Zoe and Sloane were staying in a top-floor suite of the resort complete with a full kitchen, washer and dryer and an extra bedroom. Standing on the balcony and looking down at the multi-layer pool, Zoe marveled at the view. The ocean was such a vibrant turquoise it looked like it was lit from below, but far in the distance she saw the color shift to a deeper blue, and between the two white crests appeared and dissolved in slow motion, waves crashing against the barrier reef.

  Turning back into the suite, Zoe noticed that Sloane was standing in the living room gazing at his phone. He had shown magnificent restraint up to this point in resisting the urge to check his work email, so she decided to take pity on him.

  “I’m going to get changed and go down to the pool,” she said, breezing past him. “Join me after you’ve caught up with Pete.”

  He glanced up at her in gratitude, already pressing his phone to his ear to call his business partner. The test would be to see if he could stop once he got sucked back into work life. Could he put the phone away and stop working or would he fall down the rabbit hole and get so wrapped up that he didn’t stop until she called him to dinner? She understood how important his job was to him, so she didn’t want to be overly demanding, but she had also seen how her father’s obsession with work had torn her own family apart and she didn’t want a relationship like that. Her own career was consuming enough, but once she finished her last residency she wanted to be able to settle into a rhythm where they could still find time for each other. That had never happened in her parents’ relationship with her father’s constant campaigning and the constant events that went along with it. Her mother had ended up being his shadow, an appendage on his arm that smiled and wave and never said a word without his press secretary’s approval.

  Looking around the massive bedroom, Zoe smiled and shook her head. She would have been more than happy with a normal suite, but Sloane was always trying to keep up with what he thought were her expectations of luxury. He was a savvy enough businessman that she didn’t doubt that if this startup failed he would start another. He was too determined to succeed. But she did feel a little bad about the size of their room compared to what their friends could likely afford. She should have offered one of them the extra bedroom in their suite. As soon as the thought occurred to her she laughed at herself for being ridiculous. Even offering would have been an insult to their pride and how could she possibly choose which one to give it to anyway?

  She felt chilled in her bikini in the highly air conditioned suite, but as soon as she stepped out into the hallway the warm humidity wrapped around her like a blanket. Her flip flops echoed in the tiled stairwell and the temperature climbed as she descended. She felt a grin spreading across her lips as the sunlight poured into the doorway on the first floor, feeling the stress of months of hard work beginning to melt away in the Caribbean air. With a bounce in her steps, she followed the stone path through the maze of buildings to the pool, watching as tiny lizards skittered away from her feet and into the shrubs or up the walls beside the path.

  The pool wasn’t as crowded as she had expected because most of the guests were down on the beach judging by the number of cabanas and umbrellas opened across the white sand. Then she saw a young woman reading a book on one of the round cushions near the pool, and even with the sunglasses, she recognized Olivia’s bright red hair. She was wearing a floppy beach hat and a flower print wrap over her one-piece swimsuit, but Zoe was surprised she hadn’t brought one of the hotel bathrobes down to cover up knowing how self-conscious her friend was.

  “Olivia!” Zoe called as she descended the steps into the pool.

  Olivia startled and nearly dropped her book into the water before she caught it. “Zoe. Oh! Hi. Sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

  The pool was cooler than she expected given the heat in the air, but it was still an easy transition when she submerged herself completely. Sweeping her damp hair back from her face, she drifted across the pool to Olivia. “We just got here. This water feels amazing!”

  Olivia tucked her book onto the shelf behind her and sat up on the cushion. “Wait until you jump into the ocean. It’s even more beautiful here than I expected.”

  “I know. I’ve been here twice, but every time is like a revelation.” Stretching out on her back, Zoe floated in the water and closed her eyes as the sunlight soaked into her skin. It was such a lovely contrast to the dreary, wintry weather back home.

  “Hi ladies. How is it?” Ethan asked from the edge of the deep end.

