Paradise island

4.Colby

Colby wished he could enjoy the journey, but the truth was, he felt like he was getting farther and farther away from their plans. Their good plans. The ones that included snorkeling in a great spot he'd found on TripAdvisor. He'd looked at so many photos of the place, he felt empty not seeing it live in person.

Instead, he was stuck in the back of an old Porsche van, listening to some lady who wouldn't stop talking about random, boring stuff; Trey, who, even though he was their age, dressed like he'd stepped out of a vintage stag film; and Nate, who kept egging Georgia on with his endless questions.

They should've been exploring, just the four of them, feeling free to yell if they so chose, being their goofy selves. Instead, Colby felt like he'd been taken prisoner by his parents for a visit to Grandma's house. Now he'd be made to eat dry cookies and look at old photos while being on his best behavior with Trey's grandmother.

Colby leaned his head against the window. At least the scenery was nice. He kept telling himself to appreciate nature, be grateful for his life. Not everybody got to visit Hawaii, and now he'd been twice. Be glad they'd be seeing the Na Pali Coast. But after the snorkel shop lady told them that only twenty visitors had been allowed on this part of the island the whole year, he doubted they'd be seeing the coastline with its rocky peaks overlooking the Pacific like Trey had promised. More than likely, he'd just said that to get them to come.

"So, how did you two meet?" Nate asked Georgia and Trey. At least he was handling the talking part, whereas strangers had to earn Colby's trust first before he could handle a conversation.

Meet? Colby sat up, craning his ear to hear better. He'd assumed

Georgia was a family member of Trey's, but now he was curious to hear the answer. "Oh, now, that's a funny story." Georgia threw her head back and laughed. "Well, it goes like this... A couple years ago, I was on a cruise ship with my girlfriends. We booked the cruise after I had an odd dream telling me I should get out of Kauai for a while, go do something new." Colby swapped glances with Sam. It's Kooky Lady Story Hour! "So, we did. We took a friends' cruise together. It left from San Diego and went to Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlán. It was November 11, the third night of the cruise. There we were, in the disco, dancing, having a fabulous time..." She gave them a knowing look over her shoulder from the passenger seat. "Drinking wine..."

She said it in the way older ladies sometimes did whenever they discussed alcohol or weed use, as if there were something super- secretly naughty about it. Colby imagined a bunch of fifty-year-old friends all getting drunk together. It was funny and weird to imagine at the same time.

"So, while dancing, my eye caught this handsome guy..." Georgia gestured to Trey in the driver's seat, quietly nodding with the oddest smile on his face in the rearview mirror.

Colby froze. So...they were a couple?

"And his eye caught mine. And wouldn't you know it? As he approached me to talk to me, one of my friends who was dancing, bumped into him by accident, which in turn made him bump into me, and then my red wine went flying all over my white dress. Not his button- down linen shirt. No-my dress!" She laughed. "It was just a comedy of errors, at that point, really."

Colby tried to imagine the scene. He pictured Trey wearing a button- down linen shirt about to hit on a lady who seemed older than his mom. It was laughable and totally in line with the guy who'd tried to teach him a life lesson back in L.A. but really had no clue.

"Oh, my goodness! He felt so terrible!" Georgia laughed. Colby waited for Trey to chime in and agree it'd been an uncomfortable moment for him, but he remained quiet. Nate, Alex, and Sam all chuckled politely, but Colby could only stare at Georgia openmouthed. Did people really meet like that, by bumping into each other and spilling wine as a conversation icebreaker? He felt like he was listening to the plot of an old romance movie, the kind his parents watched on Sunday afternoons.