“I guess not,” I say, rolling over beside him. The last of the sun disappears on the horizon.
Tuesday
“I’ve lost it!” Christopher shouts from the middle of the lagoon. He’d come up for air after jumping off the rickety wooden diving board. The whole place is deserted apart from the two of us and the boat driver who brought us here, who’s sitting in the little bar area.
“Lost what?” I shake my head, uncertain what he’s talking about.
Christopher disappears again under the water, only to come back up looking even more panic-stricken.
“Throw me the snorkel.” His voice echoes off the tree-covered rocks as he swims toward me.
“What have you lost?” I ask, throwing it into the aqua-green water.
“The ring.” He waves his hand furiously at me.
The platinum Tiffany ring is no longer visible on his right hand. He quickly shoves the snorkel on and dives back under.
So much for a quiet romantic evening.
“I can’t find it,” he says when he comes up for air a third time. He swims toward me, climbs out and removes the snorkel. “Can you look?” he asks, passing it to me.
“It’s just a ring. Don’t worry about it.”
I fling the snorkel down, unfazed by the issue and not wanting to ruin the evening. If I reacted that way every time I lost something, I’d have had a hundred heart attacks by now.
“That’s easy for you to say,” Christopher snaps back,retrieving the snorkel. “Not all of us have the luxury of being able to replace whatever we lose.”
His words land a blow to my chest as he jumps back in the water, drifting back toward the bottom and searching the coral.
How dare he. I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am today.
I came from nothing. We lived off hot dogs and whatever coupon offers my parents could find in the free newspapers and magazines delivered to the house for years before my life changed.
I grab the other snorkel and jump in, diving down to scour the coral near where Christopher dove off the diving board. I harness the anger pumping through my veins to hyper-focus my eyes.
I catch a little glimmer and notice the ring, caught between two pieces of coral, barely visible. I push myself down deeper, moving the school of fish swimming nearby, and pull the ring out before signaling to Christopher and returning to the deck.
Christopher climbs out behind me and reaches for it.
“Thank you.”
“Not so fast,” I say, pulling the ring away from him. “What did you mean, luxury?”
In the past, I would have swallowed my anger down and let it fester, but Lee has given me the courage to express myself. I don’t keep everything bottled up inside anymore, which has actually helped reduce my cravings greatly.
“It was nothing,” he says, trying to bat the comment away.
“No, tell me,” I say, sliding the ring into my pocket before crossing my arms.
“This.” His arms swing wide to indicate the empty lagoon. “Whatever you want you can have. You want this place to yourself, you can pay for it. You lose that ring, you can replace it. That’s not how things work in the real world.”
If I wasn’t so infuriated by his remarks, I’d be disappointed.
“Don’t you think I want to live in the real world?” I say, removing the snorkel from my head and throwing it down. “Don’t you think I want to go on holiday with my boyfriend and not have people stop to ask me for photos. To be able to go around like a regular tourist and not have to hide away at some ridiculously expensive resort, or hire out a lagoon, just so I can have some privacy?”
My chest rises and falls in quick succession as Christopher steps toward me.
“This,” I say, pulling the ring from my pocket. “It means nothing to me.”
