The three of them ate some brunch before gathering up and heading onto the beach. Jeremy got the wine and the glasses, Eris had the beach towels, and Kallie brought up the back with snacks in a cooler. But as much as a day in the sun should've made her feel warm and lazy, she only felt cold and withdrawn. Her skin began to bronze and her joints felt relaxed, but her mind was anything but. The longer she stared at the ocean waves, the more she wished they would carry her out to sea. Suck her under and never return her back to the shore.
Kallie didn’t feel that coupling her mindset with alcohol was a good thing, so she decided to head back inside.
“Where are you going?” Eris asked.
“I have to poop. That an issue?” Kallie asked.
“No,” she said. “I’m just not sure if you’re telling me the truth.”
Kallie rolled her eyes as she made her way back to the house. She stood on the balcony and watched as Jeremy doted on Eris. Pulled her from the blanket and swung her around in his arms. Fed her snacks with his own fingers and danced with her in the waves. He dragged her out into the ocean, his arms wrapped around her best friend as they bobbed with the waves. They chased each other through the surf, and Kallie couldn’t remember a time when she’d seen her best friend so happy.
It reminded her of her time with Ash in St. Barts as tears rose to her eyes.
Kallie made her way upstairs and drew herself a bath. As hot as she could get it with as many bubbles as she could stand. She slipped her tired body into the jetted tub and let the water beat down upon her aching muscles. She pressed herself against them. Ran her back over them. Tried desperately to get the marrow in her bones to stop screaming at her. She relaxed back and sighed, her mind adrift on a float in the middle of a lake. The water surrounding her. The stars above her. The darkness below her.
She looked over the side of the boat and set her reflection before Ash’s face popped up beside hers.
Kallie’s eyes flew open and she scrambled from the tub. She unplugged it and dried herself off, her entire body shaking. No. She couldn’t allow her mind to keep dragging her under the way it was. Ash was gone, and there was nothing she could do about that. James took his revenge and he had won, and the only thing she had was moving forward.
Moving on without the man she’d fallen in love with.
“Kallie?”
Eris knocked on her door as she slipped back into bed.
“Yep?”
“Taking another nap?”
“I am.”
“How was your bath?”
Kallie didn’t know how to answer that question, so she kept silent.
“Listen, Jeremy wanted me to tell you that we’ve all been invited to a party tonight. It’s supposed to be quite the bash. Apparently, that’s why Jeremy was coming up this weekend,” Eris said.
“Have fun,” Kallie said with a murmur.
“Jeremy has to go so he can rub elbows and promote his club. You know, businessman shit and all.”
“Okay,” Kallie said.
“Jeremy wants us to come with him.”
Kallie sighed. She should’ve known better. She should’ve known her friend wouldn't allow her one fucking weekend to herself. She pulled the covers over her head and turned over, trying to cloak herself in darkness. She felt the bed buckle at her side before Eris’s hand fell to her back, and gently her best friend began to rub it.
“I know I said I would give you the weekend—”
“Yes, you did,” Kallie said curtly.
“But you can’t let him win,” Eris said.
“No one’s winning, Eris,” she said as she threw the covers off her and sat up. “No one’s winning in any of this. Where the fuck do you get that kind of word anyway?”
“Kallie, come out with—”
“I said ‘no,’ Eris. No to the parties and no to the public and no to the damn Hamptons. But you won’t shut up about it! You won’t back the fuck down! Yes, I’m heartbroken. Yes, I fell in love with Ash. Yes, James is a fucking asshole and yes...! I’m hurt! But I don’t process things the way you do, and I don’t act the way you do because I’m not you, Eris. I never have been and I never will be.”