The modeling audition isn't great but it isn't terrible either. Only part of the audition was a bikini part and the other stuff was posing and personality which I'm fine with. I really actually like the posing part because I'm pretty good at it and there's nobody poking at my chest or waist, looking for everything that's wrong with me.

"I really think that you have a shot," My mom tells me with a chirpy smile as we're going back to the hotel. "I think that those people really loved you."

"That's good," I say with a nod, looking at the time. I told Jayda that we could hang out today because it's a weekend so she doesn't have class—she goes to school at the community college—and after this audition, I don't have any plans for the rest of my Sunday. I really want to stay busy though so I don't have time to think about my date with Vincent tomorrow. I hope we're just going to coffee but I'm suspicious when it comes to Vincent. He seems like he likes to do things very out there and dramatic. It's exciting but it's very nerve-wracking and I'd like to keep my mind off of it as much as possible.

"Even if this one doesn't work out, I think this is a good start at building your reputation around Naples and Honey Bay," My mom continues talking eagerly about my promising modeling future. "I'm talking to a few other agents and they're giving me some heads up on other auditions. Things are really looking up for us right now."

"That's really awesome, Mom," I assure her but I know that I don't sound as enthusiastic as she'd like because I can't stop thinking about Vincent. I want to stop thinking about him but I really can't.

"Are you alright, Bea? You don't sound like you're here right now."

"I'm fine," I assure her, feeling kind of bummed that I can't tell her about my date with Vincent because I always love telling my mom about what's going on in my life. I tell her everything. It sucks that if I tell her about this date, Vincent would have to choose between me or his job that he loves. So I just keep my mouth shut. "Just tired, I guess, it seemed like a long audition."

"It was pretty long," She agrees. "Which is good because I think that means that they were really considering you. In the lobby, I saw girls leaving all day so they were weeding you guys out."

We park in the parking garage along the side of the hotel and walk together into the building with my mom continuing to talk my ear off about how optimistic she's feeling about this audition. I think that it went well too, I'm just not as excited about it as she is and I'm more thinking about Vincent than I am about this modelling audition. So that my mom doesn't question me so much though, I try to seem as engaged in the conversation as possible until she tells me that she's going to go plan some house visits so that we can go as a family to find a nearby house so that we're not living in the hotel forever.

I have just enough time to take my dogs outside before Jayda gets to the hotel and I greet her in the lobby.

"I have some news," I tell her, chewing on my bottom lip a little bit anxiously.

"That sounds fun," She smiles back at me as I lead her upstairs to my room so that when I tell her about Vincent, there's no way that anybody else can hear me. There's employees lurking everywhere in this hotel and I know that it's just because they're doing their jobs but I can never be too careful about who can hear me and I know that nobody's going to be putting their ear to my door to listen to my conversations so that's the safest place to tell her about this.

"It's... I don't know, fun isn't the word that I'd use," I say slowly, trying to find a word to describe this situation but I'm not so sure how I'd describe what I'm feeling. "Exciting maybe. I don't know. Okay, but what I'm going to tell you, it can't leave this room."

"Oooh," She waggles her eyebrows at me and that makes me laugh a little bit. She's really good at lightening the mood, which I really need right now. "Okay, I'm listening and my lips are sealed."

I lock my hotel room door and we both sit down on the edge of my bed. "I know this might not sound like such a big deal to you but... I don't know, I'm kind of freaking out. I'm going on a date tomorrow with Vincent. You met him, remember? The lifeguard?"

"Yeah, I remember him," She says with a laugh. "That's great. Expected, but still really great. Why can't other people know though?"

"My dad's very finicky about me dating or messing with the employees of the hotel. If he finds out, he'll give Vincent an ultimatum—me or his job. Even if he would choose me, which I don't think that he'd do, I don't think that I could live with that guilt anyway. It's a very sensitive thing," I tell him.

"You can totally trust me," Jayden assures me as she's putting her purple hair into a pony tail. "Just don't expect me to be here for a girl pow wow where I help you get dressed for your first date because that is not my thing."

"I didn't expect you to, I'm not going to dress up," I lean back on the bed. "And I probably shouldn't be as excited as I am but I can't help it. I'm excited."

"Ah, romance," She grins at me. "I personally think that it's overrated but I'm happy for you. I don't want to ruin your moment."

I know that she doesn't really think that relationships have a point and that's mostly because her boyfriend is kind of a major asshole so her negativity doesn't faze me. It's expected from her and that's fine. I just wanted to tell somebody because I was going to go crazy if I kept this bottled in any longer.

"I know but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. A hidden romance... that's cute, right?"

"Like Romeo and Juliet who died?" Jayda reminds me with a small shrug. "But they're an outdated example, so I'll give you that one. I don't mean to sound so pessimistic."

"It's okay," I assure her honestly. "I'm not that optimistic either but whether it turns into a real thing or if it crashes and burns, which it probably will, I want to find out. I'm curious, I guess."

"Sure," She concedes just as there's a knock on my door. I stand up from my bed to go answer but before I do, I look through the peep hole and see just the top of my brother's head standing in front of my door on the other side.

"What do you want?" I call out to him without unlocking my door.

"I need to ask you something," He says. "Let me in."

I'm hesitant but I still unlock the door and let him in because by not letting him in, I'll automatically seem even more suspicious which I don't want, especially with my brother who can smell trouble a mile away like a blood hound. "Okay, what is it?"

He opens his mouth to speak before shutting it again when he notices Jayda in the room. Both of the dogs, who were sleeping in the corner of the room, hop up to greet my brother's familiar face so I shut the door to make sure they don't get out. Not that they'd run away or anything but it's more for the people around us and their feeling of security and their distrust of big dogs. "Who's that?"

"This is my friend, Jayda," I motion my arm over to Jayda and she offers him a small wave.

