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I chuckled and the sound surprised me. This kid was something else. “You make it sound like I’m eighty.”
She gave me a lopsided grin. “Compared to eighteen, you might as well be.”
My laughter echoed again, and I looked at Kaia with appreciation. I needed something to laugh about. She grinned broadly and took up the glass of soda that slid her way.
“So you’re buying, right?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“In that case, bartender, keep the sodas coming.”
Jesus. Kaia was the most entertaining teen I’d ever encountered. I studied her for a moment. She had an indigenous look, but I didn’t want to assume.
“Where are you from, Kaia?”
“Here,” she confirmed.
“But you live with Charlotte and Vera at the resort?”
“Not exactly. I don’t live far from work, but I prefer to stay with Charlotte most nights. I’ve sort of latched on to her, and she hasn’t kicked me out of her space yet.” She shrugged. “She’s cool like that, you know?”
I took a sip from my refilled glass. “I bet.”
“I hate going home,” she sighed.
“Why is that?”
She glanced at me with a little pout. “My dad hates me.”
I stared at her, a little shocked. That wasn’t what I expected to hear. The thing is, I had no experience with teens. I was an only child, and I had trouble connecting even with my peers… What on earth was I supposed to say in response to that?
“I’m sure that’s not true…” That was all I had.
Kaia snorted. “He does because I don’t want to be a doctor like him.”
The burden of parental expectation… I could relate. “I see. What do you want to do?”
“I want to be like Charlotte,” she revealed. Every ounce of despair vanished from her eyes, replaced by utter excitement. “She is so awesome. Do you know she’s been to a gazillion countries? Her last job was in South Asia. She’s been on safari in Africa. Two years ago, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, but she said she didn’t get all the way to the top. She’s been to Australia…”
I listened with wide eyes as Kaia listed Charlotte's adventures. Hell, like Kaia, I wanted to be like Charlotte too. She sounded like she knew how to live. I never really had…
“Wow, that’s… seeing the world sounds great.”
“Right? But Dad doesn’t understand. He won’t pay for college or fund any of my trips if I don't do what he wants, so I got a job here to save up some money.”
I found the eighteen-year-old pretty damn admirable. She’d barely reached anywhere in life, but she knew what she wanted. She was brave and determined enough to fight for it.
“What do you want to study?”
Her eyeballs rolled around as she considered, and I smiled. “I’m thinking along the lines of anthropology and sociology. I should learn about different people and cultures and how to interact with them if I’m going to travel the world, right?”
I gulped down more whiskey. “Good point.”
“You don’t think I’m crazy for ignoring a lucrative career in medicine to see the world?”
I glanced at her. She was so full of life and enthusiastic about her future. My zest for life wilted away a long time ago and despite the thirteen years I had on her… it was pretty sad that this young woman had more drive than I did.
I didn’t want her to end up like me, dangerously scaling the line of depression at thirty-one. I had money, power, and the world at my fingertips yet, I hadn’t truly lived.
