Chapter 14

A few days later, the entire bedroom was woken before dawn.

Two phones—one on the bedside table to Cas's left and one a few beds away—were beeping every thirty seconds, each time angrier than before as their owners continued to ignore them.

Cas groaned and stuffed her head under the pillow, but Femi rolled over toward the bedside table, and half a second later, Cas heard the sound of plastic scraping against wood.

"Ades." Femi's throat was raw and it was the first time that Cas had heard even the slightest hint of sleep in his voice. "I think that's your phone."

Ada huffed from the next bed, and through her pillow, Cas heard the smack of Ada's palm against the bedside table. And, a few seconds later, the sound of a duvet being thrown back and Brad groaning in protest as Ada climbed out of their bed.

Cas slid her head out from under the pillow.

The lights in the bedroom were still off, but Ada's phone screen was lit up, her face glowing from underneath. Her strawberry shirt was hanging off one shoulder and a few strands of hair had come loose from her braid in the night and were now hanging around her face.

Cas could hear Charlie starting to roll around a few beds away, trying to grab his own beeping phone, but her eyes were on Ada.

"What's it say?" She tried to whisper, but her voice came out louder than she'd intended and cracked in the middle.

"It's a date," Ada said. She was already sounding more awake. "Apparently someone called Leo has chosen me for an early morning walk on the beach."

"What?" Brad's voice. He sat straight up in bed, and even in the darkness, Cas could see the shock on his face.

Ada just shrugged, didn't answer him.

"Charlie, are you ready?"

"Yeah, give me a second." Charlie had thrown off the duvet and was lying there, staring at the ceiling. Lexi hadn't made a sound, so she was either quietly pouting or was somehow still asleep.

"Who's your date with?" Jayden's voice.

"Some girl named Delilah," Charlie said. He pushed up off the bed and stretched, his T-shirt sliding halfway up his stomach.

"Hope she's cute," Jayden said.

Charlie turned quickly over his shoulder to look back at Lexi before he whispered, "Yeah, me, too," and went to get ready.

Cas had hoped that she would fall back asleep once they left, but after what felt like an hour's worth of tossing and turning, she decided to give it up for lost. She kicked off the duvet, frustrated, and Femi turned his head on the pillow, already grinning at her.

"Giving up?"

"Shut up," she muttered.

That just made him chuckle. "Do you want coffee?"

"Yes, please." The sun was out for the first time in days, shining underneath the blackout curtains. Cas turned her head and stared at Ada's empty spot in bed.

It was selfish, but Cas hoped Ada wasn't being blown away on this date. That this "Leo" was nice, but not the one.

"Well, I was promised pool breakfast days ago, so why don't you get up and come help me, then?"

"It was too cloudy and cold for pool breakfast," Cas said evasively.

"Well, the sun's out now." Femi grabbed her hand and dragged her up to sitting. "Come on."

The air was cooler than Cas had expected, but the decking was already warm from the sunshine. She grabbed a fistful of pain au chocolats from the cupboard while Femi got to work on the coffee machine.

She jumped up onto the island counter and took a bite of her pastry. "How warm do you think it's going to be today?"

"Probably pretty warm," Femi said. He grabbed two mugs out of the cupboard and Cas opened the cutlery drawer beside her to hand him a spoon. "Not a cloud in the sky today."

The bedroom door slid open, and Reece and Tia stepped out, Tia in Reece's jumper, the sleeves rolled several times to free her hands.

"Morning, guys," Reece said. He grabbed a banana and a satsuma out of the fruit bowl, and handed the satsuma to Tia with a kiss.

"Morning." Femi opened the mug cupboard. "Coffee?"

"Yes, please," Tia said. She slid onto the counter beside Cas and grabbed one of the pastries from the pile before starting to work on her orange.

Sienna wandered out as Femi finished making coffee and he handed her the last mug, pressing it into her hand with a soft smile. Sienna put her hand briefly on Femi's biceps in thanks before moving to sit at the island, the legs of the stool scraping against the deck as she slid it out.