"Hello there, little dude," She greets him.

"I'm not little," He objects. "I'm in the 70th percentile for my age, I'll have you know."

"Dylan, just tell me what your question is," I interrupt his offended rant. He does get offended very easily, as I'm sure is obvious by his offended comeback to Jayda's thoughtless greeting.

"I'm bored," He admits. "With selling soda to idiots and all of that. I don't know what else to do. If I can't keep coming up with things to do though, Mom will make me join some sort of camp or like, the boy scouts or something."

"You want me to entertain you?" I raise my eyebrows at him.

"No, I just want you to give me some ideas. Business opportunities, investment ideas. Anything," He explains, walking farther into the room and then he sits down in the chair beside my bed, kicking his feet onto the matching foot rest. "I hate this place."

"Business opportunities?" Jayda interrupts, looking very confused. "How old are you?"

His green eyes narrow into slits as, of course, he takes offense to that. "I'm twelve. So what?"

"Don't be rude," I scold him. "Jayda's just surprised because I never told her that my little brother is a weirdo who likes to act like he's thirty. But why don't you just shadow Dad? You want to be a good businessman and Dad's the best businessman we know."

"I've done that but he said that I can't be in his office too much because it distracts him," Dylan explains. "He's too busy to talk to me when he's working, I guess."

"I can take you to a rally," Jayda suggests as she scoots off of the bed to sit on the floor where she starts petting my gorgeous golden retriever because Ronny loves the attention. Tony is already headed back to the corner to go back to sleep. "It's a protest against the use of animal testing in a line of cosmetics. That sounds fun, right?"

"Protests?" Dylan wonders.

"Jayda is an animal's rights activist," I explain to him. "But no, you're not going to any protests."

"Do protesters like to buy things?" I can see the wheels in his brain starting to turn already.

"Why yes, weird little man, they do," Jayda confirms and I just shake my head at this whole conversation. "They like all things vegan. Oh! You could make picket signs for the protestors and sell them. This thinking up business ideas is fun, let's keep going. Okay, well there's also t-shirts."

"Jayda," I interrupt her. "He's twelve, he can't go to protests."

"Why not? They're all peaceful," She defends with a small shrug.

"Yeah, Bea, why not? I can make signs, I just have to Google good phrases and then I've got a business," Dylan now looks very excited and although I don't think our parents are going to let him do this, that's their decision to make and I don't have the heart to burst his bubble since he's been having such a hard time with this move. I don't want to deflate this one idea bubble that has got him this excited, so I just shrug.

"You'll have to get Mom on board," I remind him, trying not to burst his bubble but also trying to keep him realistic.

"Mom will go for it," He assures me quickly. "I need a business name. A slogan. A logo. I need to buy a new suit. I need business cards."

"Go get 'em, tiger," Jayda laughs at his enthusiasm for building this new business idea that she's given him. "I can pick you up around three tomorrow? I get out of class early and the rally starts at four thirty."

"Okay," He agrees, trailing off a little bit before he starts backing up toward the door. "I have so much to do."

And then he's gone again.

Jayda laughs a little bit again. "Wow, your brother is awesome. A little weird for being twelve years old but very awesome. I wish any of my sisters were as cool as that."

"Yeah, he's a hoot," I roll my eyes at how ridiculous all of that was that just happened. I'm glad that Dylan has found his calling, I guess, I just don't necessarily like that it's with Jayda. I'm not too beat up about it, I guess, it's just kind of weird.

"The rallies really are completely safe, I promise," She assures me. "And I know how to babysit, my sister has kids. I'm good with them, it's fine."

"If he comes home with purple hair, you'll never hear the end of it," I warn her jokingly, sitting down in the chair that Dylan has now vacated.

"I can't make any promises," She shakes her head at me. "And besides, what's wrong with purple hair? I happen to think that it's a great look on anybody."

"Completely debatable," I argue. "With his green eyes, he'd look like he's going for a Hulk aesthetic and then where would his business go?"

"To Marvel," She grins. "Anything's possible."

"Okay then," I chuckle a little bit. "Anyway, how are things with Gavin?"

"Not great but they've been worse," She admits with a small shrug. "I found him going through my phone the other day like what the fuck, right? I'm not cheating on him even though he deserves it. I'm sure that he's cheated on me at least twice but do I go snooping around his phone? No. I don't."

"If he's cheated on you then why are you with him still?" I ask her incredulously. I mean, I knew that they fought a lot and that Gavin was kind of an asshole but I didn't know that it was that bad.

She just shrugs at me, leaning her head against the mattress as she continues to pet Ronny. "I don't know... it's easy? Well, it's not easy but it's what I'm used to and I don't like change. I don't believe in love, so I won't say that I love him but I am very fond of having him around."

"You shouldn't keep somebody around out of fondness."

"I shouldn't do a lot of things that I do, Bea," Jayda mumbles. "But I'm sure that it doesn't get better than Gavin. Not for me anyway. He makes me feel good sometimes and that's fine with me."

"It doesn't sound like you're happy," I observe.

"A boy isn't going to make me happy," She argues with a shake of her head.

"No, but a boy like Gavin can make you unhappy," I add. "But you can do whatever you want. You know that, it's not my decision to choose for you."

"But if you could choose, you'd want me to be alone?"

"Yes," I decide without even thinking about it. "Gavin seems like a real piece of work."

"Yeah," She sighs. "I know. I can't seem to let him go though. I'm hopeless. I think that things will be different with you and Vincent though."

I blush a little bit just at the sound of his name like a lovesick puppy. "Why?"

She just shrugs at me. "I don't know, just because."

"Okay then," I say with a small laugh and I don't tell her this but I do think that it's really cool that she believes in this thing that I apparently have with Vincent. Because I want to believe in us too.