CJ can feel Ash’s fury burning even halfway across the beach. She’s trying to hide behind a book and some sunglasses, but CJ can tell Ash is distracted by the whoops and hollas of the cat amongst the pigeons – CJ being the cat, of course. CJ makes a show of high-fiving Luis, telling him good job, switching to Portuguese a little, too, because she’s 99.9 per cent sure Ash doesn’t speak a word, and so screw her. By the time they all stop for a break CJ is sweating as much as the guys. As she hands Luis a can of sparkling water from the cooler she says, ‘Your girlfriend told me to back off, by the way.’
Luis takes the drink, pops the seal and glugs it down. CJ watches the bounce of his Adam’s apple, admires how he stands, one hip thrust forward, hand on his lower back, Matthew McConaughey eat your heart out.
‘I don’t believe you,’ he says.
‘She did! Apparently, she’s going to be the woman to tame you.’
Luis frowns, considers this. ‘I am ready to be tamed,’ he shrugs.
‘I’ve heard rumours that could be true,’ concedes CJ, playfully. ‘Although it would break my heart.’
Luis cocks an eyebrow and then looks over in the direction of Ash, who is doing a terrible job of pretending she isn’t spying on them and making mental notes on how to take CJ down. He lifts a hand and waves, and Ash grins, waving back. She motions him over, and Luis holds up a finger,one sec.
‘She likes you, you know,’ Luis tells CJ. ‘She’s interested in you. Asks a lot of questions.’
‘I don’t know what you’re telling her, then, because she thinks I have a boyfriend.’
‘And do you?’
CJ frowns. ‘What? No. I don’t even want a boyfriend, you know that. I don’t have a boyfriend, but you and me, this arrangement … it’s good, isn’t it? Best friends with benefits? I don’t want to lose it.’
Luis starts walking backwards in Ash’s direction, crushing the empty drink can in his hand and tossing it to CJ, who catches it easily, coolly.
‘It’s interesting, isn’t it, how much she gets under your skin?’
Luis tosses the observation out there lightly for a hand grenade. CJ doesn’t know what to say: she shields herself from the blast by looking confused at the suggestion, and then rearranging herself to be less confused and more disgusted, with a side ofyou’re an idiot for saying something like that.
‘No,’ she says, the distaste in her mouth evident in her tone.
Luis pulls a face, raised eyebrows and half-smile implying he isn’t buying her faux outrage.
‘I think it is,’ he says. ‘I think it’sreallyinteresting.’
‘Honestly,’ CJ explains to Miguel and Todd over dinner that night, ‘I caught on to what he was trying to do right away. I gave him the rope to hang me with, didn’t I, by letting him know Ash and me had been talking about him. I reckon he thought it wasmewho was the jealous one. He was sooooo toying with me by flirting with Ash, trying to get me all riled up.’
CJ leans across the dining table to grab the wine bottle and refills her glass with the red. She holds the bottle out to the men, Todd shaking his head, Miguel pushing his glass towards her for more.
‘In a strange way,’ CJ continues, pouring, ‘it kind of worked, you know? Like, he’d lean into Ash when they were talking, but look up to make sure I was watching. Seriously, when he flung an arm over her shoulder when they went off exploring the caves together, it was gross. She slipped her hand into his back pocket as if they were a middle-aged couple at a French market, perusing bric-a-brac and consideringboeuf Bourguignonfor supper. It was actually funny to me, Luis putting on a show. It’s like foreplay.’
Miguel sups his wine and regards her with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow.
‘What?’ CJ asks, like butter wouldn’t melt. She’s suddenly aware that she hasn’t paused for breath during the whole of dinner. She’s monologued about Ash and Luis foralmost twenty minutes, maybe even twenty-five. ‘Itislike foreplay! He’s with her, but letting me know he’s thinking of me. That’s at least a little bit hot. You know what I mean, don’t you, Todd?’
Todd uses a small piece of bread to mop up the leftover juices on his plate. He pops it in his mouth with a flick of his finger, nodding his head from side to side as if considering the point.
‘What I don’t understand,’ he says, once he’s swallowed, ‘is that we all know Luis would wife you in a heartbeat. You keep him at arm’s length for … reasons. Whatever those reasons are.’
‘Because it would never actually work,’ CJ interjects, and Todd nods, because this is the point.
‘Soyoudon’t want Luis, but … she can’t have him?’
‘No!’ counters CJ. ‘That’s not it at all! I might not want to marry the man, but we have a good time, we’re best friends, really, best friends with benefits, and Luis can do whatever he wants – that’s the whole arrangement or whatever, I’m not here to limit him. My issue is that she’s come in and pissed up the metaphorical lamp post, marking her territory, and she’s doing it over territory she’s not even going to be around for by the middle of summer. It’s like, just the audacity of it! She’s very much that sort – I’ve told you this. Waltzing in and deciding how she wants things to be, and woe betide anyone who gets in the way.’
‘You made her cry, though, right?’ argues Miguel. ‘It doesn’t seem like ice runs through her veins …’
CJ throws down her napkin and looks out the window,jaw slack. ‘I can’t believe you two. You’re supposed to love who I love and hate who I hate.That’sfamily.’
‘And we do hate her,’ Todd says, quickly, catching CJ’s eye and suppressing a smile. ‘We hate her so much, she’s awful. Horrible. Terrible attitude.’
