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“Ialwayswish I was there with you.” He paused, then added, “Anna.”

“Alright,” Avril said, flipping him off by laying her middle finger over one of her nipples. “Don’t be thankful to the one of us who made this gift happen.”

“I’m thankful for that,” Liam said. “I just know by now that giving you too much credit is dangerous. It makes you…”

“Insufferable?” Anna offered, which earned her a scowl from the topless woman beside her.

“Difficult to deal with,” Liam said, going with a more diplomatic answer. But still grinning at Anna’s remark.

“Just once, it’d be nice if you two could be considerate enough to heap some praise onto my shoulders,” Avril complained. “I work hard, you know? You two are sometimes difficult to work with, too, just in a different way.”

“In a way in which we’re not constantly oiled up and ready to follow you down the slip ‘n slide?” Liam asked.

“Exactly,” Avril said, ignoring the touch of sarcasm in his question. “It’s hard for me to come down toyourlevel. Just feels like regression. Yours especially, Anna dear.”

“And it’s challenging for me to always rise to a place where you’ll be satisfied with my… forwardness,” Anna said. The roommates, best friends for years, brought their gazes together. “I tried being quicker about things, but I found it didn’t work for me. It quickly becomes more stressful than exciting.”

Avril held her best friend’s eyes, letting her speak uninterrupted. Listening. Actively listening.

“I’m happy with the pace that Liam and I have set, the progress we’ve been making. Even once we’re in Fiji, I hope you won’t try to pressure me too much. I know it’s going to be a romantic trip. I know that’s its purpose. I don’t plan to just sit on my hands while there. Our… relationships with him are different, at different places, and I hope you can understand and accept that.”

“Alright,” Avril said, dipping her head in understanding. “I just don’t want you to leave Fiji thinking that the trip wasn’t as special as it could have been.”

“I’ll be doing my part to help ensure that won’t be the case,” Liam reminded Avril, reentering the conversation. “I’ve been thinking about Fiji a lot, so I have some stuff planned on my end.” He briefly swallowed, aware that this was officially his first time admitting he was dating them both. “For you both.”

Avril grinned, and Anna smiled. That was the best outcome that Liam could have imagined.Histension, the tension he hadn’t even realized he was carrying, so focused on how Anna was feeling, melted away. They’d finally broached the topic, not just glanced at it.

And at least right now, it seemed that everything was alright. Understood, accepted.

The best outcome.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Ready for Takeoff

Thursday ended up being pretty damn good, all things taken into account. The hour-long chat with the topless beauties certainly helped, as did the pictures they both sent him once they’d separated. Naturally, Avril went a little further, giving him an audio file of what she did a little later into the evening.

On Friday, Liam completed his final midterm. After exiting the exam hall, he stretched. He felt pretty good about how he’d done and could check just how well in a few days. However, he probably wouldn’t remember to do so because he would be in Fiji with four dreamy women in a few days. The last thing he’d be thinking about was his test results. A single look at any one of them in a bikini would ensure that.

He drove back home, possibly more excited during this drive than any before it. He could feel his palpable excitement thrumming into the fingers gripping the steering wheel, racing up his arms. He quickly ceded control of his speed to cruise control, not trusting himself to drive at a safe speed. It was almost all-consuming, his need to make it back to Tess, Anna, Avril, and even Victoria.

On Saturday, he helped the last of those with her gardening. After she finished mopping the grounds around her pool with him in chess, of course. Over the course of about an hour, they cleared out the old, paving the way for the new to arrive once they made it back from Fiji. As he owed her a few days already and expected to owe her more and more as time passed, Liam asked about what they’d be planting.

Victoria discussed her plans, the flowers she wanted to purchase soon, both old favorites and a few new ones. She was clinical and detailed, clearly having put plenty of thought into how she wanted her spring garden to look. She also mentioned the possibility of her helping Tess with her garden, and Liam leaped to the occasion and volunteered to help then, too, if he could.

“We’ll ensure it’s on a weekend,” Victoria promised.

Thanks to his activities at Victoria’s, then being invited out to dinner with Avril, then returning his second home and practicing his massage technique one final time before the trip, Saturday remained engaging enough for it to feel quick. Finding sleep wasn’t as easy, but he gladly spent more time with Tess, then texted the others until he was finally tired enough to saunter into his dreams.

It passed over to the day of the trip, though that didn’t mean much—not when he woke up, anyway. With the plan to make it to the airport at 11:00 pm with Tess, so the plane—which waitedon Avril’s pleasure—could get wheels up around midnight, there was plenty of time in between.

“Everything’s packed?” Tess asked at around one, right before she shunted him out of her bedroom and completedherfinal bit of suitcase stuffing. Although disappointed to be denied a glimpse of her plans, he understood fully that it meant there was a surprise or two for him to expect once those wheels that had gone up came back down.

“I’ve got everything I think I need for a beach holiday with billionaires,” he said.

“Just the one,” Tess reminded him. “You and I fit into the same socio-economic group. We wouldn’t live right next to each other otherwise.”

Liam nodded. He’d packed it all. Clothes, including a couple of nicer sets, which the outfit he’d worn to the New Year's Eve party was among, options for shoes, the electronics, and toiletries he wanted to bring along. He had his beach gear too, and he’d even located the snorkeling gear that his parents had used maybe only once or twice since they’d gotten it. He knew it was guaranteed to happen at least once on the trip, and although he expected plenty of availability for that type of stuffinFiji, he wasn’t packed all that heavy, so why not bring it along? It could finally end up in a place where itmightsee usage.

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