Broken Wide Open: A Stand-Alone Romance

by Susan Griscom

  He presumed a lot. And…I was whining. Why was I so hell-bent on hiding away? Part of me had come here for revenge, didn’t I? Well, not really revenge, but a bit of consoling my hurt ego. Yeah, okay, revenge. Using Craig’s money to take this lavish trip without him. It was the best form of retaliation I could come up with on short notice outside of sleeping with Joel, Craig’s best man, which would never happen. I looked at Leo. I wasn’t totally against his persistence. I did enjoy his company, and there was a certain gloominess to the fact that I was staying at a vacation resort inhabited mostly by honeymooners and staying in a honeymoon suite. Alone. What harm would it do to spend some time with Leo, even though I knew I’d never see him again beyond this trip? Though maybe that was a good thing. I did want to spend time with him. Why wouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t I? I wasn’t married. I had no boyfriend. Just go with the flow, Grace. Live a little. I gave in. Happily.

  The porter arrived, and Leo let him take my suitcase and bag, but he followed along with us all the way. When we reached the cottage, Leo gave the guy a ten-dollar bill.

  “Thank you for that, but I could have tipped him myself,” I said after the porter had left.

  “I’ll let you buy dinner.”

  “Buy dinner? This is an all-inclusive resort. I suppose I could leave the tip.”

  “We aren’t eating here.” He grinned at me, and then his left eyebrow rose in question as his eyes roamed up and down my body. I wore a short, soft, white sundress. “You haven’t been anywhere on this island other than this resort. You should change into something not so white, though. Do you have any shorts?”

  The color of my dress hadn’t escaped me, and I wanted to run to the other room and rip it off. I glanced at my suitcase sitting in the middle of the space. Still packed. Again. I did have the denim shorts and another pair of light blue ones I could change into. I glanced around the cottage. It was larger than the bungalow over the water and had a separate living area, complete with bar. I’d bet the fridge was stocked with booze and sodas. “Help yourself to something from the bar, and I’ll go change.” I left Leo in the small living room and went to the bedroom with my suitcase in tow. I placed it on the rack and unzipped it. I thought about hanging some stuff up, but then I decided to just find the shorts and a top. I did put the black dress I’d purchased the other day on a hanger. I didn’t know where or when I would wear it, but I didn’t want it to get wrinkled.

  I slipped into the light blue shorts, deciding they looked a little nicer than the denim ones, and paired them with a blue-and-white-flowered tank top. I’d actually thought ahead and packed some running shoes. I hadn’t worked out at all since I arrived, but again, being over the water kept me cabin bound more than I would have liked. I did need to get out, and I was glad Leo was so insistent. It would be good for me.

  Chapter Six

  Leo rented a small car, and we stopped at a little café with a deck that looked more like a boat ramp with a shack posing as a restaurant stuck at the end of it. We ate a late afternoon/early dinner of crab and Ahi poke outside at a long table, talking about the different places he’d had the pleasure of visiting because of his work. I was in awe of his good fortune. I’d always wanted to travel to all corners of the Earth, and now as I watched his animated expressions when he spoke of some of the places he’d been to, it made me a bit envious of his profession.

  After dinner, we headed up into the mountains. We drove past jungles rich with foliage and trees with vines indigenous to the tropical paradise as Leo explained some of the local habitat to me. I was surprised that he knew so much about the island, but then I supposed that was part of his job to know about the land as well as the sea since it would seem the sea creatures and environment of the ocean floor would change depending on the land surrounding it. Leo was not only extremely pleasing to the eye, but he was also very intelligent, and I found myself caught up in every aspect of the man.

  After about forty-five minutes, he pulled to the side of the dirt road and stopped the car. We got out, hiked inland a bit, and then headed up a narrow trail to an old ruined and abandoned village. Broken stone etched with writings and pictures, and remnants of building walls aged by years of neglect and erosion were interspersed with trees, vines, and bushes, taking me back in time for a brief moment as I thought about what life must have been like for the people who’d shaped this island. Then Leo took hold of my hand.

