Page 11 of One Last Memory

Benji’s brows raised clean off his forehead as he sat forward. “How do you know her?”

“I moved her family in two days ago.” Angelo’s eyes widened beside me as Benji and I silently tried to wrap our heads around the mindfuck of a mess we may or may not have created.

“Please tell me you didn’t fuck her. That’s so goddamn unprofessional.” There was a hint of a smirk playing on Benji’s lips but a bit of seriousness there that told me I had in fact overstepped.

The problem was that my self control had been shot in that moment and I couldn’t have held myself back if I had wanted to. Still, this could end up being ahugemess. Still, I decided fucking with Benji was easier than dealing with our reality. I leaned back and folded my arms across my chest, bracing myself for Benji’s response. “And you were her surfing instructor.”

Benji froze, realizing how much of a hypocrite he was but if I was going to antagonize him, I might explain why I forewent my self-control. “She’s got this silent fierceness to her that I can’t explain. Like, at first she looked terrified, and then it was just one of those natural things that happened.” I couldn’t explain it any better than that.

Angelo’s head was whipping between us, his eyes slowly narrowing until he cut in. “You don’t think she could possibly be-”

The thought had crossed my mind, but there hadn’t exactly been a good moment to bring up a desire we rarely shared with the women who vacationed here. That and the fact that Bailee was here for aweek.In no world, would she agree to a proposal of a three-way evening between me, my boyfriend, and our best friend. It wasn’t exactly a conversation to be had seconds after I had fucked Bailee on her kitchen counter.

I swallowed nervously, dragging a hand through my hair before pulling Angelo fully into my side. He let out a little huff but I didn’t release him. “Angelo, you’ll probably see her at some point but don’t fucking bring it up. She’s here for a week.” It was one of many issues since we had all come together like this.

The fact that the three of us fell hard and fast. Many broken hearts and disastrous relationships as a result. And still, the one woman we shared had been the highlight of our messy lives.

I didn’t even fucking know Bailee but I knew I wanted her. She was perfect and she deserved to know just how beautiful and amazing she was. And if that meant we only had another five days to prove that to her, I was going to find every which way to do that.

Angelo, Benji, and I had been on this stretch of island too damn long and we knew how it worked. People vacationed here, used us as their summer romance, and then fucked off back to their world. But I didn’t want to be someone’s afterthought or memory. I wanted to be someone’s forever.

So did Benji and Angelo.

There were two things I was pretty sure of at this point. One – Bailee and Angelo would most likely hit it off. Angelo was the easiest to get along with, a few inches shorter than myself and a lot less intimidating. The second thing was that Bailee might – no, she was most definitely going to break all our hearts at the end of the week when she returned to her regularly scheduled life.

BAILEE

Ilied.Ididn’twant to remember all these moments. The pleasurable ache between my legs had dulled the moment Elissa had decided to drag me back outside for some late-night rendezvous at a bar that was supposed to be all the rage. Apparently, since I had decided to stand up for myself, that also meant I wanted to parade myself around the beach like a normal vacationing person. I didn’t.

“What are we even doing here?” I asked, disinterested in the noisy crowd. I was already three drinks in, wishing I was back at the house with a bottle of whiskey and utter silence. But Elissa wasn’t having it, bobbing her head to the disco music and strobing lights. I hadn’t noticed before, but she was drunk off her ass, her eyes glazed over. Another drink or two and she might be on the floor.

“Celebrating me.” An uneasy smile spread across her lips as she downed another shot and let out a pitiful ‘whoop!’

“For what?” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, my eyes drifted down to her hand, and I realized that she wasn’t wearing her ring. In all the time I had known her, she had never taken that ring off. “He cheated on you?” I tried to feign surprise. Her husband was a piece of shit – Phoenix, Zak, Malia, and I all knew it – but we let Elissa have her dignity.

“He’s been cheating with every whore that would open up for him. I tried to rationalize it. Say that I wasn’t around enough. As long as he didn’t father another child, I was going to let him have his fun.”

That didn’t match up with the picture of the sister I had grown up with. She was perfect, flawless, and took no shit from anyone else. But here Elissa was, telling me that she not onlyknewher husband was cheating, but that she allowed it so long as he followed the rules.

“Don’t look at me like that, Bailee. We all have our vices.”

“But he cheated on you.” I set my drink down, instantly wanting to go home and curl up into a ball while rocking myself to sleep in my hammock. Malia was a bitch. Zak’s fiance, I’m pretty sure, was fucking some islander. Phoenix wasn’t picking up his phone. And now Elissa wasn’t perfect.

“And you’ve got eyes for two different men.”

My eyes widened in shock as I tried to feign innocence, sucking my bottom lip in between my teeth.Fuck.Elissa didn’t even miss a beat, straightening up slightly.

“Malia’s an ass to you because she wants what you have, your life, yourfreedom. You’re the last of us that hasn’t figured out where you want to be and despite your… oddities, you’re unattached. You have no idea how men see you because that’s never been your focus. And now you’ve found two that you for some reason or another want to protect from Malia.”

“Um…”

Elissa giggled, her cheeks rosy from all the alcohol, “And I say go for it, girl. You deserve it.” That’s not what I had expected her to say. I opened my mouth but no words came out. Another giggle came from my older sister, and I scrunched my nose, trying to figure out where this version of my sister had been for the last ten years.

“I’m serious, Bailee. You’re always so uptight, worrying about what everyone else is going to think. Seeing you rip Malia’s head off earlier was a fucking rush. I wish I had had that kind of courage years ago with my husband. Well, ex now.”

“How long has it been like this?” I knew for a fact that Elissa had been dealing with something, but for her to have taken off her ring? It had to be serious.

She managed a sloppy shrug, eyes downcast at the table where her empty shots stood. “We’ve been separated for a year. He got served the divorce papers this morning. He just called me about it.”

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