“Is she your girlfriend?” she asks, her voice raising an octave.
“No, but neither are you.” I let my irritation get the better of me, and the words come out sharp and fast.
Her face goes flush, and she pauses before putting the bag of trail mix away. “I’ll drop you back off at your place,” she says, closing the door to the van with a little too much force.
I let out a hefty sigh and walk to the passenger door. Cassie’s already in the driver’s seat by the time I climb in.
“What’s the address?” she asks.
I give her the same information Harper sent me, and we drive off in silence, the anger radiating off Cassie as she drives. The Airbnb isn’t far from where the hike was, so we don’t have to suffer in silence long.
“Is it this place?” Cassie says, pulling into the driveway of a tiny house. It’s just a square little building, the walls all black with large windows lining the front.
“I think so,” I say, double checking the address on my phone.
“Is it just you staying here?” Her voice is calmer now, like the drive helped her cool down after the small spat.
I can tell what she’s thinking—that Harper and I aren’t staying at the tiny house together. It’s too small for both of us. She sees it as a good sign, and I don’t want to be the one to have to break the truth to her.
“No, Harper’s staying here too.” I try to say the words gently, but it’s like salt in the wound.
“Seriously?” Cassie says. Her anger has been replaced by laughter. Not joyous, but sarcastic, borderline hysterical.“You realize this is weird, right? Not just that you and your best not-girlfriend are sharing rooms together on vacation, but that while on vacation, you’re going out with another girl. It’s... gross. How am Inotsupposed to be jealous when you’re literally sharing a place with another girl?”
“I know it’s weird. It wasn’t planned this way. I was just taking the spot of her roommate. If I had planned to come originally, we would have gotten separate beds.”
“Would havegotten separate beds?” Cassie’s voice somehow raises another octave.
I curse mentally for letting the info slip.
She looks at the tiny house again and sees it for what it is: a building where the guy she’s been talking to goes to bed with another woman.
“Oh my god,” she says, laughing again. “Get out of my van.”
“Cassie,” I say, trying to talk her down.
“No. Get out. I don’t want to be a part of this. Clearly you and your friend have something going on and I don’t want to get wrapped up in it. You two can sort out your feelings for each other on your own.”
“We don’t have feelings for each other.”
“Yeah? Then why did Harper interrupt our kiss? Or why did she refuse to give us a moment alone together? She doesn’t like me because she’s jealous.”
Hearing her berate Harper ignites something inside me. “Harper was the one who insisted I spend the rest of the day with you! And the only reason she doesn’t like you is because you made me ditch her over and over again.”
“Because you wouldn’t stop looking at her!” Cassie snaps. “I know that look, Luke. Deny it all you want, but you clearly have feelings for Harper. Stop wasting my time and get out of my van.” She points outside the van, holding her arm in the air until I turn away, pulling the door open.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, and I mean it, even if she doesn’t believe me.
“Just delete my number from your phone,” she says.
I take that as my cue to go. I push the van door closed, and Cassie pulls out of the driveway.
Chapter 23
Harper
After spending the morning being ditched by Luke and his new girlfriend, I resort to sightseeing on my own. Which is fine. Iceland is beautiful enough that even alone, it’s impossible not to enjoy yourself. I stop at every scenic area I can find, take dozens of photos, and even make friends with a group of girls visiting from London. They end up showing me a cave I didn’t know about and take a few photos of me standing at the entrance. The cave itself is on the side of a mountain that sits on a beach. I’d met the girls at a bathroom stop, and they insisted I follow them to the cave. I was admittedly skeptical as I drove behind them because the road quickly turned to compact beach sand, but it ended up being well worth it when we pulled up to the cave. The mountain is just sitting on the black sand of the beach, with a cave big enough for dozens of people to walk into. Outside the cave, there are a few more masses of rock, like they’d broken off from the mountain and are sitting on the beach, waiting for the ocean waves to break against them.
It’s stunning, but I can’t stop myself from wondering about Luke.
