Chapter 9
VALENTINA
I didn’t know Valentina drools in her sleep.
I did.
It took me a second to interpret my surroundings: the noise (seagulls fighting, waves rolling against the beach, someone saying I drool), but more so the fact that I was looking at a blue sky, not the white ceiling, and my three best friends were hovering over me like I’d just awoken from a year-long coma.
The concern in their features was missing, though, and they wore matching, wide grins on their lips.
You could see the gap between Iris’ teeth, which was never a good sign.
I stretched my limbs in every possible direction, my arm almost took out Alfie, I think, before I mumbled, gruffly, What the fuck?
Pieces of the puzzle came together slowly. My bucket list. Sleeping outside. A beautiful night sky—
Good morning, sleepyheads. And Alfie’s conspiratorial smile, paired with the plural form he’d just used finally brought the rest of my memories back.
Yes, the bucket list. But also Caden finding the bucket list. Sleeping outside, sure. But Caden insisting on sleeping outside with me. A perfect night sky, but Caden looking at me, instead. Caden studying Computer Engineering. Caden talking me to sleep. Caden, Caden, Caden.
Hadn’t this list been about me? Wasn’t the point to focus on myself?
And now they’d found us sleeping next to each other. On separate chairs, of course, but still. My eyes darted back to Iris, but judging by the fact that she was still giving me one of those toothy grins, she didn’t seem to suspect a thing, which kind of made it worse.
Maybe I should still tell her? I’d be a few days late, but at least I wouldn’t have to lie to my best friend anymore; as close as Iris and I were, omitting the fact that I’d slept with anyone—and never mind the fact that he was here—definitely counted as lying.
Plus, nothing had happened between Caden and I since he’d become a part of this.
Which meant, technically, she couldn’t even be all that mad.
The last time Caden slept this late, Mike began, interrupting my spiraling thoughts when I noticed him by his friend’s side. He tore a hamstring. That was three years ago. And I couldn’t tell whether Mike—his captain—was pleased about the development.
An unidentifiable sound came from somewhere below him, some shifting in the lounge chair beside me—and then a pillow flew right at Mike’s head. It messed up his blond hair and left the semblance of a red imprint on his cheek. Asshole! he muttered, with a smile on his face.
I’m not the asshole who sees his friend sleeping in for once and decides to… wake him up? I didn’t like to admit it, but Caden did have a valid point. And it wasn’t just his deep, rough morning voice that convinced me. I promise.
Dude, Mike laughed. I thought you were dead! It’s ten, and you were as still as a stone out there. Literally motionless.
Caden groaned, and I turned my head toward him… at the exact second he turned his. Of course I would.
Our gazes crossed—of course they would—and for a moment it seemed like he was trying to assess something.
Whether I’d turned back into a bitch, probably.
Last night, I was too tired to be mean, and he might’ve interpreted it as a hatchet-burial.
We’d slept by the beach together, it should’ve counted for something, right?
Yes, of course. We’d stargazed. I’d told him about my childhood roof-nights, basically the reason I’d gone into physics— apart from the fact that I’d googled college major that will make my family proud when I’d been fourteen years old, and physics made the list. Below all the stuff where you either saw blood or had to be very disagreeable.
Neither was for me, and physics, apparently, had been.
I’d graduated with honors just two months ago, after all.
Unfortunately, when I’d gotten home with that exact honors degree, the first thing I’d been told was to clean out my room so my sister could move into it.
Then whether I was busy (and because I wouldn’t be), if I could check what’s wrong with the dryer.
It’s not working, and you’re a physicist now, aren’t you? Fix it.
I’d wanted to say, the two are not related. I’m not a mechanic. Instead, I’d checked the dryer, realized it was beyond fixing— it had already been old when I’d still been very young—and bought a new one.
The only acknowledgment of my graduation I’d gotten was from my sister (Congrats, by the way. Saw on your Instagram story.)
So maybe the Google search ten years ago had been wrong, because that physics degree had not made my family proud.
And despite the fact that I’d wanted to give less of a shit about their opinion—I’d made an entire Me-List for this summer because of it—I still thought maybe the master’s finally would.
Anyway, telling him about roof-nights should’ve counted for something. I kind of wanted it to. And yet, one look at Iris’ unsuspecting face, and I knew it could not.
My eyes flicked back to Caden before I gently shook my head. As if to say, Nope, I still hate you. He did not seem surprised.
Well, now that you’re awake… Annika hesitated. Her eyes flicked first to Alfie, then Iris, then back to Alfie. As if she wasn’t quite sure—
Good for her, they both were. In a display of unprecedented coordination between them, Iris reached for my arms, Alfie for my legs, and I was no longer in my glorified lawn chair. Which I suddenly missed very, very much.