  Looking up at him, Zoe tried not to stare at how shockingly good he looked without a shirt. Ethan had been a skinny intellectual when they had dated briefly back in college, but he had clearly made his appearance more of a priority since then. He’d put more weight on and sculpted it into broad shoulders and a slim but defined chest. He didn’t have Sloane’s abs, but not many people had Sloane’s obsession with working out either. She’d often wondered if exercise was an addiction for her boyfriend, but since it balanced out his obsession with work—and gave him a model’s physique—she didn’t mind too much.

  As Ethan dove into the pool with the elegance of a dolphin, Zoe remembered that he had been on the swimming team in high school. She’d forgotten how much he loved the water. Glancing up at Olivia, she was about to ask if she wanted to join them in the pool, but then she noticed the look on Olivia’s face, a bittersweet longing that caught Zoe off guard. Olivia’s interest in Ethan had faded from her mind after she stopped dating him, but it was obvious now that her interest hadn’t waned. Given the fact that Olivia never talked about dating anyone, she suspected that her love life hadn’t moved on much since graduation either.

  Ethan surfaced closer to Zoe than she expected and sprayed her with water.

  “Hey! You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” she asked, wiping the water out of her eyes as best she could.

  “That’s what happens when you let down your guard,” he said with a laugh.

  “Does anyone want a drink?” Olivia asked.

  “I just got in the pool, Liv,” Ethan reminded, splashing a little water her way.

  Olivia didn’t seem to mind. “That’s perfect because there’s a bar in the pool,” she replied with a smirk, shrugging out of her wrap and slipping into the water before her bare skin could be studied. Not that she had anything to be self-conscious about. Olivia had always been on the verge of too skinny in spite of her voracious appetite and Zoe had always been a little jealous of her metabolism. The only way Zoe managed to stay fit was through sheer hard work.

  “A bar in the pool!” Ethan said with excitement. “I have to see this.”

  Olivia doggy paddled her way toward the sunken bar with Ethan in her wake, and Zoe let them go. She was still trying to decompress from all the travel and just wanted to float for a while. Staring up at the impossibly blue sky with the glint of the sun peeking out between the fronds of massive palm trees, she tried to soak the beauty into every pore. She had been nervous about all of her friends reconnecting after a year apart, but she made a decision not to let the worry distract her. They were all adults, and if they wanted to misbehave or argue it wasn’t her job to keep the peace. She was on vacation too, after all.

  ///

  Micah was staying in a small room just off the pool, so he could clearly see his friends congregating outside through the gauzy curtains over the sliding glass door to his patio. He wasn’t sure he was ready for full on socializing just yet, but when he saw his two best friends break off and head for the bar, he decided to join in.

  He put on his swimming trunks with a button down shirt, hoping to avoid actually getting in the pool. He’d never been very good at swimming and he was too tired from the trip to feel like paddling around in the water anyway. He had traveled longer than anyone else since he lived on the opposite site of the country and he had opted for a cheaper flight that had a couple extra stops and a long layover. His job in silicon valley paid well, but it was expensive to live there. And his priority was saving money right now. This trip was splurge enough for one year.

  To his relief, the bar had a sunken seating area adjacent to the pool and he was able to snag a stool next to the divider between the dry section and the pool. Olivia lit up when she saw him and waved excitedly. Ethan was not as obviously exuberant, but he slapped Micah heartily on the back when he was in reach.

  “Good to see you, man,” he said. “How have you been?”

  Sliding onto the stool, Micah tried to keep his attention on Ethan’s face although his bare chest was now entirely visible above the water. “Can’t complain. And you?”

  “Great! Just found out before we left that I’m going to get a promotion to art director.”

  Micah’s eyes widened. “Already? Wow. Not that I’m surprised. They’ll want to keep talent like yours around.”

  “There are a lot of agencies recruiting right now,” Ethan agreed. “I’ve looked at a couple of them, but I don’t know. I think I’ll stick around at Pixel and Paper a little longer. They just got a big account and there’s a good chance I’ll get assigned to it by the end of the year.”

