"It surprised me." I hold up my index finger. "Before you misunderstand what that means, I'll explain."
He tilts his chin down, but doesn’t say anything.
"I get why you left." I curl my hand around the warm coffee mug. "You needed space. I think I did too. I guess I was just surprised that there was someone out here that you've seen before."
"We happened to be here, in the Hamptons, at the same time." He scratches the tip of his nose. "She saw me at the market when I dropped by there on Friday. She called me yesterday and the timing was right."
"So it all worked out?" I inch up on the bed. "You two had fun."
"She brought a friend along."
I bow my head. A threesome. It's not his first.
I hate the silence so I say the first thing that comes to mind. "Double the fun. Lucky you."
His eyes eat into me as he swallows, his Adam's apple bouncing in his neck. "Jealousy doesn't look good on you."
"I'm not jealous."
In a heartbeat he's up from his chair and sitting on the edge of the bed facing me. "A friend can be jealous of a friend, Adley."
I look away. I don't want him this close to me, not when he smells like Matiz cologne, raw lust and all the bad decisions I'm dying to make. "I'm not jealous," I repeat.
"Do I look like I had fun last night?"
I turn and gaze into his eyes. They're alight with something. I feel it burning into me, igniting a path straight to my core. "Yes."
A lazy smile runs over his lips. "The best part of my night was laying on that hard as fuck floor with you."
I feel my lips twitch. "That was the best part of your night?"
He nods his head. "Nothing else came close."
I don't know how that makes sense. He fucked two women, likely very beautiful women and then got on the floor next to me while my hair was matted from being in a pool of my own tears.
"How's your heart today?" He looks at my shirt. Naturally, my nipples are at full attention.
"My heart?"
"I found some pieces of it on the floor this morning." He shoves his hand into the pocket of his blue shorts and then pulls it out with fanfare, showing me his empty palm. It's the same thing he does when he catches May crying. "Looks like you put it all back together yourself again. The way you always do."
He's right. I did, but it's not all there. He still has some pieces even if he can't see them.
***
"Jesus Christ, Adley," he says from behind me. "You get that any man, even a friend, is going to have a problem with you in that bikini."
"A problem?" I turn back to face him. "What's the problem?"
"It's too small."
It's not. It's actually perfect for me. It's white, a halter style top and a bottom that barely covers my ass.
I didn't put a lot of thought into my choice of swimwear when I was packing. I live in New York. If you go anywhere that warrants wearing a bikini, you bring every one you own.
After Crew took my breakfast tray away, I brushed my teeth and showered quickly. I chose this bikini because it was the first thing I grabbed out of my suitcase. I want to swim before the dark clouds that are looming in the distance steal that chance away from me.
"I thought you said you had work to do," I ask because I'm genuinely curious.