Before we knew what hit us, the day before Faith was set to go back to Seattle arrived. I had plans to take her to a luau that night as a final Hawaiian party goodbye. I arrived at her condo to find her sitting on the lanai, staring at the ocean.
“Hey,” I said.
She stiffened and then whipped her head at me. “So that’s it? You just walk in the door without knocking? Like we live together or something?”
“No,” I said in a low voice.
“Because we don’t live together, Asher. Do we?”
I sighed. “No, we don’t live together. But I always just walk in. Because you leave the door unlocked. For me.”
“Well, that’s…stupid,” she said, her eyes filling. “And unsafe. To let anyone bust in and…and hurt me.”
“I’m not anyone,” I said. “And I’m hurting too.”
Her eyes widened, and then she quickly looked away. I moved across the patio and sat beside her. I rested my elbows on my thighs and rubbed my face with both hands.
“We need to talk. We’re overdue—”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“What are you doing, Faith? No, I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to push me away, and it won’t work.” I tried for a smile. “It’s not even subtle.”
Faith opened her mouth as if to snap back at me and then shut it again. She turned her green gaze back to the ocean. “Do you know what I did today?”
“Tell me.”
“I meditated for the first time. Not just sitting there with my eyes closed, fidgeting and wishing I was doing anything else. I really mediated. I let my thoughts wander away and do what they wanted, and then everything felt so peaceful. Serene. Have you ever felt serene?”
Yes. The morning after we first slept together.
“I opened my eyes feeling so happy except my cheeks were wet,” she continued. “I’d been crying the entire time and hadn’t even known it.” She looked at me tearfully. “Because I’ve been so happy with you. And it’s ending.”
“We can figure something out,” I said. “I don’t want whatever is happening between us to end either, baby. I don’t.”
“What are we going to do?” she cried. “Because, to make things worse, it’s working. Being here…I feel different now. I don’t want to leave you, but I actually miss my job. I want to go back and do it better. I’m really good at advertising, you know.” She wiped her eyes. “I’m really good at making people want things.”
“I’m living proof.” I took her hands in mine. “Tonight is your last night. Let’s make it something incredible. And the rest…”
“The rest will just fall into place?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. But I know that I want to take you out tonight to that luau.”
She sniffed and smiled, her tears making her green eyes look like emeralds. “I think I would love that.”
• • •
I drove back to my place so I could shower and change into a short sleeve, linen button-down and dark jeans. I picked up Faith at her condo and my goddamn heart clenched like a fist at the sight of her. A bright blue sleeveless dress with white and yellow plumeria flowers over it draped her lithe body and accentuated her curves. She’d tucked a red hibiscus flower behind one ear as her only accessory.
“Thank you,” she said.
“I didn’t say anything.”
She smiled. “You didn’t have to.”
We drove to a plantation farm where people were filing into a huge pavilion to the sounds of ukulele music and the scent of plumeria on the wind. We were signed in, and I helped Faith—still limping slightly—past wood carvers, jewelry makers, and dancers teaching hapless tourists to do the hula.
We joined a table with three other couples, all older, under the pavilion roof laced with lights and lush greenery. The emcee, a dark-haired Polynesian woman in a white dress, took the stage.
“Before you are called to the dinner, we’d like to invite all the lovebirds to come to the stage and dance while our lovely Miko sings ‘The Sand and the Sea.’”
Asher leaned in. “Dance with me.”
“What? Noooo. I can’t hobble up to the stage in front of everyone.”
“No stage. Right here.” I stood up and offered my hand.
The others at our table smiled and shared knowing looks as I helped Faith to her feet. I pulled her close, and she laid her cheek on my chest, her head tucked perfectly under my chin as we swayed to the Hawaiian love song.