A Very Important Guest (6 page)

“Sure.”

After they parked along the road, she led them around the rock. He admired the power of the ocean breaking through it. “Wow. It’s like Old Faithful in
Yellowstone
.”

“I’ve never been there. Is it cool?”

“Very.” He looked around and nodded to the sandy beach below, surrounded by ancient lava flows. “That beach is pretty.”

“It is. It’s the beach in
From Here to Eternity
.”

“I’ve never seen it.”

Thinking of the movie’s famous sex scene filmed on the beach,
she bit her lip and mumbled,
“Oh, it’s a World War II flick.”

“Can we go down there?”

Her smile froze as she grasped the situation. She’d never been to that beach, but she had plenty of friends who had. For a few of them, it was for a late-night reenactment of Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr’s romp. She gazed at Will and thought of where she found herself. It was far away from the fun-free life she’d been leading until the day before. Should she take it one step further? He was incredibly sweet and handsome, and the idea of having the lifelong story of sex with a congressman on an iconic beach was not lost on her.

Then she did something completely opposite of her nature. She didn’t weigh the potential negatives. They were far too depressing. He was right there, and she didn’t want to contemplate the devastating emptiness she’d feel once he was gone. She looked down at the beach one more time and made a snap decision. “That’s a pretty wet beach. If we want to sit, I should get a blanket from my car.”

“Okay.”

As she walked to her car, a rush of giddiness hit her. He’d taken in stride her reason for a blanket. After all, they might just sit on the beach and maybe make out. But spending her young adult years in
Hawaii
had taught her many things, including that a blanket was key to sex on a beach. Otherwise sand found its way into every orifice.

They trekked down to the beach with the blanket in tow. Abby spotted a secluded area, which she guessed couldn’t be seen easily from the street above. Like a gentleman, Will spread the blanket out for them, and like a lady, she sat with her legs tucked demurely under her skirt. When Will skipped the sitting and immediately lay down, she laughed. “Getting comfortable?”

He tugged at her arm. “Come here beside me. We can look at the sky.”

Soon she was at his side, with his arm around her as he pointed out constellations. Just at the moment Abby wondered how much longer the tour of the heavens was going to go on, it stopped. With no warning or lead up, Will kissed her, and things moved quickly.

Kissing turned into playful wrestling, which turned into passionate writhing. Within moments, she felt he was rock hard and urging himself between her thighs. As he reached up her skirt, he murmured, “Should we be worried about being seen?”

“If anyone sees us, they’ll leave, and if they don’t have good manners, they’ll only watch from a distance,” she said.

She wondered if her honesty would stop him, but the glint in his eyes was not that of a cautious politician. He was a man fixated on something he wanted without regard for anything else. He placed a slow, deep kiss on her mouth as his hand ventured further up her skirt. In minutes, the congressman showed no signs of concern over being naked and entangled with an equally naked woman on a public beach.

What started as a frantic tumble slowed down when they finally sank into one another. It was so deliberate and intimate, that a moment before she unraveled she realized they weren’t having sex. They were making love—or at least she was. She looked to see if the connection was there for him, but his eyes were elsewhere. She couldn’t tell what was going on with him at that moment besides pure lust.

Afterward, he covered her face with kisses and whispered compliments, and though she drank in the sweetness, there was a tension inside of her. She wanted to relish the connection between them, but she couldn’t stop the creeping fear that she’d just self-sacrificed her heart.

Burying her concern, she cracked jokes along with him as they found their clothes. A voice inside nagged at her to leave as soon as they were dressed, but Will had other ideas.

He sat back down on the blanket and held out his hand. “Come here.”

“Okay,” she said and joined him.

With his arms around her, they cuddled and talked into the night. When the conversation waned, she thought he might make a move to leave, but he didn’t, and she was torn. The negative feelings kept bubbling up, yet the comfort of his touch was too soothing for her to tear herself away. As the moon splashed across the beach, she felt her eyes droop from the long day.

When she woke hours later, she was on her side, facing Will, whose limbs were protectively around her. He took the even, solid breaths of someone sound asleep. Looking up at the moon, she guessed it was very late.

“Will,” she said with a gentle rock of his arm.

He sneered in annoyance and grabbed her more tightly.

“It’s really late,” she said, smiling at his touch.

He opened his eyes, and a smile soon replaced the frown. “Hey. I fell asleep.”

“I did too.”

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Why would I want to do that?” He laughed. “A beautiful woman asleep in my arms on the beach in
Hawaii
. Are you crazy?”

She laughed, but the same pang hit her again. She began to worry what she had intended to be a fling for her was actually a fling for him instead. On the drive back to
Waikiki
, doubt began to consume her as soon as he said, “I leave in two days. Early Saturday morning.”

She nodded but never stopped looking at the road. The fact was he was leaving her alone again. She wanted to kick herself for being a cliché. She was a stupid island girl who had fallen for a tourist. She’d cleaved herself to an ephemeral guy, and not just any guy. Will was a congressman for christsake—a high-profile man with power who probably drew women to him like moths to light. He would never be without female attention as long as he was in office. Lost in her dilemma, she found the most mundane response. “Where are you flying to?”

“I connect in
San Francisco
and get into
Cleveland
really late.”

“That’s hard.”

