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“Empowering, but at what cost?”
“Don’t be a douche! Go out into the world and fuck with purpose!” she shouted. Then, with a giggle, she leaned up and said, “But always fuck responsibly.”
Five
Uninhibited
The next morning, Jason knocked on our door around 10:30. I was still brushing my teeth, so Nikki got the door.
“Oh, thank god,” I heard her say through the hall.
“What?” said Jason.
“I thought you were going to show up looking like a soccer mom again.”
I came out to see that he was wearing light khaki-colored shorts with sandals, and a loose-fitting white t-shirt. The sun behind him caused the subtle silhouette of his torso to show through the light fabric, and another flash of heat clenched my stomach, the memory of so long before now fresh in the front of my mind. I had to concentrate on appropriate behavior, but my recent lack of romantic activity had put my libido into overdrive.
“Nikki doesn’t approve of civilian clothing while we’re on vacation. She wants everyone to look like we’re in commercials for the place. But whatever you do, please don’t wear a Hawaiian shirt. That’s just wrong.”
“Don’t even own one. But what were you expecting me to wear when I had just arrived that day?”
“She made me change the moment we got into this room.”
“Tell me you weren’t happier for it,” Nikki added.
“Come on, the boat leaves for the mainland soon,” said Jason, leading the way out.
In the line for the boat, Nikki spied one of the dancers from the night before. “Gemma, look! He’s the one I had my eye on!”
“How can you tell? It was so dark and they were all in costume.”
“I’m going to talk to him!” she said, and ran off, leaving me with Jason.
“At least she goes after what she wants,” he said.
“Yeah, but she can be a little flaky sometimes.” I looked into his eyes and saw something familiar. As we stepped onto the boat, Nikki busy with the Fijian dancer, I asked, “So, where is Annie, really?”
“How did you know?”
“Let’s just say you and I are kindred spirits. What happened?”
He heaved a dramatic sigh. “It’s hard to say what really happened. Things have been stressful at work, for both of us, and—I don’t know—we’ve sort of started to drift. We agreed something had to change, so she booked us a vacation from it all to try to reignite the spark. She booked it about three months ago, and about one month ago we separated.”
“Oh, god, Jason. I’m sorry.”
“It’s just a trial separation right now. But we think we just need some space. And we agreed that if we were both feeling up for it and wanted to get back together, we’d meet here like we’d originally planned.”
The disappointment on his face was apparent. “She never showed,” I guessed.
“No, she didn’t,” he said. “But I wasn’t totally lying about the assignment. I really am writing an article on Fiji.”
“It’s okay. And I won’t say anything to Nikki. She loves the single life so much, I think she wishes everyone was in it with her.” The boat left the dock and sped through the waters. I watched the rippling waves flow outward in the bright blue-green water.
“So what did you mean about kindred spirits? Are you and Fred okay?”
“I don’t really want to talk about it just yet. I’m not sure about anything right now.”
“I gotcha. So when did you guys get here?”
