Destiny. Part One. Connection.
Chapter Five: Shrimp Salad
On the fateful Sunday morning that I was to have dinner with the Parsons, I grabbed brunch with Sahara before we headed to the salon. The hair appointment my mom booked had turned into a double appointment for my best girl friend and me. At least I would have good company while I got ready for something I didn’t want to do. My hair was revitalized and the tone was evened out. My nails were buffed and perfectly manicured. That part was all good and relaxing. What sucked was picking out a dress. I’d been dreading this whole thing, especially during the last week that I’d spent with Kieran, so I’d put dress shopping off to the last minute.
I hit up Neiman Marcus on Wilshire with Sahara after we had brunch. They always had a huge selection of contemporary dresses (and weren’t limited exclusively to only one designer) to choose from. Their eager employees were always willing to help me out with accessories to complete the look as well. I’m sure my mother’s goal was to get Nathan to fall in love with me or something to that extent. Unfortunately for her we had a very different goal in mind.
My goal was to get him to not like me so that I could hang out with my actual boyfriend. Was it too much to expect a dress to produce disappointment?
The perfect dress was teal, short, and somewhat cleavage revealing, but not slutty. It would meet my mom’s standards for what was appropriate to make an impression on the Parsons family because it was a really nice dress and I knew it was a color she really liked. But there was no plunging neckline and the back was pretty conservative. If I were actually intent on getting Nathan to like me I would have picked a little black dress.
“What do you think, Sahara?” I asked her while I looked at myself in the dress in the three-way mirror.
She wiggled her perfectly arched eyebrows at me and smirked. “You look hot.”
“But not the kind of hot that would make a boy think I am trying to impress him, right?”
“Hmm,” she paused, chewing on the bottom of her lip as she made an assessment. “More like the kind of hot that means he’s only allowed to look at you. From far away.”
“I hope so,” I said, smoothing down the dress. “I want Nathan to…to not give a second thought to me. I really hope tonight can be quick and painless. I don’t want to mess anything up with Kieran.”
In a week everything seemed to just fall into place for Kieran and me. It just seemed right. The time we spent together seemed too short. Not just because he was juggling a lot with school, work, the band, and a girlfriend, but also because I just really liked being with him. It was hard for me to ever know what he was thinking because he didn’t talk a lot, but I felt like in such a short amount of time he understood me. He got why I was so conflicted with the Beverly Hills bubble and he could understand the principles I was building against it.
He was so amused that I was interested in his life and all the things that made him, well, him. I could finally get him to say more than a few sentences at a time since I knew that he liked me and he was dating me and he wanted to be around me too. Maybe I had trouble guessing what he was thinking but I was getting to know him. He told me about his family, his friends, and his music—everything he was outside of the walls of Park Laine. I loved hearing about his version of normal.
I thought about him while I was paying for my expensive dinner dress, and matching shoes, and matching blazer. I didn’t have a budget. When the cashier rung up my purchases it turned out that the shoes actually cost more than the dress. Outrageous, right? My guess was that I could probably get a nice dress for less than a hundred dollars at a department store in the mall. But no, in the bubble, paying hundreds of dollars—plural—was normal.
* * *
“Don’t slouch, Lana,” my mom commanded from beside me.
Well, more like hissed at me under her breath.
Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I moved to sit up straight in my seat. Dinner was going splendidly. I’d said like four sentences the whole time. For the most part it was Nathan who was speaking. He was really excited about some new deal that he’s just settled. Well woo fucking hoo. I wasn’t paying any attention. A 19-year-old kid getting richer by the minute just didn’t spike my interest. I didn’t give a shit, and from what I could see, neither did Jeremy. We were giving each other ‘looks’ from across the table the whole night. I had to resist the urge to kick him really hard a few times because he was sitting right beside Nathan. I wouldn’t want him to think I was doing some feisty flirting with him if my aim was off.
The food was terrible. We were at La Jardine Royale, one of the most posh restaurants in town. What kind of shmuck names their restaurant ‘The Royal Garden’ anyway? The food wasn’t terrible per say, I just hated it because I didn’t get to pick my own food, shrimp salad. I liked seafood just fine but I would have preferred for it to be fried and sizzling hot, not chilled. Besides, salad isn’t a meal. It’s a side order, and a shitty one at that.
“…for a walk?”
Jeremy cleared his throat. Shit, did somebody just talk to me? I looked up from my crappy food to see Nathan looking directy at me. Oh, so now he wants to talk to me?