Deafening silence ensued. During that time, she recounted all of their conversations and realized she knew little about him. She knew nothing that gave her any understanding as to where she might stand in his world. When she could endure the silence no longer, she stole a glance at him. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you dating anyone right now?”

“Given our evening together, I think that’s an appropriate question.” He chuckled. “The answer is ‘no one special.’ What about you?”

Abby desperately wanted to hang her head. After all she’d told him about her life, could she bare her soul even more? She couldn’t, so she lied. “Same here.”

The truth was there was no one at all. She and Jesse had broken up right before she’d put her mother in the nursing home. As her mother had deteriorated, so had their relationship. She didn’t blame him, though. She was the one who’d been distant, and it was the distance that killed them. From then on, she’d began her solitary life, one that revolved around a daily waft of nursing home smells, her senior thesis, a newfound power-of-attorney, and hotel toilets.

Dating of any kind wasn’t on the agenda, but Will didn’t need to know that. Anyone who was dating “no one special” was dating more than one person, none of them special. Abby felt like a notch on his belt. She’d been taken with a sweet, handsome congressman who obviously wasn’t taken with her.

She put on the brave face she kept close at hand and changed the subject. “Where do you live in D.C.?”

With no traffic after midnight, the trip back to the hotel was fast, and she kept the conversation filled with questions about living in the nation’s capitol. When they arrived at the hotel, she again pulled into a parking space across the street. “Here you are,” she announced.

His brow furrowed, and he touched her hair. “I wish you could spend the night, but I’m guessing that’s out of the question.”

She nodded furiously.
And not just because I work here.

The lines on his forehead deepened, and his lips turned down into a slight grimace. “Too bad.” He leaned in for kiss.

“Yes. Too bad,” she said and kissed her congressman for what she figured would be the last time.

After breaking the passionate kiss, he brushed her cheek. “Until tomorrow, then.”

“Yes, tomorrow,” she said. It was the whitest of all the lies she could’ve told him, because she didn’t plan on seeing the man again.

* * *

The following day, Abby did something she rarely did. She skipped seeing her mother. Even though she was free with no classes or work on Thursdays, she decided she wouldn’t make the journey over the Pali.
Honolulu
was the last place she wanted to be.

She expected a call or at least a text from Will by the afternoon when he saw she wasn’t coming into work, but when the first text arrived at eight in the morning, she was surprised.

Morning. Can’t wait to see you today.

Her heart crumpled, but she kept her feelings in check. She wanted to see him as well, yet she couldn’t because they wanted to see each other for different reasons. She wanted to feed off his warmth and charm, while he most likely wanted to have a laugh or two and get laid. She deleted the text.

The next message popped on her phone’s screen two hours later.

When are you getting to work today? I want to be around.

“Humpf,” she said. That one was easy to delete.

Another one appeared on the dot at noon.

Where are you? I miss you.

Staring at the screen, she whispered aloud, “I miss you, too” and closed her eyes to stop the tears which demanded to be released. He might truly miss her, but seeing him would only hurt her more in the long run. She shouldn’t deepen her self-inflicted wound. She turned off her phone, thinking she didn’t really need it on anyway. If she was going to stay at home, the nursing home would call that number if they needed her.

Later that evening, she looked up from working on her laptop at the kitchen table when she heard a car pull into the drive. She quickly found her calendar on her computer—had she forgotten an appointment with the realtor? She really wasn’t presentable. When she saw her night was clear of commitments, she exhaled in relief. Guessing it was probably a neighbor checking in on her, she started for the door.

She peeked out the living room’s sheer curtains and saw what looked to be a rental car. Rental cars were distinct on the island because locals avoided buying any car that might mistake them for a tourist. She frowned, not knowing who it might be.

The doorbell chimed, and she went over to the peephole. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she stepped back from the door to assess the situation. Her car was out front, so it was obvious she was at home. She looked down at her cut-offs and tank top.
No bra. Shit.
Her hair needed brushing, her face needed washing, and a quick sniff of her armpit said her whole body needed scrubbing. She was a disaster, but she had to get through this, and she knew she could.

The bell rang again. Swallowing hard, she reached for the doorknob and opened it to see Will, his hands in the pockets of his shorts and his face full of concern.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” she said in a squeaky voice.

“I’m sorry to intrude, but are you okay? I got worried about you.”

After years of self-protection when asked about her feelings, Abby had become an unusually good liar. She sighed and said flippantly, “Just busy. Sorry about not getting back to you.”

He twisted his mouth as his expression became more troubled. “It’s okay. Do you want to get dinner?”

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I’m kinda’ swamped. Not tonight.”

Will nodded, but it was with a slow motion that signaled suspicion rather than understanding. “What about tomorrow?”

As she raised her hands, she came close to telling him the truth. “I don’t know. You’re leaving on Saturday morning. Shouldn’t we just leave it with last night?” She smiled at the end, hoping that would stop the conversation.

He scowled and shook his head incredulously. “No. At least not for me.” He looked around the portico as if he was trying to contain his anger. “What the fuck is going on? Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No,” she said, feeling a chink in her armor.

“Then what is it? You’re not acting normal.”

She grasped for a defense. “You don’t know me.”

“You’re right, but I know you well enough.” With each word, he became angrier. “And I know people. I’m a fucking politician. I can tell when something is up.”

The fierce look in his eyes made her sputter. “It’s just … just … you’re leaving. I’m staying. That’s it.”

“That’s it?”