Page 5 of A Quick Stop in Paradise

“I’m not like you,” she said. “I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with being like you. You’re probably the only person I’ve seen who’s really happy being here,” she laughed, but her expression fell again, looking down at her drink. “I just… don’t know how to have a casual connection with someone and leave it at that. If I like someone, I really fall for them hard and I’m all in, everything. I can’t just be with someone for a week, or… or even just a weekend.”

I leaned against the bar, cleaning a shaker—not really like it needed cleaning, just for something to do with my hands, thinking it over before I said, “Have you tried?”

“Tried what?” She raised her eyebrows at me, and I shrugged.

“Tried being with someone just for a week.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I just told you, I can’t do that kind of thing.”

“How many girls have you even been with?”

There was the critical blow. She withered a little, hunching her shoulders, a little color spilling into her cheeks. “Does that matter?”

“Is it zero?”

“It’s not zero!”

“Is it one?”

She looked away. “It’s more than one…”

“Two.”

She mumbled something. I laughed.

“You’re young. Two’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Anyway, I’m guessing both of them crashed and burned spectacularly and left you broken inside and hollowed out forever.”

“I thought bartenders were supposed to talk to you and make you feel better, not worse.”

“Just saying.” I set the shaker aside, leaning over the bar towards her as a breeze came rustling through the pavilion, tasting sweet with the ocean air. “You try to get it perfect and findthe onewithout any missteps along the way, it’s going to fuck you up. Trust me. You might not believe me, but I made that same mistake.”

She gave me a look that was exactly as skeptical as I’d expected. “You? Overly romantic?”

“I know. I was awful, too. Got all up in other people’s business telling themif you’re not dating for marriage, you’re dating for heartbreak.Totally looked down on anyone who dated a bunch or who ended multiple relationships. I guess one thing that never changed was me being a busybody.”

“I really have a hard time picturing that…”

“Well, picture harder, because it’s true. But now I think I’ve matured a bit, and… well, dating’s just like everything else in life. You have to mess up a bit, here and there, before you get it right. And going into it with the intention to make it work doesn’t have to meanhinging everything on it being your one true love.Same as anything else. If you’re new to painting, you go into a painting trying to make it good but you let go of the results and accept it’s probably not going to work.”

She chewed her cheek. “Are you saying I have to practice falling in love? That sounds weird.”

“Just saying to take the pressure off having the perfect setup for the perfect relationship with the perfect woman. Sometimes it’s good to have a low-stakes environment to test in and see what happens. Or just to try something even if it’s not a perfect forever love story, just to enjoy the time with someone.”

She scowled. “I’m still not dating a guest. That’s bad policy.”

“Ah, no one cares. Besides, just because it’s temporary doesn’t mean it can’t become forever. It’s really easy to stand on one side of the ocean and think the water goes on forever, but we can’t see forever. Trying to think of forevers gets us all in trouble and has us making promises we can’t keep. So, all that is to say,” I said, standing up, “if there’s another hot girl around, you should absolutely hook up.”

“You just always have hookups on the mind.”

“Hey, so what? You saying you wouldn’t at least think about it?”

She huffed, looking away, as if I couldn’t see her blushing. “Thinking about itis different than doing it. Especially with straight girls, closet cases…”

“Uh-huh.” Of course, I got it, kind of. Hooking up with a guy was easy—I did it all the time. Hooking up with a girl, here with her parents, who she wasn’t out to—that was trickier. When it was about more than just hooking up? God forbid. I didn’t think anything in the world could persuade me into that.

“I hear there’s a rush coming through soon,” I said, pushing away from the counter. “Better get a move on if you don’t want to get crushed by sorority girls. From what Greer said, seems like they’re graduates, so not only are they old and decrepit like me, they’re also the type to still do sorority trips after graduating college, so double whammy. You’ll have to look for those cute closet-case girls somewhere else.”

“I’ll throw my drink on you,” she laughed, but she’d threatened that a lot of times and she’d only done it once, so I was good with taking my chances.

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