What is Buena Beach?

Buena Beach is an online soap opera, giving up all the juicy details of some of the hottest guys and gals of Buena Beach, a small town in Southern California.  New episodes are posted on weekdays.

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August 3, 2009

Season 3, Episode 133

The Voice

“I love you, Eddie.”

Words he hoped never to hear, at least not from Jina.  But they arrived late one evening after a horribly overpriced dinner at a steakhouse on the beach and a DVD rental, which at $4.99 was also overpriced in his opinion.  Then the two snuggled in Eddie’s bed for a good 45 minutes until they heard the sounds of Ericka and Brandon coming through the front door and retreating to Brandon’s room.  That must have been what got Jina thinking about things.

“How long have they been going out?”

Eddie shrugged, still not admitting to himself that Ericka and Brandon were anything more than friends.  “I don’t know if they’re, like, official or anything.”

“Please.  Those two can’t get enough of each other.”

He shifted his weight to enable him to remove his arm from under her body.  “Well, according to Brandon, they’re just friends.  I think he’s still in love with his ex-girlfriend.”

Jina sighed, unconvinced.  “Well he doesn’t sound like he’s still in love with anyone else.”  Eddie knew that she was making reference to the bedroom wall he shared with Brandon, and that it was always clear when he and Ericka were hooking up.  Eddie also knew that Jina was ready for them to start making some sounds of their own.  She hadn’t yet said so, but it was pretty clear.

“That’s just sex.  Sex doesn’t mean much, really, without love.”

“So you don’t think he loves her?”

His eyebrows tightened.  “I know he doesn’t love her.”

“What’s not to love about her?  I mean she’s smart.  She’s beautiful.  Confident.  If I lost my job, I’d flip out – I’m sure.  But when she got let go last month, she was so cool and confident.  What guy wouldn’t fall in love with her?”

That was the first time that night when Eddie’s temperature escalated a degree or two.  Paranoia kicked in, and he began wondering if Jina somehow knew about his supercrush on Ericka.  As hard as he’d worked not to let his feelings show, his true emotions must have been oozing out right there as they snuggled.  Even though he agreed with her analysis of Ericka one-hundred percent, he paused, racking his brain for a flaw or two about Ericka to throw out as an offense.  But Jina added, “Or at least what guy like Brandon wouldn’t fall for her.  She’s totally not your type.”

He nodded, his heart wanting to burst out in disagreement with his head movement. 

“You’re into simple women, not that hit-you-over-the-head with it sexuality.  You like the librarian/nerdy/Liz Lemon type of woman.”

“Yah,” he said, although he had no idea what a Liz Lemon was.

And that’s when she did it.  She grabbed him around the waist with one arm, nuzzled her forehead under his chin as she patted his chest, and said, “Oh, I love you, Eddie.”

Panic.

“Hello?  Eddie, did you hear what I just said?”

“Oh…huh?”

It was her turn to disentangle herself.  She sat up, reached for the remote, and turned off the set before locking eyes with him.  “Eddie, I just said that I loved you.”

“Oh yah.  That.”

“‘Oh yah, that?’  Eddie, what the heck is your problem?  Are you crazy?  Look at me.  Look at my face, my body, my legs.  I’m all up on you, telling you that I love you…letting you know in so many ways that I’m willing to do anything you want.  Anything!  And you just lay here, bored with me.  Bored with dinner.  Bored with the movie.  What, are you gay or something?”

It wasn’t the first time someone had asked him the question.  Part of him thought about just going with it – it would probably be much easier living as a gay man than a sober, celibate straight one.  Then again, perhaps not.  Gay guys could be just as aggressive as single, sex-deprived women.  Or at least that’s what he’d heard.  “Jina, come on.  Just calm down, please.”

“I am not going to calm down.  It’s been six months!”

“Six months since what?”

“Six months since we started seeing each other.”

Eddie frowned.  “Sorry.  I didn’t know we had a start date.”

Jina managed to shriek and groan at the same time, a vein in her neck visibly throbbing.  “You didn’t know?  What, this has all been just a little game to you?  Am I your Ericka – you’re just using me to get over your ex-girlfriend?”

