Chapter Five

 

Elle

 

 

 

Colton got me coffee this morning. It probably doesn’t mean anything, but my daily caffeine hit tasted so much sweeter knowing he had thought of me while ordering it.

When he appears in the kitchen again, I have to restrain myself. At first, because I want to laugh, but then I take a closer look and it’s like someone finally heard my prayers about meeting a prince. His costume is more modern than I’d expected. It’s not one of those puffy numbers with ruffles and gold everywhere you look. The frills have been toned down to a tasteful level.

He looks so dreamy in his dark pants and teal shirt. His white collar paired with the brown teal boots give the whole outfit a sexy addition.

“Ready?” he asks.

I nod, barely able to speak. “Yeah.”

I shouldn’t get carried away. I almost feel guilty for swooning over my best friend’s brother. I know I wouldn’t want Maggie to have sexy thoughts while looking at Caleb, my brother.

Maybe it’s not even his mesmerizing eyes or the way his smile lights up his entire face that makes me weak in the knees. Maybe it’s just that he’s kind to me. With Paul, things went downhill a long time ago. My ego is thrilled to get some male attention. Yeah, that must be it. These visceral reactions will fade away soon enough.

“Are you guys coming to the bonfire tonight?” Maggie asks right before we head out the door.

“If you have a time machine that will bring us back to our high school years, sure,” Colton says.

“Oh, come on,” she pouts. “It’s not that bad. It’ll be a fun way to start the summer.”

Colton lifts an eyebrow. “You two can go, sis, but I’m meeting Tyler for drinks. I don’t feel like spending the night with a bunch of eighteen-year-olds.”

Maggie gives me a pleading look. “You will go, right?”

“I guess?”

“Yes! Just like old times,” she says and saunters to her bedroom.

My stomach turns. Yeah, old times. Which means everyone I once knew will be there and find out that my plans to make it big in France failed big-time.

Colton gets on his bike and hands me his spare helmet. I push the thing onto my head. This time, I manage to get onto his bike a bit more gracefully.

“I’m getting the hang of this,” I say proudly.

“You are.” He turns around. “But you’re still forgetting to grab a hold of me. I won’t bite. At least not while we’re driving,” he says with a wink.

I do as he says and wrap my arms around his waist. At least this is distracting me from thinking about the bonfire.

Colton throttles the engine, and we whiz away. He takes a route that leads to a small road following the coastline. It’s a shortcut only people who live in Summerville Creek know about. The road snakes along, offering beautiful vistas of the area.

I sigh. Paris is nice too, but it doesn’t have these scenic views of the ocean. For the first time since deciding to go back home, I’m not sad about it. I had forgotten, or maybe forced myself to forget, how much I love being close to the ocean.

Plus, it’s not every day you get to ride on a motorcycle with your best friend’s hot brother. This is all so relaxing and exciting at the same time. It’s—

“What the heck!”

I’m wheezing and coughing, no longer feeling relaxed. Instead, I’m trying to get the remnants of a fly out of my mouth. Gosh, I hope it was a fly and not some other icky-looking bug. Oh man, what if I swallowed a bee or something?

Colton slows down and comes to a full stop on a stretch of road that widens near the cliff next to us. He must be wondering why I’m squirming in my seat like this.

He flips the visor of his helmet up. “Are you okay back there?”

“Bug,” I manage to say. That’s when I realize I’m touching my outstretched tongue with my hand. I swipe the swab of saliva on my shorts. He frowns, and I can’t blame him. Even I am grossed out by me.

“Sorry,” I say. “That thing came out of nowhere. I mean, not out of nowhere, it flew from around here somewhere, but… Sorry.”

He laughs. “For getting a bug in your mouth? Or for not flipping down the visor like you should’ve?”

“Oh.” I reach for the visor with my clean hand. How could I forget to flip it down? I snap it in place immediately. At least it hides the mortified look on my face.

“You good?” he asks.

I give him a thumbs-up. There’s no way I’m opening my mouth again anytime soon.

Fifteen minutes later, we arrive at the amusement park. Colton weaves his way through the cars that are already filling the parking lot, even though the park doesn’t open for another half an hour. He takes a left at the entrance, following the “staff only” signs, and parks his bike in the shade of a tree. I follow him into The Village, which according to Colton is what the people working here call the employees’ area.

There’s a flurry of activity happening in The Village. People dressed up in costumes run past, some of the crew members are pushing large trolleys filled with wrapped sandwiches, and a group of teens working summer jobs emerges from the dressing rooms, all dressed in the bespoke work outfits of the park: denim blue shorts or skirt paired with a yellow polo shirt. In a couple of hours, I could be wearing that outfit! Granted, the colors are not the most flattering in the world, but they’re not the worst either.

Colton leads me through a corridor with offices on either side. He stops at one of them and knocks before entering.

A bald man with a big mustache is sifting through papers behind a desk.

“Come in,” he says without looking up.

“Hi, Frank,” Colton says. “I’ve got that friend of mine with me.”

Frank puts down his papers and throws me a big smile, teeth and everything. “Ah yes, Elle, am I right? Looking for a job? Why don’t you take a seat?”

Colton nods and gives me a wink. “I’ve got to run. Good luck, Elle. See you later, Frank.”

He closes the door with a soft click, and I take a seat like Frank instructed me.

“I’m sorry for barging in like this,” I say. “I know I should’ve brought my résumé and all, but it was all very last-minute.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says. “Things are not that formal around here. So, Colton told me you’re looking for a job.”