  Shock mixed with tingling excitement flowed through me. It took me a minute to realize that he was simply guiding me as he said, “Come on. You have to see this.” His voice was barely a whisper as if he didn’t want to disturb any of our surroundings. I smiled and went with him. When he stopped walking, he let go of my hand, and I glanced up at his face. The awed, tranquil expression on his beautiful visage surprised me. My eyes followed his gaze, and I had to catch myself as the gasp of what I saw flowed from my mouth. When he let out a heavy sigh as we stared out over the terrain and ocean below us, I realized there was so much more to this man than I’d originally thought.

  “Oh,” was all I could utter, the word lingering on my lips as though it were stuck on my tongue. I was awestruck by the vision before me.

  “There was no way I could let you leave this island without seeing this.”

  “Thank you,” I managed, as my eyes took in the deep blue of the ocean stretching out into infinity before us as well as behind us. The dense jungle spanning below seemed untouched by humans. “This is amazing.” I looked behind us at some of the old, ruined walls that used to be a building. “What was this place?”

  “An ancient place of worship. The natives would come here, the highest reachable spot on the island, believing that they were closer to their god.”

  “How do you know all this stuff?”

  “I read brochures.” He chuckled. “Remember, I normally come to places like this alone, so I have plenty of time to investigate and read about local fare.”

  This is beyond gorgeous. I pulled my phone from my pocket and snapped a picture of the beautiful view. Leo glanced to his right and tapped my shoulder. “Let’s have a seat.”

  I followed him over to a flattened rock just big enough for two people to sit, and we watched the majestic sights. As the sun began to set, I knew instantly why this spot had been chosen by the early natives as a place of worship. My mind and spirit filled with regal inspiration and a special closeness with God and the forces of nature as the sun sank down below the horizon. The sky was filled with the beautiful hues of blood orange and pink as several clouds gave definition and purpose to the colorful rays flowing through them. This place yielded a view of both sunset and sunrise depending on which way you faced.

  “I’ll tell you a secret if you tell me yours,” Leo said.

  He wanted to know the truth of why I was in Bora Bora alone. I sucked in my lips as we sat on the rock staring out into the horizon. I did want to tell him. I needed to talk to someone about what had happened, and sitting beside this man—a stranger but not a stranger, a man whom I knew I’d never see again after next week—somehow made me want to talk about it.

  So I told Leo the sordid details of my failed, three-hour marriage. It hadn’t been as difficult as I’d thought it would be. Talking to him was like talking to my best friend—one who hadn’t slept with my husband. He didn’t make me feel as though I were confessing to being unwanted and unloved, or admitting that I had been foolish enough to love a man who would do something so despicable. He simply sat and listened. When he didn’t comment for a while, I thought maybe I’d made a mistake. That maybe he did think I’d been a fool.

  Then he let out a heavy sigh as if he’d been holding his breath.

  “I’m sorry that happened to you,” he whispered, still staring out into infinity. Then he added, “You didn’t deserve that. Hell, no one deserves that.”

  “Yeah, well, I did get a small amount of revenge.”

  “How?”

  “I took the honeymoon without him.”

&nbs
p; “Ah.” He nodded with a smile. “Smart. He’s an ass. I’m glad you decided to take the vacation and celebrate the good fortune of dodging that bullet. Once a cheater, always a cheater. Or so the saying goes. But in my experience, I do believe that’s true. I don’t know what state of mind you are actually in at this moment, but I can only guess that your heart’s been broken so completely, it would be plain cruel and stupid for even a temporary guy like me to try and squeeze in and mend the jagged edges he must have left.”

