“Yeah. Sorry. My mind wandered.”
“Obviously,” Mike says as the three of us head down the path to the sand. “We don’t have any bait, but we’ve got a crap ton of lures to try out. Plus, it was the perfect excuse to get you alone and figure out what the hell’s going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ash, come on,” Zayne says with a snort. “You and Liv were all hot and heavy in the kitchen, but your head looked ready to explode when you stepped out onto the deck.”
“She just compared me to Matt,” I grumble. “Fucking Matt. Nice enough guy when you’re just friends, but his reputation with women was the worst. So now she’s wondering if I’m who I say I am or if I’m secretly going to morph into that guy.”
They both groan.
“I know,” I snap. “How am I supposed to convince her that she’s wrong?”
They both laugh, but I don’t think I said anything funny.
And when they continue to laugh, I demand to be let in on the joke.
“Okay, out with it!”
They exchange glances before Zayne speaks. “Your first mistake is that you want to convince her she’s wrong.”
“But…she is wrong.”
“No,” Mike says. “Never tell a woman she’s wrong. That’s a huge no-no.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“I got this,” Zayne casually offers before looking at me. He’s got the fishing pole in the sand and he’s holding onto it like some kind of prop. “Olivia is going to get very defensive and ticked off if you just flat out tell her she’s wrong. Show her you’re not that guy. It’s really simple. Especially for you, because there is no one less like Matt than you.”
“She doesn’t think so.”
“None of us are like Matt,” Mike counters. “We were friends since freaking kindergarten, and he didn’t always have a terrible reputation. That came later on. And he wasn’t as bad as a lot of people like to say he was.”
“He robbed our frat house,” Zayne murmurs. “I mean, we convinced him to bring the stuff back, but you have to admit that was a dick move.”
Matt did a lot of messed up stuff but always talked his way out of everything, making it hard to stay mad at him.
“Oh, it was a total dick move,” Mike agrees, “but…I don’t know…after a while it was just…it was just Matt.” For a moment, he just shakes his head. “Olivia is…she’s probably the only person I’d give a free pass to on holding a grudge. She and Matt knew each other for a while and even though he cheated on someone to be with her, he really tried to reel in his destructive behavior. But he always screwed up and made promises, and she gave him far too many chances. In the end, he was just cruel.” He shrugs. “Part of me wants to say that’s on her, but…”
“That’s cold,” Zayne says quietly. “And for the record, we were all pissed at him for that. It’s never cool to treat someone like that—let alone a friend. And we all took a step back for a while.”
“But we always went back.”
Not anymore, I want to say, but that’s obvious. And that puts everything slightly more into perspective. I mean…Matt was definitely no saint, but do we need to keep kicking him now that he’s dead?
“So, how does this help me with Olivia?” I ask after a minute.
“Don’t force her to admit that you’re not like Matt. Just be yourself. I know that’s really not overly helpful, but it’s all I’ve got.” Zayne shrugs and plucks the fishing pole out of the sand. “Do either of you know anything about surf fishing and what lures we should use or if bait is better?”
“I have no clue,” I admit. “The last time I went fishing, I was probably eight years old.”
They both share that it’s about the same for them.
“So…why are we doing this?” I ask, trying not to laugh because we’re all looking at these poles like they’re foreign objects.
“I don’t know. It seemed like a good activity for today. But maybe we need to put some thought into finding something else to do tomorrow. Maybe when we go into town tonight for dinner, we’ll see if there’s a bait shop or something. I don’t mind going in and asking questions, do you guys?” Mike asks.
I don’t have an issue with it and neither does Zayne and we spend another hour standing in the sand trying to figure out how to cast properly, with little success. It’s kind of a fun and mindless task, and it keeps me from thinking about Olivia for a while. By the time we head back up to the house, I’m no closer to knowing how the rest of the day—and night—are going to go. But I know that I’m not going to overthink it.
