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  “Why don’t you just admit it? You were never really happy for me, that I found someone who loved me for me, that I didn’t have to settle.”

  “That is not true. I have always wanted nothing other than the best for you and Alexandra. And I have done the best I could to make sure you two have had a good life and the very best of everything.”

  “But what about happiness? You’ve never wanted me to have the happiness that has eluded you. You thought I would never be able to find someone after I became sick in boarding school. In fact you encouraged me not to give up on Raoul, even after what he put me through, as if dating a self-absorbed, egotistical tennis player was the best I could do.”

  “Nobody’s perfect, Amanda. Raoul had his shortcomings, but he came from a very good family and—”

  “And he treated me poorly!” Amanda yelled back, cutting Camilla off. “Besides, I wasn’t happy the whole time we were together. And then when I met Jake, everything changed. He helped me blossom and come out of my shell. You saw that and you were jealous because Jake and I were happy together.”

  Camilla huffed and rolled her eyes dismissively at Amanda’s accusation.

  “You’ve never wanted me to have the happiness that’s eluded you. You try to present your life as this picture of perfection, but you’ve been stuck in an unhappy marriage for so long that the idea that I could do better than you at something has been the bane of your existence.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Camilla shot back, growing increasingly annoyed and flush in the face.

  “You don’t think I know that you and Daddy aren’t really happy?”

  Camilla eyes widened as she looked scandalized at her daughter’s assertion, but Amanda continued unabated.

  “You don’t think I know that Daddy has had a mistress or two. In fact I’m pretty sure he has one now.”

  “How dare you,” Camilla said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about—”

  “Yes, I do,” Amanda screamed, cutting her off. “He was fucking that hooker he had as a secretary, what’s her face . . . Lisa . . . the whole time she worked for him. She could barely compose a sentence or operate basic office machinery. Why else would he have hired some skinny twenty-two-year-old with fake oversized boobs to accompany him on business trips?”

  “Lisa had a college degree and was more talented than you’re giving her credit for,” Camilla said defensively.

  “Yeah, talented at giving hand jobs,” Amanda retorted sarcastically giving her mother a knowing look.

  “Listen to you and how pathetic you sound. You don’t know what you’re talking about, Amanda.”

  “Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. You’re in denial, but we all know. We all know!” Amanda yelled as she began to sob.

  “Oh, Amanda, pull yourself together. It’s not the end of the world. Stop feeling sorry for yourself as if I or the world owes you something. Everybody deals with pain and disappointment at some point in their lives. But life goes on. Lick your wounds, pick yourself back up, and get on with it. This whole experience will help you grow a thicker skin and teach you a thing or two about how to survive in the face of adversity.”

  “So I can be more like you, right?”

  “That’s right, missy. More tough. Just like your mum. At least you have plenty of money and don’t need a man to take care of you.”

  “Aah, is that all you care about? Money? How about finding happiness?”

  “Hah! How easy for you to say,” Camilla said snidely with a roll of the eyes. “When I was your age, I didn’t have the freedom and choices you have. When my father died suddenly while I was still in boarding school, he left us nearly penniless. He’d gambled our money away with one poor investment decision after another, refused the advice of others, and left my mother completely in the dark about the state of our family’s financial affairs. He was so stubborn. And then he was gone. But we pulled through with what we had left and then Mother met Ernie, and I eventually met your father when I got to college. Mother, Silvia, and I all made it and found good men. Robbie has worked hard to get to where he is too. You don’t realize how good you have it, living so grandly off my money while you pursue your happiness without stress or a care in the world about survival.”

  “Your money? I have my own money now. Grandpa took care of that, remember?”

  “You ungrateful . . .” bitch, Camilla had at the tip of her tongue, but didn’t complete the thought. “Don’t try me, Amanda,” she said, walking past her to leave before stopping.

  “Oh, and I want you to come over to the house for dinner tonight. Your father and I need to speak with you, together.”

