AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ah, so communing and becoming one with the ocean. I believe you’ve coined a new term there, Gems.”
“What about you?” I asked.
She flashed a devilish smile. “Well, I’m not seeing anyone at the moment.” She winked.
“It’s a couples’ resort! Everyone there will be with someone.”
“You won’t.”
“Yeah, but I’m… I’m the exception.”
“And I’m betting on you not being the only one.”
Two
Unbelievable
“Can you believe that?” squeaked Nikki, setting her backpack on the porch to our private villa. She gazed back toward the beach. “I mean, can you fucking believe that? Actual freaking natives singing in grass skirts and playing little ukuleles!” Her amazed and excited smile made her look childlike. It was adorable.
“I distinctly remember telling you about the festivals they have here, and how the natives do shows all the time.” It was spectacular, though. I had to admit, seeing a group of them waiting at the dock as the boat pulled up really brought home where we were.
“Yeah, but they gave us leis!” she said, lifting her necklace of bright pink flowers and shoving it in my face. “Real ones! Not the fake cheap-o plastic kind we used to get for keggers in college.”
I turned the key in the lock of the double doors to our cabin, bracing myself. I’d gotten quite a deal on this room when I booked it, even when I had to change from one bedroom to two, and was nervous that I’d gotten scammed somehow.
“Hey, Gems,” Nikki said in my ear, like the annoying little sister she never was. “We’ve only been here five minutes and both of us have already gotten lei’d!”
I dropped my head. “Seriously? How old are you?”
“Here? Let’s say twenty-three.” I stared at her. “Twenty-five?” she tried.
The door swung open, and I stepped inside. I didn’t make it very far before I stopped cold.
“Oh, come on. I don’t really look thirty, do I?” Nikki said as she walked into me. She gasped when she saw the room. “Holy crap,” she breathed.
“I know.”
The hardwood floor was polished to a high shine. The ceilings were vaulted with exposed log beams, and we could even see the underside of the thatching used for the roof. A pair of fans hung from the beams, allowing the ocean breeze to circulate throughout the room. A couch and two wooden chairs sat around a small coffee table in one corner, just off to the side of the large and downy-looking bed. On the wall opposite of the couch was a double door, open to reveal a hallway leading to the second bedroom with a slightly smaller bed, but looking equally comfy, and the bathroom between.
Nikki squealed next to me, jumped up and down, and raced through to the second bedroom. “Wahoo!” she cried, taking a flying leap onto the bed.
“Okay, now you could pass for twenty-three.”
I set my bags on the bed and looked over the rest of the room. The walls were mostly window at the front and sides of the room. The windows were louvered and screened, and I could see that the porch wrapped from the front to the back of the building on one side. I stepped out the front door and slowly walked along the porch to the back. The beauty of our surroundings floored me, with the lush green jungle, white sandy beach, and the sky and ocean were better than described. The sky was cornflower, but a little deeper in hue, and the line where it met the sea blended into a mix of teal, powder blue, and azure. I’d never seen as many shades and hues of all the colors all at once outside of an art class, but I didn’t know of a paint that could truly capture what it felt like to experience them all; the vastness, the bliss, and the feeling of my own insignificance.
I reached the back of the building, and my jaw dropped. The porch actually did not wrap all the way around, but dropped off at the back corner, leading into a walled-in stone courtyard complete with an outdoor shower and a daybed with a thatched canopy and netted curtains.
It felt more and more like this villa was meant for a family or a pair of couples rather than two friends on an extravagant vacation. I immediately thought of Fred, and my heart hurt.
I returned to my bedroom to find Nikki had already let her blond hair out of its super tight bun and changed into a bikini top and floral sarong intricately tied like a halter dress over it. “Guess what?” she asked, bouncing onto my bed. “I have a private entrance to my bedroom. So, if I happen to bring someone back here late one night and you’re already asleep, we won’t bother you. You won’t even know I’m here.”
“The walls between our rooms are not floor to ceiling. See?” I said, attempting to keep my face still.
She looked up to the gap between the top of the wall and the roof above. “Oh, whatever.” She shrugged. “I’m just jazzed we’re here. Come on, get changed.”
“What’s wrong with what I have on?”
She gave my outfit a slow and deliberate appraisal from top to bottom and back. “You’re wearing capri jeans, socks and sneakers, and a graphic tee. It doesn’t really scream vacation.”
