She heard her mother's voice, telling her she need to grow up. She kicked at the hard packed sand beneath her feet. The waves lapped at her. She knelt, splashing the frothy water on her shirt, her senses flooded with the hoppy scent of beer and the taste of salt.
"Hey, are you okay?" Lucy jumped at the voice. Wyatt had followed her, but she hadn't heard his footsteps over the sound of the waves. He made a calming gesture in response to her apparent alarm. "Everything's fine, Lucy. You just shot out of there, I was worried."
He helped her get up. Her middle was sodden now. "Here. Jiya thought you might want this." He handed her a towel. Lucy took it gratefully and rubbed at herself rather ineffectually. The waves rushed at their feet again. Wyatt extended his arm automatically and Lucy found herself leaning into his strength.
Those muscles are not for show, she found herself marveling.
"The tide's coming in. I'd better get you back to the fire before you drown yourself." He lead her back to the shifting sands.
Lucy huffed. "I'm not a child, Wyatt."
A pause. "No, of course not. I was just kidding. I was kind of worried though. They would kill me if I let you get hurt before my friends got to meet you properly."
Lucy found herself melting inside at his admission of worry. But she shook off the feeling. She shrugged. "But after they meet me all bets are off? After that introduction, I bet they figure they found their new court jester."
"No way, Lucy. And if they did I'd tell them something."
Lucy's heart fluttered. Shut up, she thought to herself. Luckily they had reached the fire and Lucy was saved from having to respond to that. People had shifted. There was now a knot of people, including Jiya and Rufus, toasting then eating hot dogs with buns. A few were on to marshmallows, and she thought she saw chocolate and graham crackers circulating. The couple on the blanket were feeding each other uncooked marshmallows with desperately cute looks of delight on their faces. Many more chairs were free, including one right next to Wyatt's tiny lawn chair which he gestured her towards. She joined him, settling into a much higher chair. Peering down at him she said, "Who's the child now." He looked up at her eyes widening, so she thought she'd offended him at first, but then a crooked grin lit his face and they laughed quietly together.
"Lucy!" Jiya crossed over to her, a hot dog crossed by lightning bolt squirt of mustard in her hand. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you off."
Lucy denied any such thing, all the while thinking how absolutely scared off she'd been. Like so many other times when she felt she didn't fit in. She was sure they'd all been laughing at her when she left, but Jiya chatted easily with her. As did Rufus who joined them his face sticky with marshmallow and chocolate. They teased him about the offending treat and Lucy started to see that ribbing and verbal darts were just part of these friends' repartee. She started to relax, and she caught Wyatt looking at her with a smile, though he looked away so she couldn't be sure he had been after.
Easing into the friendly joshing, Lucy told them what Wyatt had said about them not forgiving him if she'd gotten hurt. They laughed, and she admitted that she had felt embarrassed.
Jiya was reassuring, "Lucy-you have no reason to feel bad. It was Jo's fault for tossing that can over. Of course it was going to explode all over the place."
Rufus raised the ante, "Besides, you didn't hold a candle to Wyatt's antics, especially where beer is concerned. You've got a lot of catching up to do if you want to really, embarrass yourself." He launched into a story about their senior prom night involving an all night restaurant, far, far to much extremely cheap beer and Wyatt getting himself stuck in the dumpster out back while heaving his guts out. Wyatt tried to head off the story, but Rufus and Jiya were emboldened by other friends who hadn't been there who prompted them to provide some key details about Wyatt's cummerbund and where it ended up in the morning. Wyatt fell silent and seemed to slump into his chair. Lucy laughed along at first, but other comments started painting a picture of Wyatt that was unflattering, worrying even. She looked at him furtively, eyeing the beer can nestled in the cup holder in his chair.
The beach had fallen dark now. Cars moved slowly by, their headlights flickering across the palm trees every now and then. A group of people walked across the sands from the parking lot, talking loudly and laughing. They merged with the Lucy's group and the discussion turned to places to party that night, where the group had come from and where they were planning to "get blasted" later that night.
Lucy's unease which had slipped away briefly, returned in force. Her own drinking was limited to the occasional glass of wine (preferably sparkling) and although she had no trouble with social drinking the hard hitting, blackout inducing abuse of alcohol she'd witnessed in her peers during college had put her off this kind of thing. She no longer was able to contribute to the conversation and felt more and more isolated. She looked for Rufus and Jiya, but they were walking down the beach hand in hand.
Lucy's discomfort reached a fever peak when a very attractive blonde in a tank top plopped herself onto Wyatt's lap. "I hear you've been telling everyone about prom!"
"Oof! Yeah, Jess, it came up-"
She beat a tattoo on his chest, interrupting him. "Those were the good old days. I swore I would never forgive you for ruining my night, but that turned out to be the best story. You were absolutely green when you came out of the dumpster." She guffawed, "Everyone else had such boring nights. And that next day..." She ran her fingers suggestively over his chest now. Lucy could swear Wyatt was squirming in the chair. She looked away. Ah, he's got a girlfriend. Of course. Someone that gorgeous...
Miraculously, Rufus and Jiya returned and Lucy moved off to join them. She grabbed a hot dog and a fork, and chatted with the couple. Lucy studiously kept her eyes pointed away from the group surrounding Wyatt but somehow she found herself in possession of the knowledge that Jess ("Oh, you met Jessica, huh? She and Wyatt were hot and heavy in high school. Quite the item," Jiya shared.) had taken the seat Lucy had left empty. She wasn't sure what to feel about that. Pleased that he hadn't kept her on his lap, or sad that he'd not found a way to extricate himself and come back to her.
Come back to me? When was he with me? she thought. Their moments by the water came back to her. He was just being a good host.
Lucy headed out not long after. She did exchange numbers with Jiya, but she slipped out without saying goodbye to Wyatt. She felt like a coward, but looking back at the circle of faces laughing in shadow and light and she shook her head. Voices shouted out the name of a bar, and she felt right about her choices. She didn't have time for partying and certainly didn't have money to spare getting drunk. She'd been right about him. Nothing to think about.
Surely nothing she should spend several restless hours thinking about. Not the feel of his hand in hers helping her stand in the surf. Certainly not the glimmer of a smile in his eyes, with the firelight reflected. Nothing there at all.
But oh, wouldn't that detail about the cummerbund be nice in that bit of the story..