  “About what?”

  “About how we are going to deal with this pregnancy.”

  “What do you mean, how we are going to deal with it? It’s my pregnancy.”

  “Meet us at seven. If you don’t feel like driving yourself, we’ll send Carl over to pick you up,” Camilla said as she made her way toward the front door.

  Caught off guard, Amanda thought to herself for a moment, considering how she wasn’t ready to have a discussion about the baby, or her immediate future as a single mother before finally answering back, “And what if I don’t feel like coming?”

  “Then we’ll come here instead. It’s your choice,” Camilla said before she swung the front door open and stepped out.

  * * *

  Chapter Three

  Jake made the near hour-long drive from his family’s vacation home in Kapalua Bay to Kahului where Maui’s principal airport is located. Kirby was to touch down shortly after noon.

  Kirby texted Jake shortly after his plane had landed as he taxied to the gate.

  Touchdown! Kirby simply wrote.

  You here? Jake replied back, still sitting in the car just after having parked at the airport.

  Yeah, baby. Been waiting for this . . .

  Jake lit up with a smile across his face as he read Kirby’s text. In contrast, that morning he awoke feeling apprehensive about having Kirby come, and he started to have second thoughts as questions swirled in his head. Would they have sex? Would they end up sharing the same bed? Did he even want to sleep with Kirby again? If he did, would he still feel guilty about it afterward now that he was single? Should he reveal to Kirby what he was told about Amanda’s health and come clean about that being the real reason for calling things off?

  The thought of Kirby’s impending presence and how to handle him had made Jake feel woozy with anxiety, but now that Kirby was on the ground in Maui, Jake’s mood changed and suddenly he looked forward to Kirby’s gregarious and cheerful nature and companionship.

  Aloha! Jake texted back.

  Mahalooooooo, Kirby replied sounding happy and exaggerating his use of the Hawaiian term for appreciation and gratitude.

  I’ll meet you in baggage claim, Jake wrote. Glad you’re here.

  Roger that. See you in a few.

  A few minutes later, Jake sported a wide grin across his face as he spotted Kirby walking toward him with his bags in hand.

  “What’s up, bro!” Kirby said enthusiastically as he got closer to Jake, returning the wide grin.

  They did the slap-grab handshake, pulling in to one another, and bumping shoulders. “Hey, man. Good to see you,” Jake said with restrained excitement. “How was your flight?”

  “Not bad. The flight was a little delayed getting out of LAX, but the pilot made up for it once we were in the air. It’s all good. But look at you,” Kirby said, turning his attention to Jake, checking out his relaxed, carefree look and quietly liking what he was seeing. “I think island life agrees with you, homie.”

  Jake looked like a native Hawaiian surfer, casually dressed in flip-flops, shorts, and a tank top that nicely framed the curvature of his lean muscular upper body. His eyes appeared more deep blue than normal against his darkly tanned skin and blond hair which was now nearly white, naturally bleached, courtesy of the blazing sun.

  Jake chuckled. “Yeah, it’s p
retty chill here, dude. It’s been so nice being away from all of the madness back in LA.”

  “Tell me about it, man. You know you’re the talk of the town. Everybody’s asking about you.”

  Jake rolled his eyes in an annoyed way. “I don’t even want to know.”

  Kirby looked over at Jake and saw that he appeared to be genuinely uninterested in talking about it.

  After they got into the car and drove away from the airport, they headed out on the highway back to Kapalua.

  “You know this is the first time I’ve been back to Maui since we were in high school,” Kirby said, as he looked through the window admiring the scenery. “Remember that? Spring break, senior year, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, I think that was senior year.”

  “Oh man, that was such a blast. You, me, Monty, and Dexter. I wonder whatever happened to those chicks we met from Arizona State.”

  Jake smirked. “Oh my God, haven’t thought about them in a very long time.”

  “That was the first time you scored with a college girl, wasn’t it?”

