Veronica pushes herself to her feet, dusting sand from her fingers, and walks toward the group, her little bubble butt swishing beneath her black bikini bottom as she moves through the sand.
A little baffled by her sudden brazen decision, I watch as Veronica approaches the guy in the black and red wetsuit. He looks right at her. He smiles and nods. Veronica twirls the end of her long, dark hair around the tip of one finger, cocking her head coyly to one side.
Words are exchanged.
Then a few more.
The guy’s smile fades.
Did his brows just furrow?
Uh-oh.
Veronica’s arms navigate upward and fall into a locked position, crossed loosely over her chest.
The guy shakes his head at her with a look of … Is that disgust?
He bends over and picks his surfboard up, turning his back to her, and then heads back out toward the water.
Veronica spins angrily on her heels and marches back over to her towel and beach bag with the most offended expression I’ve ever seen on a face before. She snatches her towel from the sand, thrusts her feet into her flip-flops, kicking up sand around her toes, and goes to leave, headed straight in my direction.
“Unbelievable!” she says as she steps up. “The locals around here are rude, that’s for sure.” She shoves her towel angrily into her canvas beach bag.
“What happened?” I ask.
“He was an asshole—that’s what happened.”
Even more baffled now, I just stare at Veronica for a curious moment, part of me wondering whether she’s actually going to cry, the rest of me just wanting to know what he could’ve possibly said to someone like her to spark the urge. Her assistants move in right behind her, just now catching up, but they aren’t the ones I notice when I look up—the guy in the red and black wetsuit is looking in my direction again, and suddenly I feel embarrassed standing here with Veronica.
I look away quickly, just as he does.
“I guess they don’t like tourists around here,” she says. “Better watch your back.” Then she saunters off back toward the hotel, leaving me on the beach. The guy never looks over at me again, and while it’s probably for the best because I’m here to work, I can’t help but be bummed by it just the same.
I spend the next thirty minutes in my suite alone, expecting to get a call from Veronica any minute telling me that her parents have finally made it. Paige texts me to let me know that she finally got ahold of all the vendors and that everything is on schedule. Sitting outside on the balcony with my legs drawn up on the chair, I take in the view, letting my mind wander thinking about all the other things I could be seeing right now, the beautiful things I could be photographing. Before I came here, I spent a week poring over photos of Hawaii on the Internet, dreaming about seeing each and every majestic place with my lens: the towering waterfalls, the sprawling green mountains, the glowing golden fire of Kilauea, and the whales and the fire dancers. But all I can see when I come back to reality are the glass walls of the chapel closing in on me, the decorative Mason jars hanging precariously from the trees, the lavender ribbons choke-tied around the chairs, and Veronica’s sour expression accompanied by fake smiles and heavy doses of vanity and pity.
My phone buzzes against the glass-top table, snapping me out of my thoughts.
Looking down into the screen, I’m expecting it to be Veronica, but I’m surprised to see that it’s my mother.
“Hi, Mom,” I answer cheerily.
“Hi, baby,” she says sweetly into my ear—I’m twenty-two and she still talks to me like I’m ten and probably always will. “I take it you made the flight all right. How long have you been there?”
“Just a few hours.” I pull my head away from the phone and run my finger over the speaker icon. “I was going to call you, but I got tied up with the client.” I set the phone down on the table.
“So what’s Hawaii like?” my mother asks eagerly, the speaker cracking faintly with her voice.
I feel bad that she isn’t here with me; I’d’ve loved to have been able to bring her along. She hasn’t seen much outside of San Diego in her forty-three years of life.
“It’s beautiful,” I say. “Well, what I’ve seen of it anyway.”
“I’m sure you’ll get some free time to explore,” she says. “You took your camera, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, you know I always do.”
“I’m so proud of you, Sienna.”
I pick the phone back up and hold it near my face, balanced within my fingertips.
“So is your father,” she goes on. “You landed a great job with perks most people who’ve been working for twenty years never see. We’re just really proud of you.”
I smile. Nothing makes me happier than to know that my parents, who had such a hard life before they had me and an even harder one after I was born, are proud of what I’ve done so far and continue to do.
“Thanks, Mom.” I pause, looking out at the endless blue ocean. “I wish you were here. Y’know, I’ve thought a lot about it and I know you’ve got work and all, but I really want to take you and Dad on vacation in the fall. I thought maybe we could go on that Alaskan cruise you’ve always talked about and—”
“Oh, honey,” she cuts in, “you know I can’t take the time off work, and neither can your dad. We’ve got two mortgages, not to mention the hospital bills and the car payment—we just can’t afford the time off.”
A heavy sigh deflates my chest. “I told you I’d help you pay off the mortgages. I lived in that house most of my life; the least I can do is help pay for it now that I can. I’ll even help pay Dad’s hospital bills—”