It Had to Be You

Survival of the Fittest

Nina climbed out of the pool and wrapped herself in a towel. She took a moment to catch her breath before she walked towards house, feeling like she was facing a certain doom.

"C'mon Nina, I saved you a hot dog." Alexa held up a nearly empty plate with a lone hot dog left on it.

"Thanks." She grabbed the hot dog and tried to make her escape.

"Aren't you going to sit down?" Walker gestured at the empty chair next to him. Gabby was on his other side and the poetic nature of the moment was not lost on her.

"Um, no I was going to go change."

"Take a seat, come on E. It feels like we haven't seen you all day." Ben piped up from his end of the table.

"Plus we're all going to go sit by the pool after this so might as well leave your suit on." Cassie chimed in. The cacophony of feedback was too much and Nina acquiesced begrudgingly.

"Here you go." Walker passed the ketchup down, along with the leftover coleslaw and pickles. She could feel his eyes on her as she assembled her hot dog with a thin line of ketchup, some coleslaw on top and some pickles.

"That's such an interesting way of making a hot dog." Gabby was following along with her methodology.

"Yea, it's um, it's something I just picked up." Nina responded barely raising her eyes to look at her.

"It's funny, you and Walker like your hot dogs the same way. Which of you did you learn it from?" Gabby's voice was casual, unassuming but Nina could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up defensively.

"Um, well." Nina began.

"I got it from Nina a few summers ago." He was covering for her and Nina couldn't tell if Gabby knew it. The truth was, they had figured out this particular hot dog combination after a drunken night out. Nina had met Alexa and Henry at a party and Walker had tagged along. When they disbanded to go home, Walker was headed the same direction and they went into a hot dog place they had passed. Nina had asked for the combo on a dare, Walker gave her hell for it then caved and said it was the best thing he'd ever eaten. Ever since then, they'd both adopted the same approach – neither ever mentioning the night out ever again.

"Oh that's so fun. How'd you come up with it Nina?" Damn Gabby and her enthusiastic curiosity.

"I got double-dared at a hot dog stand with someone I knew. They were drunk and challenged me to a bunch of ridiculous combinations. This one seemed the least offensive and it was surprisingly good.

"Friend like a guy friend? Alexa mentioned you had been dating." Gabby's nonchalance was disarming and Nina hated that she was so genuinely. She wanted to dislike her so badly but she was nice, approachable and friendly. How could she dislike someone like that?

Walker jumped in to her defense. "I'm sure Nina isn't dying to tell us who she's been seeing." Walker's cheeks were flaming red and Nina could tell he was uncomfortable.

"Sorry! It's just girl talk. Nina I didn't mean to pry." Now Nina felt obligated to smooth things over.

"You're not prying. It was a guy friend, someone that I was kind of sort of seeing. But things didn't work out. I'm not seeing anyone at the moment." She took a bite of her hot dog hoping Gabby would get the hint that the conversation was over.

"That's too bad. I know how hard dating is. I was so lucky when I met Walker." She leaned into him playfully and Nina forced herself to continue acting normal.

"Yea he's a great guy." She pushed the compliment out of her mouth and tried to ignore the sting of anger she felt bubbling up inside of her.

"How'd you guys meet anyway?" Cassie was sitting next to Gabby and wanted to be part of the conversation.