"It has four bedrooms, so obviously Nate and I are picking one, you're picking one." She points at me before facing Henry, "and you pick one, the last, hopefully the smallest room will be Jaz's when she arrives on Wednesday."

My eyes widens. "Jazzy is coming." I don't know why I feel the need to repeat her words.

She nods. "Yeah, she's taking a direct flight from LAX."

Great. And I thought it was about friendship.

This stunning Villa is within the lush Green hills that provides panoramic views of the marina, beach and the wondrous blue sea. The custom built pool and the outdoor kitchen is my favorite. The grilling area and expansive deck create the perfect combination for comfort and entertainment. For less private moment for those who need it. The pool veranda's full outdoor kitchen and bar are perfect for entertaining a crowd of two to hundred, that's how big it is. Gracious upstairs veranda paired with twenty two foot wide life and slide door allows outside and inside to mingle effortlessly. Custom Italian plaster walls, vaulted wood ceiling, solid mahogany windows and door, as well as coral stone floors, grace the interior of this grand building.

I think I'm going to enjoy my stay here.

Wheeling both my suitcase inside, I wait for the rest to pick their rooms before I do because I'm not bringing anything as contribution. The least I can do is stay put.

Minutes later Nova comes back down to see me standing the living room and frowns. "What are you doing there? Let's go see your room." She waves me closer and I walk to her.

She reaches out to help me with one suitcase and I leave it for her because it's her fault I'm here. Nova leads the way as I place my hand on the modern stainless steel rectangular hand rail for stairs and trail it as I climb up.

"I picked the room at the back for you because I don't want you hearing me and Nate having sex, I hate running you out yesterday and I'm sorry for that," she tells me as soon as we stop in front of the last door.

I shrug. I'm exhausted and I want nothing more than to enter my room and sleep.

She turns the knob on the door and step back to let me enter first. I walk past her inside the room and leave my suitcase to explore the room. It's a modern luxurious bedroom with accent flower design wall and parenting light chandelier hanging in the middle of the room.

"Rest and meet us downstairs later, we're going to town to eat," she tells me.

I shake my head without taking my eyes of the brown blanket covering the soft bed, I bet it was made with feathers. "I can't make it, I'm too tired to go anywhere," I answer.

"Oh..." I can hear the disappointment in her tone but she doesn't say anything about it. "Okay. We'll bring you something, we don't know where we're going but I'll make sure it's something edible," she jokes and leaves, closing the door behind her.

I kick my slippers off because that's what I wore from New York, I still can't believe it. I raise my leg up one after the other to take off my socks before crawling under the covers on the bed and shut my eyes, it doesn't take long for me to drift off. Sleeping has always come so easily to me and I'm grateful for it because some people suffers from insomnia and I don't know how I'll cope if it's me.

***

I don't know how much time I spent in bed but when I open my eyes, it's already dark outside. I push the cover off my body and get out of bed, my feet tingles as it touches the cold floor. I stroll to where I toss my slippers and tuck my feet inside before heading out.

The entire house is silent. They've all turned in for the night. I sniff and close my left eyes as I rub my finger against it. I let out an open mouth yawn and walk to the kitchen.

I have eaten anything since morning and now I'm so hungry, the angry sounds coming from my stomach is loud enough to make me want to use earbud. The kitchen is any chef's dream. I head to the large double door refrigerator and open it, I smile as I see the stocked inside. Now this is what I'm talking about. I reach inside to grab a jar of orange juice and turn to drop it on the island before closing the fridge.

I spend the next minute roaming the kitchen, getting acquainted with the shelves and cabinet until I find what I'm looking for, a cup.

Pouring myself a full glass of the juice, I return the jar into the fridge and grab the cup, taking a big gulp and make a beeline to the pantry to check for anything I can whip together for myself because I've looked everywhere and I don't think Nova remembered to bring me something back.

Before I step inside, a familiar voice stop me. "I have your dinner in the microwave, I'll warm it up for you," he says.

I close my eyes and dip my head down. I was wishing him to be here but I didn't actually think he would appear behind me.

I spin around and go take a seat on the island stool and wait for my dinner. I catch glimpse of him standing in front of the microwave, wearing a blue khaki short and plain transparent white shirt, I can see the highlights of the drawings on his back.

This makes me turn on the stool to look at him. "You have a tattoo?" The question rush out of my mouth before I can stop it.

"What?" He faces me.

