LEAH
Oh, yeah. I was content to stay away from him the rest of the season and just do my job. I was hurt, you know? But Cameron made an effort, and I appreciated that. I felt like he regretted what he’d done.
PRODUCER
Do you think Gisella regretted it, too?
LEAH
Well, she apologized to me, which was nice, but… I don’t know. I don’t think she felt bad for what she did. I think she’d do it again, if we could turn back time. She wanted attention and she got it.
PRODUCER
Finn’s attention?
Leah shrugs.
LEAH
I mean… I think anyone’s attention would do.
The sun had dipped below the horizon while we were still elbow-deep in a fiercely competitive beer pong tournament — half the crew versus a pack of rowdy tourists who’d somehow roped themselves into our beach day. Shirts were swapped for team colors, dares were shouted over music, and Eli played the entire last round wearing a snorkel mask, claiming it was a strategic advantage. It definitely wasn’t, and when we lost, we madehimrun the naked lap around our cabana. He somehow managed to do so without the local authorities noticing. Or maybe the Italians and tourists on this beach didn’t care about someone running around with their dick slinging so long as everyone was having fun.
Now, hours later, the beach glowed under warm string lights woven between driftwood posts and leaning cypress trees, casting golden halos over a sea of people swaying to music. A local Italian cover band played from a stone terrace just off the beach, their sound a dreamy fusion of acoustic guitar, soft percussion, and the occasional saxophone. They were taking American pop hits and spinning them into smoother, slower remixes. It felt like being at a forbidden speakeasy jazz bar, except under the stars with the smell of salt wafting in from the sea.
The air was charged.
I stood in the middle of it all, barefoot in the sand and buzzed just enough to feel like the world was on tilt in the best way.Leah was curled up against Cameron on my right, her cheeks flushed and lips kiss-swollen. The hot tub incident was officially ancient history now, if the way they couldn’t stop touching each other was any indication. They laughed at something I missed —probably another joke about Cameron’s failed, behind-the-back beer pong shot that nailed Palmer square in the forehead — and I smiled, warm and loose-limbed and grateful for the night off.
Finn stood to my left.
Where I swayed and sipped the cocktail in my hand, he was solid and still. He still seemed just as buzzed, if not more so, than he had been when we sat by the water earlier, a lazy smile on his lips, but I saw what I was sure most didn’t.
He was somewhere else.
I saw it in the way his eyes glossed over as he watched the band, in how he’d blink back to the present moment every now and then and attempt a wider smile at whoever was trying to talk to him.
He kept a small but noticeable space between where he stood and where I was, but the tension still coiled in the inches that separated us. Gisella danced on the other side of him, rotating between hanging on him and joking with Eli and Palmer. She tugged on his arm until he bent enough for her to say something in his ear over the music, and she let out a laugh that had her tilting her head back and eyes watering from exertion. Finn only gave a lazy half-smile in response, but his eyes didn’t leave the band. He didn’t lean into her or let his touches linger on her skin. He didn’t pull her into him and move with the beat. And when Gisella didn’t get the reaction she wanted from him, she turned back to Palmer and Eli.
I shouldn’t have cared, shouldn’t have been so tuned into them that I missed an entire song, but I was drunk and the kind of tired that made it harder to ignore the tug in my chest every time I glanced his way.
What happened on the shoreline earlier still stuck to me like a leech, no matter how I tried to pluck it away. I watched the band, trying to keep my focus on singing and dancing with Leah when she took a break from making out with Cameron. I sipped my drink. I sang along to words I knew. I did everything I could to let the memory of Finn’s hand on my neck dissolve into the sea air.
But I felt like a forest in a drought — just one stray spark from burning too hot and too fast to be contained.
With a long exhale, I surrendered to the music. I was dizzy from drinking all day, but not in an unpleasant way. My buzz vibrated through my sore muscles, and I let it carry me, humming through my bones as I moved in time with the smooth, slow melody.
I’d needed this.
We’dallneeded this.
Six charters behind us and just three more to go, and the long days were catching up with everyone. We were still working together nicely, but there were small moments when the little nit-picky things slipped — like Eli making a joke about Cameron taking yet another coffee break, or Leah muttering that she never got to see the light of day from being stuck in laundry, or Palmer popping back at me when I asked for his help on service and he pointed out that he hadn’t had a break all day.
We were all strung tight and exhausted, and without this day off, we likely would have snapped.
There was still the chance even after a break, if I was being honest.
But I chose not to focus on the what ifs.