“Where have you been hiding this suit? It’s so cute! I can’t believe it.”
“It’s just a bathing suit, it’s not a big deal.” I bend over to grab a pair of shorts, unintentionally giving her a face full of my ass.
“Junie, I love this side of you. I can’t believe David could’ve been waking up tothatevery day and he tried to take you to Disneyworld instead.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” I bury my face in my t-shirt before tugging it over my head.
A week before our flights, David informed me that he didn’t have a passport. He’d thought my obsession with taking this trip was a passing whim due to my grief over Grandma Frannie’s death, not a bonafide revelation. An existential revolution.
He didn’t want to fly halfway around the world. In fact, he hated flying. If I wanted a tropical vacation, he said we could drive to Florida. Next summer, maybe. We justweren’t the type of peoplewho went to Bali on vacation.
Well, maybe he wasn’t.
I try to follow along with Eva’s morning yoga routine, stretching and breathing and finding my center, but it’s hopeless. This mindful, mystical stuff just isn’t for me. I’m itching to hear her opinion, to go do something, to take action.
“Do you want to get brunch?” Eva finally asks after her last sun salutation.
That’s another quirk I just can’t adjust to: Eva’s random eating schedule. But if I want to gossip and get her on board, I have to play along. We’re on island time!
“Yeah, let’s go! I want to tell you about my morning,” I grin, leading the way to the resort restaurant. You’re not supposed to stick to a routine on vacation—I remind myself to loosen up, turning on my positive attitude.
Over yet another plate of nasi goreng, an oily fried rice dish with fresh vegetables, I tell Eva all about the turtle rescue. Even though I try to play it cool, she quickly picks up on my fledgling crush. I can’t get his body out of my head—I want to peel down his board shorts and see if that tan goes all the way around. That treasure trail is taking up some valuable real estate in my mind. What’s getting into me?
“I want to go back to the sanctuary after this and check on him. Do you want to come?”
“I do, but I promised Jake that we could meet up. He’s staying on Gili T and wants to take the ferry over. Take a picture of him for me.” She winks. “The turtle and the guy. And if you want the room to yourself later…”
“Eva, that’s not going to happen!” I swat her shoulder as she wiggles her eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure he hates me.”
But at the mention of her vacation lover, I think,Why not?David is out of my life for good. I’m out of the country. What’s wrong with a little fun?
I’ve never had a one night stand or a vacation fling before. I don’t begrudge Eva her hot, foreign hookup, but I just can’t wrap my head around a temporary attachment. Could I really just sleep with someone knowing I’d probably never see them again? It seems like the kind of adventure I should have at least once.
“Well,” I concede, “even if it did, I wouldn’t do that to you. We’d find somewhere else to go. His place, I guess.”
“Why not down by the beach?” she jokes.
At least I think she’s joking. The deadpan look on her face has me questioning everything.
“Isn’t that just a one way ticket to sand in your… everywhere?”
“Only if you’re careless. There are towels, lounge chairs, cushions, sarongs. Get creative, Junie.”
I snort. Eva and I couldn’t be more different, but that’s why I need her. Grandma Frannie made me promise to use my inheritance to try new things. And for a woman who gets the same haircut every two months, who owns several pairs of the same work clothes in different colors, I think I’m doing a pretty great job at checking off new life experiences. I drove an ATV through a waterfall last week!
“What do you think will happen with you and Jake? Will you stay in touch when you get back to Eastern Pines?”
“That’s the beauty of it, right? Who knows? We’re just having fun right now.”
She looks so confident and comfortable with that. She dips a piece of tempeh into peanut sauce, a dish called gado-gado, and catches my eye. “It’s okay if you’re not ready,” she says, her voice softening to a register that makes my throat ache and the corners of my eyes prickle.
“Grandma Frannie would want—”
“Grandma Frannie wanted you to be happy,” she says firmly.
“By trying new things!”
“By doing the things thatyouwant to do,” she counters.
