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Mike: Roxie’s in a bad space right now and really should be going to therapy. I’ve talked to her about it, but she isn’t ready to open up to anyone other than her friends.

It’s easy to blame the person with the most baggage, and I swear I just lost a little respect for my friend.

Mike: However, Loren told me what she said, and I told her it wasn’t cool.

Mike: I love her, but she acted like a mean girl, and we’ve been arguing about it ever since I found her here at the hotel.

Wow. Color me surprised.

Mike: So we’re working on things because I don’t want to go back to the house and have everyone just get pissed off all over again.

Mike: I mean, they all said stuff, but from everything Loren told me, she did the most damage, so…

Ash: I’m not really sure what to say here.

Ash: I told Olivia that guys don’t fight like that, so the whole thing is foreign to me.

Mike: Yeah. Me too.

Mike: There’s other personal stuff going on too.

Mike: Loren’s parents are giving us grief about the wedding now that we’re finally ready to set a date, and it turns out her father’s having an affair!

He follows that bombshell with a bunch of wide-eyed emojis.

Mike: She didn’t find that out until this morning, so…that’s been fun.

Ash: Holy crap. I’m so sorry. That is definitely going to mess with your wedding plans, I’m sure.

Mike: Exactly. So…our plan is to come back to the house tomorrow at some point.

Mike: Maybe text me when you hear from Zayne and we’ll try to come back around the same time.

Mike: And I told Loren she needs to apologize.

Mike: Hopefully everyone else will too, but I told her she needs to do it first.

Ash: Dude…who even are you? Lol!

Ash: I’m incredibly impressed!

Mike: We’ve been together for so long that I’m not afraid to lay the truth bombs out there!

Ash: Good for you!

Ash: Should I mention any of this to Olivia or should I just let tomorrow unfold naturally?

Mike: You can tell her. Maybe one less hostile person will help.

Ash: Olivia was never going to be hostile. She was just disappointed in the way things blew up.

Mike: Same.

Mike: Okay, I gotta go. Loren’s on her way back from the spa and I promised we’d do something fun afterwards. I just have no idea what that is! Talk to you tomorrow! Remember to text me!

Ash: Will do!

I drop the phone down on my bed and start pulling clean clothes out of my dresser and contemplate when to tell Olivia about my conversation.

Tomorrow.

Definitely tomorrow.

Tonight is about us and that’s it.

Once I’m dressed and ready to go, I head downstairs to the kitchen and grab something to drink while I wait for her to join me.

The house is quiet, but it’s a pleasant kind of quiet.

Even with the doors and windows closed, I can still hear the roar of the ocean.

I walk over to one of the massive windows and just look out at the beach.

I could get used to this kind of view.

Not that I’ll ever have the chance. I don’t do a lot of coastal jobs, and this is the first time I’ve been to the beach since I was a kid. Still, it’s a beautiful view and I’m always going to remember how relaxed and happy I felt here.

I hear Olivia walk up beside me as she stares out at the view too.

“I had forgotten how peaceful this kind of view is,” she says softly.

“I’ve been living in a small town just outside of Seattle and there aren’t views like this, and when I was in Alaska, there were fantastic mountain views, but I think this is my happy view. ”

I nod because I feel that way too.

We stay like that for several long minutes before she quietly sighs. “Ready for me to order a car?”

“I got it,” I assure her.

When our car arrives ten minutes later, I take her hand in mine and prepare to give her the romantic evening I think she’s been missing for far too long.

All good things must come to an end.

And I don’t think it’s fair.

Zayne doesn’t text me until three the next day to tell me they’re getting a late start. Once I text him back, I reach out to Mike and relay the news, and he tells me he and Loren will be back around seven and they’re bringing dinner.

Awesome.

Olivia and I make the most of our last precious hours alone by skinny dipping in the pool and then going inside and making love loudly with the bedroom door open. It seems silly, but we both agree that it’s what we want.

By the time Zayne, Vanessa, Roxie, and the dogs pull up, the house is straightened and the two of us are completely cleaned up.

There are a lot of tears when we greet everyone at the door, and the dogs are going absolutely insane, running around and barking after Zayne had taken them for a quick walk.

“I’m so glad you came back!” I hear Olivia tell Roxie. “I wasn’t ready for our time together to be over!”

“Me either. And I’m sorry I left the way I did. That was shitty of me.” Roxie turns to me before giving me a hug. “Thank you for taking care of my dogs when I was a little too inebriated the other night. You’re a good man, Ash.”

