"No, Syd. Some of them were more than one night stands. But I wouldn't say that any of them were my girlfriend, other than when I was 16." His tone was getting stronger and more defensive.
"Define girlfriend." I thought maybe we had different definitions of the terms.
He was quiet for a minute. "Someone you see on a regular basis that you care for and have a mutually exclusive relationship with."
Okay, so I couldn't chalk his answer up to a difference in a definition. How could this gorgeous man who just took me to his favorite spot to show me the stars not have found someone to have a relationship with. There must have been women clamoring at the opportunity. "I can't imagine you lacked the opportunity, is it the mutually exclusive part that you weren't interested in?"
He was quiet for a long moment. I liked that he didn't just spit out an answer for the sake of hearing himself speak, as many men would have done. He seemed to give my questions due consideration before he responded. "I enjoy sex and spending time with women. But I have my business and a life and I guess I never found anyone that made me want to complicate things."
"Complicate things?" You see having a girlfriend as a complication?" I couldn't hide the appall in my voice.
His tone changed and I could tell he was getting more defensive. "How did your relationship end? I'd call that complicated."
I rolled back on my back and took a deep breath. He was right, relationships were complicated. A week or two of fun with someone like we were doing now, was probably much more simple.
Jack lifted himself and brought his face close to mine. "I'm sorry babe, I didn't mean that to come out the way it did." He kissed me chastely on the mouth.
"It's okay. I think it only bothered me because you are probably right. I always believed in happily ever after, but maybe those endings really are only for fairytales."
"No." I jumped at his booming response, startled; his voice was stern and unexpected. "You deserve a happily ever after, don't listen to my shit." He lifted himself up and reached out his hand to help me up. My stupid questions had upset him again. Jack had given me a great day at the beach, a fun dinner with friends and a sweet evening under the stars and I ruined it with more prodding.
The drive home seemed longer than the drive there. We both were quiet and our conversation was limited to discussing the radio station and Jack pointing to a few landmarks as we passed by. It was the first time since I met him that there was any uncomfortable silence.
I could hear the music blaring and people having fun at the outdoor poolside bar, as we passed through the open air lobby. "Do you want to go have a drink?" I wanted to change the mood, but wasn't sure how to do it.
"I have to get up early in the morning, the guys and I are taking a day trip over to the island of Paui for an all day fishing trip. Our flight leaves at 7am." His voice was distant and my heart sank at his response. He was ending our fling. I knew what it was when it started, but we had so much fun and chemistry, I let myself get lost in it. I couldn't let him see me get upset.
"That sounds like fun." I did my best perky and carefree impression.
Jack walked me to my room, and I tried to hide my disappointment. He kissed me and watched the door close before leaving. It was the first time since I met him that we didn't make any plans to see each other again. Inside my room, I didn't cry, although I was sad. Sienna was right, I had started to have feelings for Jack and needed to be careful and see it for what it was, a rebound fling.
Chapter 7
I woke to the phone ringing the next morning. The hotel manager had heard about Sienna and I singing at the bar a few nights ago and wanted to know if we would fill in for the lead singer at the resort's nightly themed party. The band's lead singer had come down with the flu and the backup they usually used was in Maui working a wedding that night. I wasn't really in the mood to sing, but the manager's desperation made me feel guilty knowing that I could help him. Plus, technically, the hotel was my employer, and it wouldn't look good if anyone heard that I refused to help out with a singing gig, when I was available. I reluctantly agreed and told him that we would come down and rehearse later in the afternoon with the band.
Sienna was in surprisingly good shape that morning and seemed genuinely excited about our gig when I told her about it. We decided to spend the day at the beach before our rehearsal. We both put on our bikinis and sarongs, big floppy hats and filled out straw bags with tabloid magazines and ipods.
The beach was quiet and we found two loungers near a straw hut. We positioned our chairs to face the sun and both tilted our chairs back to lie on our backs.
"What happened with you and Jack, I was surprised to find you in our room when I came in this morning?"
"He said he had to get up early for a fishing trip to an outer island this morning." I wanted to hide the disappointed in my voice, but Sienna knew me too well.
"Oh. I didn't think that man was going to let you out from underneath him the whole week. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I just assumed it was going to last the whole week too, but I think the fling has flung and we are done." I tried my best at casual.
"Well, whatever it was it seemed to work, you didn't spend the first few days of our honeymoon talking about that asshole Michael at least." Sienna smiled at me.
She was right. I barely even thought about Michael the last few days, unless I was comparing him to Jack and he was landing on the light side of the scale. I'm sure she had expected me to be sad and reminiscent about my years with Michael on our trip, after all we were on the honeymoon that I had planned to spend with Michael. The odd thing was that I missed Jack more than Michael.
"Who could think of Michael with Jack as a distraction?" I smiled.
"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself with him. If you're done, can I have him now?" Sienna teased.
A quiet day on the beach was just what I had needed. We soaked up the sun, went for a swim, had pina coladas and read trashy magazines together. It was girl heaven. By early afternoon the sun was scorching and Sienna decided that we needed to go island shopping for our show that night. We hopped on the hotel shuttle bus and headed downtown to the shopping district that rivaled most big cities.
As was our tradition since sixth grade, and we were allowed to go to the mall ourselves, we spent the first hour of our shopping excursion picking out outfits for the other to try on. I always found frumpy things for her to try on and she always made me try on the sluttiest dresses she could find. We wandered in and out of stores; our arms linked and faces smiling, as we got lost in our own little world.
We eventually settled on coordinating outfits. We didn't match our outfits when we performed together, but we always coordinated something between what we wore. Some times it was a similar color, or a similar style, this time we had found a coordinating flower and skirt length. I picked out a simple white strapless dress that hugged my curves. It was short, but not too short where I would be giving the front row a private show if the stage were more than a foot off the ground. Sienna picked out a black tank dress, with a dozen chains around the waist that hung as a belt around her hips. We bought two large hot pink flowers to put into our hair and tie our outfits together. It worked to tie our outfits together and gave us an island look.
We worked up a set list with the band that was half their regular songs and half our picks. The crowd was light at first, but the party started early for a vacation schedule. By ten thirty the crowd was big and we were getting lost in our performance. We took a break and had some water and then our first song back was one of our own originals. It was a ballad, where I sang the lead and Sienna joined in on the chorus. We wrote the song in our senior year in high school, when things seemed much simpler. "Missing half" was about a couple that meets and falls in love, and they realize that each was the other's missing half. I closed my eyes as I sang it and let the emotion of the words wash over me.
When the last note played, I felt drained and opened my eyes to a huge applause from the crowd. I smiled and looked around, spotting Jack leaning against the corner of a doorway staring at me. My heart skipped a beat when our eyes locked. Everyone else seemed to be applauding or smiling, but he just stood there watching me with a serious look on his face and a drink in his hand. I directed a small smile at him and tiled my head in question toward him. He held up his drink in cheers and I watched as he drank the full glass empty.
Sienna knocked me out of my monetary haze. "Hey, that was incredible, Syd. We should do a cover song now to bring the crowd into the show. Something they know so they could join in."