Third Love's The Charm [PUBLISHED]

Chapter Thirty-Three: Zoey

Let me give you a quick summary of this whole situation because I found it pointless to expound on it any further when the same sequence of events happened with every single course we went through.

Zoey was incredibly smitten with Christian, acting all giggly and such to the point that I wanted to stand between them just to end it. Pat, the poor boy, couldn't concentrate on anything else except for her and was practically in last place. Christian obviously wanted to impress everybody and flex, but his skills with mini golfing was non-existent and if it wasn't for Pat being stuck in la la land, he would have been in last place. I wanted to thank the heavens for Lauren because she was always next to Zoey or Christian, so those two never had any single moment alone together.

Mia, perhaps the only sane one in this Brady Bunch, was a silent observer and kept sending me dry looks throughout the whole course. Leon, my angel, was just as stumped as I was.

And I, with some sort of miracle, still managed to get to first place even though I was a wreck trying to figure things out the whole time.

So that was basically it, you're welcome.

"That was fun," Lauren chirped as we were all seated for lunch in this burger joint we found, "Thanks for inviting us, Avery."

I sent her tightlipped smile, shoving another fry into my mouth so I had an excuse not to say anything. Glad that someone enjoyed this whole experience because I sure didn't.

"So you're the girl Zoey said was like a sister," Christian piped in and if I could only describe the dread that settled in the pit of my stomach, I would have, "Our meeting last night was extremely short so I'd like to say hello once again."

Somehow, that freaking bear minimum was enough to make my best friend swoon.

This was absolute torture.

"Hi," I spoke back, my tone absolutely blank. Mia cleared her through and shot me a warning look, something I shot back with an incredulous expression of my own.

"Here you go," Leon said as he placed all of his fries onto my own plate in an attempt to calm me down. My lips were still turned down into a frown but I think we both knew I was so close to cracking a smile. It truly was the little things.

Somehow, that was enough to shift the whole mood of the table. Zoey and Pat simultaneously snapped out of their trances to now put their attention on us.

Pat's face softened and he placed a gentle smile on his lips as he watched us, "You two look good together."

This could have been the perfect opportunity to give us a backhanded compliment and even if he did, I wouldn't hold it against him. I understand that there might be some bad feelings between us because of how everything went down.

But there wasn't. I felt so much warmth coming from him that I truly believed that he meant it.

And that was the Patrick Vincent I really did love – as a friend, for clarification's sakes. He so painfully kind and sweet, making me believe that he truly deserved the best.

"Thank you, Pat," I replied with as much sincerity as he had.

Zoey placed her gaze on him, also a soft smile forming on her lips, "I agree."

And now there was a wave of guilt that washed over me. Here I was trying to separate her from her crush while she wanted nothing more but for me to be happy. In my defense, everything I was doing was in order to save her from heartbreak.

But was I truly doing the right thing?

There was a long silence that followed after that because honestly, we had no idea how to follow up after that exchange.