He goes over to the fridge and pokes around before coming back empty-handed to stare out the window again. His eyes follow the ferry as he rocks back on his heels, lost in thought. Sam looks trapped in this fancy hotel room, and I want to take that blank expression from his face.
“Let’s go out on an adventure,” I say impulsively. “You and me.”
Sam raises his eyebrows. “I am somewhat frightened.”
“I’m hurt by your skepticism. All my ideas are good ideas.” He opens his mouth and I steamroll over him. “Get your things.”
“You want to go now? In the rain?” He acts like it’s acid falling from the sky.
“Are you a witch that you’ll melt if you get wet?” I move past him to open the balcony door and stick a hand out. “It’s barely spitting.”
“I might be seen.” I can hear the waver in his voice and want him to say yes. It would be fun to go out. On a date? It’s not a date. Is it? What constitutes a date anyway?
“In this weather?” I shakes my head. “I don’t think so. The islands are busy in the summer but less so in bad weather.”
“An adventure, huh?”
I slide the balcony door back shut. “It’ll be good, I promise.”
He mulls it over and then grins and gives me a light, quick kiss that makes me blink with surprise at how natural it feels. “It will, with you.”
Sam goes to get ready and I first press my fingers against my lips because, wow, kissing Sam never gets old. Then I wonder if I’m a complete dumbass to be dragging Sam out in the rain for an outdoor adventure when I could have suggested we have indoor ones.
Maybe later.
Finally, I check for the umbrella that must come with the room because I know rich people don’t have to remember to bring things like that when they travel. I only have one so I knock on Fangli’s door. Mei answers and waits for me to speak.
“Do you have any umbrellas?” I ask. “Sam and I are going on a date so I need two.”
Her face freezes. “Pardon?”
“Not a date,” I rush to explain. “A walk. It’s not a date-date. Do you think Fangli will be mad?” I can’t ask if she and Mei want to come because we can’t be together.
“Excuse me.”
She shuts the door in my face. I stand there, shocked. Mei is never rude. Cold, yes, even abrupt, but never rude. Then the door opens and Mei hands out an umbrella.
“Oh, thanks,” I say. “Uh, everything good?”
“Have a nice day.” This time she waits until I turn to shut the door.
I let it go—Mei is an eternal mystery to me—and go to meet Sam.
“Where are we going?” He takes the umbrella I hand him. I realize Sam doesn’t have many surprises in his life—everything is scheduled—and decide to make him wait to know.
“You’ll see.”
It’s a twenty-minute walk, and Sam badgers me about our destination the entire way, laughing when I give him increasingly silly locations.
“The elevator at the end of the world?” he repeats. “You just said it was the invisible shopping center.”
“Could be the pioneer village near the underpass.” He gives me a doubtful look, since this could be a real place. “Kidding, the pioneer village is further north. We’re here.”
“The ferry terminal? We’re taking a ferry?” He lights up.
Sam is as excited to get on the ferry as I’ve ever seen him or any person. As predicted, hardly anyone is going over to the islands in this weather, and Sam relaxes a bit under his umbrella, holding it high to read the signs.
“Do we want Centre Island, Ward’s Island, or Hanlan’s Point?” he asks.
“Hanlan’s has the nudist beach.”
He wiggles his eyebrows at me. “I’m game if you are.”
“You’re wearing a face mask and a hat so low you look like the invisible man in disguise,” I say. “You expect me to believe you’d go to a nudist beach? Where the entire point is to be naked?”
“Well, I doubt they’d be looking at my face.”
Don’t look down. Don’t look down. I keep my eyes straight. “We’re going to Centre Island.”
The ferry arrives in a few minutes. Sam climbs the staircase to the upper level and leans over the side, breathing in deeply. “I love the smell of water,” he says.
“Ocean or lake?”
“Ocean but lake will do. I have properties on both.” He catches my glance. “Grossly overindulgent to have multiple homes?”