  “That’s amazing, Ethan,” Olivia said in a breathy voice. “What’s the account?”

  “ApotheCare,” Ethan replied.

  “The pharmaceutical company?” Micah scoffed. “I thought you hated big pharma.”

  Ethan rolled his shoulders and Micah tried not to notice how his muscles rippled beneath his tanned skin. Since when did Ethan go tanning? Micah was positive it wasn’t natural since he lived in New York and it was already getting cold there. “I don’t love the company, but they’re worldwide. And they want a rebrand. It would be really high profile work.”

  Ethan’s confidence never ceased to amaze Micah. He’d never had that kind of self-esteem. Of course, the fact that Ethan was talented enough to back up his arrogance didn’t hurt. Micah was more middle-of-the-road in everything he attempted. He’d never wanted fame or fortune—at least not in his career as an engineer. And he’d never had the confidence to pursue anything riskier. He did what he knew he could do and stuck with it.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Wow.” Olivia’s admiration was almost painful to observe. She had rested her chin on her palm and was leaning on her elbow to gaze up at Ethan as if he were a work of art on display. Micah could empathize with that feeling.

  “How about you, Liv?” Micah asked. “Life treating you well?”

  Her face fell a fraction at a time and she stiffened, sitting up straighter and swizzling her straw in her drink. “Well enough.”

  They used to talk every week, but he hadn’t spoken to her in the last month. He’d been worried, but work was busy and with his mom in the hospital again he had lost track of time. Secretly he’d been hoping that she had found someone and gotten wrapped up in some kind of romance, but judging by her expression that wasn’t the case.

  “Still working at that doctor’s office?” Ethan asked, and Micah was surprised that he even remembered where Olivia worked. He didn’t seem to track details about other people’s lives very well.

  Olivia nodded and took a big sip of her drink.

  “Did that one girl finally leave?” Micah asked.

  “Rachel?” Olivia forced a smile. “Not yet. I thought they might fire her, but she got her aunt to intervene.”

  “Nepotism at its worst.” Micah waved to the bartender to order a drink. “Give me one of those girly ones that looks like a sunset,” he said, pointing to the menu. “I love those things.”

  Olivia grinned, still sipping at her own sunset colored drink. Ethan was just polishing off his long island iced tea and ordered another one.

  “Another?” Olivia asked. “They’re kind of strong, don’t you think?”

  “Just strong enough,” Ethan countered. “And it was a long flight.”

  Micah hid his smirk, knowing that gloating would not help. “Speaking of Jade, I don’t suppose she’ll be able to join us at the pool until her luggage arrives, huh?”

  “Oh, no luck there, my friend. She packed her swimsuit in her carry on,” Ethan said with a tight smile.

  Olivia nodded. “Jade has her priorities straight.”

  Micah had never understood why Olivia considered Jade a friend. Other than their interest in art, they couldn’t have less in common. But they had been thick as thieves in college, and apparently even Jade’s pursuit of Ethan hadn’t been enough to ruin that friendship. It they were that close, Jade had to have known how Olivia felt about him. But that thought made him laugh out loud. No one had noticed his interest either, not even his best friends. So why was he surprised?

  “I know,” Ethan agreed, thinking Micah was laughing at the thought of Jade having her priorities straight. “But she’s right in that Jade always knows exactly what she wants.”

  “There you all are!”

  “Speak of the devil,” Micah muttered under his breath when he saw Jade swimming up to them via the pool entrance. Her bikini was a raucous ruffled red, orange and green number that made her look like a decked out christmas tree, but nothing about Jade was every quiet.

  “Order me a mudslide, will you, Ethan?” she cried. “And tell them to make it strong.” Perching herself on one of the submerged stools next to Olivia, she jostled her friend’s arm in greeting. “There you are, Liv. I hope your trip down here went better than mine. You heard about my luggage?”

  Olivia grinned. “I think everyone on the island has heard about the infamous missing bag by now,” she said wryly.

