Page 51 of Five
Cope scoots his chair a little further away from Jesse, like he thinks stuff is about to get broken and doesn’t want to get caught in the crossfire, and I take a step towards the two of them. But it’s Remi who calls Jesse out and stops Oscar from diving across the table to plant his fist in Jesse’s face.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Jesse?” Remi demands, shoving a cocktail in his hand in the to-go cup he’d insisted on. “You’ve been off ever since Oz texted to say he was bringing Neve here. The poor girl’s done nothing to you, barely even said a word, so there’s no way she could have offended you. Yet you keep creating opportunities to put her down. What gives?”
Jesse is almost vibrating with anger, and I can’t help wondering what the hell is going on in his head. Remi raises a good point. He knew this was happening. He’d seemed to be on board when we discussed using the PolyApp to find a match. He certainly didn’t object, so why on earth is he behaving like this now that Neve’s here?
Jesse surges to his feet and slaps his palms on the table. “Look, like I said earlier, if y’all want to play happy families, you go ahead. But don’t drag me into your games. I’ve been there, remember? I know all about happy families, and this ain’t it.”
With that he tips his to-go cup in a sardonic salute that has some of the liquid spilling through the hole in the top and stomps off to his cabin.
We all stare after him, each of us digesting his little outburst. Cope looks wide-eyed and shell shocked. Remi is stoically cleaning the same glass so hard he’s going to wear it out, and Oz is cursing under his breath.
“Well, at least Neve’s not here to see this shit show,” I mutter to nobody in particular. “The last thing she needs is to feel unwanted and uncomfortable.”
Oscar growls. He’s always been the protector, and that sentiment normally extends to Jesse, too, no matter how difficult Jesse makes it sometimes.
Not right now though. “Believe me, I will make that asshole feel a whole lot more than uncomfortable if he hurts Neve.”
I hate seeing them at odds with each other. Oz and I met Jesse in a military bar while we were all stationed in San Diego years ago. We struck an immediate kinship, one that expanded and grew when we met Remi and through him, Cope, in a high school-turned-hurricane shelter one fall.
We’re not the most conventional of friends, but up until now, we’ve been solid.
I sigh, everything inside me suddenly feeling torn. I felt an immediate connection with Neve that I’ve never felt with another woman, but these men are my brothers— blood brothers, brothers of choice.
This was supposed to bring us closer together, not tear us apart.
Twelve
Jesse
Iclenchmyjawand flex my free hand as I leave the guys and make my way back to my cottage.
Anger swirls in my gut, but it’s more than that. It’s a kind of uncertainty, a sensation of being off balance. For the first time since the five of us started living together I feel like I’m truly at odds with my friends.
Sure, we’ve had our differences in the past, but we’ve never been this close to coming to blows before.
I know I can be a miserable jackass, but the guys usually talk me down.
Not this time.
This time every single one of them stood against me, and it’s allherfault.
Suddenly the life I’ve built seems so much more fragile than I ever believed it to be. I thought we were tight, but this stuff with Neve and the PolyApp is putting everything into a new perspective.
I take a sip of the drink Remi handed me and sigh. It’s a negroni, my favorite, and he’s perfected the blend of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth so it’s as good as the ones I used to drink when my parents were stationed in Sigonella. I bet there’s even a twist of orange rind floating in it, even though I insisted on a to-go cup, so I can’t see it.
But tonight, the memories the flavors bring back are bittersweet, just like the drink itself.
Back in my youth, Sicily became my playground; it’s the place that had me falling in love with island life.
My parents, both lifetime military, were too busy with their jobs to keep too close tabs on what their teenage son was up to, and at sixteen, they’d decided I was old enough to look after myself, so they’d dispensed with the nanny.
I was in fucking heaven. So many of my firsts happened there.
Girls, negronis, and Italian island life. The food was fantastic, like nothing else in the world— and I’ve been around a bit, thanks to my own stint in the Navy. Although Remi comes in pretty close, not that I’d ever admit as much to his face. Wouldn’t want it to go to his head.
But memories of Sicily bring back the lows as well as the highs.
I was in Sicily for my final tour in the Navy. It was sweet being there again, in the same place my parents had eventually settled.
