Читать книгу Black Diamond - Havana Adams - Страница 23

Chapter 13

Perhaps this was what love felt like.

The thought was so unsettling, so far out of left field that Lola swerved on the bike that she rode and veered off the bicycle path onto the deep sandy beach of Santa Monica.

“Hey, slow coach, you OK?” The object of her musings spoke and Lola smiled, watching as Simon stepped off his bike and walked onto the sand towards her. She took the hand that he offered and allowed him to swing her to her feet. For a moment she simply stared up at him into his brown eyes and she felt a tremor of anticipation run through her. Was this love? Quickly, she brushed aside the thought and, pushing her sunglasses onto her head, she reached up and kissed Simon slowly, nibbling gently at his lower lip. Once again she felt a shiver of something, even as Simon was pulling away and righting her bike and setting it back onto the path.

“We’ve still got twenty minutes till Abbot Kinney,” he said. Lola fluttered her eyelashes at him, adjusting her sunglasses back onto her nose. She jumped back on the bike and was already pedalling furiously away as she yelled over her shoulder.

“Race you there.”

It was almost three months since Simon had rescued her from her incident at Barneys, and in that time they had become inseparable. As she sped along the bike path, swerving around joggers and roller-bladers and meandering tourists, Lola paid little attention to the postcard-perfect view of the blue sea disappearing into the horizon. Instead, her thoughts turned inward as she considered Simon. She had started early; precocious some had called it. Billy, one of her mother’s husbands, had christened her a little Lolita even as his eyes had roved up and down her figure. And yet, for a girl who had been hooking up since she was thirteen, who had woken up in more strange beds than she’d had carbohydrate dinners, the situation with Simon was something else. Something far out of her comfort zone. With him she did not immediately run out of bed, she allowed him to hold her, they actually talked and slowly Lola had found herself telling him more about herself than she had ever really shared with anyone. What they had seemed so much more than every other meaningless, forgettable fuck that she had experienced in her life. And Lola felt herself blush at the person she’d once been, who had sneered at people who used the word lovemaking.

“Eat my dust.” Lola looked up as Simon swooped past her, overtaking her on a bend as they approached Venice Beach. She allowed her legs to slow on the pedals as she thought about their destination, a jazz bar on the hip Abbot Kinney Boulevard that attracted up and coming actors, artists, playwrights and musicians. In short, the type of place that Lola and Amber would never frequent. Lola had been resistant at first. Mind-blowing sex marathons in Simon’s downtown studio were one thing, but she had no desire to meet the friends. And yet slowly he had worn her down so that one night a few weeks ago they’d spent Friday night hanging out with the eclectic group that Simon called his friends. Lola had felt nerves flutter in her stomach, had found her social butterfly skills deserting her as she was introduced to this musician and that artist, that Australian and this Brit. With this crowd, Lola found herself on uneasy footing; they were smarter, better read, politically savvy types. She might have gone to political fundraisers with Hollywood stars, but not once could Lola ever remember actually knowing what the candidates were about. She’d been tongue-tied at first and yet slowly, she’d started to find her voice. They were nice people, Lola found, and she was filled with a sense of shame because she knew that her crowd would never accept Simon in the way that his friends had welcomed her. She had baulked too, the first time that Simon introduced her as his girlfriend and yet now she felt a warm glow spread through her whenever he said it.

Up ahead Lola could see that Simon had veered off the main path towards the side streets that would take them to Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Lola was looking forward to the buzz, the conversation, the music. She looked forward to being in a place where it seemed no one knew who she was, or who her mother was and, even if they did, they hardly seemed to care. As she took the turning onto the street in pursuit of her lover, Lola mused that perhaps this was love, perhaps she had finally fallen in love. She let out a carefree whoop as she contemplated undoing a lifetime’s habit and surrendering herself to this thing.

As the bar came into view, Lola swung easily off the bike. She caught a reflection of herself in a shop window and smiled. She almost didn’t recognise herself. Certainly the her of three months ago wouldn’t have recognised her. Here she stood in casual denim shorts and a plain white T-shirt and ballet pumps. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and for once she had no weaves or wefts of hair woven into her own to create length and body. Her face was devoid of make-up and the lipgloss that she had smoothed onto her lips that morning had been kissed off by Simon. In short, she looked like an ordinary Californian girl – no designer duds or flashing cameras in sight and in a flash, Lola realised that she had never been happier. As she chained the hired bike alongside the distinctive yellow one that Simon had leased, Lola felt a vibration against her hip and she reached into her back pocket to fish out her cell phone. For a moment she stared at the caller ID and she felt some of the carefree sunshine dim out of her day. She watched the phone continue to vibrate, until finally it stopped. Slowly, Lola replaced the phone in her pocket but the edge was back as she acknowledged that soon, she would have to face Amber.