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“You’re telling me she had all three of you… and shestillneeded someone else?”
“That’s right,” I nodded. “And we didn’t know it until—”
“That bitch reallyiscrazy!” Brooke gasped.
Reese laughed. “Now you’re talking.”
“But I’m serious!” she swore. “I— I can’t even imagine…”
“At first we were devastated,” Devin jumped in, “but not really all that surprised. Melissa was always selfish. This was totally something she’d do, and it fit within her character. She tried blowing it off, of course. Dismissing it as ‘just sex’ and no big deal. But well, the three of us…”
“The three of us were done with her right then and there,” I finished.
Brooke shook her head slowly back and forth. She still looked incredulous. If she’d known Melissa the way we did, she might not be.
“So yeah,” I went on, “our relationship was pretty much over before the Race began. You might’ve seen a little flirting, mostly on her end, and some residual camaraderie. But that was just us going through the motions. Still processing that what we had together was over, and had been for a little while.”
Brooke bit her lip before continuing. “So what happened in the taxi then?” she asked. “How did it turn into such a fight?”
“Because she held us prisoner,” said Reese. “She pulled something really stupid, trying to keep us.”
“She told us she wasn’t leaving the cab and she wasn’t crossing the finish line,” said Devin. “Until we did something first.”
“Did something?” Brooke repeated. “Didwhat?”
“She wanted us to tell her we loved her,” I said. “All three of us.”
The memory twisted like a knife in my gut. I could recall the scathing look in her eyes, the stubborn way she’d wedged herself into the corner of the back seat. We’d pleaded desperately with her, as the other teams rolled up on us. We’d all but promised her the world.
Somehow though, Melissa had twisted the scenario to avoid all culpability. She blamed us for everything. She wanted us responsible.
And she wanted us to tell her we loved her… something not one of us in all the time we’d been dating had actually done.
“Reese and I were actually willing to say it,” I admitted shamefully. “We wanted to lie to her, just to get out of the cab and cross the finish line.”
“Why the hell didn’t you?”
All eyes turned in the direction of Devin.
“Because I wouldn’t go along with it,” he said. “At that point, any love we had for her was gone. She was a teammate, and nothing more. And I wasn’t about to let her hold the rest of us hostage, especially when she’s the one who fucked things up.”
He blames himself for us not winning the race…
Reese’s words from Hawaii came floating back to me. It all made sense now.
“So you gave up a million dollars…” Brooke breathed. “For that?”
“Yes,” said Devin. “And I’d do it again.”
“We’dalldo it again,” Reese added, “looking back on it. Especially now.”
“Why?”
“Because if we’d won the million dollars,” said Devin, “none of this would’ve happened. We wouldn’t be right here, in this very elevator. On the verge of winningfourmillion dollars.”
“And most important of all,” I added, “we wouldn’t have met you.”
Brooke was still looking up at us, but all the incredulity was gone. There were tears in her eyes now. Happy tears.
“See, that’s the thing,” said Devin. “Melissa’s arrogance put us where we are now. She might not have known it at the time, but she brought us to you.”
I reached for her at exactly the same time the others did. It happened a lot when we were on the same wavelength. And with her, such a thing was effortless.
“You know what?” I said in the middle of our tearful group hug.
Brooke smiled up at me and sniffed. “What?”
“No matter what happens today, we’ve already won.”
