“I want to go home,” says Nicola. “If you could give me a ride.” She has to work not to sayplease.She’s had too much to drink to deal with her bike.
“No problem.” They all turn to find their hosts, but there’s nobody to find. Taylor is gone, and David and Juliana have moved into the shadows, and if they’re speaking it’s no longer possible to hear them.
At Jack’s car (well, David’s), Nicola hesitates, not sure who will take the passenger seat. All she wants is to get out of there. It’s early; maybe she won’t go home after all. Maybe she’ll meet up with the other interns.
The problem is settled when Shelly says (slurs), “Can you drop me in town? I’m supposed to meet someone.” She slides into the back seat.
“Sure,” says Jack, opening the passenger door for Nicola, even giving a funny little bow, like he’s a hired chauffeur. “Whereabouts?”
“Oh, just in town,” says Shelly vaguely. She pulls her phone out of her handbag and keeps her eyes on it for the whole ride, until Jack says, “Here?” pulling up outside Poor People’s.
Shelly looks up from her phone, confused.
“Is this where you’re meeting someone?” Nicola prompts. “Or should we bring you somewhere else?”
“This works,” says Shelly finally, after looking down at her phone, then back up again. “Yeah, this works. Thanks, babe.”Babe? thinks Nicola. Ew.
Jack’s window is rolled down, and Shelly leans in and tousles his hair, then kisses him noisily on the cheek. Nicola looks out her own window and cringes.
Once Shelly has walked off—walkis perhaps too generous aword, andstumbledtoo mean, so maybe it falls somewhere in the middle—Jack looks at Nicola and murmurs, “Why don’t we catch the sunset?”
Is heserious right now? Has he not felt the ice daggers coming from her all night? Is he not even going toaskwhat’s wrong?
“I don’t think so,” she says. She won’t dignify him with an explanation if he’s not going to ask for one.
“I think we have enough time to get to Dorry’s Cove.”
Someone told Nicola when she first got to the island that Dorry’s Cove is where you can see the best sunsets, and she can’t believe she hasn’t watched one yet. There’s one long log on the beach practically built for viewing, and if you get there first, you get to sit on it.
“Come on, Nicky,” he says. “Watch the sunset with me. We can go see that dead whale.”
“You can’t see the whale from Dorry’s,” she says frostily. “It’s between Dorry’s and Grace’s.” When the BIMI people had gone to see the whale, they had done it asscientists, not as curiosity seekers. Jack doesn’t care about marine mammals; Jack doesn’t deserve to see the whale.
“Fair enough,” he says. “The sunset it is, then!”
She considers this. It’s a long bike ride from her place out to Dorry’s, and she’s probably never going to watch a sunset and then ride all that way home in the dark. Should she take advantage of the ride as well as the chance to give Jack, as her mother would say, a piece of her mind? Okay, fine.
Fine!
“I want to sit on that famous log,” she says grudgingly.
“Life goals,” he said. “Let’s do it.” Nicola checks her phone. Sunset is just before eight o’clock, and they have to get over to the west side of the island. It’s now twenty-six minutes past seven—not even ninety minutes since she arrived at David and Taylor’s. Wow. A lot can happen in less than ninety minutes.
“Let’s do it,” she echoes, keeping her voice even.
“Pedal to the metal, then,” says Jack. “Should we pick up something to drink before we leave town?”
What is the kindest way to say,Are you fucking kidding me?She settles for, “Probably not. I had enough at dinner—and you’re driving.”
“Fair enough,” he says effortlessly, and he takes her hand and presses it to his lips, and that’s when she makes the decision that once they get to Dorry’s, once they’re sitting on the log, she’s going to tell him exactly what she thinks of him. Before the sun sets, she’ll tell him.
Because even though she’s repulsed by his behavior she could see herself getting caught back up, obsessing, even, always wondering, always worrying that there’s a Shelly Salazar around the corner. She could see Jack Baker, with his unconcern, with his sexy forearms and perfect abs and beautiful hair, turning her into just the kind of person she doesn’t want to be, the kind of person who puts her hands on her hips and cries,Where have you been?maybe while wearing some sort of a kerchief, maybe holding a broom or a vegetable peeler.
In the meantime, though, is one of them going to address the elephant in the car? She sets aside her ire for a moment and ventures: “Was that not the most awkward dinner you’ve ever been to?”
Jack glances over at her. “Which?”
“Whichdinner? The one we just came from! The one where we all heard Juliana say out loud that she expects David to leave Taylor for her!”
