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I dump it into the blender instead and drop the peel in the compost. Gabe has already figured out what I’m making and covers both blenders.
With great flourish, I lift both arms and slam my hands down on the power buttons.
The blenders whir to life, one spinning a red blend, and the other a creamy, pale-yellow froth.
I shut them down, lifting the glass jars from the bases. I raise the red one higher. “Lava!” I shout. Then I lift the pale one. “Flow.”
I lift the red one again, and the crowd understands. “Lava!” they shout.
Then the pale. “Flow!”
I keep it going.
“Lava!”
“Flow!”
“Lava!”
“Flow!”
Gabe removes the lids, and I pour both of the frozen colors into the coconut, not even trying to be neat. They form a red-and-yellow swirl that spills over the edge. I lift the coconut in the air.
“Lava flow!” everyone shouts.
I turn to Gabe. I know we’re supposed to give the drink to the judges, but I bring it over to him.
I lean in to lick the overflow drink from my side, and he knows what to do. He licks his side.
And then something happens that I didn’t plan. I don’t know if it was an accident, or a miscommunication, or if we got caught in the moment.
But when both of us reach the top of the sloppy, dripping lava flow coconut, we meet above it.
In a kiss.
The crowd goes wild.
Chapter 12
GABE
What the hell are we doing?
I’m vaguely aware of the crowd cheering and the slosh of frozen lava flow on my feet. But mostly I’m feeling Tillie’s lips, the press of her nose to my cheek, wisps of loose curls brushing against my forehead.
The sound is muffled, like I’m underwater. Maybe I’m drowning. Maybe this is some afterlife. My entire body rushes like the ocean wind is passing through my skin.
But then she pulls back, her mischievous eyes a fiery combination of blue and the colors of the sunset. She’s amused by what we did, when I kissed her. Or she kissed me.
She looks down at the coconut and laughs that it’s tilted, half of the contents on the floor. She quickly hauls it over to the judges.
People call out orders for the lava flow. Everybody wants in on it. I’m still in this weird spacy place, like I’m in a dream and hovering on the edge of waking up.
Pete touches my arm. “Bodeen is going to carve coconuts until his arm falls off. Take as many orders as you want.”
I nod at him, trying to get my bearings, hoping to get the world to right itself. Tillie kneels in front of me with her bar towel, mopping upthe spill and wiping my feet. This causes another whirling sensation to knock me off my equilibrium.
She’s just a woman. Flesh and blood. She’s not the rainbow mermaid. There is no such thing.
