A Time of Love within this Blackened Land

Katie - February 19

Crazy as it sounds – and I know it does – three days after the infamous phone call, I'm on a plane to Hawaii with no bikini in my carry on, which is also extremely crazy considering the destination. As Jake said, it's just a quick trip so I take only the essentials: two changes of clothes, my toothbrush and a pair of flip flops. Oh, and some make-up for before getting off the plane but just enough for a natural look. He does not need to know how much I care about looking pretty when he is around.

When I get off the plane and turn on my phone I receive a selfie of him at the airport followed by his exact location. As I'm trying to come to terms with my GPS about which direction I'm supposed to go, I distractedly walk through the gates into the main lobby and run head first into a guy who seems to have intentionally placed himself at the worst spot in the whole airport.

"Hey! What the-"

And then I smell his perfume and, out of nowhere, the tears start gushing out. I don't really know where they are coming from. Is it because of grandma? Is it because I really needed to see him... to smell him? Is it because I'm fully aware that this is the craziest shit I've ever done in my life and I don't want to admit that I'm terrified about it? Maybe all of them? Yeah, that sounds about fine.

He grabs my chin and gently moves it upwards so that he can look into my eyes. He wipes my tears away with his thumbs and kisses my lips sweetly.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey," I say.

I hug him and take in a deep breath of his scent. It feels so right that I almost don't care about people glaring at us as they try to go through the gates.

"We should move," he whispers as he caresses my hair.

"Yeah, thanks for coming for me. I honestly didn't know where to go."

"And I honestly couldn't wait to see you."

He sounds so confident that I have to step back and take a look at him to double check that I'm not hugging the wrong guy with the same perfume. When I do, I notice that he's wearing my bandana –the one I used to tie his hair at the docks. I also notice that, contrary to the way he sounds, he looks super nervous.

"Alright, I just noticed that's my bandana on your head. I feel robbed," I say in an attempt to break the ice as we walk away from the gate.

He laughs and I can tell that he has already loosened up a bit. "Don't worry. You'll get over it."

"I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that it looks so much better on you than it does on me."

"That's not true," he says as he smiles shyly.

He takes my hand as we walk silently to the car he rented for the day. When we get in, I notice him going over and over the words he wants to say.

"Should I ask?" he says, finally.

"Not really," I say simply. Cold as it may seem, I need to unwind. It just hurts too much to even think of losing her, let alone put it into words.

He nods understandingly and turns on the car. As he drives, we both stay silent. I have no idea where we are going but anywhere is okay to me as long as he's there. I'm so grateful I found him at such an awful time in my life. I sometimes wonder if I feel this close to him just because I need someone to rely on so badly. It can't be that, though. The leg shaking and stomach squeezing every time my eyes meet his can't come from such a shallow place.

He finally pulls up near a little beach which looks deserted. He stretches to the back seat to grab his bucket hat and his guitar, which I hadn't even noticed was there, and gets out of the car. I get out too and, when he starts walking towards the beach, I follow him instinctively. I'm in awe of everything around us. He places the hat on my head without a word as we walk down some steps and follow the curve of a gigantic rock to our right which looks hand carved. Then we get into a huge hole in it which looks like a cave but is not as deep or dark as one.