I used to believe there were good people, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe a more accurate description is the fact that good people do stupid things that they regret later; but then again I never saw him again so I wouldn't know.

I guess I should've known better that it was nothing more than a summer fling, just something to pass the time as the months wore on to be discarded later.

We had met when I had stopped at a stop sign while I was passing through Hollywood, not quite in Santa Barbara yet just enjoying a summer drive in California. I was cliché I suppose, a girl in short shorts and a tank top driving a convertible sun bleached hair blowing in the wind. I had stopped at a stop sign and he had hollered at me, under normal circumstances I would have ignored such a pass, but something about him intrigued me maybe because I couldn't see his face clearly, and his eyes were covered by expensive looking sunglasses.

I'd seen him again a few miles later when I had stopped at a rest area and he came up to me as soon as I got out of the car swinging my purse over my shoulder.

"Hey, aren't you that girl I saw a while back at that intersection?" He asked. Only now did he remove his sunglasses he had light brown hair and the greenest eyes I had ever seen.

"Maybe." I replied mysteriously giving him a look over my shoulder, "what's that to you?"

"Maybe I want to get to know you better?" He replied boldly.

"I'll consider it." I tossed over my shoulder, "right now I kind of need some gas, I'm not even halfway to Santa Barbara yet."

"Maybe I'll see you there." He called after me.

"Yeah maybe." I muttered, but just for good measure I gave him another flirty smile and blew a kiss over my shoulder, which made him grin.

"Can I at least have your name?" He asked.

"Mallory Swanson." I tossed back.

"Chris Dane." He replied, stretching and replacing his sunglasses back over his eyes. "I'll see you later, Mallory… When you get to Santa Barbara look me up."

 

I could hear a warning going off in my head as I continued to drive along. I knew the consequences of getting involved randomly with someone I barely knew (or thought I did) but at the moment I didn't care. There was something excitingly dangerous about getting involved with Chris, he was the type of guy your best friend and your mother always told you to stay away from, but you wanted to date anyway. Conveniently, I had fallen into that clichéd trap.

I was screwed.

I arrived in Santa Barbara later that evening. Early enough that it wasn't dark yet, but late enough that I could just catch the early crowd going to the bars and nightclubs and secretly I hoped I would run into Chris, since he had more than implied he was going the same way.

I had just ordered my first drink in the bar that night when I saw him. He was cool and aloof as I had remembered, he just gave off that sort of vibe. He was talking to people but not really hitting on anybody, even a waitress didn't hold his attention for long.

Then he saw me.

As he made his way over I waved.

"Hey…" I managed lamely.

"Hey yourself." He replied with an easy-going smile. After that it was all a blur, after that I was lost.

We talked forever, until we were kicked out of the bar at 2 AM. Chris paid our bar tab before we left together.

 

"So where do you want to go now?" He asked.

I chuckled under my breath.

"Funny, I haven't even checked into my hotel yet, with my friends not coming until tomorrow…"

He never asked if he could stay, it just happened. I checked in, got my room key and he came up with me; naturally, things progressed from there.

 

I lost track of the number of times we had sex that night. He was experienced, much more so than I was even at twenty-three. I didn't even ask his age, I didn't want to know although he could've been anywhere from 25 to 30. The first time was in the hotel room, as we learned each other's bodies and got to know each other (as much as you could in less than twenty-four hours) the second time was on the balcony and there was something dangerous and freeing about it like we were teenagers that could potentially get caught doing something they weren't supposed to do. The third time was in the hotel pool, but thankfully it was closed by then (we snuck in).

The fourth and final time, had been Chris's idea and he drove us out a few miles away to a nearby beach. He had brought some blankets and we lay under the stars kissing and touching. I was glad there was no one around to hear me scream. At that point we were pretty much wild our hair was a mess by then and I was sure I had at least five or six layers of sweat on me.

"You would think I wouldn't know a thing." I panted.

Chris smirked.

"Then let me teach you." He began to move again, planting a series of fiery kisses along my skin as he went.

I never would have guessed I was the type of person to have sex in such an open place, but it was the thrill of it I liked I supposed. Out in the wilderness it was unpredictable, and there were always variables, it only heightened each sensation intentional or unintentional. At some point I just let Chris take over, not because I was submissive (then the entire scenario sounded a little too Fifty Shades of Gray) but because I knew he knew what he was doing and at the moment I just wanted to enjoy the ride. By the end of the night I felt tingly and numb, tired, but exhilarated. There was something about watching everything come together under an open starry sky; like I was in my own movie.

 

Nothing over those next two weeks compared to that first night. My friends knew I had met a guy before they had come down and their only reaction to it was an eye roll and a few secret smiles that said they thought they knew the entire story. Then came that fateful day, I wished I could forget, although I glossed things over and patch things up the best I could.

"I think we should break up." I told Chris a few days before I had to leave Santa Barbara, before I returned to my "normal" life that didn't sound like it came out of a romance novel.

Chris gave me his movie star-like smile.

"Break up?" He teased, "were we ever dating?"

I shuffled my feet nervously, maybe if I could push him away first it would keep me from getting hurt at the end of this and then I wouldn't be called stupid and naïve afterwards.

"It's not going to work, we both have our own lives and well…" I shrugged. "I want you… But…"

"You want me…" Chris raised his eyebrows suggestively, "or just my body." Any other time the comment would've been funny, but I didn't find it funny now.

 

After a while Chris realized I was serious and then he simply walked away. I returned to my hotel feeling like an avalanche of emotion had flattened me. My friends asked what was wrong, but I didn't have an answer-not really.

"Nothing would be better…" I muttered, "then a stiff drink right about now." Something over the rocks.

I had wrapped myself up in chains because of circumstances, because of one stupid, impulsive decision, and I was paying for it but I wouldn't change it for anything not for those two weeks because I knew they were something I never was never going to forget. Even though I felt like I had a vice around my heart I moved forward, one step at a time letting my friends console me.

I didn't see Chris again until the day before I left. I had seen his purple cheap zooming past the hotel but not before I heard the music blaring from the stereo. He was playing his favorite mixed CD, a combination of Kanye West and Pitbull. The music was so loud there was no way I figured he could even hear me (even if he saw me at all). Then I saw her.

She was blonde and laughing at something Chris had said, but I doubt he could've heard her anyway over the music. She was bobbing her head to the beat as she readjusted her Ray Bans.

I just stared after them, a numb and hollow feeling settling in my chest.

That girl should be me. I thought absently, but knew I had given up the chance days ago and I was just a passing summer fling...the girl he had left in Santa Barbara.