Chapter 6 #2
This is true. I started off big because whales get way more attention in the media than sea cucumbers.
And now that I’m getting to the small things, I’ve a deadline hurtling in my direction.
Plus, I’m so broke that I’m on the brink of asking for help from the last person on the planet I want to: my dad.
“You and Lexi should apply,” Evan says. “She gets to hide out on a remote island where nobody can harass her. You get to run the dive center. It’s max three dives a day, so you’ll have ample free time.
With those reefs on your doorstep for three months—just imagine.
It’s essentially all-expenses paid. Plus your salary. ”
I drag a hand down my face, digesting the picture Evan is painting. It sounds too good to be true. There must be a catch.
“Let me get a better understanding of what’s going on here.”
I take the laptop and my croissant and go sit in the living room.
It takes me twenty minutes to read through the job description again and study their website in more detail, and as I do, somewhere within me a bean of hope sprouts.
It’s only until April next year. The timing is spot on.
A dive center would be a breeze to run. I have the highest level of diving qualification and am a certified rescue diver and trainer.
Even if the pay sucks, I’ll have access to some of the most beautiful reefs in the world.
It’s more than I could ever hope for, but—
“This will never work,” I say.
“Why not?” Evan has made us fresh coffee and puts my mug down on the coffee table.
“They’re looking for a management couple? We’re not a couple.”
“So?”
I chuckle, a bit incredulous. I glance at the hallway that leads to our respective bedrooms. By the sound of it, Lexi’s taking a shower. “We haven’t seen each other in years, and we didn’t exactly part on good terms when I left for Hawaii.”
“Yeah? And why was that?” Evan asks, eyebrow cocked. “She was totally depressed for months, you know. She missed you.”
My chest tightens, but I know now, just as I knew then, that it was for the best. If Evan hasn’t figured it out yet, I’m sure as shit not spelling it out for him. “I missed you all, too.”
I look at the screen again, clamping down on the hope that glimmers. Nobody would be stupid enough to do this, would they?
“I think it’s worth a shot,” Evan says. “You should each submit your résumé and see what happens. You’ve got nothing to lose.”
It’s quiet for a long time as Evan putters in the kitchen, giving me time to digest and dip into a crazy daydream of getting my project off the ground again and finally wrapping it up.
When footsteps fall, I look up and watch Lexi as she comes into the living room.
The fresh scent of her shower gel, soft and flowery, drifts over, and I can’t help but take in her ass in those butt-hugging shorts as she scoots past me.
She slumps down in the corner of the sofa and hugs a throw pillow to her chest.
“I see Evan’s shown you his devious plan,” she says, her tone laced with snark.
“Your devious plan,” Evan says, his gaze volleying between the two of us.
“It’s crazy,” I say with a smirk.
“That depends,” Lexi says. “How desperate are you, Tristan?”
I search her eyes. It’s as if all barriers have come down. She’s freaking serious.
“Um…what I don’t get is the couple part. What level of couple are we talking here?” I ask, then swallow hard. “Married couples?”
“Usually.” Lexi stares at me, unflinching.
“Okay.” I don’t know what more to say except that marriage is a farce. “No one is going to buy us being married.”
“Nope.” She snickers. “But if it isn’t beneath you to fake an engagement with me for the sake of the TV documentary you’re so desperate to wrap up, we might get a pass.”
“Fake an engagement?” I repeat.
“Forget it.” Lexi stands and steps away, but I reach for her hand.
Touching her almost burns; it feels so wrong and yet so right at the same time. “Just—” I start.
She removes her hand but doesn’t walk away, and her leg brushes mine, her body so close I can feel the heat radiating off her. I’m trying my hardest to keep our gazes locked, because the only thing I want to do is look down at her breasts.
“Let’s just work with this concept for a minute—”
“It’ll never work,” Lexi cuts me off. “We have zero history, and anybody who goes on your Instagram account will see that you’re not the committed-relationship type.”
What the actual fuck? Zero history? “My Instagram account?” I deflect. “I just told you what I use it for. It’s purely business oriented. I don’t post anything private on my Instagram account.”
“Really?”
That’s a rhetorical question. I might not post about my private life on social media, but I’m not exactly a saint and I don’t do long-term relationships.
I don’t see the point. My life is uncomplicated, and I like it that way.
As for posts other people tag me in… Well, only friends or colleagues can tag me.
It’s all business and exposure for me, and ultimately it drives money to the NGOs that need it most.
“Can you sit down?” One more second of her this close—“Please?”
Lexi groans but falls into her seat. We glare at each other as her words ricochet back to me in slow motion.
Beneath me? To fake an engagement with her?
Is this how she views what happened five years ago?
That I thought she wasn’t good enough? Fuck.
It was more like the inverse—I wasn’t good enough for her and never would be.
That being with me would only destroy what we had.
At the time I thought it was obvious to her.
“If you think about it—” Evan’s voice cuts through the tense air “—you’ll both be working.
Nobody at the resort is going to know you aren’t really engaged.
PDA is frowned upon in the workplace, even between married couples.
It’s unprofessional. Plus, you’ll probably be so busy, you’ll hardly have time to share a cuppa with each other in the morning. ”
A weighty silence follows, during which Lexi grinds her jaw.
“You know what? Evan’s right,” she says eventually, breaking the impasse.
“You’ll be in the water most of the time, taking guests for dives and doing your thing.
I’ll be running everything else. So, if you’re open to it, Tristan, let’s submit our résumés.
” She stands and this time takes the longer way around the coffee table to escape, giving me a wide berth.
“The only thing that could top the past few weeks’ mindfuck is us actually getting an interview and having to fake being engaged. ”