If someone pissed him off, he was done with them. But he couldn’t do that with Paola. She was all he thought about. After he had time to cool off, he realized he couldn’t let her get away. She was the best thing that ever happened to him. When he went to the beach the next morning, he wasn’t expecting to surf. He wanted to talk to Paola, work it out with her. But she never showed. Thatcher rode the waves while Derek sat on the beach. When the hour session was over, she still didn’t come to the beach. He realized she was trying to avoid him. When he went to the cafeteria later that day, she wasn’t around. “Congratulations,” Sydney said as she put the cupcakes in the middle of the table. There were toy surfboards on each one. Nancy and Thatcher joined them for lunch and now he understood why. “Wow,” he said. “Thank you…” Even he could hear the insincerity in his voice. “What’s wrong?”
