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“So what’s going on?”
“Just ... slicing limes,” he says with an easy smile. “Do you work today?”
“Yes, but I’m off at seven p.m., and I’ve been dying to try the new steak restaurant that opened last month. You know the one? Lara and Camila won’t go with me ... they aren’t big meat eaters.” This is a lie, of course. Today, they served hamburgers in the cafeteria for lunch. Camila ate a double with extra cheese. The juices oozed down her chin. Hopefully Blaze didn’t notice.
He continues right on slicing limes, unbothered by my predicament. “Bummer.”
“Yeah . . .”
Then he looks up, having put two and two together, albeit slightly slower than I would have preferred. “We could go?”
Ding ding ding!
“Okay! Tonight?”
He shrugs. “Why not?”
Mild enthusiasm aside, this could work.
“I’ll meet you at eight? Umm ... you know how to get there?”
This is a genuine question. Though well laid out and extremely intuitive, the resort grounds can be complicated for young children and ... really anyone, okay? It’s not just Blaze!
“I could draw a map,” I suggest helpfully.
He laughs, but then he drops his knife to retrieve a pen and scrap piece of paper from behind the bar so that I’m forced to do it.
“So you know where the main lobby is, right?”
He looks stressed by the question.
“Okay, actually. We’ll start from where we’re standing right now.”
Dear god, if Cole somehow catches wind of this, I’ll die.
Camila and Lara are happy for me. Happy enough to insist I let them help me out as I get ready for my date.
“This eye shadow expired three years ago!” Lara says, holding up a brown shade she must have found at the bottom of my makeup bag.
“Makeupexpires?!”
This is news to me.
Camila shakes her head and points to the bag she dropped on my bed when she first arrived. “Just use my stuff. It’s in there. I brought it with me just in case.”
Camila’s behind me with a curling iron, concocting perfect beach waves before spraying my whole head with enough hair spray that I start to hack up a lung.
“Jesus,” I say, waving my hand through the plume of particulates suffocating me.
“What?The island is humid. You want these curls to fall the second you step outside?”
I’m reminded over and over again that beauty is pain as they prepare me for my date. No simple outfit will do. They pour me into a red minidress that squeezes my boobs so tight I can’t take a full breath.
When I complain, Lara levels me with a harsh glare. “Do you want to look insanely hot, or do you want oxygen? You can’t have both.”
“I’ll take the oxygen,” I answer swiftly, tugging my hair aside so that they can unzip the dress and find me something more practical to wear.
“Wrong.”
