"Ohhh..." Katey sat up, her head aching. She had a cold cloth pressed to her forehead, and she felt like she had just gone down Niagara Falls in a barrel; twice.

She almost leapt up from the bed when the phone rang.

"Darling! How are you sweets?" James' voice came over the reception.

"Grandly, Sweetums!" Katey couldn't have hated his voice anymore than she did now.

"Listen, I have so much work tonight- no chance of me coming home anytime soon. Would you please give Jessy and JJ a hug for me?" he asked in an innocent tone.

"Of course, love. I must go- having midnight tea!" Katey said with the fakest enthusiasm she could muster.

"Sounds delightful! Kiss kiss!" James made kissing noises over the phone, and hung up.

"Damn you to hell," Katey said out loud at she heard the click.

She let her head rest against the pillow. Here she was, twenty-seven years old, almost twenty-eight. She was married to the scum of the earth, and she loved a man who probably despised her at the moment. She was also a liar. No midnight tea, of course. How did she ever get herself into this mess? Oh yeah. She met Javier.

Katey pondered if James was really working late. Why would they make him work late on his first night? It would be real fun if he was cheating on her.

"Then I could divorce him," she sighed out loud. "Oh, I wish," she rolled over to the other side of the bed.

She caught a glance of the clock. It was ten thirty. JJ was down in the pool with some friends he had made earlier that day; she could see him plain as day from the balcony. But where was Jessy?

***

"I'm sorry, guys, but this is really messed up," Selena commented. She, Rafael, and Jessy were walking along the beach.

"What's so messed up about it? My mother is in love with Rafael's brother. It's as simple as that," Jessy replied, amazingly unnerved.

"Please, don't say that!" Rafael commented.

"And you're okay with it?" Selena asked with raised eyebrows, not paying any attention to Rafael.

"I've always felt closer to my mother," Jessy replied, her eyes shifting from her feet to Selena. "In fact, I've despised my father ever since I walked in on him and another woman nine months ago," she said quietly.

Selena gasped.

"Oh, Jess, I'm so sorry!" Selena moved to place a comforting arm around Jessy's arm.

"It's alright, really. I've gotten used to it," she said, pulling away from Selena's grasp. Her eyes cast over to a quiet, thoughtful Rafael.

"I, um, have to get home before mother gets back," Selena excused herself, winking at Jessy.

"Bye!" Jessy called after Selena, who was now running down the shore, her shoes in hand. "So..." Jessy peered her eyes over to Rafael, not tilting her head up.

"I really have to get home too," Rafael said, almost at a whisper.

"No, please don't go," Jessy grabbed Rafael's lower arm. "We have to talk."

"I know that. But not here," Rafael looked up, not releasing himself from Jessy's grip.

"Why not?" Jessy looked at him with questioning eyes.

Rafael shook his head.

"It's just too- risky."

"But Rafael-" Jessy looked into his brown eyes.

"You know what I'm talking about. My brother, my friends-"

"Screw your friends! My mother loves your damn brother and we have to do something about it!" she yelled back at him.

"Hey! Don't talk like that!" he pulled his arm away from her.

"You don't think that we can be friends just because- because-"

"Go on. Say it. Say that you're richer than I am. Say it!"

Jessy was quiet for a second.

"I- I can't."

"That's right. You can't say it because you don't want to admit that there is no possible way that we will ever be friends." he looked back at her. "Those kids- the white ones. They're your friends."

"Yeah. I guess you're right. And them- the Mexican ones. They're yours," she said with a cold tone, and walked off.

"I'm Cuban!" Rafael yelled back to her, and began to walk backwards towards his home.