Eva bit her lips as she stared at the cards in her hand. She looked up at Shane and then back down again. “Do you have any eights?”

“Go fish.”

She sighed and picked up a card from the pile in front of them, adding it to the handful she was already holding.

“Got any kings?”

She let out another sigh as she handed him her king.

“You’re really not very good at this game,” Shane commented, setting his pair of kings on the lounge chair beside him.

“Thanks for the observation.”

“I mean, I thought everyone was good at Go Fish,” he continued. “You’re the first person I’ve met who really sucks at it.”

“I don’t want to play with you anymore,” Eva said, lowering her cards to her lap. “I didn’t realize I was going to be criticized on my ability to play a stupid card game.”

Shane laughed. “Sorry, Eva. I just thought this was an easy game that everyone could play.”

“Well I’m used to playing with my brother’s four year old and letting her win.”

“Oh, so now you’re letting me win?”

She began to smile. “Well I didn’t want to tell you before but…”

He laughed again. “Good to know. Thanks, Eva.”

Continuing to smile, she leaned back in her chair and tucked some hair behind her ears. She was in the best mood she had been in for a while. That morning Nick had called her to tell her that he was going to be in New York the same time she was there for a concert so she’d get to see him along with Mere and Lacey who were coming for a mini vacation with Nick. She had been missing her family so much over the past weeks and this was exactly what she needed. She had really missed all the talks she had with Nick and Mere and playing with Lacey. Back in LA, she spent so much time at their house that it seemed like forever since she had seen them.

“Are you going to go? It’s your turn.”

She looked up from her cards. “What? Oh, yeah. Um…any twos?”

“Go fish.”

She reached in to pick up a card. “I’m beginning to think you’re cheating.”

“I thought you were letting me win.”

“Well…I’m letting you win and you’re cheating.”

He laughed. “Uh huh.” He rearranged the cards in his hands and then looked up at her. “You know, Eva, we’ve been on this tour for almost a month and this is probably the first time I’ve spent more than ten minutes with you actually talking.”

She pushed her hair behind her ears again. “Yeah.”

“You should hang out with us all more often. You’re fun but none of us even feel like we know you.”

She shrugged, not really knowing what to say.

“Why don’t you ever hang out with us anyways?”

“I…I don’t’ really have a lot in common with anyone, I guess.”

Shane gave her a skeptical look. “We’re all dancers and we’re all from LA except for Sara. How do you not have a lot in common with us?”

She shrugged again. She was trying desperately to think up something to say when she saw Olivia, Sara, and Shawn coming from the hotel and over to the pool where they sat. She was relieved as Shane got distracted and called the others over. She really hadn’t known what she was going to say in response to his question.

Go Fish was soon forgotten as Shane and Shawn jumped into the pool to play water basketball. Gathering up the cards, Eva began to slowly shuffle them as she stared off into space. She was yanked back to reality when there was the sound of a chair scraping across the pavement and she looked up to see Olivia sitting down in Shane’s vacant chair.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” Eva replied, setting the cards down on the table.

Olivia slipped on her sunglasses. “It’s so nice out today, huh? There’s like no clouds at all.”

Eva nodded. “Yeah, it’s nice.”

“How long have you and Shane been out here?”

“About an hour.”

Olivia nodded and propped up her feet on another chair. She was quiet for a few minutes and Eva went back to watching the guys in the water.

“Hey, want to come with me and get a drink?”

Eva looked over at Olivia. “Um, sure.” She stood up with her, straightening the board shorts she was wearing over her bathing suit. She fell into step with Olivia and they began walking to the outdoor bar by the pool.

“It’s so nice to finally have a day off,” Olivia said. “Especially since we have those three concerts all in a row next week.”

“Yeah.”

“So when we were driving here on Monday, what were you doing in Justin’s bus?”

Eva looked over at Olivia. She was the first person to actually ask her. “We were just talking.”

“For three hours?”

“Yeah. We were both bored and had nothing else to do.”

“Mm hmm.” They reached the bar and Olivia stood in line behind a couple of guys. “Eva, you like him, right?”

“Justin?”

“Yeah.”

“In what way?”

Olivia began to smile. “Like a crush.”

“No.”

