Page 53 of Waiting for You

"Sure you are. Every single thing about your behavior is platonic."

"Are you not worried about Eliza's intentions?"

I paused, thinking about it. "Not really. She seems like a good, solid person. And the two of you clearly have chemistry."

He turned to look at me, his eyes narrowing. "How long have you been watching us to form an opinion on our chemistry?"

"Longer than you've been hunting for flaws in Andrew," I fired back.

He rolled his eyes. "You're boring."

"I'm not boring. I'm just uninvested in the details of your personal life."

"You're a terrible liar."

"I'm not⁠—"

"Real friends are supposed to be invested in each other's lives," he argued, leaning closer. "Isn't Violet invested in yours?"

"That's a different dynamic."

"How is it different?"

I opened my mouth to argue.

"What's the actual difference," he pressed, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, "between the loyalty you've got with Violet and whatever the hell we're chasing here?"

I snapped my mouth shut. He was right that there was a difference, but naming it meant resurrecting the whole history of us, and I wasn't going to detonate that bomb on a rented boat.

"There might be differences," I deflected, cold. "There might not be. It doesn't really matter."

He let out a bitter laugh just as Eliza and Simon breached the surface beside the hull, yanking their snorkel masks up. I spun away from Xavier and leaned over the railing to applaud them, and Xavier reluctantly followed suit.

The explorers eventually dragged themselves out of the ocean. Our group relocated to the beach, where Violet laid out a wide towel on the white sand. Eliza collapsed onto it, Violet dropped down beside her, Simon claimed a shaded spot, Andrew sat nearby. Xavier and I stayed standing at the farthest edge of the towel, a defensive distance Violet clocked instantly.

"Why are you two standing all the way over there like security guards?" she demanded. "Come sit."

"I'm fine standing right here," I declined.

"Same," Xavier agreed without missing a beat.

Eliza squinted up at Xavier, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Are you scared of the water?"

"It's the beach," he corrected, stiff. "I don't love the beach."

"Me neither," I echoed in solidarity.

Violet burst into laughter. "You two have been secretly terrified of the beach this whole time, and you agreed to a couples trip to Hawaii?"

"We just snorkeled," I defended. "From the safety of the boat."

"You were cowering on the boat the whole time."

"We were providing moral support," Xavier argued.

"You're both psychological disasters," Violet declared, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye. I laughed with her, and as I did, I became sharply aware of Xavier's shoulder brushing against mine. We stood isolated from the rest of the group with the tropical sun beating down on our backs, united in our hatred of the ocean stretched out in front of us.

"We've been out here all afternoon," I announced to the group. "We're baking. We should head back to the house."