"We'll be back," Femi said. "Cas promised me pool breakfast this morning."

"Oh, nice." Sienna took a sip of her coffee and hummed her appreciation. "Anything you're hoping to talk to him about when you're floating around in the pool, Cas?"

One of the things she needed to talk about was playing out in front of her that very second.

"I've got a few talking points," Cas said. She hopped down off the counter and swept her pastries into her arms. "Now, let's get out there before they get the Voice of God to stop us."

There was a small cupboard off the kitchen where, each night, they had to drag the pool floats so they didn't blow away in the wind. There were some decorative ones—the giant flamingo, the ice cream shaped one—but Cas was partial to the enormous green and white striped one. It fit two people, was surprisingly comfortable, and had plenty of space to put snacks in the middle.

Femi carried their coffees and Cas dragged the float behind her with one hand, trying her best to ignore the snags in the wood on her way down. When they reached the edge of the pool, she flung it into the water and, after depositing her pastries and microphone on the pool deck, stripped out of her T-shirt and threw it onto one of the lounge chairs.

The pool water was ice cold, especially in the early morning air, and Cas shrieked as she went in. She bobbed up onto her toes to avoid getting her hair wet and, as quickly as she could, dragged the float over so she could hop on.

"You should have dragged it right to the deck," Femi said. "Climbed on that way."

"All right, Mr. Know It All," Cas said. She slid to her side of the float and paddled her hands in the water so it could reach the edge. Femi set the coffees down, and once he was comfortably situated on the float, he grabbed their drinks, her microphone, and the handful of pastries before pushing off the pool wall so they floated away into the water.

"Now," Femi said, unwrapping one of the pastries and stuffing the plastic into the pocket in his swim shorts. "What was so serious we needed to have pool float breakfast to talk about it?"

"You and Sienna," Cas said simply. No sense beating around the bush.

Femi, though, was apparently going to try to play it cool. "I— What about her?"

"Anyone with eyes could see that you like her," she said. She took a long sip of her iced coffee, humming appreciatively. Femi made the best iced coffee. "You get this big smile on your face whenever you look at her. And you were practically glowing when you came back from that date the other day."

Femi inhaled a tiny gasp and ducked his head, suddenly shy. "It was hardly a proper date. It was just because we were ranked first—I didn't even get to ask her."

Cas laughed and unwrapped another pastry. "Would you have asked her if you were given the choice?"

"I mean..." Femi took an evasive sip of his coffee. "Probably, yeah. But how do you know she'd've said yes?"

Cas shot him a look. "You can't be serious."

"What do you mean?" Underneath the confusion on his face, there was an unmistakable hope.

Cas shrugged. She knew, without a doubt, that she was right, but it was hard to put it into words. To explain to Femi something so intangible, that was more about the way they moved together, the way they just were when the other was around. Like opposing magnets, always drawn together.

"You always have a good time together," Cas said simply. She thought back to all the afternoons she found Sienna and Femi lying on the daybed, literally rolling around with laughter. "And I feel like you have really good banter, you know? And you obviously care about each other."

Femi nodded slowly, his gaze going to the kitchen. Cas could just make out Sienna from here. She was still drinking her coffee, and she'd turned on the stool so that her legs were stretched out across the rest of the seats. Tia and Reece were still there, and Sienna was cracking up at something one of them said, slapping the island counter she was laughing so hard.

Neither of them said anything for a long moment, Femi seemingly lost in thought and Cas very content to let him think his way through whatever was going on in his head.

"She told me yesterday that she'd been hoping things would change with Jayden," Femi said.

"What did she say?"

Femi half shrugged. "That she didn't mind when he decided to partner up with her last week, but she isn't sure how he really feels about her. That he doesn't seem like he's going out of his way to find her, that he really cares about making time to talk to her every day."

"That is your relationship with her exactly," Cas said. She smiled reassuringly, trying desperately to bolster him with a little bit of confidence because he looked like he was caving in on himself. "Everything she's looking for, you're already giving her."

