Chapter Eight

If He Locks You Up…

Gavin drove back to 999 Things to Wear. Oliver got out, got Lindsay her towels out of Ricky’s truck, wished them a good night, and drove off with a wave.

Alone at last, Gavin told Lindsay what Marissa had told him about the lock on her door, and sure enough, everything she said about the lock was true. It was completely broken.

“There isn’t a hardware store open at this time of night,” he said, bummed. “I don’t think you should stay here tonight.”

Lindsay didn’t wait to hear a list of possible places she could stay. “I don’t think there’s going to be a problem tonight. There wasn’t a problem last night. Didn’t Marissa stay here for months knowing that the lock was broken?”

Gavin growled and then made his argument. “Yes, but she knows it’s broken, she knows you’re staying here, she knows what time I got here and that there aren’t any hardware stores around here that will be open at this time of night. The fact that she came here this afternoon to look at the apartment worries me. Worst of all, she may be angry with you for confirming all those terrible, but true things I kept telling her. She had her sister drop her off here this afternoon, but she has her own car. She could already be on her way here to terrorize you.”

“Fine with me. I’ll deal with her when she gets here,” Lindsay said stiffly.

“You think you can handle her?” he said like he was accusing her of something awful.

Lindsay laughed. “Of course, I can handle her. I’ve been working as an actress for years. Do you know how many times I’ve had my hair pulled out, had my drink doused with something to make me vomit, and been bitched out by a woman every bit as angry as Marissa?” Lindsay stuck her nose in the air. “Marissa has no reason to be angry with me beyond what I told her. If she comes here, I won’t make the same mistake again. I’ll send her over to your house instead. The question is not whether or not I can handle her. Can you?”

He groaned. “I swear to you, I’ve been more assertive than how it appears. I have been extremely straightforward with her. She just hasn’t been willing to take no for an answer.”

“I bet you do something dumb to treat her nicely after something like this, don’t you?” Lindsay observed.

“Like what?”

“Like sending her flowers with a note that says ‘Sorry for our fight’.”

He paled, confirming her accusation.

Lindsay clucked her tongue. “You do that? You’re as dumb as her.”

“I want to be a nice guy,” he said defensively. Before Lindsay could criticize him more, he changed the subject. “Look, I’m going to go to the hotel and pilfer a doorknob and a lock. I’m sure there’s something like that in the supply room. I’ll be back to change the locks, so expect me.”

“Sure thing,” Lindsay said as she refrained from telling him what a bonehead he was.

Once he was gone, she got into the shower. She hadn’t had one since before they got to the island and she was looking rough.

When she came out, she found Gavin had let himself into the apartment and was changing the locks as he promised. She wore an oversized black T-shirt and gray cotton pajama bottoms. She patted her hair dry with one of the new towels she and Oliver had bought that afternoon.

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“Thanks,” she said.

He finished up and stood up to check the lock. “My pleasure.” Once he was convinced it would work, he closed it and locked it.

He faced her. “Can we talk?”

Lindsay nodded and sat down at the window nook.

“What’s going on with you and Oliver?” he asked, sitting across from her.

“Nothing. He’s just flirty. He keeps talking about kissing, so I think he’s feeling a little lonely. Has he ever kissed Ricky, do you know?”

“I don’t know.”

“I think he may be looking for opportunities to kiss women in crazy situations. He said something to me the other night when we finished our break up that he wants to kiss me one more time. He gave dumb reasons, but I think he might be hoping to gear up to kiss Ricky. He’s terrified to kiss her. What would the consequences for that be if she doesn’t like him back? If he’s been kissing everyone beforehand then he can just claim that he’s a kissing fool who kisses everyone. It didn’t mean much. Something like hiding the most important kiss of his life in a pile of other kisses. Who can tell which is the important one?”

“You think that’s why he kissed Marissa tonight? That was insane.”

“I didn’t notice you scolding him,” Lindsay chuckled.

“I don’t care if he kisses her.”

“I think he kissed her both to warm himself up to do something crazy and so that she could kiss someone other than you. She probably can’t even remember that it’s possible for her to match with a man other than you. He was doing her a favor, but if he keeps this up, he’s gonna get mono.”

“Oh, he’s already had it,” Gavin confirmed with a hilarious head wag.

Lindsay smiled, her good nature spilling over her smile. “Well, if that’s all you wanted to talk about… Thank you for the lock. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

She stood up and he followed her. “Wait,” he said, reaching for her wrist and holding her back. “There is one more thing.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. If Marissa hadn’t gotten between us, would you have kissed me?”

Lindsay nodded. “Naturally.”

“I felt a little cheated that you didn’t,” he confessed softly.

She pursed her lips and looked up at him with a curious expression on her face. “Really? I was sort of glad she stopped me.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked and Lindsay felt the pressure on her wrist slacken.

“Yeah. If I had my first kiss with you then and there, in front of Marissa, it would have been a gag. I would have spent the whole kiss thinking about her and what expression was on her face. How shocked was she? Did her jaw drop? It would have sucked because then I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy our first kiss. When we kiss for the first time, I want it to be on a day when you didn’t see Marissa. You didn’t think about her. I want it to be on a day where you only thought about me.”

She gave him a wicked little smile and she knew she’d got him. Hook, line, and sinker. She’d taken his breath away.

His eyes sparkled with excitement and his warm hand flipped her wrist in his. He kissed her on the back of her hand like she was a lady and he said goodnight before disappearing out the door.

***

In the morning, it was raining again. Lindsay hadn’t yet bought a raincoat or an umbrella. She was considering running through the rain to get to work. It wasn’t that far to the hotel, just down the street. She pulled the hood on her sweatshirt over her hair and went down the stairs to the door to the street below.

That was when she stopped in her tracks. The door wouldn’t open. She locked it and unlocked it three times and rattled it like a mad person. Why wouldn’t it open?

Annoyed and angry that she was proving herself to be unreliable, she sent Gavin a text explaining that the lock he’d given her was faulty and she was trapped in the stairwell.

She told herself that she wasn’t to blame. She wanted to lead a responsible life as an adult and it was high time she did, but the discouragement of the situation got to her. She really wanted to be on time for work, do a good job, and… She supposed she was lucky her boss had been the one to change the locks. Nothing could have been more convenient.

He sent her a text back that he was on his way over.

He knocked when he arrived, but she couldn’t open the door for him.

He phoned her. “Hey. Having a good morning?”

Lindsay snorted. “Got any ideas for how to work this out?”

“Sure do.“