Page 63 of Caribbean Crush

“I hate that you’re not enjoying yourself,” Sienna adds when I don’t answer her.

“I am,” I insist, rolling over to face her.

She sees right through my canned response.

With a shake of her head, she pushes up her sunglasses so they perch atop her blonde hair. I always think Sienna is stunning, but right now beside the pool, sun kissed in a bikini, she’s something else. Javier had better be somewhere nearby, eating his heart out, I think.

“What did you think of the tour this morning?” she asks, smartly steering us back toward a safer topic than my impending doom. Talk of our tour won’t bring tears to my eyes.

“It was really fun. I’m glad we’ll be in Saint Thomas for another day. I want to go out and explore a bit more. I feel like we only got a taste of things this morning. And they mentioned that snorkeling excursion. That sounded really fun.”

“Oh, I’ll definitely join you for that. Swear you’ll do it with me.”

I nod in confirmation. “We can go off on our own afterward. I did that while we were in Puerto Plata.”

She groans. “I’m jealous. I got talked into this walking tour, and it was okay—don’t get me wrong—but the guide was just such a snooze! Sometimes they think they’re really going to bowl us over with facts about bricks and mortar. Sir, unless Brad Pitt laid those bricks, I could give two shites.”

I laugh. “Here, let me show you what I did. I actually made it to the top of the mountain there.”

“Stop! You did? Oh, now I feel even worse. Let me see.”

She sits up as I dig in my bag for my phone. I’ve been avoiding it all day—not wanting to stumble across another work email that would send me spiraling again. I haven’t even begun to look at those assignments Gwen gave me. They can damn well wait. I worked my butt off getting her that story yesterday. I’m not going to hole up inside my suite for another day, toiling away at my computer.

“Here.” I pass Sienna my phone and watch her scroll through the few photos I took when I was inside the cable car on the way up the mountain. As gorgeous as it looks, truly, the images hardly do the view justice.

I spent a few hours writing about my day in Puerto Plata as well. It’s nothing to brag about, though, just a short piece highlighting my favorite parts of the city, with the most convenient route to get to and from the cable cars. It was a writing exercise more than anything, a pretend assignment, and I’m too shy to tell her about it.

“These are good, Casey.” She looks up at me, eyes wide with excitement. “You should post them.”

I laugh. “No social media, remember?”

She groans again as she hands me back my phone. “Right, ugh, how could I forget you’re living in the Stone Age?”

“I will admit, being around you has slightly made me regret my social media stance, actually. You’re so good about snapping photos and videos, posting, and then putting your phone away. It’s not like you’re on it twenty-four seven, even if it is your job.”

She gets a strange look on her face as she starts to sit up. “Well, funny you should say that—”

“Sienna! Casey!”

Javier’s voice surprises us both, but I’m the first to recover.

“Javier, hey!” I say with a welcoming wave. I peek at Sienna out of the corner of my eye to see she’s ever so casually adjusting her position on her lounge chair, creating better angles, subtly arching her back to draw Javier’s attention to her red bikini top. I can’t help but smile to myself.

“How’ve you been? Did you recover from that jellyfish sting?”

God, my jellyfish sting? That feels like it was ages ago. I’m telling you, cruise ships are funny. I swear we’re in a time warp, so an hour on board is like a week on land.

“All good,” I say with a reassuring smile. “What have you been up to? Busy day?”

He looks even tanner than when I last saw him, like he’s part of the sun now, so handsome with that thick dark hair and brilliant white smile. Sienna knows how to pick them, I’ll just say that.

“Yeah, I went off on a hike that lasted much longer than I thought it would. I looked for you guys in the dining room when I got back, but lunch was pretty much over by then.” He rocks back on his heels, stealing a glance at Sienna, who’s yet to say a word to him, not even a greeting.

She doesn’t look bitchy, per se, just aloof. Cool in a way I’ve never been able to affect. It’s probably not in my DNA. You see, Sienna has these beautiful green eyes that seem to be ever so slightly hooded, giving the effect that she’s perpetually bored with everything she’s looking at. Now, for instance, she could be watching paint dry, for all the enthusiasm written across her face.

Poor Javier! He’s really done himself no favors by waiting this long to approach her. She’s been wanting this for days! Sure, she put up a good front with me today, trying hard to support me through my tears and self-indulgent wallowing. I’m sure she didn’t want to seem selfish, shifting the focus back onto her and her dating problems, but she still slipped up and mentioned Javier a time or two. The first time, I remember, she asked out of the blue when I’d last seen him around the ship. The second time, a few hours later, she said—wholly unprompted, mind you—that she was perfectly fine with where things stood with Javier and she didn’t really mind that he hadn’t made a move or anything. “I prefer being single” were her exact words, which everyone knows is universally translated to Please, god, send that man to my bed tonight!

“Oh, a hike? That sounds fun! Sienna and I did a hike two days ago, and I’m still sore. What about you, Sienna?”

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