There's no point in pretending I didn't say anything.

"You have a tattoo," I repeat but this time not in form of a question, although my tone is still demanding some kind of answer.

He nods. "Yeah." He turns back to the mircowave like he doesn't want to let the food out of his sight, he continues speaking though, "I had it done three months after our..." He trails, leaving me to fill the gaps.

"Mmm." I hum because it's not something I can say out loud anymore.

He doesn't say anything after that, and I just continue to watch him in silence as the timer on the microwave goes off. He switches it off before opening the microwave and bringing out a ceramic plate and come to drop it in front of me. I spin on the stool, facing the food.

"What is this?" I ask as he comes beside me to drop fork in my plate.

He goes round the island and pull a stool before sitting. "It's a stewed saltfish with spicy plantains and coconut dumplings, it's St Kitts and Nevis national food. Try the plantain first, you'll love it."

I hope so. I'm not really a fan of trying something new but I know Nova wouldn't get me anything I can't handle.

I start eating with him watching me. And I feel self conscious with each bite because I can his hot stare drilling and analysing my soul but I can't do anything about it. The silence is comforting but the tension is uncomfortable.

"This must be awkward for you." He breaks the silence.

I draw my brows together before raising my eyelids to watch him without raising my head. "What makes you say that?"

I don't understand what he means by that but I think I have feeling he's about to educate me on it.

"You know, seeing me with Nova," he elaborates.

He wants to talk about me feeling awkward about seeing him with Nova, then yeah I will talk about it. He's been watching me a lot lately and I deserve to know why.

I drop the fork and look at him. It's my time to give him my truth. "I can't unsee you if that's what you're trying and failing to say. You are a part of my life now... Unfortunately."

He raises his eyebrows. "Unfortunately?"

I nod. "Yes. Unfortunately."

He places his hand on the island and drums it on it before curling his fingers inward and dropping his fist on the island.

"I know I was a jerk to you that day, and I'm sorry, can't we just start over as friends?"

Why can't he understand that we can't be friends. It's like he has no idea how I'm feeling.

"Sure we can."

His face brightens up as he releases his fist. "Really?"

"Of course not!" I slide off the stool, grabbing my empty plate with me to the sink.

"Why?" He asks behind me.

"Because I've seen you naked." I shrug and turn on the tap to rinse the plate before reaching to grab a sponge and dish soap.

"And? I've also seen you naked and I still want to be friends."

I shake my head and sigh, dropping the plate in the sink. "Why do you even want to be friends with me?"

"Because you're Nova's best friend and like you said before, we are going to be in each other's life. We need to be at least civil with each other–" I cut him off right there.

"We have been civil with each other, if I wasn't civil with you, you'd know, Nova would know, everyone would know." I grab the plate again and rinse it and the sponge.

"I know but I want to be more than civil with you. I want us to be friends."

I roll my eyes. "Indeed." I return the sponge to it place and move to the side to grab the towel to wipe the plate. "You won't leave me until I agree."

"Yeah," he answers and I can hear the smile in his tone. "Good night." He says after a while.

I spin around, resting on the sink as I watch him back away. "What are you doing awake? You should be sleeping."  I don't know what they did when they went out or how long he spent but I know I would be tired. I'm always tired after a flight, not matter how long.

He turns his head to answer me off his shoulder. "I knew you'd wake up sooner or later, and I wanted to be the one to serve you."

Okay, hearing that is strange and I... It makes my heart skips a beat.

"Why?"

"Because you deserve to be pampered after Nova practically kidnapped you here," he replies.

That makes me smile, I tuck my lips inward and dip my head down to hide my smile, even though he can't see him, it feels like he can.

"She can pamper me." Not trying to sound like a broken record and as much as I love the idea of him taking care of me, I can't forget that he belongs to someone else.

"She's snoring upstairs," he says with a chuckle.

Right.

"Which transferred the job to you?"

What are we doing?

"You got it." He raises his hand and snaps his finger.

"Go to bed, Hardin–" clearing my throat, "sorry. Nate."

"You can call me Hardin."

"No, it's fine. Nate is your name."

"Good night Dawn," he says and walks out of the kitchen.

I drop my weight on the sink and let out a breath that I've been holding since I heard his voice. I was in the control of the situation, I'm glad I didn't let him see how vulnerable I was.

He wants to be friends. I can't be friends with him. It's a weird situation and I just can't. This house is big enough for the both of us to move without seeing each other... Right?