“Make sure you’re drinking water,” Dad reminds me. “Alcohol is not hydrating.”
I nod as I come around the side to give him a hug. I’ve always been very close to my dad. Even when I was younger, before my relationship with my mother became awkward, I was always closest to my dad. He’s my best friend.
“What do you want us to make you?” I ask and join Laiken behind the bar again. “He’s being stubborn about his three-things drinks but says he’ll teach me all the lame ones.”
Dad laughs.
“Always start with the basics,” Laiken says. “You don’t jump off a high dive before you know how to swim.”
It’s not just my crush on him that has me believing he’s a good teacher. Laiken is patient with a combination of show, tell, and hands-on. I make a handful, listening to Laiken tell me how he slightly adjusts each drink when someone requests it strong or light. How to make it taste strong when an overly drunk person asks for another.
For a while, I forget that I’m crushing hard on Laiken as I listen to him teach me to mix drinks. With my father as our only audience, I have the confidence to try a few. It’s fun. I learn far more about alcohol than I ever thought there was to know.
By the time I remember where I am and who I’m with, I think my crush on Laiken has only increased. Everything about Laiken has fascinated me for years. But seeing the side of him that’s a teacher, intelligent about the way different alcohols react, and how to make something taste good when you might not appreciate all the notes in the drink, has me completely mesmerized.
Chapter Eight
LAIKEN
I metNason when we were in second grade. I moved into the house across the street from him that summer and we were instantly inseparable. We obsessed over baseball and trading cards, rode our bikes for hours, discovered goblin caves in the woods behind my house, watched movies all night, camped in our backyards, and had the best summer.
The summers got better as we got older. Sneaking dirty magazines into the house, talking to girls, breaking our wrists at the same time, dreaming about what we wanted to do when we got older. I introduced him to Miranda when we were sixteen. She was in my class, and I knew as soon as I met her that they were soulmates.
Nason was the first and practically the only person I told that I was pansexual. He didn’t get grossed out when I wanted to talk about my experiences with guys. He was always open and honest and asked questions. It made me understand that there are good people in the world. People who won’t judge you based on something out of your control.
Miranda and Nason got married right after high school. We went to college together, getting a place for the three of us to room. I was there when Miranda found out she was pregnant. I was the first one they let into the room to meet their newborn. They named me the godfather on the spot.
Nason set me up with Denise, and it was a whirlwind romance. We were married within six months. Our relationship was explosive in both goodandbad ways. Nason was there for everything.
It was Nason who suggested we move to the Isle of Kala when he found a job there. I think he knew Denise and I weren’t going to work out, and I also think his suggestion of moving to Kala was for me. To give me the opportunity to explore myself without the pressure of nasty people in the world.
Nason was there when Denise and I divorced two years after moving to Kala. He stood beside me as we watched the plane leave Anapos with her on it, knowing that we’d never see or hear from her again.
Nason encouraged me to stick with bartending, if that’s what I enjoyed, even if that didn’t mean following the career path set out for me by my degree. He gave me the confidence to define success by my own words and not what someone else tells me it means, and whether I’ve reached it.
He was there for my first and only boyfriend. A relationship that lasted almost four years, which was longer than my relationship with Denise had lasted.
He was there for the heartache, too, when it ended.
I helped him raise his son. I would babysit Elijah while they went on dates. I taught him how to swim and told him stories of his father from when we were kids. There were days when Elijah was away at college that he’d call me on video to help him with his chemistry homework.
Nason and I were side by side for everything in each other’s lives since the day we met. There hasn’t been a day since then that we haven’t spoken.
But I haven’t seen him in the last two days. I haven’t spoken to him, though I have responded to texts.
I left my house early this morning to head to the flower shop on the west side of Bane. There are half a dozen greenhouses out back and a large shop in the front. It’s one of the very few businesses not owned by the same family that owns the entire island chain and everything on them.
I sometimes forget that the six islands of Kala weren’t all purchased at the same time. Four of the six were. Bane was the first one purchased after the resort had been up and running for a while. Last came Ceto and the completion of uniting all the islands under one owner and as part of the resort.
It’s interesting to see the progress pictures on how the islands have grown and expanded over the last twenty years. The last drone that the owners sent up for updated aerial views to advertise with showed just how crowded Bane and Keone Reef are.
The owner of It’s Always Flower Day is a big bear of a man named Kellan. He’s probably one of the sweetest, kindest, most hardworking men I’ve ever met. When I need a break from the world for whatever reason, I volunteer to water the flowers or cart deliveries from one place to another. Whatever he needs.
My escape today is because Nason has the day off and I feel far too guilty to face him. I keep feeling like he’s going to see through me. He’s going to know that I’ve been kissing his son. He’s going to know that my thoughts about Lie are entirely inappropriate.
I know what Ishoulddo. If for no other reason than respect for my best friend. But the thought of someone else touching Lie makes me irrationally irate. I’m not a particularly violentperson, but I’ve discovered a very loud possessive side of myself when it comes to Lie. It gets louder and more aggressive every time we work together and everyone and their fucking brother are hitting on him.
Not that I blame them. Lie is stunning with his Latino complexion, stunning dark eyes, shiny dark hair, and slim frame. Even if you’re not into the twink scene, when Lie smiles, everyone notices.