Any screaming and kicking was to no avail—and yet, when I was carried across the lawn and thrown into the pool, where my manic screams were drowned out, I felt I should’ve tried harder.
But to escape the inevitable was impossible.
All I’d managed was to pinch my nose before I felt the cold water engulf me.
I gasped as soon as I breached the water’s surface.
Anni, Alfie and Iris stood around the pool, laughing and grasping for air similarly to how I was.
Iris was actually sprawled across a lounge chair, holding her stomach, rolling left and right with laughter.
I’ve never heard you make a sound like that before!
she wheezed out between one laugh and the next.
I can’t believe that just happened. My oversized shirt clung to my body, and I’d be tempted to take it off if I’d been wearing something underneath. If it had been just the four of us, I’d probably take it off either way. But now there were guys to consider.
One of them Annika’s boyfriend. The other one… well, had actually seen everything there was to see already.
Anyway, it stayed on. Keeping every part of my body under water made the wet-shirt situation a little… not better, per se. But less bad, maybe?
Which meant that my head was the only visible part of me sticking out of the water, and it must’ve looked ridiculous, because my friends broke out into another fit of giggling and snorting and wheezing.
So distracted, they didn’t even see it coming.
One second, Iris was shaking with laughter on the chair, the next she flew into the water beside me. Alfie’s eyes widened at the counterattack, right before he started chanting I’m innocent! like that might save him. It did not.
Anni did the only reasonable thing: she started running.
Around the pool, and as far away from Caden as she possibly could have—understandable, if you considered he’d just hurled her co-conspirators into the water.
Unfortunately, that drove her right into Mike’s arms. One look at his face, and we all knew he was not on Anni’s side this time.
Annika raised a warning finger, and it was the last thing she did before her boyfriend threw her into the pool. When she came up and screamed, I’m single!, I laughed, and Iris actually screamed in amusement. Alfie accidentally gargled water.
Caden and Mike looked at each other from across the pool, like they were congratulating each other on a job well done.
There was a silent conversation taking place, I was sure of that much before the boys gave each other a single nod, and cannonballed into the pool, kind of like synchronized divers—just really bad ones.
We laughed and complained and playfully hit each other (either for laughing or throwing the other one in) until one big group dissolved into multiple small ones.
At one end of the pool, Anni was playfully scolding Mike. Mike was semi-playfully begging her not to break up with him. Alfie and Iris were dunking each other’s head under water like the long-lost siblings they were.
I watched them all with a smile on my face, despite their ultimate betrayal ten minutes ago. My chest stayed underwater as I slowly paddled into one corner of the pool. My eyes closed for barely a second, and I didn’t need to open them again to know what—who was blocking the sun.
So… was that revenge or do you just love throwing people around? I asked, my lips curving upward despite myself.
This was certainly revenge, Caden agreed lazily, his voice lower than I’d expected. Intimate, somehow, despite my friends scattered around us. But in certain situations, I don’t mind throwing… people around, either.
With people, he meant me. And with situations, he meant the one we’d been in four months ago. Because he had thrown me around, and I still remembered the way I gasped when I’d landed on his bed, and the way his lips curled in satisfaction at the sound.
My stomach dropped, everything within me felt warm and fuzzy, and there was nothing I could do about it. My cheeks were probably taking on a nice, red sheen even when I forced myself not to look at him.
I remember, I said, and tried my hardest to make it seem casual. Like I wasn’t remembering right now.
Caden hummed. I’m sure you do.
There was a scratchiness to his voice this morning, probably because we’d both just woken up and despite the cold water—that was pleasantly warm by now—our bodies hadn’t quite caught on yet.
It did not make keeping my eyes closed easier.
In fact, I’d argue his morning voice was the reason I’d failed.
Caden stood right in front of me, blocking the sun and keeping me from having to blink against it. A lucky coincidence, I supposed. A few freckles spread across his nose; a product of eight-hour-sun-days, because I would’ve remembered if he’d had them the last time we’d met.
They gave him an innocent, boyish look that stood in contrast to everything he’d just said to me and everything he’d done that night. Unfortunately, I was a big fan. And I became an ever bigger fan when my eyes dipped lower, just for a second.
Broad shoulders, defined chest—drops of water ran down his torso and back into the pool. I didn’t let myself linger, but I remembered his body like the last time I’d seen it—touched and licked and explored it—was yesterday, not almost half a year ago.
Caden cleared his throat, and my gaze jumped back up. It didn’t meet his.
Should I get you a dry shirt? he asked, head turned to look at God-knows-what. Anything but me would do.
The reason for that startled a new sense of awareness through me.
Immediately, I dipped my body back underwater. Where it hadn’t been for the entirety of our conversation, I feared. Drenched, see-through shirt leaving everything underneath on full display.
I only managed to mutter a Yes, please. And Caden fled the pool like it had been his personal hell.
Fuck.