  Rather than setting Jade off like every sarcastic comment Micah had ever made in his life, Olivia’s joke made Jade cackle in joy. “Probably so. I did go on and on, didn’t I, Ethan? Sorry about that. You know how I am. When I get so worked up about something I have to drain the poison from the wound until it’s empty, you know? I can’t let it go until I’ve run out of emotion.”

  “And has that happened yet?” Olivia asked.

  “Not entirely,” Jade said with pursed lips. “But I’m definitely getting there.”

  ///

  Jade dived head first into the waves and opened her eyes underwater to look at the schools of little fish as they swam by. Spying a sand dollar on the sand below, she dove and caught it on her first try, surfacing with a laugh.

  “Look what I found!”

  “Wow! That’s a big one,” Olivia exclaimed, swimming over to get a better look at the delicate creature.

  “You want it?” Jade asked, seeing the delight on her friend’s face. “You can take it when I’m done drawing it.”

  Clasping the sand dollar gently in her hand, she swam back toward shore, aided by the gentle waves and buoyant sea water. The day was perfect, blue skies almost as blue as the ocean as far as the eye could see, warm enough temperatures that she didn’t even shiver as she stepped onto the beach but not too hot with the occasional breezes that swept inland over the water. The sand was fine and smooth beneath her feet, and she couldn’t get enough of the sensation of walking over the white beach even when it was almost too hot to bear. Giggling in delight at the feeling of it between her toes, she ran for the cabana she and Olivia had set up earlier and dried herself off quickly with a towel before settling down on the lounger. Placing the sand dollar carefully on the table beside the other shells she had collected, she pulled out her sketchbook and her pencil case and started to draw.

  “I can’t believe you had all of that in your carry on.”

  “Why? I love drawing on the plane. It makes the flight go by so much faster. Plus, this shit is expensive. Do you know how much these pencils cost?”

  Olivia sat down on the lounger next to her with a contented sigh, wiggling her painted toes in the sunlight that was starting to encroach on the ends of their chairs. “So those are special pencils, I take it?”

  “Special? These suckers write like butter. I’d let you try one, but I can’t afford to waste the lead.” Jade was obliquely aware of her tongue darted out of her mouth as she studied the shells and sent her pencil danced over the paper. “Besides, you probably wouldn’t know the difference. It wasn’t until I finished my first book that I got good enough with graphite to understand how important the pencil is in the process.”

  That book had nearly killed her. Jade did a lot of illustrations for children’s books, but none of them had challenged her skills as much as that first one. She’d always preferred pen and ink and watercolors to pencils and pastels, but she gained an appreciation for the medium after endless rounds of revisions of deeply detailed drawings. The book had been about a labyrinth at night, so darkness was a major feature. She crosshatched the hell out of those drawings and had to wear a wrist guard for months afterward to ease her carpal tunnel. But it had been worth it. That book cemented her job with the publisher and won her a prize. Now graphite was one of her favorite mediums.

  “Even if I didn’t want to draw on the plane,” she said, losing herself in the act of creation, the movements of the pencil existing outside of her conscious mind, driven by some combination of instinct and muscle memory, “I wouldn’t dare pack this sort of equipment in a checked bag. Graphite breaks when it’s dropped. That’s a good way to throw a hundred dollars down the drain.”

  “Those pencils cost a hundred dollars?” Olivia asked incredulously, looking at Jade over her sunglasses as she sat up.

  “Sit still. I’m drawing you in the background.”

  “Hey, I didn’t say you could draw me.”

  “I don’t ask permission, remember?”

  “I do remember. Your senior project in particular. You should really check with your roommate before you use them as the subject of your capstone project, you know.”

  Jade laughed. “You got a few dates out of it, didn’t you?”

  Blushing, Olivia looked away. “Only with creepy guys from your program. What was that one guy’s name? Jay? He asked if I would consider modeling for his life drawing class.”

