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“Here? Now?” I questioned, looking at the potential audience.
“On the water.”
I nodded, and ten minutes later, Amber sent us off. Oliver stuck close as we waded out into the surf and away from the cameras on the beach. Finally out of view, Oliver nodded at the waterproof mic pack on the back of my shorts, and I slipped my hand under the water to turn it off as Oliver did the same with his. We weren’t technically supposed to do that, but fuck it. We could blame the water for the malfunction if needed.
Lifting myself up, I straddled my board, letting my calves dip into the cool water below. I turned to find Oliver following my lead. He was perfectly at ease on the board after such a brief lesson. Then again, I guessed sitting on a board and bobbing along didn’t require extensive training.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Oliver thought for a moment, trailing his fingertips through the water. He opened his mouth a few times to say something, but closed it again. Finally, he seemed to settle on how to best proceed. “I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did Sophie say anything at breakfast today?” he asked.
I shook my head, thinking back to this morning. She had been quiet, but she had been sort of quiet all week. After seeing her douchebag of an ex and all the shitty looks Kayla and Cheryl had been throwing at her, I couldn’t blame her.
“I found her outside this morning with Jess,” Oliver said, looking worried. “And an iguana, but I don’t think that’s the important part. She’s never snuck off like that in the morning.”
“And?”
“Maybe it’s just me, but she’s seemed off since the challenge.” His thoughts echoed my own, and I hated that she was still so affected by that asshole, Ryan. I mean, she had moved on. She was here. And the words she volleyed over the pool at him the other day certainly spoke to being over it, so I had to believe she wasn’t hanging onto their former relationship.
“It’s more than that,” Oliver continued. “More than whatever has been bringing her down all week. Today she seemed downright sad.”
“Well, she didn’t mention anything to me at breakfast. She did say she wasn’t up to coming out on the water today, but after the whole snorkeling thing, I can’t blame her. And the idea of spending time with Viv back at the villa seemed to perk her up a bit.”
Though, now that I thought about it, their words were quiet, and their faces serious as we passed by them on our way to the beach.
“What do you think’s going on?” I asked. He wouldn’t bring it up if he didn’t at least have a theory about what was happening. Oliver didn’t seem the type to guess. He dealt in cold hard facts, and the fact was, something was bothering Sophie.
Oliver ran a hand over his head, sifting his fingers through his wet hair and leaving it more disheveled than it had been before. We watched as one of the lifeguards sailed by on his board, joining the rest of the group a few feet away from us.
“I think it’s because she’s dating both of us at the same time.” He exhaled roughly. “You and I should talk about that while we’ve got these mics off.”
I gripped the edges of my board, my knuckles going white with the tension.
Oliver looked me dead in the eye and said, “I’m not giving Sophie up.”
As I assessed Oliver, I felt determination swelling somewhere below my ribs. “Well, neither am I.”
His jaw ticked, and he nodded once to show he’d heard me.
“How in this are you?” he asked.
“It’s been like five days, man. How ‘in this’ can anyone really be in such a short amount of time?”
Oliver turned toward me with a cocked brow and a knowing smile. “You can lie to me; that’s fine. Just make sure you’re not lying to yourself in the process. And not to her. Never to her.”
Oliver, who only a few days ago I had thought of as competition, had somehow slowly shifted into the camp of teammate. Every night, the three of us found ourselves in the same bed, and Oliver never tried to pull Sophie away from me as I held her to my chest. Even today at breakfast, he had guided her next to me, despite there being two open seats for them on the other side of the table.
Oliver turned his head as Cheryl went sailing by on a gust of wind, screaming her head off and pulling me from my weird discovery that we were sort-of friends. We both watched as she picked up decent speed. She panicked and dropped the sail, falling into the water. She emerged a second later and clambered back onto the board.
“I don’t know what it is,” I said, emboldened by his lack of eye contact. This felt like two bros sitting out on a porch sharing a beer and shooting the shit. “Sophie’s gorgeous, but she’s also so incredibly genuine. Not demanding or pushy or entitled. I just really like her. A lot.”
Oliver nodded, keeping his eyes on the sea. “I like her too. And I promise not to get in your way.”
He didn’t ask for reciprocity or that I vowed the same. Instead, he stood up on his board, pulled the uphaul, and when his sail caught a draft of wind, he took off into the deeper blue. I sat there, thinking about the complications of dating her simultaneously as he grew smaller in the distance.
