What He Couldn't Buy

6

Two other men were standing on their paddleboards in the distance.

"Those guys are two of my closest friends, you'll love them." Chris said as he and Amelia paddled over to them.

"This is Oliver Rothschild- Lex's brother, and Theo Bergman who happens to be Lex's boyfriend"

Oliver rolled his eyes and Theo snickered, "Hey Amelia! Chris hasn't stopped talking about you since the water charity thing"

Chris glared at Theo and Amelia just laughed, "It's nice to meet Chris' friends, I would shake your hand or something but I'm just trying not to fall!"

Amelia wasn't surprised to see that Chris' friends were also really good looking. Despite the fact that they were equally attractive, they had very different features. Oliver had blonde hair that was cut short and he was lean but in shape. On the other hand, Theo had bronze skin and long brown hair; Amelia couldn't help but get distracted by his well-defined abs.

Chris felt a pang of jealousy when he saw Amelia gazing at his friends.

"So are we just going to stand here?" Oliver said coldly, "I want to test it out before it's too late."

Chris saw the confused look on Amelia's face, "Oliver is a techie, he makes apps and codes things and probably does a bunch of other things that are way over my head" he laughed.

"Oh so what does your new app do?" Amelia inquired.

Oliver was surprised to find someone that actually wanted to hear more about his programs. "Well this isn't necessarily an app. It's plausible that it could one day be a component of an app but right now it's just a tracker that I've attached to Theo's board. I want to see if it can measure things like his average speed. Maybe one day I can combine it with technology that can give advice for technique and the best time of day to go boarding..."

"Cool! So you could eventually use it for surfers, right?"

He smiled, "Yeah! That's what I was thinking, it's just easier to test it on a paddleboard right now."

Chris was about two yards in front of Oliver and Amelia, happy to hear her getting along with his friends. Oliver had a sarcastic sense of humor and was often cold towards new people. On the other hand, he wasn't surprised that even Oliver would warm up to Amelia's kind personality.

Theo paddled next to Chris, "she's cool, I'm surprised you were the first guy to get to her all summer."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Theo loved making fun of his best friend, "Just saying that you usually wait until a girl throws herself at you. But Amelia, she's too good for you man." Chris laughed and tried to push Theo off his board.

Chris realized that Theo was right, he usually just waited for girls to approach him or flirt with him first; but with Amelia, he knew he wanted to talk to her from the moment he first saw her. After hearing her first ramble on about various world issues, Chris truly wanted to pursue her- even if it meant contradicting his usual habits.

Back on land, Cece was having a fit, "Who is she? If she was from a good family, we would know her!"

"Maybe she's not from here?" Margs suggested, she was hoping to get on Cece's good side, "she could be after his money! For all we know she's a maid from Jersey!"

Lex was the most reasonable girl in the group, the most down to earth. "Why does it matter? Shouldn't we be happy for Chris?"

Cece produced a fake smile, "Oh, of course I'm happy for him. Were such close family friends after all." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Margaux getting annoyed. If anyone was ever out of the loop with things, it was her. Cece had her family keeping her close to Chris, while Lex had a boyfriend and brother that were his two best friends. Of course, Margaux still came from a good family. Her mother was a serial divorcee. Every couple of years, Allison Banks (technically her name was Allison Crawford Banks Reed Fischer Meyer) married a billionaire. Having multiple billionaire step-fathers (and ex step-fathers) always had its benefits. Much like her mother, Margaux was very likeable and ex step-fathers were almost always benefactors in her life even after the divorces.