Love Island

Chapter 25 - All's Fair

Hours after the challenge, several couples remained at ends with each other. Feeling secure in my team with Noah, I decided to wander to the bar alone. I grabbed one of the glasses and set it on the counter, then looked at all of the alcoholic options spread out in front of me. Bottles and bottles of whiskey, vodka, and rum lined the upper shelf. Fruity syrups lined the shelf beneath it in a sticky sweet rainbow. Indecisive of what to put in my cup, the resident bartender joined me.

"Can I help you with anything?" Charlie offered as he approached.

"Yes, please. I have no idea what to make."

"Take a seat," he gestured to the bar stools on the other side of the bar, and I took my seat across from him as he stood in front of the well. "What do you want from this drink?"

I let the thought bounce in my brain. "I want it to be refreshing, but not super sweet."

He nodded and scanned the bar. "Cranberry mojito sound good?" After I agreed, he began grabbing his ingredients off the shelves and preparing my glass by mulling mint leaves with simple syrup, then filling the cup with ice. He stirred the rum and mixers together and added them to the cup, already sweating condensation. "There you go!"

"Thank you," I smiled gratefully and took a sip. The mint was present but not overpowering: a good mojito. "That's amazing!"

"Thanks! It pays the bills," Charlie smiled and politely piled his dishes in the sink for the crew to clean up later. "So, casual bartender-talk. What's on your mind?"

I set my drink down on the bartop. "How much time do you have?"

"Until dinner," he joked.

"This challenge showed a lot of cracks, right? It seems a lot of people aren't so happy right now."

Charlie shrugged. "America thinks I'm hot and deserve more air time, so I can't complain." I shot him a look. "Kidding! At least your tweet wasn't too bad. I mean, being blind isn't so bad. There are glasses available. Lasik."

"I don't know what they mean by 'blind,' though. I'm not blind. I know a lot about what's happening in this villa. Or, I guess, I think I do." I drew little circles in the condensation with the tips of my finger. "Do you think I'm blind to anything?"

He shifted on the balls of his feet. "Uh. No? Anyway, I just came from Katrina and Michael. They asked me if I thought they were boring. I don't know why you guys think I'm all-knowing, I'm a goofball."

I laughed kindly and looked over there. "Poor guys. That was one of the meanest tweets we got." I paused thoughtfully. "Not as mean as Peach's. They don't know what she went through to make that decision."

"Definitely. That one hit me right in the gut. I knew how hard it was for her to choose Gray, and seeing her face after Katrina said it was about her..." he shook his head and leaned forward onto the bar. "That sucked."

"Are you really okay with it? Her being with Gray? You seem to be handling it really well," I said and lifted the drink back to my lips.

"Yeah, it was mutual. She's a great person. But eventually, you know when you're not with the person you're supposed to be with," he explained.

"How?"

Charlie looked down at the bartop briefly to collect his thoughts. "We were just going through the motions, pulling all the stops of a relationship without actually feeling it. About three days in, I kissed her and we both just kind of pulled away like, 'did you feel anything?'" He smiled fondly to himself, then met my eye. "We tried to romanticize a friendship, and it didn't work."