“Thanks, Rox. And what are friends for?”

We all make our way toward the kitchen, and I announce the plans for dinner and even though everyone sounds excited, their faces say anything but.

Still, we all talk about everything and nothing and it’s like we’re all dreading when Mike and Loren—but mostly Loren—show back up.

Earlier, I finally told Liv about what Mike texted last night and she was equally surprised that he wasn’t exactly defending his fiancée.

“I know you’re supposed to always have your spouse’s back, but it’s nice to know that doesn’t apply when said spouse is so obviously wrong,” she said. “I guess dinner will be like a peace offering.”

“And you’re okay with it?”

“Hey, as long as she is genuinely sorry and doesn’t come in here like she’s being forced to apologize because she doesn’t think she was wrong, sure.”

So now we’re all waiting and wondering.

“I don’t know what they’re bringing, but I could use a glass of wine!” Vanessa announces, and we all accept a glass of cabernet sauvignon before going out onto the deck to enjoy the sounds of the ocean.

Roxie asks if Olivia has worked on the book, so we all throw out ideas for the plot and, as usual, she shoots them all down.

“Romantic suspense,” Zayne says, “That’s like an action movie with sex and stuff, right?”

“Um…not exactly,” Liv replies, but then stops. “Or maybe…yeah. Exactly like that.”

“Oh, man! We should watch some of them for inspiration!” he suggests. “Movies like Speed or The Mummy or Romancing the Stone ! Those could totally spark something for you!”

“I love Romancing the Stone !” Vanessa cries. “Oh my goodness, Liv! You are totally Joan Wylder!”

Beside me, Olivia laughs heartily. “Nuh-uh. Not even a little bit! Although I would love that. I’m just a small fish compared to the kind of writer she was portrayed as.”

“We should definitely have a movie night,” Roxie states. “I wish we could set up a screen out here and make it like a drive-in! How fun would that be?”

“I don’t see why we can’t rent something like that,” Zayne agrees. “Babe, can you look that up and see how we can rent maybe one of those inflatable screens and whatever else we need?”

“I’m on it!” Vanessa says.

We’re all tossing out ideas about snacks and how we’d set up the deck and if we’d make it a nightly thing or do one long marathon, and we don’t even hear Mike and Loren’s arrival. It isn’t until they’re outside standing next to the table that we even notice them.

“Oh, hey you guys!” I say loudly, jumping up to shake Mike’s hand. “Sorry, we were in a deep discussion about how to turn the deck into a drive-in for some action/romance movies!”

“How fun!” Loren says with way more enthusiasm than the topic required. “What a great idea! What movies are we going to watch?”

Vanessa explains the whole concept as she gets up to hug her friends and welcome them back.

I notice how Roxie stays where she is and Loren doesn’t make an effort to go to her either, but I don’t draw attention to it.

Mike whistles loudly and we all look at him. “We ordered a traditional seafood boil for tonight! The truck will be here in five minutes and they’re going to set up here on the deck!”

“A what?” Olivia asks.

“A seafood boil,” Loren explains. “It’s a variety of seafood like shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, and mussels and it comes with vegetables like corn on the cob and potatoes, with some added sausage, all served directly from the pot with a flavorful broth, typically seasoned with Cajun or Old Bay spices.

Oh my goodness, it’s so yummy and the restaurant we ordered from has it all prepared and they come and set it all up literally on the table!

No plates, just a disposable tablecloth with the food just dumped on it and you just grab what you want! It’s messy, but delicious!”

“Wow! You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble!” Vanessa tells them. “But I am really glad that you did! I haven’t had one of those in years!” She turns to the rest of us. “Y’all are in for a treat tonight! But now we really should switch to white wine!”

We all get up and start clearing the few things that are on the table before heading back into the house. Mike, Zayne, and I call out that we’re heading out to meet up with the delivery driver, but we all know we’re really just giving the girls some time alone to potentially make up.

“Do you think we were too obvious?” Mike asks as we walk out to the driveway.

“Nah. Totally believable,” Zayne assures him. “Everything okay with you two?”

Mike tells him all the things he told me in the text last night, and I just quietly stand there and listen. When the food shows up, we help the delivery crew bring it all inside because it’s a ton of food.

“How many people did you think you were feeding?” I joke as I watch what seems like a dozen trays being carried into the house.

“Don’t forget, shellfish takes up a lot of space so that accounts for some of the bulk,” Zayne clarifies.