Summer with my Dad’s Best Friend
1
Jenny
A forest of evergreens flashes by as my parents’ Subaru whizzes through the tight turns of the mountain road. Sun dapples the ground through the leaves and the warm wind rustles my hair from the open window. My parents are in the front seat talking about our trip to the cabin and all the things they may have forgotten to turn off before we left. My little brother sits beside me in the back seat, reading his book. I have no idea how he does it. That would make me car sick in an instant.
The batteries in my iPod are dead and there’s nothing else to do but scroll through Tinder. There are a lot of cute guys to check out, but I’m struggling because none of the ones my age interest me a bit. I wonder if there’s something wrong with me. The thought of being with someone my own age makes me roll my eyes. They’re so immature. All they seem to care about are a girl’s looks and sex—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I’m a virgin, and I don’t like the thought of being pressured into anything.
Not that I’d really have to be pressured into it. I want to lose my virginity, actually. In fact, if all goes according to plan, I will lose my v-card this summer while we’re spending the next three weeks at the lake house. I can make it happen. I will make it happen. The lake is bound to be teeming with plenty of good-looking guys to choose from. And not to brag, but I’ve been working out like crazy for the last couple months since my parents told me we’d be going on this little summer vacation, and I look damn good in my little black bikini.
I can’t help but think about the conversation I had with my best friend Annie’s older sister before we left to go to the lake. She told me that I shouldn’t go off to college being that girl. The goodie-goodie, the prude who knows nothing and will scare off all the boys who are too nervous to be with me because it’s my first time. Annie’s sister, Tulip, said I should take the summer to get it over with. Not that there’s anything wrong with being the pure girl, the virgin. But I don’t want to be that girl. It’s a choice I’ve made and I’m determined to make it happen.
My mom turns around in her seat to look at me, startling me. I close the Tinder app before she sees it and I put my phone face down in my lap.
“Did you get all your classes in order?” she asks.
If she’s going to ask me a million questions about school, it’s going to be a long three weeks. I think she might be more excited for me to go off to college than I am. She always tells me that her college years were the best of her life and I should embrace everything it has to offer. And believe me, I plan to.
“You’ve asked me that three times,” I say, smiling at her eagerness.
“I know, and I know you’re an adult now and can take care of yourself, but it’s still my job to make sure you’re all taken care of.”
“All my classes are in order and I have my schedule ready to go.”
“What about housing? Did you find out anything about who you’ll be rooming with?”
I laugh as she twists her hair into a knot, something she does when she’s nervous. The dorms are coed. I’m sure she’s afraid I’ll end up with a boy in the room, but I’m fairly certain the university makes it a point not to put boys and girls in the same rooms together.
“Not yet. It’s the beginning of summer. I probably won’t find out anything about my roommate until the day we move in together.”
She sighs and the worry on her face ages her. She turns back around to face the front of the car. I hope she’s able to enjoy her vacation with all these questions filling her head. My dad, on the other hand, seems perfectly content to get rid of me. Not that we don’t have a good relationship or that he won’t be sad when I leave; I’m sure he will, but he doesn’t quite have the same empty nest blues my mom will have. I think he wants to finally have his wife all to himself. In a couple years, when my brother is old enough to go to college, I have a feeling my dad and mom will be making up for all those times my brother and I cock-blocked their nights together.
“Dad, do you think Annie and her family are at their cabin yet?” I ask, hoping to keep the conversation busy so my mom doesn’t come back with more questions about school.
Annie and I have been best friends for many years. Our parents are friends. We go on vacations together all the time and they even bought cabins on the same lake. But since Annie’s parents’ divorce, things have been different.
“I’m sure they beat us there,” my dad says. “Ben drives that Corvette as if it has wings. He probably arrived hours ago.”
My mom leans over the seat and whispers just loud enough for me to hear. “I think Lorain got the Corvette in the divorce. Ben’s probably driving something else.”