  Leo surprised me, and wow, if I could have opened up and let him in, I was positive it would be fantastic. But I liked that he understood. I also liked the way he’d changed it to “vacation” instead of honeymoon. He was right. I should be celebrating not being married to Craig. Telling Leo, a stranger—well, not a stranger anymore but a temporary friend—about what had happened became therapeutic, and a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. The disgrace Craig had caused dissolved away. Maybe it was the knowledge that our friendship or acquaintance was only temporary that made it so easy to talk to Leo. There was no fear of how he might see me in the future. I no longer felt dejected or sorry for myself. Instead, I was grateful to have experienced this wonderful trip and met Leo, but I knew this friendship we’d started to develop would soon come to an end when we left this island. I didn’t want to think about that.

  “Your turn,” I said.

  “Right. Today is my birthday.”

  “What? That’s not fair. But happy birthday. Why would your birthday be a big secret?”

  “Because I never tell anyone when my birthday is, and now you know.”

  “Why don’t you tell anyone?”

  “Because I hate my birthday.”

  “Why on earth would you hate your birthday?” The idea perplexed me since I’d always loved mine. It had always made me feel special, as it usually did for most people.

  Leo shrugged. “One secret for now, that’s all you get.”

  We sat there, still and quiet, for a short while longer, watching the horizon until the colors began to fade into the ocean along with the sun.

  Leo broke the silence. “But here’s another secret.” He kept his eyes forward toward the ocean view and spoke softly. “Just so you know, Grace, if we weren’t here under such dire circumstances, and this had any chance of lasting beyond this week, I’d take you in my arms right now and kiss the ever loving fuck out of you. And after I did that, I’d make the sweetest love to you so you’d never think of another man again. Ever.”

  I gulped as the rhythm of his voice danced into my heart, caressing tenderly, making me tremble with desire. My thighs tightened, my buttocks clenched.

  My cheeks flared with heat. The wetness between my legs begged me to let him take me.

  Leo cleared his throat. “We should head back now before it gets too dark. These mountain roads can be tricky.” He stood and held out a helping hand to me. I took it, and secretly never wanted to let go as we headed to the car.

  We barely spoke all the way down the hill. I think we were both still bewitched by what we’d just witnessed and what he’d just admitted to me to try and make any attempt at trivial small talk.

  The next day, Leo talked me into snorkeling. It wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated as we walked into the ocean from the beach directly in front of my cottage rather than jumping into unknown depths and an abyss from the deck of the bungalow. Of course, that was my own freaked-out imagination. I understood that, but regardless of how deep the water was out there, I still didn’t like the idea of not knowing what lurked beneath. This way, I had the sand between my toes the entire time until I got up the courage to float on my tummy. Seeing the ocean floor just a few feet from me was comforting, even when Leo, who’d held my hand the entire way, led me out into the deeper water. Getting there gradually was a much better way as far as I was concerned.

  Leo was the perfect gentleman every time we ventured out on any excursion, keeping true to his non-sexual relationship with me. I almost wished I hadn’t told him about Craig and had just let him have his way with me, living in the moment, not caring about next week. But it was too late because inside that hard, sexy body of his lived a decent guy who cared more about what I was going through than the pure pleasures of mindless sex.

  Leo and I spent the next three afternoons exploring the island together after he’d finished his work. We visited a few more local restaurants, flourishing with island fare. I laughed at his silly jokes and giggled uncontrollably as I watched his sexy attempt at an ancient native dance during one of the late-night beach parties we’d attended. I’d snuck a quick picture with my phone when he wasn’t looking. Later, after everything had settled down and most of the guests and employees went back to their cottages and bungalows over the water, Leo and I took a walk along the edge of the sand. It had become our nightly ritual before saying goodnight to each other. It was romantic, even though we never talked about that. He knew from early on that I was vulnerable. Any attempt at romance would have shattered me to pieces. My poor broken heart was still too bruised from what Craig had done. And then Leo told me something that I didn’t understand, but I was too afraid to press for more information.

  “I told you that you didn’t deserve to be treated the way your ex treated you, but I want you to know that there are far worse things in this world than being cheated on by some asshole. Take it from me. I’m not the best man in the world for you either. I’m not proud of everything I’ve done. Just know that there are worse things that could happen, and you need to move on and forget about what he did. You’re better than him, you’re better than me.”

