"What now?" I couldn't resist whispering after a while. We stood in the same spot as Rhys caressed my back, but as soon as the question fell from my lips, the soothing motions of his palm against my skin ceased.

He drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly as if readying himself for his next words.

"I'll walk you home."

For a moment, I thought I'd misheard him. But then Rys let go of me and immediately put distance between us.

The sting from his rejection made me wince. But what did I expect, throwing myself at him? He didn't ask me to kiss him. It was on me.

Rys was careful to keep his distance as we walked along the beach until the wooden steps leading to my backyard came into view. It took all my acting skills and then some to pretend to be unaffected as I smiled at him.

"I had fun tonight. Thank you."

He nodded, inspecting the tiny pieces of broken seashells beneath his feet. "Not at all. See you around."

See you around?

As in, see you if we run into each other in downtown Marfolk or on the beach? Did he really think that after having dinner with his friends and kissing him it'd be that easy for me to pretend he was just my neighbor?

If I were braver, I'd confront him. But words deserted me once more, and what would saying them change, anyway?

"Sure, Rys. Good night," I muttered and jogged toward the stairs. I climbed them hastily, and for some stupid reason, a part of me hoped Rys would go after me like he'd done each time I ran from him.

But this time, it didn't happen.

I cut across the backyard and let myself into the house. A bottle of wine was still in the fridge, but I couldn't risk drunk-spilling any more secrets. Secrets like feeling nothing when kissing Brock and feeling everything when I kissed Rys.

Or secrets like me faking orgasms with Brock because he said not being able to come was my fault, and when I tried to touch myself during sex, he took it as an insult to his manhood.

After a peek through the kitchen doorway, I headed to the en suite. Like sleep, hot showers tended to fix things. I did feel better afterward, right until I dried myself with a towel and realized I left my bag with my phone at Rys's.

Going to his place was the most humiliating thing I could imagine doing, but what choice did I have? With my hair still wet, I threw on an oversized gray T-shirt and shorts and padded to the foyer. As I opened the front door, my heart sank.

My raffia basket bag sat on the worn floor of the porch. Only this time, there was no note from Rys.

I picked it up and returned to my bedroom. It'd been hours since I last checked my phone. I climbed into bed with my cell and went through the notifications.

My mother texted me, asking if everything was okay. There was nothing from Brock and nothing from Payton. For some reason, I didn't care.

I logged into my Instagram and scrolled through the home feed. Pictures of my classmates' vacations took up the screen. I liked Mila's and Hazel's beach photos and ignored some of the others. Focusing on someone else's life to avoid thinking about mine seemed to be working until my eyes lingered on a photo one of Brock's classmates posted. Her name was Julie, and although we crossed paths at parties and chatted a few times, we were acquaintances, not friends.

That was why I couldn't find a logical explanation for Payton's presence in the image. She was grinning at the camera with Julie and two other girls from Brock's class I'd seen around but never talked to. Were they the workmates she mentioned? The timelines aligned, but I had a hard time believing the girls wearing designer clothes and driving luxury cars would wait tables like Payton.

But if being workmates wasn't why they were together, that meant she lied to me. And just like with Rys earlier, I let the hurt sting instead of confronting my best friend.

***

I thought about canceling my plans with Kaia a bunch of times during the sleepless night as I sat in bed, finishing the necklace. We didn't know each other well enough for her to take offense if I fed her an excuse about not feeling well or having somewhere to be. I put the decision off till morning, but as I peeled my tired eyes open at a little after eight and unlocked my cell, her cheerful text was already waiting for me, and I agreed to meet her downtown at ten.

When I got to Aroma Coffee, the coffee shop with turquoise and pastel pink awning and colorful round tables littering its deck, Kaia was already there, dressed in denim shorts and a white cropped top similar to mine. She was twirling the end of her long ponytail around her finger, reading something on her phone.

"Kaia. Hope you haven't been waiting long."

She looked up from her cell, beaming. "Lyra! No. You're not late; I'm early. Ash is an early riser, and I can never stay in bed after he gets up."

"Can't say the same about myself." Especially after the night of Rys-induced insomnia.

Kaia nodded at the cafe entrance. "Let's grab some coffee? I had one at the hotel, but it's never enough."

"Sure. Let's go," I said, adjusting my purse strap on my shoulder.

We ordered our cappuccinos and strolled to the marina, basking in the warm ocean breeze. As we passed a row of beachfront restaurants, a glance at The Wave filled me with a strange kind of nostalgia. I missed Rys despite not really knowing him, maybe because we'd already made memories together — including a kiss he obviously regretted.

Kaia must've caught me staring because she paused in the middle of the sidewalk and studied the restaurant, shielding her eyes from the already bright morning sun with her palm. "Have you been there?"

"Once," I said. "With Rys. They have amazing food."

Kaia hummed. "Noted. I wanted to surprise Ash. Maybe we could go there tonight. By the way, if you and Rys aren't busy tomorrow afternoon, Ash was talking about renting a yacht to see the coast. A double date would be great."

I gulped my drink too fast, and the coffee burned my tongue. A double date would be great if my potential date hadn't dismissed me with a cold 'see you around.' I needed to tell Kaia the truth, embarrassing as it was, so she wouldn't get her hopes up and suggest more plans meant for couples.

I inhaled the salty air, pretending to look at the façade of a seafood restaurant on my left. "Kaia, there's something you should know."

"Okay," she said. "Let's sit somewhere?"

