A bead of sweat trails down the side of Jordan’s face as we hop into a taxi taking us to the premiere shopping district in town.
When we get to the jewelry district, who should be there but Alice and Sylvester?
“Hey, you two,” Sylvester says, waving broadly. “Want to join us for sunset shuffleboard at the Hula Girl Bar?”
Alice elbows her brother and snickers. “Can’t you see the young honeymooners are on a romantic shopping jaunt?”
Those two know we’re not really married. Heck, they know we didn’t spend all our nights together, but maybe they figure we finally did it last night.
“Shuffleboard and hula dancing sounds great,” I say without checking with Jordan what he wants.
The four of us make our way through the high-end jewelry shops with Alice snickering at all of the prices and badgering salespeople left and right to bring her better deals.
“This is too expensive.” She picks up a sapphire ring and squints at it. “Has flaws. Knock down the price.”
“Oh, no, that one is too gaudy.” She yanks an opal ring I was trying on off my finger. “Tacky. You should hold out for a real diamond.”
“You must ask for a loupe.” She snaps her fingers at the salesperson at a diamond shop. “They hide all sorts of flaws in these stones.”
I peer through the tiny magnifying glass, but can’t tell a thing, so I hand it to Jordan. “Honey, can you check for flaws?”
After sifting through diamond after diamond, he declares a big, gorgeous one free of flaws. “This one.”
Alice swipes the stone from him faster than a pigeon on a corn kernel. She holds it up to the light. “It has a horrible cut. The angles are off. See the middle? Too dark. They’re ripping you off. When the cut is wrong, the facets don’t reflect all of the light rays and the stone doesn’t sparkle. They get more carats out of a bad cut. Sneaky. Sneaky.”
The shopkeeper glares at her while Sylvester shrugs apologetically behind his domineering sister.
By the end of the day, my feet are sore, my eyes are bleary, and my ears are ringing from the constant stream of snickers.
Worst of all, I have no suitable diamond and nothing to show for it.
The four of us retire to the Hula Girl Bar to drink and play shuffleboard. The sun is setting, and we have a nice view of Waikiki Beach from the open-air bar.
“I wish we’d gotten that diamond four shops back,” I sigh into my mai-tai with the little rainbow-colored umbrella. It was a stunning solitaire. Cleanly cut and set in a band with embedded baguettes.
“Not worth getting ripped off,” Alice says, darting Jordan a shrewd look. “You stick with me. I’ll always look after you.”
Actually, I’m wondering if Jordan called Alice and Sylvester to the rescue. She certainly wasn’t looking after me.
Does she still have a crush on Jordan?
“Still, I’m empty-fingered,” I sigh loudly and turn my attention to the silhouettes of swaying palm trees shadowed against the brilliant, orange sunset. “At least the view is great.”
“Shouldn’t we get back to the ship?” Jordan asks.
“No, we must play shuffleboard first.” Sylvester gazes at the court where drunk guys in board shorts hurl and push the puck around, missing the target squares by a mile.
“You guys go ahead with the shuffleboard,” Jordan says. “I’m going to call it a day and go back to the ship. Dani, how about you?”
Both Alice and Sylvester’s gazes pop between me and Jordan, wondering whose side I’ll take.
Since I’m in charge, I could very well order him to stay with me and play. I don’t want to play, but I also don’t want to be under his direction.
“You go ahead,” I tell Jordan. “I need to vent off some steam, and a whopping game of shuffleboard is just what I need.”
* * *
I need someone to confess to. A best friend to bounce things off of. Someone who’ll listen and give me advice.