  Early on the fourth morning, there was a knock on my cottage door. It was Leo. He stood with his bags in hand. He wasn’t there to take me on another adventure. He claimed he needed to leave. His work was done, and he had to return home. I hadn’t been prepared for the sad news, as he’d never mentioned anything the night before.

  “I didn’t realize you would be leaving so soon.” I tried not to sound disappointed, but from the tone of my voice, it couldn’t be helped.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mention anything last night. I didn’t want to spoil the fun we were having.” I nodded. He was right, of course. I was semi-thankful I hadn’t known. Goodbyes were hard enough without having the weight of them linger in the back of your mind all night long. Would it have lingered in his? I didn’t know.

  I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat threatening tears and managed to smile. “That’s okay. It’s probably better you didn’t. Thank you for taking the time to show me the island.”

  “It was my pleasure, Grace. I’ve enjoyed your company.” His eyes roamed over my face and down to my lips. Would he kiss me? I slid my tongue over them in anticipation. “I’m glad we got to spend this time together. Too bad all of my business trips can’t be like this.” He smiled and glanced at his phone that he held in his hand. “I have a flight to catch, so I have to get going, but I just wanted to say goodbye and thanks.”

  Goodbye-goodbye? Why did it have to be goodbye? I wanted to wrap my arms around him and beg him to stay. He could stay with me in my cottage. We could hang out for another few days together. Leo had turned this trip of revenge and hate into something fun and exciting. There was still so much of the island that we needed to explore. His jaw twitched, and he swallowed, making his Adam’s apple protrude. “I have a meeting first thing tomorrow morning that I can’t miss,” he said as though he’d read my mind, knowing I wanted him to stay. Then he bent his head down and kissed me on the forehead.

  “Take care of yourself, Grace,” he whispered close to my ear before turning, and I watched him walk away and out of my life.

  Chapter Seven

  I spent the next few days lounging on the beach. Reading, mostly. Leo’d left me the snorkeling apparatus, and I even braved the shallow water a couple of times, venturing out a short distance, but never went out beyond where I could stand. It just wasn’t as much fun without Leo pointing out the differe
nt species and later laughing with me as we sat on the beach sipping fruity cocktails, nibbling on plates of island delicacies such as Poisson cru, which had become my favorite. It consisted of mainly raw tuna—I’d always loved sushi—but this was amazing, marinated in lime juice and mixed with a blend of vegetable broth and coconut milk. It was delicious.

  The night before Leo left, we’d enjoyed a private dinner on this very beach in front of my cottage. It was perfect watching the sunset as we sank our toes into the sand while we ate. He had my side aching from laughing so hard at some of his childhood antics and his adventures living by the ocean. I decided to do a beach dinner again, only this time, without Leo. It was my last night, and I didn’t want to go to the dining room and sit at a small, round table alone, watching all the romantic-looking couples. Leo had shown me how wonderful this island could be, and now I realized that I didn’t need a man to sit with me to enjoy it. Though I did miss Leo’s company and wished we could have started some type of relationship. But we both knew it was pointless, and I wasn’t the type to have a week-long fling with a man whom I knew I’d never see again. For all I knew, Leo lived on the opposite side of the world from me now. Hell, we’d never even told each other our last names. It just never seemed important, so even if I wanted to find him someday, I couldn’t. It was quite possible that Leo was married and that’s why he’d never shared much about his personal life except for his profession, but I didn’t want to think that about him. To me, he would always be the friend I’d made during a very difficult time in my life. An honest and true friend. One I would never forget.

  PART TWO

  Chapter Eight

  Two months late r.

  “I just don’t understand why you need to go somewhere else to live, Grace.” My mother’s persistent badgering was beginning to weigh heavily on my shoulders, and my mind filled with guilt. “There has to be a job somewhere here in Ukiah that you could take. I hate the idea of you moving so far away.”