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Instead of admitting that he’s at fault, Matt retaliates. “Oh, right! Like you can fucking talk. As if I hadn’t walked in on you with your lips practically on hers yesterday.”
I watch the exchange between my two best friends like one would watch a fucking tennis match. A fucked-up tennis match.
“Yeah, the keyword beingpractically.I almost kissed her, but I knew better than—”
“Bullshit! The only reason you didn’t kiss her is because I walked in on you. But you were totally going to. Just be a man and admit it!”
Drew concedes, but he’s still scowling at Matt. “Oh fuck it! I admit it. I totally wanted to kiss her. And since you just fucking did, you don’t have a leg to stand on.”
Yeah, this is bad in more ways than one. “Guys, guys, we don’t have time to have a fight about this. We all know that we’re in enough trouble without messing around with the boss’s daughter. So whatever you two did or didn’t do with Greer, you both know that it has to stop.”
I think my words have the desired effect when my best friends stop arguing, but I should know better—they know me as well as I know them.
“How are you so calm about this?” Drew asks through narrowed eyes.
All I can offer is a weak, “Because I was the one who fucked up first. We wouldn’t be in so much trouble if I hadn’t messed up with Carly—”
Matt intervenes. “No, Drew is right. You’re way too calm for your usual, dude. And there’s only one reason why you wouldn’t be yelling at Drew and me right now.”
He stares at me as if he’s trying to figure out a puzzle, and I know the exact moment he guesses it. “Hold on a second. You walked her back to her room the other night, after we took care of that rich douche she was hanging out with. Brady, what the fuck did you do?”
I don’t look at either of them, but I eventually snap under their scrutiny. “Okay, fuck it! I kissed her when we said good night.”
They both groan in unison. “Brady!”
I can’t believe they have the nerve to be mad at me, as if they hadn’t just admitted to doing the same thing. “What? You just admitted—”
Drew’s voice comes out in a growl. “I didn’t fucking kiss her! I’m the only man in this room who can say this much.”
“Ha!” Matt snarls. “Get off your fucking high horse, dude! Had I walked in twenty seconds later, you’d have totally kissed her.”
This is going nowhere, and it isn’t helping our fucking situation in any way, shape, or form. “Okay, guys. Let’s calm the fuck down. I know I was the one who screwed up in the first place, and I’ll never be able to tell you how sorry I am. As for Greer… I can’t blame either of you. She’s hot, sweet, and feisty as hell.”
Matt nods. “She’s kind and funny.”
“You’re both right, and she’s so unpretentious. It’s unbelievable when you think how much money her father has.”
I agree with Drew. “Yeah, and when you look at her mother and sister.”
Matt sighs and lowers himself onto the couch, making his straw skirt crackle with the movement. “Yeah, but we all know that we can’t have her. We need this job more than ever.”
Drew looks troubled, and I ask him what’s going on.
“Matt is fucking right. We can’t afford to be fired from here, not if we want to stay on the island. But to tell you the truth, guys, I don’t think our plan will work whether we have these jobs or not. I tried to get a loan with Shell Cove Credit Union, and they denied it. I offered my car as collateral and I shit you not, the loan guy was legit trying not to laugh at me.”
I feel sorry for my friends, and the fact that this is all my fault is once again not lost on me. I feel even worse because neither of them is pointing fingers at me when we all know that I’m the one who screwed up. “Maybe you should try to get a loan just for the ten grand to enter the competition rather than the whole amount to buy the bar.”
Drew runs a hand over his face in a weary gesture. “That’s exactly what I did, bro. We can’t get a loan for ten grand. My car is worth two on a good day. And before you offer your bike, Brady, I researched it on the internet. It’s worth a grand if we’re lucky, so unless we find a new sponsor, we’re screwed.”
I run a hand through my hair, frustrated by how hard life seems to be. “Shit! There must be a way to find that money. I know we’d have a really good chance of winning if we could compete.” I look at Drew as an idea forms in my mind all of a sudden. “But maybe there’s a solution. Do you think we could ask for an advance from Mr. Manning? Or even better, we could ask him to sponsor us! If we won, it would be such great publicity for the resort—”
“Yeah, no. I was ahead of you, bro. I was going to ask the boss this morning when I went to show him the final menu for tonight, and he was having brunch with Mr. Aldridge. He was offering to sponsor Tristan and his friends as I walked out to the veranda.”
Fuck. Then we really are out of options and shit out of luck.
We all look at one another, and the awareness that I put us in this situation is crackling and burning under my skin like poison.
When Drew makes us all promise that we won’t do anything stupid when it comes to Greer, I don’t even notice the disappointment I can distinctly taste on my tongue.