  “Oh yeah. Jay’s a piece of work.” Jade stifled a laugh to avoid disturbing her pencil. “That guy saw something perverted in everybody’s projects and didn’t mind sharing his interpretations in disgusting detail.”

  A delighted scream erupted from the waves followed by a rumble of deep laughter and Olivia shifted her attention. “Looks like Sloane knocked Zoe off her paddle board. Those two are adorable.” The pantomime tone of Olivia’s voice undermined the sweetness of her words.

  “Yeah,” Jade said dryly. “So sweet they make your teeth ache.”

  “You never have liked Zoe.”

  “She’s fine. Now that she’s not slobbering all over Ethan.”

  When Olivia didn’t respond, Jade shifted her focus from trying to see the whole scene to studying her friend’s expression. “What about you? You dating anyone?”

  Olivia laughed sourly. “Why are you asking? You know I’m not. We message each other all the time. ”

  “I don’t know…I thought maybe you were doing it on the down low and didn’t want me to know until you were sure it was going well or something. I half expected you to bring someone with you here, actually.”

  “You’re dreaming.”

  “And you’re not trying hard enough.”

  Olivia looked away. “Whatever.”

  “Did you two see what your brother did?” Zoe exclaimed, running up to them from the waves. She grabbed one of the towels from the end of Jade’s chair and rubbed at her hair.

  “Pretty devious,” Olivia said, attempting to play along—probably because she was grateful for the change of subject. Jade was more observant than most people gave her credit for.

  “Yeah, that’s my brother,” Jade agreed absently, filling in the shadows in her drawing with the flat of the pencil.

  “So, I was thinking about dinner,” Zoe said a little too casually. Jade suspected she had already started planning dinner while she was on the plane. “You guys have any preference?”

  “Whatever,” Jade said, still focused on her drawing.

  “I heard there’s a really good local place downtown,” Olivia offered, and Jade snuck a closer look at her. She knew Olivia, and if she was sharing an opinion about something like this then it was because she’d already done her research. She had probably asked around and learned about half the restaurants on the island. She’d probably even looked up their menus so she would know what she wanted to order when she got there.

  “Downtown? Do we need to get a taxi then? Or two, I suppose for all of us to fit.” Zoe was visibly trying to be kind in her response, but Olivia’s face fell.

  “Let’s just try it some other time,” Olivia asked with an edge in her voice. “It sounds like too much trouble.”

  “Somewhere close by might be easier since it’s our first night and everyone is tired from traveling,” Zoe agreed with relief obvious on her face. “How about the resort next door? If I remember right, they have really good food and we can just walk there along the beach.”

  Olivia smiled stiffly. “Sure.”

  “Jade?”

  “Oh, are we voting?” Jade asked innocently. “I’m sure you know what’s best, Zoe.” She thought she had kept the bitterness out of her voice, but the twinge in her expression made it apparent that she had failed.

  “Well I’ll have to check with the others, but I know Sloane’s on board already. Why don’t we plan to meet on the beach around six? I’m going to go get cleaned up.”

  When she was gone, Jade sighed and lowered her drawing.

  “What?” Olivia asked.

  “I just remembered that I don’t have any other clothes. I have to wear what I wore on the plane. Gross.”

  “You could probably ask to use Zoe’s washing machine. I heard her talking earlier about all the amenities in their room.”

  “Of course they have a washing machine.” Jade rolled her eyes and put away her drawing. “What a waste of money. I just knew they would book some overpriced suite they can’t afford. No I’ll just go to the hotel shop. Knowing places like this they probably have a few things that aren’t too touristy.”

  Olivia grimaced. “Have you gone there yet? The prices are ridiculous.”

  “Better than charity.”

  Olivia laughed. “How is overpriced tourist clothing any better than an overpriced luxury hotel room?”

  “Because I am buying it out of necessity, not to make other people jealous.” Huffing as she gathered up her things, Jade stuck her tongue out as she headed back toward the resort.

  “Wait!” Olivia cried, scrambling to follow her. “I’ll come with you.”