“Oh come on. We’ve all seen you with him. You only talk to him out of all of us. It’s so obvious.”

Eva shrugged. “I don’t like him like that. I have a boyfriend.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t get a crush on someone like Justin.”

Eva looked away and rolled her eyes.

“Why do you always act like that?”

She looked back to Olivia. “Like what?”

“You’re always acting like you’re better than all of us. It’s like you think you’re too good to talk to us and hang out with us.”

Eva stared at Olivia, not really knowing what to say. She hadn’t expected to be bombarded when she had agreed to come with Olivia so she could get something to drink.

The people in front of Olivia finished and she stepped forward and placed her order.

“I mean, damn, Eva,” she said, once she had told the bartender what she wanted, picking up as if she had never stopped. “This tour would be a lot more fun if you stopped acting so stuck up.”

Deciding she didn’t need to take Olivia’s comments, Eva turned on her heel and began to walk back to the pool area. She heard Olivia call her name once but she didn’t slow down. Once she reached the pool, she picked up her things and moved from the table to a lounge chair further away. She sat down on it and pulled up her legs as she stared off towards the hotel.

How dare Olivia say something like that when she didn’t know anything about her. Just because she wasn’t as loud or as extraverted as the other dancers didn’t make her stuck up. None of them knew her well enough to make that kind of judgment about her.

“Eva.”

Eva turned her head to see Olivia standing there.

“I’m sorry, Eva. I was being a bitch. I don’t think you’re stuck up.”

Eva took a deep breath. “It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. I was being rude.”

Eva smiled a bit. “It’s really okay, Olivia.”

Olivia handed her one of the drinks she was holding. “I got you a daiquiri. Virgin since you had said you didn’t drink.”

Eva accepted the drink. “Thanks.”

Shane called Olivia’s name and she glanced over her shoulder and yelled for him to wait a minute before turning back to Eva.

“Are we okay, Eva?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it.”

Olivia smiled. “Cool.”

Eva watched Olivia go over to the pool and sit down on the edge. She looked down to the daiquiri in her hand. She actually hadn’t expected Olivia to apologize and she was pleasantly surprised. Olivia should learn when to speak and when not to, but she had apologized, so Eva really couldn’t hold it against her.

Once Eva had finished the drink, she laid back in the lounge chair and slid her sunglasses over he eyes. The warm sun slowly lulled her to sleep and she didn’t stir for the next twenty minutes until the sound of someone clearing their throat right beside her disturbed her. She sighed slightly and opened her eyes. Turning her head to the left, she saw Justin sitting in the lounge chair beside her, flipping through a magazine.

“Hey.”

She pulled her legs up. “Hi. How long have you been out here?”

“Only like ten minutes. I just woke up.”

“Isn’t it like two in the afternoon?”

He shrugged. “I was tired.” He smiled. “We can’t all be like you and never sleep, Eva.”

Her lips curved up a bit. “I sleep.”

“Uh huh. Sorry if I woke you up just now though. You look tired.”

“I’m fine. The sun just put me to sleep.”

“Oh.” He sat up and pulled off his t-shirt. “Yeah, it’s really nice out. I’m glad we have today off.”

“Yeah.”

“Were you going to come out for dinner with all of us tonight?”

“Um…I’m not sure yet.”

“You should. It’ll be fun.”

“Maybe.” She glanced out of the corner of her eye at him as he went back to reading his magazine. She was definitely missing James. That much was obvious by how distracted she found herself getting when she saw Justin or any of the other male dancers half naked. They all tended to do rehearsals for the concert without their shirts on and she was becoming more and more distracted by it.

“Did Michelle or Eric talk to you yet?”

She moved her eyes from his chest to his face, thankful that the dark sunglasses she had on hid what her eyes had really been looking at. “No. About what?”

“I don’t know. She just mentioned something about needing to talk to you. Something about the concerts.”

“Oh. Neither of them have said anything to me.”

“I guess they’ll call you if it’s important.”

“Mm hmm.”

Justin yawned and stretched out his arms above his head. “So are you up for a swim? No one else is even in the pool.”

She pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and surveyed the pool area. It was pretty deserted. “Um, sure,” she said, deciding it wouldn’t hurt her to cool off a bit.