Neither stirred for several hours. The sun was moving closer to the water when Mac finally saw it again. For the second time that day, she awoke to the smell of sandalwood, soap, and the ocean. Definitely the ocean. This felt nothing like the Grande. She was relaxed and peaceful.
Mac's hands and face were comfortably pressed against something hard. She opened her eyes to a wall of orange and realized her face was buried in the back of Dick's orange T-shirt.
Dick! Mac gave a start, but was not able to distance herself much from him; both were in the valley of the seaside hammock. As comprehension dawned, she realized she must have turned toward him as they slept. Her abdomen was pressed against his low back and her thighs and knees followed the curve of his legs. Their bare feet were tangled together.
For a brief moment, she thought of just falling back asleep. She was so comfortable and she felt safe (and… happy?) here with Dick, far away from everything. If she was going back to sleep, she might as well be completely comfortable and wrap her top arm around his waist… Wait. What? Why do I want to hold onto him? This is Dick Casablancas. Sure, he was being sweet and maybe even a little flirty today, but he is a dog. Right? Right. He only acts like that when we're alone or around my friends. Last semester, he wouldn't even acknowledge me around his friends. Not that I cared. And it's all to get a rise out of me anyway, right? Just to piss me off of fluster me for sport. He flirts with every girl, doesn't he? Even V and Parker. Well not lately, but he has. He's a drunk. And he's mean. This is Dick, who goes through girls the way he goes through beers. Do not get attached, Mackenzie.
Mac gingerly lifted her upper leg and eased her foot out from under Dick's heavy leg. Moving her lower leg without disturbing Dick was trickier. She had snaked her foot underneath his leg and rested it on top of his foot. As Mac disentangled herself slowly, she mentally thanked Ryan for making her play Jenga with him all those times. Once free, Mac stretched her legs out and turned to lie on her back as she exhaled deeply. Seeing that even this didn't disturb her nap buddy, Mac decided to make good use of his cooler packing efforts and get some water.
As she sat up, she placed her feet on the ground which stopped their light swinging. Mac eased onto her tiptoes and was proud of herself for not jostling the hammock as she rose.
That's why when Dick said, "Get me a beer, will ya'?" as though he had been awake for hours, Mac almost face planted into the sand.
Stunned, Mac walked to the cooler and pulled out a beer and a water. As she turned back toward the hammock, she saw Dick, already sitting, facing away from her towards the water.
She walked to the ocean side of the hammock and held out his beer as she said, "So you're awake?"
"Barely," he said with a yawn as he found a bottle opener on his keychain. "I slept like a rock."
"Me too," Mac said as she stretched then sat beside him on the hammock chair. Her body felt loose, but she mentally tensed waiting for him to tease her about curling up around him.
But the teasing didn't come. "The sun's going down," Dick said, voicing his thought.
"Yeah, Dick, and then comes night." Mac said sarcastically, deciding to go on the offense instead.
He turned his head to look at her, smirked, and took another swig of his beer. "I mention it because our path back up the mountain isn't lit and in an hour or so it'll be pitch black. Did you bring a flash light?"
"Oh. No," she said, caught off guard by his foresight. "And I'm fresh out of lanterns and torches too. We'd better get going."
"You don't want to stay here all night and cuddle some more?"
There it is, Mac thought
She couldn't tell if he was smirking, his lips were around the mouth of his beer bottle again, but his eyes were sparkling over at her.
Mac sighed deeply as she stood up. "No, Dick. If we stayed here all night I think I'd resort to cannibalism before I'd do that." Please just drop it. She wanted to bury her head in the sand.
"You're hungry?" he asked, glossing over the insult and picking up on the subtext.
Mac thought about it. "Starving, actually."
"Cannibalism, huh?" he chuckled, "I thought you didn't like meat."
Mac laughed out loud as she started to gather the towels and the tarp. "Nah, I don't like the idea of eating defenseless animals. You could at least put up a fight."
"I wouldn't," he mumbled as he stood to help her fold up everything. More loudly he said, "Let's go get dinner then. What are you in the mood for?"
Mac stopped folding, frozen, and locked eyes with Dick. Blue on blue.
"What? You just told me you're starving. Now all of a sudden you're not hungry?" Dick asked with a laugh as he managed to continue folding the tarp using the unhelpful Mac as an anchor.
"No, it's just…"
"You need to get home?"
"No, not for a little while."
"It's just what, then? We've eaten together before, Mackie."
"Yeah, but we've always had buffers," she attempts to explain. Logan. Veronica. Wallace. Cassidy.
"Buffers?" questions Dick, still amused by her reluctance. "We've been without buffers all day, but now that food is involved it's mandatory that other people come with us?"