  “What do you mean my first time?” Jake said defensively.

  “You know what I mean, man. A chick that was a little older.”

  Jake paused for a few moments before finally saying, “Pussy is pussy.”

  “Word,” Kirby retorted with a laugh.

  As they continued to reminisce and laugh about their last time together in Maui those many years ago, they decided to stop for a bite to eat since it was lunchtime and they both were hungry. Jake knew of a place in Lahaina that served really good shark tacos, so that’s where they ended up.

  After they grabbed a table and placed their order, Kirby tried to initiate a conversation with Jake about his cancelled wedding and the fallout.

  “So how are you doing?” Kirby asked.

  “Doing, okay,” Jake said after he inhaled deeply and then released his breath, staring down at the table and not making eye contact.

  “I hope I didn’t offend you earlier when I said you’re the talk of town. But, you know, you and Amanda are kind of like minor celebrities.”

  Jake scoffed. “You mean Amanda, not me. I was just her consort.”

  “What? Her escort?”

  “No, I said consort.” It wasn’t clear to Jake if Kirby understood the sarcastic reference he was making, but he didn’t feel the need to elaborate.

  Kirby shrugged. “Well, anyway, I don’t know if you’ve been scanning the Internet lately, but your breakup has been news on some gossip sites.”

  Jake looked up and stared back at Kirby stoically, feeling curious, annoyed, and alarmed all at the same time. He took a slow sip of his beer before asking, “So what are they saying?”

  “You know, that you got cold feet, billionaire heiress left at the altar, blah, blah, blah. Shit like that,” Kirby said hurriedly and uncomfortably. He didn’t want to go into a lot of detail, especially the rude comments from anonymous strangers that typically followed such articles. Kirby just wanted Jake to be aware that there was stuff out there about his breakup.

  “I’m sure I’m getting ripped apart,” Jake said with resignation while looking at Kirby. But Kirby didn’t respond. He just took a sip of his beer, not wanting to validate Jake’s statement.

  “Fuuuck, dude. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Jake continued. “I guess there’s really nothing I can do at this point. It’s what the situation called for; I had no choice. I never thought this would happen, Kirby. I was completely blindsided.”

  Kirby stared back at Jake with a perplexed expression on his face, thinking he already knew Jake’s reason for calling off his wedding even if Jake had yet to acknowledge it to him. As far as Kirby was concerned, that was part of his purpose for being in Maui—to help Jake embrace his decision about choosing him over Amanda. “What do you mean by blindsided?” Kirby finally asked.

  Jake was on the verge of revealing the truth to Kirby. He desperately wanted to tell someone what he knew. Let someone share his secret so that he didn’t have the burden of carrying it alone. Someone who would vouch for him, that he wasn’t the asshole that he inevitably was being made out to be. Someone who could defend his character and decency and help explain to the world that he had a legitimate reason for breaking up with Amanda without revealing the reason itself. Jake struggled as he sat there. Should he tell Kirby the truth? He twisted in his seat. His mind was racing, before finally saying, “I wish I could tell you, Kirby.”

  “Tell me what?” Kirby said empathetically, as he moved his leg under the small table to connect with Jake’s. He wanted to touch Jake and show him love, but they were in a public place and Kirby needed to be discreet about it.

  A shock pierced through Jake’s body at Kirby’s physical overture. He knew it was a gesture of affection and it made him slightly teary eyed and warm inside, the love for his longtime friend unabated. But at the same time, Jake wasn’t expecting it, and it startled him; it made him feel uncomfortable, so he readjusted himself in his seat to avoid the contact.

  There’s something about Amanda that I found out very recently . . . Jake was forming the sentence in his mind, trying to figure out how to share his secret with Kirby in the most careful, non-revealing way possible, but then he stopped himself before finally saying, “Nothing. Let’s just change the subject.” Then Jake grabbed and held up his beer bottle. “Here’s to new beginnings,” he said, halfheartedly and with a forced smile.

