Love & Betrayal & Hold the Mayo by Francine Pascal

Author:Francine Pascal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2003-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Seven

Monday morning starts like all Monday mornings—rain. Well, not exactly rain, just slight drizzle. The light gray kind of day that looks like it might clear up any minute. Just promising enough to keep the people on dock duty at their stations.

Alone.

That’s just what I needed—to be alone with Robbie. Of course he’s very friendly, welcoming me, showing me around and explaining rules like how we handle the safety equipment and all that. I force myself to pay close attention because it’s serious business, but half my brain is stuck on thinking how handsome he is close up and how much I like the sound of his voice. Every once in a while I forget and look up at his face, at his bottom lip, especially, when he smiles. He’s got the sweetest smile, with just a trace of a dimple on one cheek. I guess I knew all this from Steffi, but I never knew what it would make me feel like. It makes me feel like I want to reach out and touch him.

And when we do touch, accidentally, the feeling ripples through my body and I get warm all over. How am I going to last seven days? That thought almost makes me want to cry.

I find a little trick that helps. Whenever I get too carried away, lost in the sound of his voice or the sight of that bottom lip, I say, “Steffi.” That’s it, I just say her name over and over again like it’s some kind of magic charm that will break the spell.

When I run out of charms I just clam up. At first he chats with me, the way you would with someone you’re working with, but all I can manage are one-syllable answers so the conversation just kind of dribbles away. Then it gets silent, and that’s hard to break. It’s obvious he thinks I don’t like him, but that’s the price I have to pay.

One bad thing happens in the morning. The two of us are out there reading, about ten feet apart, when a frog croaks and we both look up at the same instant. For a second neither of us realizes that we’re staring at each other.

It’s intense, the way our eyes get locked together for that moment. Finally I force myself back to the book, but that’s it; I can’t read another thing for the rest of the morning.

The afternoon is just as horrendous. At about three, Steffi comes down to visit us, and I feel so guilty I can’t even look at her. I haven’t done one thing wrong, but everything I think is horrible.

And she doesn’t have much luck with Robbie, either. I guess just sitting around here in this funny kind of gloom has hit him too.

Steffi pulls me aside. “What’s up? Are you both in the dumps or what?”

“It’s just the weather. It’s really depressing to sit around here in this drizzle.”

But she doesn’t buy my explanation. “Look, I know you’re not crazy about Robbie, but at least you could try to be a little friendly….

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.