Fish Out of Water by Natalie Whipple

Author:Natalie Whipple [Whipple, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary
Publisher: Curtis Brown Unlimited
Published: 2015-02-10T07:00:00+00:00

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It’s weird to see the Shades of Bombay kitchen minus Pavan. Shreya’s other two brothers seem more frantic as they try to fill orders. Their father is livid with them, yelling stuff I’m glad I don’t understand. I never noticed before, but I think Pavan was the chill one who evened out the tempers around him.

Shrey cringes as she comes over with my saag when their other waiter clocks in. “Sorry for the crazy. Dad won’t hire a new cook, but keeping up is impossible without…”

Knowing she can’t say his name, I nod. “Thanks for this. Work was rough.”

“Am I allowed to ask why?” She glares at me, and I feel guilty that I still haven’t told them what happened on Saturday.

I sigh. Time to give in. “Because I don’t know what to do with Dylan.”

As I launch into the story, it reminds me just how wonderful and horrible that day was. Shrey lights up when I tell her Dylan wants us to be more, but by the time I get to the five million dollars she looks as confused as I feel.

She puts her hand to her mouth, thinking. I continue to stuff my face. She takes a piece of naan and nibbles on it. “How do you spend that much money in one night?”

“I know!” I let out a frustrated grunt. “But more importantly, what kind of person thinks that’s okay? His parents are freaking loaded, but he had to have understood how much money that was, right?”

She nods. “How could you not?”

I lean back in my chair, wishing I could stay here instead of having to watch Betty. “It’s not the money that bothers me anymore—it’s the fact that he knew what he was doing. He wasted that money on purpose. It wasn’t like he got carried away. How could I be with someone who’d do that?”

“Did that,” Shreya corrects. “You think he’d still make the same choice if he could do it over?”

“I don’t know…” I want to point out he’s already spent his whole paycheck like it was nothing. Except he spent it on me, so I don’t know how to feel about it. “I’m in way over my head here, Shrey.”

She puts her hand on mine. “You should probably let him explain.”

“Yeah.” I get up, my stomach twisting from all the food. “But I still need to think about it.”

“Do you?” Her look is skeptical. “Or are you afraid of what this could be?”

I narrow my eyes. “Don’t get all deep on me.”

She laughs. “We’re on for Saturday, right?”

“As you wish.”

I pedal home, trying my best to focus on anything but Dylan. The ocean breeze, the gulls squawking, the warm summer sun. By the time I get home, I’m ready to put my energy into taking care of Betty—I need to make up for what I said to her—instead of worrying about my own problems. At least until I open the door and hear her screaming like a crazed animal.

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