  Kirby, liking the sound of that, held up his beer bottle in return. “To new beginnings,” he said, smiling broadly, his pearly whites on full display. Then they clinked their bottles together before taking a sip.

  ***

  “Wow, nice pad, man,” Kirby said when he entered the bright and spacious Doyle family vacation home at Pineapple Hill Estates in Kapalua. “Damn, look at that ocean view,” Kirby exclaimed as he walked toward the large windows and sliding glass doors that led out to the infinity pool from the open floor plan living room. “This is much bigger than your old place. When did you guys move here?”

  “My folks had it built a couple of years ago . . . the architect did a good job. We like it here better than Wailea.”

  “Yeah, that’s the name. Wailea. I was trying to remember the place on the island where your old house was.”

  “We liked Wailea. Had a house there for a long time, but it was getting old and dated and instead of spending money on rehabbing it, we decided to sell and get a new place instead.”

  “This area is nice, but it seems more low-key, quiet.”

  “Yeah, Kapalua is less crowded and touristy than Wailea, which suits us. Plus, my dad really likes playing the golf courses here in Kapalua better.”

  “What about the beaches? You like the beaches here better?”

  “Yeah, the beaches here are pretty nice too. Kapalua Beach and Fleming are the two most popular and both are an easy bike ride away. The beach is where I’ve been spending a lot of my time since I got here, actually. Fleming’s good for surfing and bodyboarding and—”

  “You’ve got some boogie boards here?” Kirby asked excitedly, interrupting Jake.

  “Yeah. I think they’re stashed in the garage.”

  “Cool. Let’s go!”

  “You want to go bodyboarding now?”

  “Hell yeah! Why not? It’s gorgeous outside.”

  “Okay. Well, let me show you around the rest of the house and then we can throw on our trunks and head out.”

  ***

  Jake and Kirby eventually made their way to DT Fleming Beach with their boogie boards in tow. Although neither could claim to be an expert at bodyboarding, Jake had a leg up on Kirby when it came to riding out a wave without wiping out. All those trips to Hawaii over the years made him more adept at the sport. Kirby did his best to hold his own while taking a ribbing from Jake after a particularly spectacular wipeout. “Not bad for a black guy,” Jake teased as they made their way back to shore to take a break after a good forty-five minutes in
the ocean.

  “Whaaat? Fuck you, man.”

  Jake chuckled. “Well, you know, white guys can’t jump, but black guys can’t swim.”

  “That’s all cliché. Cliché,” Kirby repeated, shaking his head and wiping the water from his face with his right hand while carrying his board in his left.

  “No seriously, you did better than I expected, bro,” Jake said with a laugh, piling it on.

  But Kirby was having none of it. “You might be better at staying on your board, but I can beat your sorry ass in the pool. You know I’m a faster swimmer than you.”

  Jake snickered.

  “Dude, I grew up with a pool. Been swimming all my life. And whenever we’ve raced, I always beat you, man.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Jake said in a playful but dismissive tone.

  Kirby, growing increasingly agitated, began to repeat how he’d beaten Jake in the past when they’d raced one another in the pool, but seeing that he wasn’t succeeding in getting Jake to acquiesce and concede the point, he impulsively tried to shame him instead. So as they approached their beach chairs, navigating their way around other beachgoers lounging and sunbathing on the sand, Kirby allowed Jake to step in front of him and just before making it to their seats, Kirby grabbed Jake’s trunks at the legs and pulled them down low enough to expose his privates, front and back. Kirby then raced ahead of him with a devious grin, feeling satisfied at Jake’s public humiliation.

  Jake skipped a step, startled. His face turned red, his initial reaction rage. He wanted to curse Kirby out. But Jake was pretty good at controlling his emotions, so he took the prank in stride. “Nice, dude,” he said stoically and with resignation as he pulled up his trunks.