I’d only caught the last part of what he was saying. As much as my mother would hate me, I had to hear the whole statement to be able to reply. “Sorry, what was that?”
“I said, would you like to go for a walk?” he repeated.
Not with you. Who the hell goes for a walk at a restaurant? I smiled at him anyway. “Okay, sure.”
The last time I’d gone for a walk with a boy I was giddy because I liked him so much. That boy became my boyfriend. So this time couldn’t be a repeat. What was I supposed to say to Nathan? What was he even going to ask me?
I got up from the table and followed him outside to the terrace. Almost automatically a server came and offered us champagne from his tray. Lifesaver, thank you. I guess La Jardine Royale wasn’t all that bad if they were offering drinks to teenagers. Now was a time when I really did need alcohol. Nathan took two glasses and placed one in my waiting palm. He took a sip of his and smiled at me. Oh, good God. Was I supposed to start small talk? Small talk was not my thing. Not in the slightest.
“Is your evening going okay?” he inquired.
Honestly? No. “Yes.”
His blue eyes were illuminated by all the little tea lights on the terrace. “Really? I couldn’t help but notice that you weren’t paying much attention to any of what I was saying.”
“I was listening,” I argued.
Nathan chuckled. “You can admit it, Lana. It doesn’t even matter. I was just living up to our parents’ expectations. Otherwise I wouldn’t have brought any of that stuff up.”
“Seriously?” I wondered and he nodded. “Well, maybe I zoned out a few times.”
“It’s cool,” he shrugged. “What’s keeping you so preoccupied?”
My boyfriend. “What is this! Twenty questions?” I bit my lip, realizing how rude it came off. I really had to work on not reflecting what I was actually thinking in my head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“Your boyfriend?” he guessed.
“Uh, um,” I stammered. He had caught me off guard. “No.”
Nathan had the audacity to grin at me. “It obviously is. And you’re hiding it from your parents because they’ll freak out when they find out who he is. That’s it, isn’t it? You were forced to have dinner with my family tonight and you didn’t have a choice because your parents like me.”
Was he a psychic? Where was he hiding the crystal ball in his jacket?
“Listen, Lana, I think you’re smokin’ hot and all, but I’m not that guy—the desperate one who needs to force girls into dates,” he told me, running a hand through his mousy brown hair. “Sorry about tonight. I was just having a conversation with my mom about your family and somehow your name came up, and I said that I would love to date a girl like you. In theory. And all of a sudden we’re here, tonight. Don’t get me wrong, if I knew you I probably would date you, but I would never force you to go out with me. I’m not a jackass. At least I don’t think so.”
I laughed at his long-winded apology. “You’re not a jackass. And you’re funny. So that’s good.”
“Well thanks.” He responded, looking pleased with himself. “You do have a boyfriend, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
Nathan wondered, “So who is he?”
Again with the twenty questions! “He’s not anyone you know. I don’t think you’d want to know about him either. You wouldn’t find him that interesting.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Must be interesting enough if you’re willing to lie to your family about him.”
“I’m not lying to my family.” I corrected, “I’m just…not telling them everything. Besides, Jeremy knows.”
“And he approves?”
“They haven’t met yet,” I shrugged. “But my brother’s never been one to judge a person he’s never met. And he’s, you know, the cool kind of older brother.”
“Does this kid have, like, a glass eye? Or six fingers? What could be so bad?” Nathan wasn’t going to let it go. “Is he thirty?”
“Nathan, please.” I sighed, even though it was kind of funny. “No, he’s not thirty.”
“Then…”
“Well he’s…he’s not exactly from around here,” I finally revealed.
Nathan gave me that annoying grin again. It was much different from Kieran’s dimpled grin. “Ah, I see how it is. So Lana Harland prefers her boyfriends not to be from the 90210.”
I didn’t say anything and he took it as a sign to say more. “You know, I dated some girls who weren’t rich. Those were some good times.”
He was saying it like there had been multiple encounters years and years ago. He was one year older than me.
“That’s great,” I answered.
“You don’t care, do you?” he laughed.
“Not particularly.” I shook my head.
“So…do you want—or need—my help?” he wondered.
You can help me keep a secret from my family? “How?”
“Well, you’ll be out a lot. Your friends will start feeling neglected and they might let it slip. It’s happened to me. I’ve been to high school. I know how the drama works,” he reminded. “If you said you were with me, and I confirmed it, your parents might not ask so many questions. It’d keep them happy. You know what I mean?”
Nodding was all I could do. Then I smiled. Oh man, I smiled the same annoying grin as him. Nathan was a genius.