I knew exactly who had a thing for taking care of fish—it was Miles. With my suspicions swirling in my head, I decided to steer the conversation in a way that might throw Philip off. "Do your fish actually understand human words? Because, believe it or not, before you dragged me here, I was feeding some fish that actually responded when I talked to them."

I chose my words carefully, hoping to poke at his ego.

Philip was ridiculously competitive, especially after ...