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“Are you serious?” Stacey asks. “We want to explore.”
“A storm’s coming,” he says and runs his hand through his dark hair. “It’s dangerous.”
Stacey pouts, but she can’t make the weather change its mind by being petulant, so she nods, and we head onto the island, leaving the skipper behind to study the sky.
The girls are going on about something again, and I walk ahead a little to get away from the chatter. It might be fun to be out here, but my mood didn’t magically become great, and I want to put a bit of distance between us and their incessant talking. Tom and Marc are talking about some team gameplay thing that I can’t join in on, and I feel a hell of a lot like a third wheel.
Or a seventh wheel, as the case may be.
I walk further and further ahead, and after a while, I can’t hear them anymore. The little island is riddled with palm trees and white sand, and forest life scurries out of the way of my feet as I walk.
When I find a small stream, I drink the cool, fresh water and sit down on a rock.
It’s quiet and peaceful and beautiful out here. Sometimes, a man just needs to be alone to think.
Thunder rumbles overhead and I look up. The sky has turned an angry purple, threatening rain. Good, we need it. The pressing heat has been insane the past couple of days.
I love the storms out there. They’re wild and reckless and there’s something about nature out here that doesn’t make way for human life—instead, humans have to consider nature. I like it that way. Sometimes, I hate the way people always call the shot and insist that things work out the way they want it to. Sometimes, I like it when things just don’t go according to plan, and we’re forced to adapt, reminded that there are bigger things at play.
I don’t tell any of this shit to people—it will make me look like an idiot, and it doesn’t fit with the image I created for myself over the past decade. Sometimes, I want to talk to someone about it, but I’m reminded again that I’m isolated and I just settle for being alone with my thoughts.
Thunder rumbles overhead again, followed by a crack of lightning that splits the sky apart, and there’s more thunder that follows. I shiver, feeling the static in the air dance on my skin.
Shit like this makes me feel alive.
I don’t know how long I sit there before someone emerges from the trees.
It’s Jenna. She pulled back her blonde hair, and it accentuates her delicate features, her big eyes, and the way she purses her lips into a pout without even knowing it.
Fuck, she's as beautiful as she's ever been. And she's here, with me.
Alone.
“Hi,” I say, happy to see her.
“Are you doing this on purpose?” she asks and I realize she’s not in a good mood. She looks a lot like what I felt like earlier, in fact.
“What?” I ask.
“Are you trying to be difficult, or are you just not tuned in to what others want and need so you live only for yourself?” She crosses her arms over her chest and juts her hip out.
I raise my eyebrows. “Woah, that’s a big speech,” I say. “What the hell did I do?”
“You’re sitting here, far away from everyone, being a loner when the point was to hang out with the wedding party.”
Right. The wedding thing. “We have a lot of time to hang out in the next week still,” I point out.
She shakes her head. “So, not on purpose, then.”
I frown and shake my head. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re just selfish, that’s all.”
I laugh, shocked.
“Are you serious? I just walked away for a moment, and now you’re all up in my grill telling me what an idiot I am?” I stand from my seat on the rock and I tower over her. She’s delicate and petite. But in no way is she intimidated by me. When I stand over her, she looks up at me with fire in her eyes. Her fury is electric, and it's so fucking magnetic. Her lips draw my eyes.
“You can live the Brett Evans show any other day of the year,” she snaps. I'm fascinated by her mouth when she speaks. “But right here, for the next week, it’s all about Stacey and Marc, and we’re doing everything for them so that they can have their fairy tale and start off their life together with a happily ever after in mind.”