“No, I…”

“So that’s it – you miss Alice or something?” Jina said, standing by this point, her hair mussed and rumpled; her eyes large and glowing.

Eddie almost choked, having not thought of Alice since he saw her on the last day of school back in mid-June.  “Shoot, I kind of do now that I think about it.  She never acted like this.”

“Yah ‘cause she’s a spineless bitch who let you walk all over her.  Well, that’s not me, asshole.  Here I’ve devoted six months of my life to you, and you can’t give me shit.  Not an ‘I love you’.  Not sex.  No jewelry on my birthday.  You won’t even touch my breasts.  You suck.”

Back in the day, such a reaction from a woman might have found her manhandled.  But he’d learned over the last few years of changing his life that the best thing to do in these situations was to remove himself.  So that’s what he did.  Taking a deep breath, he jumped to his feet and left the room.  He didn’t go very far, however, not wanting to abandon the girl in his apartment.  Just to the kitchen, where he grabbed a Sprite out of the refrigerator and sat down on a barstool.

He didn’t stay alone for very long, however.  Jina made her way down the hall towards him with her bag and keys in hand just minutes later.  She put her hand on the front doorknob as if she were about to leave, but Eddie knew she wasn’t quite done yet.  “Eddie, look.”  She folded her lips inside her mouth and walked a couple of steps towards the kitchen.  “I’m really, really sorry.  I just…I don’t know.  I guess I just got frustrated because I’m wanting things to happen with us.  Something – anything.  It just seems like we’re so stagnant.”

“I know, Jina.  But I told you from the beginning that things would have to be slow.  That I wasn’t ready for a relationship or any kind of commitment.  And I still feel that way.  I’m sorry if you can’t understand – ”

“No, I understand.  I understand just fine.  I’ve figured it out.”

Eddie almost chuckled aloud, curious about what her sudden epiphany might be.  “Yah?”

“Of course.  I’m the other woman.  You’re sleeping with someone else, and you feel guilty having sex with me.”

Eddie crossed his arms.  “Okay, that makes no sense.”

“None of this makes sense,” Jina screamed, surely awakening the other occupants on the floor.  The two went back and forth, their fight growing in intensity and volume until finally, Eddie’s temperature rose again.  Not because of Jina this time.  It was Ericka, who’d suddenly appeared wearing a furry white negligee.  Brandon in boxer shorts was right behind her.

“Everything okay in here?”

And ever since that night, his vision of Ericka, which he could only describe as angelic, is all that he’s able to see when he closes his eyes.  Imagine his shock when he awoke a couple of seconds ago to find Ericka in person, sitting on the couch near his feet, rubbing one of his legs. 

“Hey there.  I didn’t mean to wake.”

“Oh, it’s okay.  I need to get up anyway,” he tells her, smiling but wondering if he has post-nap face.  Feeling slightly emasculated in his position, he sits up so that the two of them are at the same level.

“How’s your head doing?”

Eddie puts his hand to the bandage over his left eye.  Jina hadn’t left that night without leaving her mark.  Ericka and Brandon ended up taking him to the emergency room where he received eight stitches.  Good sport that he is, Eddie laughed the incident off, blaming himself.

“I’m doing okay.  Resting – Brandon’s not letting me do anything.”

“He shouldn’t.  You’re recovering.”

“Yah, and I’m bored.  I told him I wanted to go down to the shop with him to work today, and he got up early and left without me.”

“I know.  I know.  That’s why I brought you a pizza.”

If Eddie was in heaven before, now he was walking through its pearly gates.  “You brought me pizza?”

Her nose wrinkles as she giggles.  “Yes, that’s why I’m here.  I was hanging out at the shop and Brandon said he felt bad for leaving you stranded, so he gave me his keys so I could come take care of you.”

Eddie wasn’t sure if he should laugh, cry, or sing.  But since he wasn’t supposed to feel anything but platonic affection for his roommate’s woman – or whatever she was to him – he didn’t do anything but thank her.  Profusely.

“Don’t even trip, Eddie.  You know I’ll do anything for you.”

And he would do anything for her.  Anything – all she had to do was ask.