He winks at the receptionist once more, even though it looks like it takes supreme effort to make his swollen eyelids move like that. “Tell the doc I’m mighty obliged for saving my sight. You too. Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“It’s our pleasure, Theo.”
I get him out the door only to remember that neither of us has a car. Time to book a rideshare ride.
But he beats me to it. “I got this, sweetheart.”
“Can you even see to operate the app?” Yes, I’m cranky. But this is far better than thedon’t call me sweetheartI want to yell at him.
He asked me to make a sandcastle with him.
He asked me to make a sandcastle.
Me.
The woman he callsPlainy-Laney. He wanted to have fun withme.
And I didn’t say yes fast enough because I was so surprised at the invitation that I thought it was somehow a trap, and now we’re here, and I will never figure out how to not be boring.
He pulls his phone closer to his face and…are you serious? His phone case is an exact replica of the interwoven tattoos on his arm, like he took a picture of them and had his case custom-made to match his tats.
“Is that phone case one of ours?” I blurt before I can help myself.
He doesn’t look at me. “Probably your competitor’s.”
I twitch.
I don’twantto—can he really get worse thanyou sound like your mother?—but I do.
I twitch.
And once more, I bite my tongue.
When I texted Emma that I couldn’t make lunch because I had to “do something” with Theo, she texted back that Chandler was having a better day and she was sure it wouldn’t be necessary for me to do this much longer, but she sincerely appreciated that they were separated today.
And also that she’s so sorry, but management says they still don’t have a room or an open bungalow for me.
Sabrina texted that Em’s in the best mood she’s been in all week. That she’sfloatingtoday. That she looks like the bride in paradise who’s fully embracing living out her dream of getting married at the Midnight Orchid Club Resort even if the front desk staff is regularly missing and half the orders were delivered wrong at lunch because of a staffing issue.
I cross my arms and stand at the edge of the parking lot,this closeto calling my own ride and letting Theo loose on the world for a few hours, when he brushes my arm as he walks past me, striding to a white Subaru pulling into the parking lot.
“Ride’s here.”
“It’s beena minute,” I mutter.
“Good ride karma.”
“I’ll walk.”
He looks back at me, and just when I think he’s going to rub his eyes in frustration again, he looks at the hand halfway to his face, grimaces, and drops it. “I’ll walk. You take the car.”
“If you walk, you’ll somehow find a way to hitch a ride with a surfer who takes you across the island, you two will leap into the ocean to go swimming at some magical secret swimming hole, and get stung by jellyfish. He’ll offer you weed to take the edge off the bite, which will make you strip down and flash the exact wrong person, and the two of you will end up in jail, and I’ll be bailing your ass out instead of enjoying dinner with the wedding party tonight.”
To my utter surprise, he doesn’t argue.
Instead, his lips quirk up in a grin. “You forgot the part where we’d try to crack coconuts without remembering we don’t know how to use machetes and end up at the emergency room again.”
I reach deep for a little more patience and a little less irritation. What would my life be like if I could be that lackadaisical about havingfun? If I could let my hair down, rip my bra off, throw caution to the wind and see how much life I could squeeze into one day like I’ve been working myself up to believing I can do for a year now?
