Page 30 of Fish Out of Water

“Doyou?” Robbie’s eyes twinkled. “You haven’t been out there yet at all, so you must not care as much as you let on.”

Jake bit his tongue to keep himself from saying something he would regret.

“Maybe we’ll both just have to concede and be single as long as we stay in Eventide,” Robbie continued.

“Maybe,” Jake said. “At least I’ll be leaving in a few months.” He cocked his head. “You could leave too. Why don’t you?”

“Because my parents expect me to stick around and take over the family businesses when they retire. Since I’m an only child, it all falls on my shoulders.”

“Oh, yeah, that soundsterrible,getting all that inheritance to yourself.”

“It’s not as simple as that, Jake.”

“It can’t ever be simple with you.” Jake stabbed a piece of garbage with his poker.

“Nor can it be simple with you,” Robbie retorted. “I just don’t get you. First you’re hot, then you’re cold, and I don’t know which side is the real you.”

“Both. Like you were saying, I’m a complex person.”

Robbie snorted. “Sure, you are, but that’s not what I meant.”

“I’m as complex as you.”

Robbie remained silent. When Jake chanced a look at him, he was staring at the sand again, the sun setting behind him and surrounding his head in a halo. It made his hair shine like threads of gold; a sharp contrast to the crisp blue linen of his shirt that was now shadowed by the wrinkles formed from a long day.

“I’m telling you, Robbie,” Jake said, “we could have some hot hate sex if you just put your principles aside for once.”

Robbie jerked his head up. “You’re insane.” He sounded like he wanted to laugh, or maybe scream, but he held back.

“Okay, but I’m being serious. It’d be fun. Maybe. At least it’d give us something to do for a night.”

Robbie shook his head, now smiling. “No, but thanks for the offer. I’m really not interested in having sex with you.”

“We’ve already kissed.”

“You kissed me when you were drunk. That’s different.”

“But you lived through it, and you didn’t end up hating me any more than you already did before.”

“I don’t hate you,” Robbie insisted. “That’s your thing. I just don’t like you.” He looked away when he said that, as though he couldn’t quite say it to Jake’s face.

“I don’t hate you either. I don’t hate anyone, really. I just act like I do.”

“Then you’re a great actor.” Robbie strode forward, extending the distance between him and Jake.

“Robbie, wait!” Jake jogged to catch up with him. “Let’s not make it any harder to work together than it already is.”

Robbie stopped in his tracks, clearly annoyed by how much Jake was holding him up from the work he so desperately wanted to complete. “No,” he said dully. “That would be a real shame, wouldn’t it?”

“Jesus, Robbie, I’m actually trying to be nice.” Jake threw his gloved hands up in exasperation.

“I know you are, and you’re doing a terrible job of it.”

“Worse than anyone else in this town who makes it seem like it’s an act of penance to be around you for more than a few minutes?”

Robbie’s lips twitched. “They’re nasty in a quieter way. Your disdain is out in the open.”

“Hey, at least you can take it, right?”