But I didn’t see him again.
Days passed. Then weeks. I kept the phone charged and even adopted it as my own—let’s face it, it was way nicer than my five-year-old device. Plus, someone else was mysteriously paying the bill every month, so I figured I might as well get rid of my Galaxy and use the one he gave me. At least until he showed up to take it back.
But he never did.
Life went on as it had before him. I worked all the hours that I could, helped my mom with Dad, talked to Albie on the phone about how much he hated Connecticut, went surfing at dawn by myself. Rinse, wash, repeat.
I tried not to think about how my life, which had been perfectly fine before the Fae King’s arrival, suddenly seem dull and colorless.
I mean, yeah, he was hot and a crazy good kisser. And sure, he’d made me crave sex in a way I hadn’t with Brad…or anyone else for that matter. Also, there was that big wave energy he exuded. I couldn’t remember ever feeling the way I do when I surf outside the ocean. Those kisses, though—the way he consumed me like a monster barrel…no, I’d never felt anything like that.
But whatever. I’d only known him for, like, a second. He couldn’t be what had me feeling so listless after Mika and Albie left.
I blamed my trudging through the days on other stuff: I was bummed about not being able to buy that surf school. I missed my sister and nephew. Let’s face it, living at home with your parents at the age of twenty-seven wasn’t most people’s idea of a good time. I knew that when I gave up my pro surfing career.
And it was fine. I was fine. Everything was fine.
But when the weeks became months, I finally broke down and asked my sister for Faizan’s number, even though I knew how she would respond.
“YESSSSSSS! I’m so glad you asked me. I’m sending his contact card as we speak. This is going to be great. Faizan is just incredibly kind and wonderful. You’ve got to call me after your first date and tell me every single thing that happened.
“You know I’m not going to do that,” I answered, my voice bone dry.
“If you don’t, I won’t send you his number,” Mika threatened.
“It’s too late. You already sent it. I’m looking at it right now.”
“Well, I’m taking it back if you don’t promise.”
“That’s not how text messaging works,” I let her know.
“It can be. I think Barron has some special, top-secret way to ghost delete messages from people’s phones—Barron! Barron, where are you?” she called out on the other side of the line. “I need you to make my sister act right!”
Just in case my sister’s super-genius charge could do that, I texted Faizan right away to see if he wanted to hang out.
He texted back yes in an instant. However, our definitions of hanging out were crazy far apart.
I’d figured we meet up at a shrimp truck or something. But he texted a couple of days later that he was able to get a reservation for Cyan at the Tourmaline Waikiki Grand—you know, one of the few restaurants in Hawaii where you actually have to dress up. On Valentine’s Day night!
Crap! Crap! Crap! But I supposed that was the price of dating a grown-up.
I borrowed a hibiscus-print dress from my mom and met twenty-years-from-now Jazz in the mirror. For a moment I forgot if I was going on a date or to Bible Study at my church.
I threw one of her light cardigans over it, but that only made the dowdy effect worse. It was a flower print too—like everything in my mom’s closet, including the plumeria cross-body bag she loaned me to replace my usual fanny pack.
“Seriously, mom, why?” I asked as I stared at the image of the woman she turned me into in her standing mirror. I looked like a flower garden had vomited all over me. “How do you live like this?”
“We could go shopping,” my mom offered.
“I’m supposed to be meeting this dude in less than an hour at the Tourmaline.”
Now it was my mother’s turn to demand why. Why would I wait until right before the date to ask her for a dress? Why didn’t I put more effort into my appearance? Why didn’t I try harder with men? Why didn’t I take her sensible Nissan instead of my crappy Jeep?
Why, why, why all the way out the house.
“You’re too young to be living your life this way!” she wailed after me as I climbed into the perfectly practical Jeep everybody seemed to want to malign lately.
But Faizan made all the trouble worth it.
It had been months since we saw each other last, but we fell into conversation like it had only been a few hours.