"Maybe." He turned to look at the pool, his eyes tracing the lines in the water. "While we're embarrassing each other..." Femi said, his words slow, considered, like he was examining each one before he said it. "I think there's something between you and Ada."

The laugh that rocked out of Cas was equal parts hysterical and poorly evasive. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, like, the way she looks at you." A smile curled at the corner of Femi's lips. "I think she has a thing for you. And I think you have a thing for her, too."

Cas was half shaking her head, half shrugging in the worst attempt at telling a lie in human history. "I—I mean, yeah, she's gorgeous, but, I don't— I mean, we're friends."

"Are you saying you aren't interested in her?"

Cas opened another pastry, crinkling the plastic extra loudly in her palm. "I'm not saying that—"

"Okay, so you admit that you, at least, are interested in her."

"I— Ugh." Cas knocked her foot against Femi's, making him laugh. "I hate you."

"Liar."

The bedroom door slid open again and Cas's eyes snapped to it, hoping, before she even realized she was doing it, that it was Ada, returned from her date. She was profoundly disappointed to see that it was just Brad, finally deciding to grace them all with his presence.

"It's okay if you like her, you know," Femi said.

"Yeah, I know." Cas's voice was soft, soft enough that she hoped her microphone wouldn't be able to pick it up. "I just don't know if she feels that way about me."

And Ada wanted something serious. Cas... didn't. How could she get involved with someone knowing that they wanted different things?

She also didn't know if that was the best move for her game. If following her heart—a phrase that made her want to gag even thinking it—was worth it when she had so much on the line. This job was her chance to get out of nightlife, to move into something stable, predictable. Something that didn't end with drinking too much and trying to avoid getting "accidentally" groped by strangers.

"How do you feel when you're with her?"

The question made Cas go a little pink in the cheeks.

She knew she shouldn't be embarrassed, but the reality of actually talking about her feelings, instead of just stewing on them in her head...

"Embarrassing" wasn't even the right word.

Cas exhaled and dropped her hand into the water, letting her fingers trail through the ripples the wind was blowing across the surface.

"This is so ridiculous."

Femi chuckled, the sound deep and resonant and far too amused. "It's cute."

Cas nudged him with her elbow. "No, it isn't. It's tragic."

"It's not!" Femi was grinning. "It's not," he said again, more seriously this time, and Cas dropped her hand back into her lap with a sigh.

"I know you said that you think she likes me, but I don't know if we can be entirely sure that she's not just, like... my friend? Like, what if this is just how she shows friendship?"

Femi stared at her. "It isn't."

"It could be!" She was spiraling. "She's always hanging all over Sienna. And you!"

"Okay." Femi sounded like he was talking to a toddler. "But there's something different when she's hanging all over you."

"What's different about it?" She sounded slightly hysterical, but she was genuinely asking. She needed perspective, someone outside herself to tell her what they were seeing, because Cas was out at sea in the middle of the night in a massive storm with no hope of finding her way back to shore.

"I can't really put my finger on it," Femi said. He leaned back into the headrest and crossed his ankles, the picture of perfect relaxation.

"You won't believe me because you're currently having a very dramatic moment, but you seem calmer when it's just the two of you. Like everything's easier."

"Easier."

Femi nodded. "Like you're thinking about everything a little less. Just letting yourself do things."

Cas hadn't thought about it like that before. But now she realized that she had been thinking about the cameras a bit less recently. Hadn't been as worried about her standing, her expressions, her words, her anything.

Honestly, she was more thinking about keeping things off camera.

"Just think about it," Femi said. He gave her shoulder a squeeze and Cas drew in a deep, steady breath. "If you decide you're ready to go for it, you know I've got your back. Now, can you hold this?"

He put his empty iced coffee cup into her hands and tore his microphone off, dumped them into her lap, and rolled off the float into the pool.

"Fucking hell, Femi!" He'd sent a wave of water up over the edge, completely soaking her. "I'm going to kill you for that!"

It was then that she noticed one of their pain au chocolats had escaped in the rocking, and before she could grab it, the Voice of God was there, chastising them.

"Cas and Femi, no pastries in the pool!"