Free Sex on the Beach (Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Harlequin) by Delphine Dryden Page B

him.
Everybody knows that.
Duh.
Duh
,
duh
,
duh!
    Possibly frustration and liquor were making her a less-than-optimal friend at that moment. Amanda took a breath and attempted to compensate.
    “I thought the ‘duh’ said it all. I really don’t see what the problem is, Jules. I was startled it happened so suddenly, but in the larger sense I’m not surprised. If anything, the real question is why this didn’t happen sooner. I never could figure out why you tried to fix me up with him. You’re perfect for each other, and you yourself admit you’ve been in love for years. Which I could’ve told you.”
    Duh
,
duh
,
duh...
Dude
,
seriously.
A
thousand times duh.
Oh
,
I’m a terrible friend.
But...duh.
    “I have been, but I never said Alan has.”
    “Of course he has. If you don’t know that, you’re about the only one who doesn’t.”
    Everybody knows
,
Jules.
This is not news!
She might be a terrible friend, but she was a pragmatic one.
    Julie must have picked up on Amanda’s limited patience, or maybe she was simply tired of the topic of Alan. Much as Amanda was sick of thinking about where things were or were not headed with Jeremy.
    “What is wrong with us?” Julie asked. “Why can’t we have a conversation that doesn’t fail the damn Bechdel test? This is a dream vacation. We’re in a tropical wonderland full of stuff we’ve never seen before. It’s amazing. We should be amazed, dammit! Let’s talk about motherfucking turtles or something.”
    “Motherfucking turtles?”
Did I miss a memo?
Whatever. They had made it to the tide line, and Amanda dug her toes in as though she could root herself there. The sky was amazing, the sand melted away under her feet, and she felt at one with nature and the universe. That very feeling was probably why they charged so much for vacations here. Why Jeremy had hoped to change her mind here. It was extremely transformative.
Dammit
.
    “Oh, it’s something Alan said earlier. You’re probably going to be hearing it again.”
    “Okay, then that still fails the Bechdel test.” Little as she wanted to continue the conversation, she recognized that she was pretty much stuck with it. “This stuff is what’s on our minds right now, Jules. And in my case there’s a time element here. You and Alan see each other every day. You can work it out over lunch if you want to. But the day after tomorrow, we go back to California and Jeremy goes back to Washington, and I feel like I need to know what happens after that.” Even thinking about it made her sad.
    “You need a plan. An Amandaplanda.”
    “I do. Big surprise.” Amanda
always
had a plan, which was why Julie had given her the stuffed panda in the eighth grade. It was holding a clipboard, obviously making a plan, so they’d named it the Amandaplanda, even though Julie was just as likely to whip up a checklist as her friend. “Here’s a plan. Let’s go the bar.”
    “The one by the beach?”
    Jeremy had mentioned he might head there, since he had his evening free.
    “Any bar
except
that one.”

Chapter Nine
    Beating Alan three times at darts had put a small amount of the spring back in Jeremy’s stride, but it didn’t last. He picked up the guy’s tab as a consolation prize, and they talked past each other for a while. Jeremy slumped over his beer, talking about Amanda and feeling sorry for himself. He knew he was mumbling, knew he was giving off an impression of surly drunkenness, but he didn’t care. It suited his mood. Because, as he told Alan in a dark moment, he didn’t believe she was coming back to him. She didn’t know what she wanted, but it didn’t sound like anything he could give her.
    “It’s like she wants to negotiate things, but I do all that at work, I don’t want to come home to it. I just want things to be the way they’re supposed to be. I shouldn’t have to engage in high-level negotiations just to have a relationship with my
wife
, you know?”
    “Sure. You want stuff to be