16. Valentine
Out of breath from dancing, I grab a water bottle from the refreshments table. I so badly want to laugh at August, who I know is hating being on the dance floor and is no match for Sharky’s peppy twirls and seductive shimmies. It’s earning him some strong side-eye from Derek, which I’m guessing is Amber’s point?
Leah joins me, also grabbing water and dabbing her forehead with a cocktail napkin. She, too, notices Amber and August/Holden dancing, only she doesn’t hold back her laughter.
“It’s like she’s trying to hypnotize him before she eats him,” I say lightheartedly.
“Knowing Amber, that’s probably accurate,” Leah concurs and shakes her head. “Poor dude.” Then she glances at Derek and the Amber look-alike, leading me to believe my earlier conclusion was correct.
She chugs her water and abandons it on the table, turning toward the dance floor.
I open my mouth to continue the conversation before she walks off. But I change course when I spot Justin and Ella making a move for the staircase leading to the lower deck—which Amber said was off limits.
I wait a beat and follow. I kick off my flip-flops at the top of the stairs to keep them from doing their telltale slapping noise. As I head down, I hear Justin’s and Ella’s muffled voices ahead of me, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. The staircase opens up into a round TV room with a huge flat screen on the wall and a bar. I walk quietly across the carpet to the far end of the room and peek around the mostly closed door into the hall beyond it.
There, about three doors down, Justin leans against a doorway to what I can only assume is a bedroom. His hands are intertwined with Ella’s and he’s smiling.
“No one’s gonna miss us,” he says.
“Amber will definitely miss us,” she says with a laugh. “She practically threatened us not to mess with the bedrooms or her parents will revoke yacht privileges.”
Justin rubs the back of her hand with his thumb and pulls her closer. “You really think she’s going to check?”
“Um, have you met Amber?”
“So we’ll remake the bed,” he says and kisses her neck. “She’ll never know.”
“I don’t know,” Ella says, hesitant.
Justin stops kissing her and pulls back. “Why do I feel like I’m having to convince my girlfriend to hang out with me?”
“It’s not that.”
“It sounds exactly like that.”
“I want to hang out with you—”
“Just not alone,” he says, and his tone goes from seductive to frustrated. He lets go of her hands.
“Don’t be stupid. We hang out alone all the time,” Ella says, now fidgeting with her necklace.
“You mean when we’re in your parents’ house with their ‘bedroom door open’ policy?” he says backhandedly.
She touches his arm. “Justin, look—”
“Whatever. It’s fine,” he says dismissively like it’s not fine, and pulls back. He steps past her, leaving Ella looking deflated. But I don’t have time to analyze his grade-A dick behavior because if I don’t move, he’s going to catch me spying on them.
Running is out of the question. There’s no getting back up those stairs undetected. So I do the only thing I can, which is step through the door into the hallway, almost colliding with him.
Justin startles.
I yelp, putting my hand over my heart. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“Mia?” he says, confused.
“Sorry, I know we’re not supposed to be down here, but I was looking for a bathroom?” I say. “Someone bombed the one upstairs.”
Justin snorts. “Probably Derek. On purpose,” he says in his nice-guy voice that shows no sign of the cold shoulder he was just giving Ella.
Manipulative jerk.
“Ella will show you where it is,” he says, not bothering to look at her before he walks away.
I turn to Ella, whose face is crestfallen. “Everything okay?”
For a second, she doesn’t answer.
“Ella?”
“Huh?” she says. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”