Page 5 of Second Chance Summer

As she walked over to me, I said, “Thanks for finally joining me.”

She lowered those windshield-looking glasses, showing her eyes, and asked, “You think I have the power to make the plane go any faster?”

“The pilot probably lost the right cruising altitude because of them sunglasses you’re wearing. You paid the price of a bag to get them on the plane, didn’t you?”

“Shut up, Hendrick.”

I laughed and said, “I’m surprised them bad boys made it through TSA.”

“I’m surprised your face made it through TSA.”

“Welcome to the beautiful Maui Spa and Resort,” a beautiful Hawaiian lady said, looping leis around our necks. I noticed how the flowers landed in Lanai’s cleavage, making me visualize her wearing only that. She’s a beautiful woman with beautiful chestnut brown skin and the prettiest brown eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. They had enraptured me when we first met. We were at a jazz lounge – she with her friends, me with mine. We spoke, drank, danced – we hit it off and began dating shortly thereafter. A year later, we were married. How did we go from all of that to this? To barely being able to talk to each other without jabs and sarcasm?

The lady who greeted us showed us around, told us where everything was, then showed us to our suite. It was lovely – fully furnished like a one-bedroom apartment on the tenth floor with a balcony overlooking turquoise waters and the resort’s pools. Lanai claimed the bed, which is fine by me because the sofa, I learned, is a pull-out bed, and I’d much rather sleep there than to feel the tension wafting between us. Sleep is supposed to be restful – not aggravating.

Anyway, by the time we had dinner that night, we had argued so many times, I lost count. And it’s always about little things. Dumb things. Mind-numbing silliness. Like:

She didn’t like my Hawaiian shirt.

She didn’t like the way I looked at her.

I didn’t like her larger-than-life sunglasses.

I didn’t like the way she cackled and had a jolly ol’ time on the phone with her friend, but not with me.

We were good before marriage. After we signed those papers, something changed. Like, doing things the ‘legal’ way spawned a bunch of negative energy between us. Could that really be the case? Had we not gotten married, would we still be the couple we were back then, when we slow-danced to jazz?

SUNDAY, WE HAD our first couples’ workshop with Dr. Alana Makalua – the primary doctor at this resort. She wanted us to write down three things we missed about each other. Lanai wrote her answers so fast, I’m surprised her paper didn’t catch on fire. I peeked over to see if she actually wrote something decent – something she actually missed about your boy.

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

That’s her list. I only shook my head. Queen Petty strikes again.

Meanwhile, I actually wrote things that I missed because I do miss her.

Her smile/laugh

Her cooking

The way she latched on to me at night to sleep.

And I still love her, though it’s apparent she has none for me. If she does, she has a heck of a way of showing it.

Dr. Makalua looked at our papers and sighed like an overworked teacher at an elementary school. Looking up at Lanai, she said, “Lanai, your answers are—”

“True,” Lanai interrupted the doctor today.

“I’ve seen many cases where humor was used to deflect from a person’s true feelings.”

“Trust me, it’s not deflection,” she says, narrowing her gaze at me. “It’s the truth.”

Truth.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not perfect, but I’m not as bad as she makes me out to be. But her opinion is her opinion, right? And on this day, day two of us being here, I’m already losing hope that there will be any reconciliation.