F***in' Arizona

A Matthews Family Vacation (Chapter 29)

"There was a spider," was all I could say as I finally opened my eyes.

The stranger laughed and agreed it was a good reason to abandon ship and stretched his hand out towards me offering to help me up. I gratefully took the outstretched hand and stood.

At full height, I could finally see just how beautiful this man was. He had to have been at least 6'1. Sturdy build like he enjoyed working out but didn't allow it to take over his life, slightly pale skin like he was from the north, silky jet-black hair that offset his dark brown slender eyes, and model cheekbones that should have their own magazine cover.

"I would've jumped too then. I don't mess with spiders," he laughed again, "I'm Jackson," he reached his open hand towards me to shake.

"Nova," I reply taking his large hand in mine.

"Nova is a beautiful name."

And you are a beautiful man.

I'm so happy I'm single right now.

"Thank you," I say smiling at him.

"So, do you regularly ride in canoes by yourself, or were you doing it with someone?"

"I'm—"

"NOVA!" I suddenly hear a voice from the water yelling my name that shakes me from my hypnosis. A familiar voice.

Dammit Ari! You have to show up now?!

I had forgotten for a slick second that I'm here with Ari pretending to be his girlfriend. However, his family is nowhere around and we're not actually dating. He should be cool with this, right?

"NOVA! There you are! Are you ok?? Why did you jump from the canoe?!"

"Sounds like there was a spider," Jackson answered for me.

"I can't believe you actually jumped," Ari says to me while slightly laughing, "Who are you?" He says finally taking notice of the man standing near me.

There was a slight change in the stance Ari was currently holding than the one he had before. When he addressed me, it was open and unguarded, but as soon as he realized there was another man, let alone a good-looking man, standing by me, he crossed his arms defensively and stood partially in my way.

"The name's Jackson," he said outstretching his hand once more.

Ari just looked down at the hand and then back up to Jackson's face. I gently nudged Ari in the back to take his hand without Jackson noticing what I had prompted.

"Arizona," he said sternly and shaking his hand with a strong squeeze, "her boyfriend."

Why was Ari acting like this? Normally he would be excited to see some hot guy talking to me. Even more normally than that, Ari would playfully "call dibs" if he spotted a hot guy, but he was practically acting like he was my guard dog.

More importantly, why was a small part of me becoming warm and enticed by the fact that he was becoming defensive of me? Hearing him say the word, "boyfriend" like that in that tone was kind of hot.

THA FUCK??

Why is my brain thinking these thoughts?!

"Oh, boyfriend?" Jackson says looking towards me like he wants a confirmation.

"Ha ha, yes, boy friend. Boy who is a friend," I say glancing over to Ari who looks suddenly annoyed that I had changed our fake status.

"Oh! I see! Well, in that case, Nova, you busy tonight? Maybe you and I could grab an early dinner?"

I glance once more over to Ari and catch him rolling his eyes and turning to a different direction so I can't see his embarrassment.

"I don't believe I'm busy, so an early dinner sounds good to me."

"As long as it doesn't involve canoes or spiders, right?" He says laughing at his corny joke.

"Hahaha," I laugh too even though it was stupid, but since he's really cute I want to play it up, "Yeah, definitely no spiders."

Jackson and I exchanged numbers and he promised to text me the details in a couple of hours. After he walks away out of earshot, I hit Ari's forearm.

"Ow! What the hell Nova?!" He cries out, facing me again.

"What the hell Nova? What the fuck Ari! What was that?!"

"What was what?" He says, his voice trailing off and not facing me again.

I grab the crybaby and turn his view back to mine.

"Arizona Audrey Matthews, you better explain to me what that was right now. Why were you acting like such a cockblocker?"

"I thought we were in a "relationship"?"

"We are! A fake one!"

"Well, my family may be around! They can't see you flirting with some other guy."

"Ari, you know full and well that your family opted to go to the indoor park. They said it was too hot to be outside. You were fully aware that they were nowhere in sight. Now, what is the real reason you acted like that? Does Jackson have a girl that I didn't see? Is he a bad guy? Could you sense it in some kind of guy way like girls can do?"

"What? No. He seems like a nice guy."

"Then what the fuck was all that jealousy coming from you? Why were you being defensive?"

"I don't know," Ari says crossing his arms again and not looking me in the eyes.

"You don't know? That's not a good enough answer!"

"I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T FUCKIN' KNOW NOVA!"

I look astonished at him. Ari has never yelled at me like that before. He, himself, looks at me astonished as well before he looks down in shame.

"Nova, I'm sorry for yelling at you. I'll see you back in the room," he says before turning and walking away from me.

Oop! Sounds like Nova and Ari just hit another rough patch. Hopefully they can smooth things out!

Also, that whole spider event; mostly true. lol. I used to be in Girl Scouts when I was young and went on a camping trip. We got in the canoes and the rest of the girls made me sit in the front and while out on the water, there was a spider in my seat area and I started freaking out. I was NOT happy. 🤦🏾‍♀️ lol