He had a point.
Dick dumps the ice out of the cooler. Mac, kneeling beside the empty cooler refilling it with their unused drinks says, "You're right. It's just that…"
"What?" Dick asks smiling, "Go ahead, hit me with another excuse."
"I look awful," Mac blurts out motioning to her hair and her clothes, thinking of her lack of makeup or a shower, as she stands back up.
"You don't," Dick said just as quickly. "Whatever you're worried about, it shouldn't be that. C'mon, I know a great place off the PCH that's real casual. We can both go looking like beach bums and no one will think twice about it."
"And they have food I'd like?" she asks, finally agreeing. She shows it with her actions as she begins to carry the folded towels up the mountain path.
Dick grabs the cooler and follows her, "Well, they don't cook humans, but yeah we'll find something for you."
When they got past the hike, the iron gate, and up the treacherous winding cliffs, Dick stopped the Jeep at the top on the access road to the PCH for a few minutes.
"Thanks for showing me your Grand-dad's place, Dick," said Mac taking in the view one last time. The sky was ablaze with pinks and oranges. Unlike before, she didn't even think of the bus crash when she saw the cliffs from this vantage point.
"I thought you'd like it," Dick said. "Someday I'm going to pave this road and build a house down there."
"You are?" Mac asked, a little astonished that Dick had any kind of future plans.
"Yeah, on that level rock. And then I'll put rails along the walkway to the beach. Maybe a little beach shed to keep my boards and stuff."
Mac looked at Dick in the driver's seat and smiled. The fact that he was looking forward to something so much made her inexplicably happy. To her, it seemed this rich boy had everything but didn't really want anything. He just floated through life. She could see how a building place of his own by the beach , with some positive connection to family, would be a good goal for him.
"This place really suits you," she offered.
"Cool. I think so too." Dick ducked his head as though he was bashful. "It's nice that someone else knows about it now."
"I can't believe you like Mediterranean food Dick. It's my favorite!" Mac says as they wait for their order to be brought to them. Dick was right; the place was really low key. They ordered at a counter and were sitting at a plastic table outside overlooking the scenic highway and the cliffs. The sun was finally sinking into the ocean.
"Well good. I didn't understand any of the crap you ordered—eggplant something, tabul—something, keen—something. I just know they have good gyros and kabobs."
Mac laughed but didn't correct him.
"I can't believe you paid for my food," Dick said shaking his head. "I don't think anyone has done that ever."
"Logan buys your food all the time."
"Yeah, but I mean girls. I don't think a girl has ever bought my dinner before."
"What can I say? I'm one of those 'new money thousandaires' and I just gotta' flaunt it," she smiled but then said, "Seriously, don't' sweat it Dick. I'm just paying you back for saving me from Parker all day and for getting my breakfast back at the beach. Now we're square."
"Okay, but I don't like keeping score," Dick said. He also didn't like being embarrassed by an insistent girl at the cash register. Apparently Mac was unschooled in the 'once he takes out his wallet' rule most girls learned in junior high.
"Oh, that's right you don't," she teased, " I've learned that from all our time together playing Halo and Portal and Call of Duty…"
"Shut it, Mackers," he said with a laugh.
And she did, because the food came.
After enjoying her tabbouleh and quinoa for a little while, Mac said, "It's good you don't keep score, Dick, 'cause I'm still down. You paid for our drinks and dinner and all that stuff last night."
"I didn't pay for it, I just didn't get paid for it. Completely different," Dick says as if it is. He leans forward as he says, "So, Wallace tells me you kicked Max to the curb last night. You okay?"
Mac takes a deep breath and sighs. She honestly hadn't thought about Max the whole time at the beach. They had only been broken up for about 12 hours. It should hurt a lot worse than it did.
"Surprisingly, yeah. All that drinking and dancing and fresh air has made this break-up pretty tolerable."
"The fact that you caught him red-handed with a hooker probably didn't hurt either."
Mac shot Dick a death glare. He was so shocked he almost choked on his lamb kabob. She looked mad and tearful all at once.
"Hey, hey, I didn't mean anything by it," he tried to defend himself as well as soothe her. "I just thought that knowing for sure he was scum bag would make him easier to get over."
"He's not a scum bag," Mac said wearily.
"He is," Dick said firmly. "Any man who would do that to you is worthless, Mac. Juggling two women who are aware of each other is all kinds of fun. Juggling two women who are not means you deserve all the misery you've got coming."
Mac laughed and shook her head as she ran a hand from her forehead to her chin in exasperation. "That first part, Dick was pretty solid reassurance, A+. That last part made me remember why I usually think you're a Neanderthal."