The muscles in my dad’s jaw flex with tension. I know he doesn’t like talking about his best friend’s divorce. Everyone had liked Ben’s wife, Lorain (except me—I never did trust her, and she was way too strict with Annie), and when they found out she cheated on Ben, they were devastated. What do you say to someone who’s been cheated on practically his whole marriage? When the details came out, we were all shocked. I always liked Ben. He’s sweet and funny, and when I got into high school, I couldn’t help but notice how hot he was.
I feel my cheeks heat up when I think about him. That happens a lot lately. The older I get, the more I notice him. It’s so bad sometimes I have to take a cold shower just to calm down. Annie would be mortified if she knew the dirty things that go through my mind when her dad is around, and that there have been times I went to her house just to see him.
I know I shouldn’t think about him like that, but I can’t help it. And I can’t help how excited I feel getting to see him every day while we’re on vacation. Especially now that he’s single. Though, it’s probably a good thing Ben’s cabin is further down the lake from ours so I won’t be obsessing over him the entire time.
I go back to scrolling through Tinder to get him off my mind, but the Wi-Fi is spotty as hell this far out into the woods.
My dad slows the car and I look up as my dad turns down the long dirt driveway. After about a mile of bumping along and kicking up dust, our cabin comes into view. And there’s a truck parked out front.
“Isn’t that Ben’s work truck?” my mom asks.
My dad’s forehead wrinkles with confusion. “It is.”
My heart starts to thunder in my chest. I always got a little excited when I knew I’d get to see Ben, but it’s never been this bad before. Knowing he’s single again has changed everything.
Ben climbs out of his truck, and so do Annie and Tulip and their younger brother. I’m so confused why they’re at our cabin and not their own.
My dad pulls up beside them and I can’t get out of the car fast enough. Annie and I run at each other and tackle each other into a hug.
“I’m so excited to spend the next three weeks with you,” I say to her excitedly. I can’t wait to show her my new black bikini. And Annie and Tulip are the best wing-women a girl can ask for when it comes to dating. They know where all the hot guys hang out and they are eager to help me pursue my goal of losing my virginity over this vacation.
“Don’t get too excited,” Annie says. When I pull away from our hug and look at her, she’s practically in tears.
“Why, what’s wrong?” I ask.
“What’s going on?” my dad asks Ben before Annie can explain to me what she meant.
Ben sighs and looks like he’s barely masking his anger. “Well, Lorain and I share custody of the cabin, and apparently she rented it out for the next month without bothering to mention it.”
“She did it on purpose,” Tulip mumbles under her breath. “I told her we were coming up here weeks ago.” No one else but me hears her, and I have to admit I’m not the least bit surprised that Lorain would do something like that. She’s vindictive. It wasn’t enough to cheat on Ben and hurt him, but now she has to go and sabotage his vacation with his daughters. What a bitch. Of course I don’t say that because I know Annie and her mom are still close even after everything Lorain did to her dad.
“Looks like the girls and I are going to be making other vacation plans for the summer,” Ben says.
“No!” I burst out so suddenly it startles everyone. Now they’re all staring at me, but I’m not the least bit embarrassed by my outburst. I’m not going to spend the next three weeks at this cabin without my best friends.
I look at my dad, pleading to him with the biggest puppy dog eyes I can muster. But I can tell by the determined look on his face that he already came to the same conclusion that I did.
“You’re not going anywhere. That’s ridiculous. I know these girls will start a mutiny if we try to separate them for the entire three weeks. There’s plenty of room in our cabin. You’re staying with us,” my dad says.
There isn’t plenty of room in the cabin and we all know it. It will be cramped quarters, but that will be part of the fun of it. I glance at Ben, dirty thoughts jumping into my head like pop-up ads at the thought of being in the same cabin with him for the next three weeks. He’s so good looking and he doesn’t really look his age at all except for a few wisps of gray hair at the temples. If anything it makes him sexier. More sophisticated, I guess.
“We couldn’t intrude—” Ben starts to say, but Annie interrupts him.
“Yes we can and we will.” She’s already grabbing her bags out of the truck and heading for the cabin.
Ben laughs. “I guess we’re staying.”