"you have the address?" your boyfriend daniel asked.
"yeah." you gave him the address and he put it into the gps. you had just landed in hawaii and we're in your way to a beautiful villa that you'd be staying in for the next week.
"i can't wait to get there. babe you should've seen the pictures. it's a beautiful villa right on the beach. there's palm trees everywhere and the water is beautiful. and there's a pool and a hot tub in the backyard of the villa and there's a hammock," you said. "i've been thinking about laying in a hammock in hawaii for months."
"i know." daniel grabbed your hand as he pulled out of the rental car lot and onto the roads.
it was your two year anniversary and you wanted to take daniel somewhere special. he was always busy with his band and touring, you wanted him to have a nice vacation. fortunately for you, daniel had a month long break and your anniversary was that month. so you decided to rent a villa on the beach for a week.
you had rented a jeep, so you took the top off and let the wind blow through the car. daniel held your hand and you leaned your head back against the seat, enjoying the sun and the wind blowing through your hair.
after about half an hour, daniel said you started getting close. he didn't sound very excited, though. you opened your eyes and looked around.
"where's the ocean?" you asked, looking around.
"um..."
"maybe i put the address in wrong," you said. you looked at the confirmation email and checked it with the gps. "it says it's right."
you clicked on the email and it took you to the airbnb website.
daniel pulled into the driveway of an old house that looked like it was falling apart.
"daniel, i have no idea what happened. i think i got scammed or something."
"but you said you called and emailed all those people to make sure that everything was right."
"i did. and i paid for a villa on the beach."
"well babe, this isn't a villa and this isn't the beach."
"i can see that daniel. i don't need you making me feel bad."
"no, i'm not trying to make you feel bad."
"i don't know what to do." you shook your head.
"okay how about this, we'll go inside and we'll call a bunch of people to try and figure it out, okay?"
"okay." you nodded and both got out of the jeep. you went up to the door and used the keypad to unlock the door. you went inside and we're hit with an awful smell. the walls were falling apart and here were stains everywhere.
"this can't be the place that we're staying." you shook your head. "i don't even wanna sit down anywhere."
"okay so there's two numbers we can call. the person renting this place and then the person in charge of the whole thing. so we'll all the first person first."
after almost an hour of arguing back and forth with the guy over the phone, you had gotten nowhere. he said that the place was exactly what you paid for while you argued that the website showed a beautiful villa on the beach.
you were stressed out of your mind and all you wanted to do was cry. you were pacing all around the house, trying not to scream.
you then decided to call the person that was higher up than the first guy you called. this time the voice was a woman's. you explained the situation and how you had called the other guy first.
the woman apologized for the inconvenience, then told you that she would try everything she could to figure something out. she said she'd call you back as soon as she found an answer.
"daniel?" you called. you stared walking to the living room, but were horrified when you stepped on something crunchy. you looked down and saw a dead cockroach under your shoe. you gagged and ran to the living room.
"i just stepped on a cockroach!" you exclaimed when you saw daniel.
"babe, come here," he said.
"that guy i talked to was so rude. he said it was all my fault and that i should've read the description more carefully or something like that but he was just being an ass and totally inconsiderate-"
"babe," daniel said more sternly.
"what?"
"look," he said pointing to the backyard. you looked outside and saw a hammock hanging between two trees. he backyard looked a lot nicer than the front or the house.
"come on." daniel grabbed your hand and walked you outside. he dusted off the hammock and lay on it, opening his arms for you. you sat on the hammock and lay next to daniel, cuddling him.
"i know this is all stressful, and i know that you feel bad because it's our anniversary and you wanted us to just be able to relax. and i know that you're freaking out because you want to fix everything. but you gotta just calm down and relax. i know that this sucks, but we're still in hawaii. and we're in a hammock together right now and that's what you've been looking forward to. and even if we don't get a refund or anything like that, we can find a cheap hotel to stay in and just drive to the beach everyday. i promise you that whatever happens, we'll deal with it and we'll still have a good time. just take a few deep breathes with me okay?"
you both breathed in deeply then let it out. you turned on your stomach so you could look at daniel's face.
"thank you for keeping me from actually going insane," you said. he smiled and pecked your lips.
"did you call the other number?"
"yeah, she said she'd call me back if she found anything useful." just the. your phone rang. you answered it, hoping that she was able to fix everything.
after about fifteen more minutes talking to her, you hung up with a smile.
"so she said that she wasn't aware that the man we rented from was renting this place and not a villa, i don't know how but that's what she said. she can't get a full refund, but she can get us enough of a refund to rent a villa that's closer to the beach. and it has a hammock too."
"that's great!"
"yeah. she said that we'll have to wait until like five before we can go over there because hey have to finish cleaning it, but then we have it for the week."
"well until then we can just lay in the hammock."
"mhm."
"see i told you it'd work out." he kissed your head.
"yeah yeah, you're always right." you chuckled and wrapped your arm around his torso, holding onto him and relaxing. you soaked in the sun and the feeling of daniel's body next to yours.
you felt a huge relief from your shoulders and were no longer worried about what would happen. you knew that you and daniel would have an amazing trip and an amazing anniversary.
*****
