WINTER Nath and I head back to the room, and the second we're inside, we both collapse onto the bed like someone cut our strings. "I'm exhausted," Nath says. "Same. Nap time?" "It's not even noon." "Your point being?" He laughs and pulls me close. "No point. Nap time it is." And we pass out again. Because apparently we're those people now. The kind who nap in the middle of the day and don't feel remotely guilty about it. --- When we wake up, it's almost evening. The sun is doing that golden hour thing where everything looks like a movie. The room is bathed in warm light. And I feel more rested than I have in literal months. "Hey," Nath says sleepily. "Hey yourself." "We slept all day again." "Best day of my entire life." He laughs and kisses my forehead. "So. What now?" "Actually," I say, sitting up. "I want to talk about the swimming thing." "The swimming competition?" "Yeah. The one that's in seven days. The one where I'm going to spectacularly em
WINTER I wake up wrapped around Nath like a particularly clingy octopus, and for a blissful moment, I forget that things like "responsibilities" and "the outside world" exist. His arm is around me. My head is on his chest. Our legs are tangled together in a way that would probably require an engineering degree to untangle. This is nice. This is very, very nice. I could stay here forever. Just set up camp. Order takeout. Never leave this bed. And then there's a knock on the door. No. Go away. Whoever you are. "Who is it?" Nath mumbles, still half-asleep. "It's Treasure!" Oh. Right. My sister. The one who orchestrated this entire emotional breakthrough. I suppose I owe her a goodbye at minimum. I sit up...slowly, because my body has filed several formal complaints about my activities activities, and Nath groans. "What time is it?" he asks, his eyes still closed. I check my phone. "Almost ten." "At night?" "No, in the morning, you absolute walnut." He cracks
TREASURE I laugh. I can't help it. "Come on, Ace. To be honest, I do have the hots for you. But not just you. A few other guys I've seen here in this resort too." His eyebrows shoot up. "Are you for real?" "Yeah, it's just who I am. I mean, I'm attracted to a lot of guys, actually. And to be honest, you're one of them. But I'm not cut out for a relationship. I'm not ready for one. I have other priorities." "Is that so?" He tilts his head. "What about a fling, then?" I smile. "Nah. Too cheap for me." "Really. So when do you ever plan to be in a relationship?" I shake my head. "I don't know. I guess when I achieve my dreams. Maybe in the next five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years." He laughs. "You know what? I like the sound of that." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a business card. "Here. Don't misplace my card. If in the next five, ten, fifteen, or forty years you decide that you want a relationship and you still have the hots for me, give me a call. Who know
TREASURE After dealing with Mike's public humiliation—which, let's be honest, was a bit satisfying—I head back toward my room. My mind is still on Winter and Nath. I'm hoping they actually talked things out instead of doing that thing where people say "we'll talk tomorrow" and then just stew in misery for days and weeks. I mean, I literally shoved Winter toward Nath and told her to fix it. If they're still broken up after that, I'm going to be very disappointed in both of them. Just as I reach my door and pull out my keycard, I feel a hard shove from behind. I stumble forward into my room, barely catching my balance, and whirl around to see Mike stepping inside and locking the door behind him. Oh, you've got to be kidding me. "What do you want?" I ask, taking a slow step backward. A grin spreads across his face. Not a friendly grin. A creepy, villain-in-a-bad-movie grin. "What do you think?" he says. "Take a guess." I cross my arms. "Get out of this room. Right now
WINTER We're kissing, and it feels different this time. Not the kissing itself. We've probably kissed hundreds of times by now. I know exactly how Nath tastes. I know the way he angles his head, the way his hands cup my face, the little sound he makes when I bite his lower lip. We've done this before. We've had sex in this bed, against that wall, once memorably in the shower when we both nearly died slipping on the tiles. But this time, something's changed. This time, we've said the words. I love you. He loves me. And somehow that transforms everything. His hands find the hem of my white dress and he pulls it up slowly. I lift my arms and he slides it over my head, tossing it somewhere behind him. I'll find it later. Or not. Who cares. I reach for his shirt and he helps me pull it off, and then we're skin to skin, and God, I've missed this. It's been less than forty-eight hours since we last did this, but after last night—after thinking I'd lost him, after that a
WINTER "Go after him!" Treasure shoves me. "Now!" So I run. Which is hilarious because my legs are still approximately seventy percent bruise from today's tumble down Mount Doom, but sure. Let's add cardio to the list of today's disasters. "Nath! Wait!" He doesn't stop. Doesn't even slow down. Just keeps walking with his shoulders doing that tense thing they do when he's upset, and okay, this is officially Not Good. "Nath, please!" Still nothing. I push myself faster, ignoring the fact that my body is staging a formal protest. 'Look, body, I know we're not friends right now, but we need to catch that man before he disappears into someone's room and I have to have this conversation through a door like some kind of rom-com protagonist.' Finally, FINALLY, I catch up to him just as he reaches our room. I sigh in relief. He walks inside and I follow, slamming the door behind us. And then I watch him pick up his phone charger. His toothbrush. A change of clothes.