I nod excitedly. “That’s right. I just got back from France and am wide open for any job opportunities. I have some acting experience that might come in handy here.”

“Great, so you aren’t opposed to wearing a costume?”

“Not at all. I’d love to.”

I can hardly contain my excitement. He wants me to wear a costume. That can only mean one thing. He’s going to give me the job of park princess! I can just imagine myself posing for pictures and shaking kids’ hands all day while blowing those cute hand kisses. It’ll be a breeze.

“You’ve come to the right place, and at the perfect time, may I add. One of our students who works here over the summer has got mono, so we need a replacement ASAP.”

I take a deep breath in an attempt to compose myself, and to hide the fact that I’m ecstatic he’s offering me a job. “Perfect. I’ll take it.”

Frank’s eyes light up with surprise. “Really? You don’t need any extra info? No questions on your part?”

“Uhm, maybe work hours and wage?”

I’m just asking because he seems surprised I don’t have any questions. I’ll take this job even if it’s minimum wage and twelve-hour days. I need the money. Plus, working as a princess or at another entertainer job will look great on my résumé. It’s acting after all.

After we sort out wages and working hours—both of which sound reasonable—Frank takes me to the costume department.

“This is Macy,” he says. “She takes care of all the outfits, makes sure they get cleaned regularly, altered, repaired… that kind of thing. Macy, this is Elle.”

“Hi, love,” Macy says as she shakes my hand. “What can I do for you?”

“She’s filling in for Tara. Could you give her the right costume? And then have someone walk her over to her spot?”

“Sure thing.”

“Good luck, Elle,” Frank says. “Pop into my office any time you have a question or a concern.”

“Thank you. I’m absolutely stoked to be here.”

Macy walks toward the back of the room to grab my costume while I admire the racks of clothing. There are rows of neatly folded yellow polo shirts, all stacked by size on wooden shelves. Then there are racks full of costumes for the entertainers, ranging from princes and princesses to pirates and bears. I let my hands trail the hems. I can’t believe how lucky I am. Who would’ve thought that I’d find a great job mere days after returning home? I don’t know how yet, but I’m going to profusely thank Colton for guiding me toward this fantastic opportunity.

Macy appears from behind one of the clothing racks, a huge brown blob of fabric in tow. What on earth is that ugly thing?

“Here you go,” she says.

I take the giant monstrosity from her arms. “What is this?”

“Your costume, love.”

I frown. “Costume? This? Mine?”

The thing is so hideous it’s taking away my ability to form a normal sentence.

“Yes,” she says. “For the hot dog. These are the buns, and your body will act as the meat.”

I stare at it, wide-eyed. “Buns?”

“Didn’t Frank explain?” she asks in a soft voice. “You’ll be manning one of the hot dog carts. All food vendors dress up as the food item they’re selling.”

“And I’m a hot dog?” I ask, stating the obvious.

“Gotcha. Now, why don’t you try it on?”

I let out a puff of air. “Sure, but how?”

She struggles to show me the openings. That’s how awful this thing is. It’s so giant and inflexible, even the costume lady has to wrangle it into place.

“Here is where your legs go, and this is where your head will pop out. It’s not as bad as it looks,” she says. Her sympathetic smile is supposed to encourage me, but all I feel is dread.

After fighting with it for a few minutes, I finally manage to fit into the costume. Macy leads me toward a mirror, and I have to swallow hard in order to push away the tears threatening to fill my eyes.

I look… I don’t know. I’d say hideous, ridiculous, or horrible, but even that mixture of words doesn’t quite cut it. It’s worse than that.

“Looks like a perfect fit,” Macy says, fumbling with the ends of my buns.

I nod. “It doesn’t feel like it’ll be easy to actually move around in this thing, let alone serve hot dogs.”

She waves my remark away. “You’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Layla will show you the ropes. You’ll be manning the cart together.

“And she’s also going to be dressed as a hot dog?”

Macy shakes her head. “No, she got promoted to ketchup bottle last summer.”

“Oh, okay.”

She stands behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “I know being a hot dog is not ideal, but it could be worse.”

“Worse than being squeezed between two beige buns, you mean?”

“Oh, honey, yes. You could’ve been assigned to scrubbing the toilets in Adventure Land, where all the crazy roller coasters are located. You won’t believe what the cleaners witness over there. It always smells like wet diapers and sour milk after a couple of hours, no matter how many times they clear out the bins.” She pulls a face and shudders. “If you work hard, you’ll be promoted to mustard bottle in no time. Or even ice cream cone. That one’s a definite winner.”

I feel my heart sink into my shoes. I guess I’ll have to make the best of it. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that clichéd stuff. Besides, I’d rather be stuck in between two buns than having to deal with wet smelly diapers. Ew.

As long as Colton doesn’t see me in this outfit, I’ll be fine. All I can do is hope he won’t ever get a craving for a hot dog during work hours.

“Oh, wait,” Macy says. “The costume’s not complete yet.”

“There’s more?” I ask in horror.

She plops a red hat over my hair, slivers of red fabric dangling from the seams. “There you go.”

Great. Now I look like a hot dog with ketchup running down my face.

Macy takes a step back. “Much better, don’t you think?”

“Uh-huh,” I say, wholly unconvinced.

I cringe while staring at my own reflection. If by much better she means a much better and faster way to kill my self-esteem, then yes, the ketchup hat is awesome.