“Both.”

“Damn.”

Gordon cast his line again, a little too close to Cooper’s.

“What did I say about crossing lines?” Cooper called.

Gordon winced. “Feels great being corrected by a ten-year-old.”

“I can hear you. And I’m twenty-one,” Cooper retorted.

Gordon leaned closer to John. “Listen, this whole thing is kind of embarrassing. I feel like we’re competing and, frankly, I’ve traveled halfway around the world chasing this woman. And now, you show up. And you say… maybe you’re still in love with her.”

John narrowed his eyes. “What’s your point?”

“My point is, you’ve had your chance. You let her go.”

John snorted and shook his head.

“Why would you think she’d give you another chance? She told me what you did when you broke up. Harsh. Why do you think you even deserve another chance?”

John felt a rush of shame and couldn’t argue back. He didn’t feel funny anymore. He felt like the fool he was. “I don’t think I do deserve it.”

Gordon didn’t reply.

“Hey,” Cooper interrupted. “She’s a woman and she’s entitled to change her mind.”

“Just fish,” Gordon snapped. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“I beg to differ,” Cooper said with his first flare of temper. “It has a great deal to do with me. I’m her brother. I give a damn about her. You two can float away like sea foam, but I’ll still be her brother. And I’m not going to let you two play Lancelot and Arthur around her. You won’t hurt her, got it? Neither of you. Not on my watch.”

“All right,” John said, his palms up in surrender. “Maybe I deserve that. But don’t either of you pretend to know what goes on in someone else’s relationship. It’s never cut-and-dried. You have to be in it to know it.”

“It’s a two-way street,” Gordon agreed.

“It takes two to tango,” Cooper said with exasperation. “What the hell? Those are quotes from, like, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart movies. Cliché central.”

“Hey,” John said to Gordon, “I’m impressed he knows who Humphrey Bogart is.”

“I’m a film guy,” Cooper shot back. “And, if you don’t mind my saying, I don’t know what she sees in either one of you.”

“Right,” Gordon said, tossing up his hands. “I can’t even make a paper airplane.”

“What?” Cooper stared at him in bewilderment.

“It’s called ingenuity, numbnuts,” John said, facing off to Gordon. “You might be Jacques Cousteau out in the deep, but I’m a multifaceted guy. I can do a lot of things. Paper crafts are just one thing.”

“Paper crafts?” said Gordon with disbelief. “Did you just say paper crafts?” He looked to Cooper.

Cooper shrugged. “What can I say? The man has some skills.”

“Skills are how a man romances a woman,” Gordon said. “Not paper crafts.”

“Seriously,” Cooper said, turning away with a wave of disgust, “you guys are turning me off love. I didn’t think it was possible. Yup. You’ve just turned me off of love. Nice job.”