Just Can't Forget You: Oakland Hills Short Story 2 (Oakland Hills #3.5)(8)

“Eleven is good. See you then.” He pulled on his helmet, hopped on the bike, and then, before she could ask him to stay or never come back, he was gone.

To stop herself from gazing after him longingly, she marched to her own car and drove home to her sublet apartment a few blocks away. She usually walked to work, but had needed the car to get to Eduardo’s gorgeous house in Oakland.

She waited a few hours before calling Jody to clear the air. They’d been friends in high school, part of a group of five eccentric girls in their elite southern California high school that called themselves the Fab Five.

“It was shitty of me not to tell you I’d moved nearby,” Melissa declared at the start. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s OK,” Jody said warmly. “I obviously had a secret of my own.”

The line fell silent.


Melissa dunked a teabag into water she’d forgotten to heat in the microwave. “How long have you been together?”

“Two months. It just happened. He moved into the unit upstairs, one thing led to another.” Jody paused. “There’s something you need to know.”

“You’re pregnant.”

Jody laughed. “God, no. Not yet, anyway,” she said.

“Whoa,” Melissa said.

“Yeah. It’s… it’s pretty serious. But listen, about Simon… what happened back then… ”

“It’s OK.” Melissa didn’t want her old friend to think she’d been obsessing over Simon all these years, and that now she was wobbling on the edge of another bout of clinical depression and self-harm. It was embarrassment, not obsessive love, that haunted her. “Don’t worry about it. You two are cute together.” If she hadn’t been so shocked, she might’ve been happy for these friends she’d had since childhood.

“Your parents talked to him,” Jody said. “They were trying to protect you.”

“Why would my parents talk to him? How would they—oh, you mean then.” For a moment she’d thought Jody was telling her that her mother had tracked down Simon recently, which she could’ve believed possible of the tenacious lady who’d brought her into the world.

The implications struck her. Back when she’d been recovering from the suicide attempt, and Simon had completely avoided her, she’d understood, feeling utterly unlovable for what she’d done. But if he’d actually stayed away from her because her parents—her mother—had asked him to…

“I’m going to kill her,” Melissa said. “She never told me.”

“They were afraid it might… you know… ”

“The sight of his gorgeous, unattainable bod would drive me to finish the job,” Melissa said. “How f*cking embarrassing. And he’s probably believed it all these years. Now I really do want to kill myself.”

“Melissa—”

“Just kidding. Rest easy, Simon Brodie is not the man on my mind right now.”

“Oh, I saw that for myself,” Jody said, her tone growing more cheerful. “Tell me about that guy. Eduardo, was it? Wow.”

“It’s not what it looked like. He’s a client.”

“Sure he is.”

“Seriously,” Melissa said. “I saw you and Simon, and used him for show.”

“I don’t think he minded.” The line went silent for a moment. “Melissa, I think you’re in deep trouble if you think he’s just a client.”

Melissa, not ready to tell her she’d first met Eduardo at the Center, covered her mouth with her hand, trying to stifle the pleasure that washed over her as she remembered the feel of his strong, hard body against hers. “He’s just a client.”

But he doesn’t have to be, a smoky, imaginary voice whispered in her ear, millimeters from her favorite erogenous zone. It’s a tiny garden. You could plant a dozen agapanthus in under an hour: mission accomplished.

No. She was just getting her life the way she wanted it: peaceful, organized, and no drama. A job and a small apartment, low expenses, a boring date now and then—that was more than enough. Seeing her high school ex had reminded her of how badly she overreacted to sexy guys with bedroom eyes. Of a past she didn’t want to revisit.

And Eduardo Diaz was a grown-up, fully potent version of the boy Simon had been—way, way too hot for her to handle.

“All right,” Jody said. “Just promise you’ll keep me posted.”

“Same for you,” Melissa said. “And for God’s sake, please tell Simon I’m fine, will you? So he’s not afraid to invite me to the wedding?”

When Jody didn’t immediately shoot down the possibility of marriage, Melissa wished her well, amazed but happy for her, and hung up.

It was good to clear that up. She hated to wallow in the past. Life was today.

And not, she thought as she looked at Eduardo Diaz on her morning schedule, at eleven a.m. tomorrow.



I’m an *.

Wallowing in self-recrimination, Eduardo watched Melissa digging and hauling dirt in his backyard. There was his dream girl, likely his soul mate, with her hair pulled back fifties-style in a red-and-white polka-dot bandana, the knees of her faded jeans stained with dirt, while he sat on his ass and sipped freshly pressed coffee.