Chapter 2 #2
“She’s just as pretty as Talia, but the poor girl must have overheard you since she looks like a Disney princess who got her book stolen by the big bad hunter,” Shanel’s whisper was urgent.
“The tourist?” Lolo asked loudly, and now he, Timmy, and Preston were turned in their barstools as Shanel urged all of them to mind their own business.
So not Talia. That was good news. But then Koa’s body went cold. The tourist. And she’d overheard every cruel thing he’d said about her. A retelling of their story that was fueled by anger at his ex more than the situation she’d actually caused. But she didn’t know that.
“Koa, she’s leaving,” Shanel said as she elbowed him in the side.
“She does look like Talia,” Timmy practically yelled.
“Nah, she’s even prettier,” Lolo added his two cents.
The beautiful woman was headed toward the door. The poor tourist was about to leave without knowing that Koa hadn’t really meant what he’d said. She didn’t deserve to overhear what she had, especially with Lolo and Timmy’s added commentary.
Without thinking, Koa stood and jogged out of Puka’s.
With hurried steps, the pretty tourist was almost to a white sedan.
Koa’s gut clenched as if he’d just been punched. She didn’t look any less like Talia now.
Koa ignored his churning emotions and called out, “Hey!”
The tourist paused without looking back.
Koa could see her indecision. Should she stay or should she go.
Koa took advantage of that moment and jogged so that he was close enough to speak with her but not so close as to make her nervous.
He’d led a conversation bashing her at the bar.
He was sure he wasn’t her favorite person right now.
He waited, hoping she’d turn to look at him. They stood frozen, her back to him, for what felt like a few very long minutes before she turned on her heel to face him. As she did so Koa was hit with every emotion Talia had ever evoked in him. He closed his eyes. He needed to get ahold of himself.
To make things worse, Lolo was right. This tourist was somehow even prettier than Talia. And where Talia’s eyes had been blue, the tourist’s were green. He’d try to keep his gaze on the one major difference between the two women as he spoke to her.
Koa ran a hand through his hair. Now that she was just standing there looking at him, he should have had a plan. But he had nothing. His blank mind reminded him of all the things Talia had told him he’d lacked.
“Um,” Koa began.
“Yes,” the tourist responded impatiently.
Right. He guessed he deserved that.
“I-I just wanted…I-I mean…” Koa tried to begin.
“Stop stuttering and say whatever you need to say,” the tourist spat.
Suddenly Koa was ten and his mom was yelling about him being too dumb to talk right. Then nearly two decades later, Talia had mocked that same stutter. The stutter that kept him from being smart enough for a woman like her.
“You shouldn’t have been here,” Koa said, his emotions and thoughts jumbled completely.
“That’s what you stopped me to tell me?” the tourist stood tall, looking pointedly toward her car.
“Yes, I mean not exactly,” Koa answered, and judging by the ire in her eyes, he’d answered incorrectly. But who was she to say he wasn’t right. She wasn’t even giving him a chance to talk.
“I can understand why you’re mad, but if you can just give me a minute to think.” Koa was a calm guy. He didn’t do confrontation. And this was why.
“Why are you out here? To make sure your friends and everyone in the restaurant know who the dumb tourist from your story is? Not only did you mock me, but now everyone can put a face to the idiot tourist!”
This wasn’t going well, and she wasn’t giving him time to think.
“I didn’t mean for you to hear any of that,” Koa tried to explain. He knew that wasn’t what he wanted to say, but he was having to give words before he was ready to give them.
“Right. So it would have been fine to mock me behind my back. That’s courageous. You don’t know me. So stop labeling me a dumb tourist because of one horrific experience. Did you know I thought I was going to die out there in the ocean?”
“I wouldn’t have let that happen,” Koa replied, knowing he should be explaining other things instead of responding with that.
But he just couldn’t think. Talia’s last words were now running through his mind.
She’d yelled at him like this. She’d also said he didn’t know her.
Except with Talia, he had known her. They’d dated for years. She’d loved him. Or so he thought.
“Oh, because just like I should have known ocean safety when I’ve never been taught ocean safety, I should have known that the perfect, Hot Lifeguard would be there for me in my time of need?
” The tourist slapped a hand over her mouth, her face going red before she turned on her heel once more, this time running to her car.
She fumbled with her keys as Koa stood frozen. He’d come out here and made things worse. He should have said he was sorry.
He smacked his forehead. He hadn’t even said he was sorry. Of course her hackles were up.
“Sorry!” he called out as she got her door open.
She turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed as she shook her head.
But in that shake, Koa could see that the tourist was no longer angry. She was sad. He’d hurt her. And now he was even more sorry.
“Maybe I would have believed that if you had said it when you first got out here. But I think it’s too little too late now,” not-Talia said before she got in her car and drove away.
Koa stood watching the car leave the parking lot, a hollow ache in his stomach. This wasn’t like him. Koa was the guy to save people. Fix things. Protect people. He didn’t hurt people.
He turned and slowly walked back inside Puka’s.
All he could hope was that the tourist’s next encounter with a local would be better.
Her visit to Maui could only go up from here.
And when she went back home after all of this, hopefully she’d only remember that other kind, considerate person and totally forget about him.