"Fine, here's Neanderthal for you: I'm going to kick Max's ass the next time I see him."
Mac bristled at this. "No, Dick," Mac said seriously. "You're not. Please don't. Violence isn't the way to solve problems." And why would you kick his ass anyway?
"Have you been listening to Logan's anger management CDs?" Dick asked with a grin, hoping to diffuse tension. Thinking about Mac and violence only made him remember his thoughts this morning while surfing.
"Have you been listening to Logan?" she snarked back. "How does hitting people fix problems?" She thought about that and realized her form of retaliation wouldn't really fix anything either.
"You've already fixed the problem—you dumped him. I just want to teach him a lesson. "
"I had a plan to get back at Max, to teach him a lesson, but now…"
"Now what? You're not even going to go through with whatever you had planned?"
"Maybe just the threat of it is enough," Mac thought aloud. "I can let him think I'll tell Nish everything at any minute and that'll still make him give up the business and go back to school."
Dick smiled. "So hitting is bad but blackmail is okay?"
Mac laughed, "Yeah, today that's the conclusion I'm coming to."
"So, if I want to get 'study guides' for this semester, you're telling me I need to act quickly."
Mac hit Dick on the arm. "You don't need those. And you absolutely don't need to get caught getting one."
"Ow, I thought you didn't like violence?" he teased, but then added, "I do too need them. I've got a lot of tough classes this semester, Mackie."
"Really?" she said, a little embarrassed she sounded so surprised. "What are you taking?"
"Accounting II, Business Law, a Finance class, and some gen ed stuff."
"Are you kidding?" Mac asked, now she looked like she was ready to choke.
"No, why?"
"'Cause that sounds killer. Good for you, Dick, not shying away from the hard stuff."
Dick smiled proudly but said, "Yeah, we'll see how happy I am about it around mid-terms. Why? What are you taking?"
"Advanced Programming, Algorithms, Calc II, Database Management , and some gen ed stuff."
"I don't even know what those words mean. Will they be hard for you?"
"Honestly, not that hard, but several have projects that will keep me busy."
"I like that you're honest about how easy genius stuff is for you. Let me be honest with you: that's the most I've talked about school all summer, and seeing as now we've got oh," he looks at his bare wrist, "36 hours of freedom left, I refuse to talk about it anymore."
Mac scoffs with a smile, "You may have 36 hours of freedom left, but I don't." She finds her phone to check the time.
"I'm getting another beer, " Dick says as he stands to go back up to the counter. "You sure you don't want anything besides water?"
"Oh, I do, but I've gotta' get to work by 11, so I'd better not drink."
"You what?" Dick seeks clarification as he sits back down abruptly.
"I'm working tonight from 11-3."
"As in, you're going to work in a couple of hours?"
"Yeah, it should be slow since the first day of classes is Monday. But I'll leave it to this new crop of freshmen to ruin that theory."
"I thought you're swimming in money now? You're still going to work?"
Mac laughed ; she hadn't even thought of quitting. "If there's one thing I know, Dick, it's that money doesn't always last. Sure, this side-project with Logan is great extra cash now, but I'm waiting for it to all fall apart."
"You're kind of a pessimist, you know that Mackie?"
"I do know that. It's who I am," then she mumbled, "Look at my track record. Wouldn't you be?"
When Dick looked as though he was going to answer that, Mac changed the topic quickly, "I thought you were getting a beer."
"You tryin' to get me drunk?" Dick said as he stood again. Mac cringed as she remembered Logan's text. Well, it was dark now at least.
"Nope, but I am itchin' to drive your smurf mobile."
"First of all, NO. Her name's Betty. Blue Betty or Betty Blue, not anything cartoon related. And second, there's no way in hell you're driving her. "
Mac laughed at the name and laughed even harder as he mumbled, "Freakin' pay for dinner and wants to drive my car. Do I look like I belong in a skirt?"
She composed herself and said, "One beer down at the water, # 2 just now, but go for # 3 and that means I get the keys."
"Three beers with dinner is like you drinking water. That's not enough to get me drunk," he explains as he sits beside her a second time.
Mac locked eyes with him and said sincerely, "I believe you that you know your limits. And I know that your tolerance for alcohol is high, but it still makes me nervous. I don't like the idea of you driving around like that; something could happen to you. And tonight something could happen to me. So get your drink, but I'll drive us home."
Dick was momentarily stunned. Her look, the fact that she cared about him—it was all a little overwhelming, but he recovered and said, "Coke it is then. I'm the only one who gets to touch Betty."
Mac chuckles and relaxes, "So, you're the jealous type?"
"Like you wouldn't believe."