Adley

Of course, he made me breakfast in bed. He's perfect.

"You didn't have to do this for me, Crew." I adjust the white blanket around my waist as I lean back on the cushioned headboard. "I could have come to have breakfast in the dining room."

"I waited half a fucking day for that." He rolls his mesmerizing green eyes. "It's almost noon, Ad."

"What?" I reach for my phone on the bedside table and scan the screen.

He's right.

I can't remember the last time I slept in this late. It has to be years. It was before...

"Can I place this tray down now?" He winks. "I swam laps in the pool for over an hour this morning and my arms are burnt."

I drum my fingers on my lap. "Put it here."

He places down a wooden breakfast tray covered in a linen napkin. There's coffee, orange juice, toast and a bowl of fresh berries. There's also a single rose. It's a lighter shade than the dozen that sit atop my bedside table but it's no less beautiful.

"This looks delicious." I look up at him.

He fingers the collar of the V neck gray T-shirt he's wearing. "Eat it all."

I nod sharply as I take a bite of the toast. "What time did you get up to swim?"

He walks backward before he lowers himself into a brown arm chair near the wall. "At five. I'm always up by five."

"Even on the weekends? Even out here?" I toss two blueberries into my mouth.

A sly smile crosses his lips. "Every day. I don't need much sleep."

Apparently not. I didn't get back into my room until close to three this morning which means he got to bed around the same time. Yet, he looks rested and ready to take on the day.

"Did you have fun last night?" I ask cautiously. It's a form of self-torture and the thoughts that kept my mind in motion until I finally gave in to the exhaustion and drifted off.  I don't need or want details and yet I ask.

"Does it bother you that I met someone for a drink?"

I look over at where he's seated. His expression doesn't give anything away. He's not teasing which means it's a question he expects an answer to.

"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.

He had said that when he left my room. He had to call a distributor about a facial cream. Beauty can't take a break, even on Sundays, it seems.

His lips twist wryly. "I'm very good at what I do. I handled that in twenty minutes flat."

I should probably bring up the fact that he told me earlier that it took him five hours yesterday to find a lost truck full of cosmetics, but I let it slide. "I'm going for a swim."

He glances at the pool behind me. "You know how to swim, right?"

I do. Swimming lessons were one of the afterschool activities my mom pushed on me when I was a kid. I'm grateful now, even though back then, I would have rather sat on my ass playing a video game than get in a pool with a bunch of strangers.

His phone rings again just as I'm about to tell him what a champion swimmer I think I am. He tugs it out of the pocket of his red board shorts. "Work. Fuck."

I don't bother asking whether he has to take it or not. I know he does. He always does.

"I'll hit the pool while you take care of business."

His thumb swipes the screen before he brings the phone to his ear spitting out his name as he answers.

I dive in the pool, letting the warm water steal away every ounce of tension in my body.