Trihn froze when she entered.

There was the bed, Lydia’s huge king-size bed.

It was freshly made, so the maid service must have already come through this morning, but it didn’t erase the memories. Lydia and Preston had had sex on this bed this morning. Trihn’s stomach revolted at the thought.

“Is…is Preston around?”

“No,” Lydia said. She was rummaging through the closet, and then she pulled out a white flowy skirt and a blue-and-white striped tank. She tossed them to Trihn. “Try it on.”

Trihn sighed and then stripped out of her outfit and into the ensemble Lydia had given her.

“Anyway, Preston has been on the phone with work all morning. He’s supposed to be taking the time off, but his boss keeps bothering him with this project he’s been working on.”

Sure he is.

“I see.”

At least he wasn’t around to interrupt them.

Lydia shoved Trihn in front of the full-length mirror and smiled. “Perfect. Ian will die.”

“Lydia,” Trihn said.

“I know you’re not together.” Lydia put her hands up in the air.

Trihn wrinkled her nose. She had to admit that the outfit did look nice even if it wasn’t something she would normally wear. But her face fell when she realized that, all this time, she had just been avoiding the conversation that she knew she needed to have.

“What’s that look?” Lydia asked.

“What look?”

“Whatever is on your face right now.”

Trihn turned away from the mirror. “I said that we needed to talk. It’s about Preston.”

Lydia huffed loudly and rolled her eyes. “Of course it is. It’s always something. I really don’t know what’s been up with you on this trip, Trihn. Mom and Dad think you’re just being a hormonal teenager, but I think it’s something else. Normally, you’re the serious one, and I’m the happy-go-lucky one, and then everything works out. But this trip, you’ve been just so mad at the world. Everyone is kind of over it,” Lydia told her. “Just because your boyfriend broke up with you doesn’t mean that you have to take it out on everyone else.”

Trihn clenched her hands into fists at her sides. Everything she had been planning to say flittered out of her mind. “My boyfriend didn’t break up with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t break up with me. I just said that when I saw him with you. I didn’t want this to happen this way, Ly, but Preston is—or was my boyfriend.”

Lydia’s eyes rested on Trihn for a second before she doubled over. She was laughing so hard that tears brimmed her eyes. She patted her chest twice and then coughed. “Oh, that’s a good one, Trihn.”

“I’m not joking,” Trihn said.

“Oh, please! Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not being ridiculous either, Lydia. I’m telling you that I dated Preston,” she said, trying to get through to her sister.

Lydia crossed her arms over her chest and stood nearly nose-to-nose with Trihn. “I get that you’re upset because I brought Preston along, but I’m not stupid. Your boyfriend broke up with you, and now, you’re taking that out on everyone else. I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at Preston this whole trip. You’re clearly jealous.”

“You know what? You’re right,” Trihn said, throwing her hands out. “My boyfriend, Preston, has been dating someone else. As you can imagine, that makes me pretty jealous.”

“Stop saying that!” Lydia cried. “Preston never dated you!”

“I really wish that were true,” Trihn told her. “I wish that this trip were the first time I’d ever met him, but it’s not. Preston and I met on the front steps of your building a couple of months ago. After running into me that day, he pursued me, and we’ve been together all summer. I never knew he was seeing you. I actually didn’t even know you were seeing anyone until Mom told me you were bringing your boyfriend on vacation with us.”

“If all of this is true,” Lydia said doubtfully, “then why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”

Trihn sighed and hugged herself to avoid the words she hated to say. “I was blindsided at first, so I didn’t want to lash out from anger, but then I think a part of me wanted to believe that you guys would just break up, like you do with everyone else. Trust me, I didn’t even want to tell you right now, but I thought you deserved to know.”

With those final words, it seemed to hit Lydia. Her face fell, her shoulders drooped, and she looked like someone had just socked her in the stomach. “So…you’re saying that Preston has been cheating on me this whole time?”

Trihn nodded reluctantly.

“And you, too.”

“Yeah.” Trihn wrung her hands in front of her.

“I just can’t believe…” Lydia’s words trailed off as she looked over Trihn’s shoulder. “Hey,” she whispered.

“Hey, babe,” Preston said. He leaned against the doorframe. “What’s going on in here?”

“We were just talking,” Lydia said. “And I was giving Trihn an outfit for sailing.”

Preston glanced at Trihn’s outfit. “Nice.” He walked over to Lydia and planted a kiss on her cheek.

Trihn tried not to cringe.

“Sorry it took so long, but I’m all yours now. Work just really needed me.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s her name?” Trihn said under her breath.

Preston’s eyes narrowed, and this time, Trihn winked before turning and walking out of the room.

She could hear Lydia yelling at him from down the hall.

TRIHN SHOULD HAVE FELT BETTER.

But she didn’t. Telling Lydia the truth didn’t change the fact that Preston had slept with and cheated on both of them. Really, nothing had changed, except now both she and Lydia were suffering for what he had done. Trihn hated that her sister had to hurt with her, but she knew telling her was the right thing to do.

Trihn trudged back down the stairs on her way to Ian’s house, but her mother stopped her in the foyer.

“Trihn, I love that outfit!” Linh called. She smiled at her from the kitchen where a large picnic basket sat on the counter with a half-empty bottle of chardonnay next to it.

“Oh. Thanks.” She had forgotten that she was still decked out in the outfit that Lydia had wanted her to wear for sailing. “Lydia let me borrow it.”

“It’ll be perfect for the boat.” She took a long sip out of the glass of wine in front of her.

“Mom—”

“Is Lydia about ready to go? Your father is restless to get out on the water, and you know how he is when he gets restless.”

“Yeah, I do, but I don’t think Lydia is going to go sailing,” Trihn told her.

“What?” Linh asked. She set her wine down and looked up at her in surprise. “Why not? She was looking forward to it. It’s her favorite thing to do at the beach.”

“Yeah. Um…she and Preston are arguing.”

Linh frowned. She glanced up the stairs like she wanted to go up there and find out what was going on. “Is it serious?”

Trihn nodded. “I heard her yelling in her room from down the hall.”

“Did you hear what it’s about?”

“Um…no,” Trihn lied. She definitely didn’t want her mother weighing in on the Lydia-Preston-Trihn fiasco.

“Should I go up there and check on her?”

“I think it would probably be best if you didn’t. We should give them some privacy and go sailing.”

Linh pursed her lips. “All right. I don’t want to interfere, but they seemed fine this morning.”

Don’t I know it?

“Okay. Well, go get Ian, and then we’ll head out.”

“Oh, Mom—”

“If your sister can’t go, then you absolutely have to go. March right over to the Petersons’ and tell Ian that we need him. I’m not doing all the heavy lifting on my own.”