Page 10 of Pallas & Kawehi

She sat down in her seat and looked at the little paper knot on the table. “Okay. I’ve never seen that before.”

He chuckled and laid his chopsticks on it. “Keeps me from using my napkin to put the chopsticks down.”

She nodded at the idea. “Something tells me I should have given you chopsticks instead of a fork and a knife.”

He shrugged. “Maybe, but you didn’t know me then.”

“And I know you now?”

“Almost.” He reached out his hand and she reached across the table to shake his hand. “I’m Domenico Pallas.”

She blinked a few times as she let go of his hand. “Domenico Pallas. That’s a… a lot of name.”

“Really?” He picked up his chopsticks again. “I’ve heard some long names here in Hawaii.”

She blushed. “True. Very true. You know I’m Kawehi.”

“I do.”

She might not have blushed if his voice didn’t sound so delicious saying those words. They might not be the best memory of her life, but that didn’t stop her from thinking Domenico’s voice sounded like heaven saying them.

Realizing that she’d fallen silent, she stumbled over her next words. “My name is Kawehi Phillips. I mean…” she huffed at her own faulty memory. “Kawehi Carter.”

He paused with a bite halfway to his mouth. “Carter?”

She nodded and decided to just tell him. No sense in trying to pretend that her life wasn’t as ridiculous as it was. “Kawehi Phillips is… was my maiden name. God, I hate that word. ‘Maiden.’ I married a few years ago. So I’m Kawehi Carter.”

He set his chopsticks down again, this time across the lip of his bowl. “You don’t sound all that happy about it.”

She saw his quick furtive look at her left hand.

“We’re… separated?”

“You sound like you’re not sure.”

“Well, I’ve been trying to divorce him for more than two years. He hasn’t been helping.”

“That sounds like a reason for divorce.”

She laughed, but it was an awkward sound. “Well, there were a lot of reasons, but now I think he’s just stringing me along. He left the islands and left me behind when I was trying to serve him with papers. I don’t even have an address to serve him with divorce papers. So, I guess I’m Kawehi Carter for… the foreseeable future.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she waved a hand trying to dismiss the feelings that always threatened to make her cry, “you weren’t the one who married him.”

“Have you tried to talk to his boss? Maybe they have an address for him now?”

She hesitated for a moment and she could see him shake his head.

“He’s in the Marines, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. He was stationed at KBAY.”

PALLAS

Well, fuck.

He meets a woman that makes him smile and he finds out that she doesn’t have the greatest impression of Marines. Not because of the military, but one marine in general.

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