A quick scan of our surroundings revealed nowhere for us to sit, and the beach was already filling with people.

"There are plenty of benches on our hotel's patio, if you don't mind walking there," Kaia said. "It's nearby."

"Sure. Lead the way."

Ten minutes later, we sat on a stone bench in the shade. The ocean stretched behind the palm trees planted around the perimeter of Sea Escape, and a gigantic, oval-shaped swimming pool was on my right. Kaia said it was never crowded because of the small number of guests at the boutique hotel.

Now that I'd finished my cappuccino, my hands were empty, and I twisted the turquoise bracelet on my wrist to busy them with something.

"So," I began. "It's about Rys and me."

"Did you argue?" Kaia asked, her tone doused in sympathy.

I ran the pad of my index finger over the tiny stones. "It isn't that. It's..." I took a gulp of air. "We aren't together. We haven't even known each other very long, in fact. I'm just his neighbor, and he asked me to join him for dinner with you and Ash so he wouldn't feel awkward."

She frowned. "Wow. I didn't think anyone could be that good at faking."

"What do you mean?"

Her slim shoulders rose and fell under her white tee. "He didn't look at you like a neighbor would. Ash has known Rys for a while, and he told me he was happy to see his friend that way."

"Guess Rys's acting skills are remarkable," I mumbled.

"Or he likes you but hasn't acted on it yet."

It took courage to admit what I'd done, but for some reason, it was easy to be honest with Kaia. Easier than with Payton lately, and I wasn't sure what to think of it. "I kissed him last night after you and Ash left, and he kissed me back." I went on to toy with the hem of my shorts, separating the threads. "But then he said he'd see me around as if I was nobody, and left my purse I'd forgotten at his place on my porch without so much as knocking on my door."

Kaia groaned, resting her head on the back of the bench. She tilted her face up as if she wanted to soak up the sunlight filtering through the canopy of the palm trees. "Guys can be stupid, I swear."

"He's just more sensible than me, I guess," I said, lowering my voice. "I have a boyfriend back at home."

Kaia closed her eyes. "Your boyfriend can't be that good, then. Come on, vent. I'm your relationship guru for today."

I chuckled, and she waved her hand. "Kidding. I've only been with Ash, but I can listen if you feel like getting stuff off your chest. I'm a no-judgment kind of person. Earned that badge by sleeping with my stepbrother."

I pulled my bent knees to my chest and adjusted the ankle strap on my sandals. "Okay. Brock and I met when I was starting high school. Our parents are friends who have the same kind of business — hotels — and each summer, we'd vacation at one of the Walton resorts with them."

Kaia hummed. "I see. So, he made a move?"

"No," I said. "He didn't even notice me at first. He'd hang out with other girls on the beach and then sit by me at lunches and dinners at the resort. That he seemed so popular and unreachable kind of made him hot in my stupid teenage eyes. Then the summer before college, we found out we'd both be attending Northcaster University. He asked me to date him out of the blue during a family dinner, and I agreed."

"Wow." Kaia turned her incredulous eyes on me. "No foreplay?"

"We did know each other quite well, and he said he'd been gathering the courage to ask me out for a long time because my intelligence was intimidating. I never questioned it because boys hardly ever approached me. For a young, awkward me it was flattering to date a guy I'd been crushing on."

"So, you started dating right before college."

I hugged my knees. "Yeah. He kissed me the same day he asked me to be his girlfriend and sweet-talked me into giving him my virginity a week later."

I paused, and Kaia gave my face a searching look. "Let me guess, bad?"

More like, catastrophic. Not that the times that followed featured anything other than mindless thrusting without hitting the right spots. "He said he'd been with other girls before, but I'm not sure that's true," I admitted. "Or maybe it was my inexperience like Brock said."

"God, no." A frown forged across Kaia's face. "Why would some men do that? Maybe it was his lack of skills or you simply weren't ready. I'm sorry, Lyra. You deserved way better."

"It could've been worse, I guess, since we're still together four years later."

Although I meant it as a joke, it didn't seem funny now. Not everything in a relationship was about sex, but ours didn't have lots of things to compensate for the lack of satisfying intimacy.

"Why didn't he vacation with you, then?" she asked. "Is he busy?"

"Busy partying." The chuckle that sprang from me sounded bitter. "He wanted a break, and I couldn't stand the idea of staying at home while he's out there, having the time of his life."

Kaia winked. "Good. Give him a taste of his own medicine. You'll have your break too and then you'll dump his sorry ass. Guys who love their girls don't ask for breaks. Why'd he need one, anyway? To have his cake and eat it too?"

Without realizing it, she'd voiced my suspicion since there weren't too many reasons a guy would need a break for a vacation with friends. My eyes stung, more from my wounded pride than Brock's possible betrayal.

"Lyra, I'm sorry." Kaia sat straighter next to me. "That was an awfully insensitive thing to say."

I dismissed her apology with a shrug. "Don't worry. It's okay. You said what I've been thinking. Thanks for not suggesting I suck it up and wait for him to get tired of whatever he's doing and come back to me."

She snorted. "God, who would say that? "

My mother would, and two years ago, I would've agreed with her, but I couldn't admit that to anyone, not even my non-judgmental new friend.

Rys...Sigh.

Why would he do that? 

Lyra also seems to have made a new friend... what do you think will happen now?

Also, is there anyone here who discovered this book thanks to an Instagram reel? 

Don't forget the star, and see you on Friday!