Always the Bridesmaid

by Whitney Lyles

  “One should be fine.”

  Cate Strobel, she thought as she headed to her room. It had a ring to it. The Strobels. Paul and Cate Strobel. Cate Padgett-Strobel—in case she wanted to keep her last name. She kind of liked the idea of being a Strobel, of creating a life with Paul, and wondered when and if it would ever happen.

  Her thoughts drifted from a possible name change to paradise as she wheeled her suitcase across the hotel grounds. Stretched over an emerald lawn, the Maui Sheraton was situated behind a crystal-blue strip of beach. Trees, lush with blooming plumeria, covered the hotel grounds. Cate reached down and snatched a fallen flower from the lawn. She breathed in the sweet scent and tucked the flower behind her ear. She paused to listen to the live ukulele music near the pool. This was her kind of Hawaii.

  She decided to change into her bikini, leave Paul a note, grab a cold drink at the lounge, and head to the beach behind the hotel.

  Paul had left the air-conditioning on, and the room felt crisp and dry compared to the moist tropical air outside. The king-sized bed was made, and she noticed a note sitting on one of the pillows.

  Hola! I was hoping to run into you on my break, but I guess your flight was delayed. I should be finished around five, so I’ll see you then. I left some snorkeling gear in the bathtub. You should take a swim out to Black Rock, the point behind the hotel. It’s great! See you soon.

  Paul

  Perfect. She’d have plenty of time to get a base tan before Paul returned. She didn’t want him to see her neon body in a bathing suit. Then she’d come back to the room, shower, blow-dry, and slip into her new sundress from Bebe before he returned.

  She changed into her favorite black string bikini, then filled a beach bag with magazines, sunblock, and the snorkeling gear that Paul had left in the bathtub.

  Before she left for the beach, she left a note just in case he came back.

  Aloha!

  I’m at the beach! Meet me for a Mai Tai!

  Love,

  Cate

  Hawaiian music filled the outdoor lounge. The sounds of waterfalls from the pool blended with the music, creating a tropical atmosphere.

  She charged a pineapple juice to the room and headed to the beach. It was crowded. She had just laid down her beach towel when two kids went screeching past, kicking up enough sand to bury her towel. She shook off her towel and sat down.

  She made sure she lathered her entire body with sunblock. The last thing she wanted was a Vegas revival. For two hours she lay in the sun, occasionally flipping from back to front to even out her tan.

  When she started to feel the island heat, she waded into the crystal-blue water. It felt shocking at first and then completely refreshing. She snorkeled out to the point that Paul had mentioned in the note. Among hundreds of colorful fish she saw an eel and a stingray. She snorkeled until the Jaws theme song began to haunt her thoughts. She suddenly became aware of her skinny legs dangling like bait in the deep water. If a shark bit her legs off, their whole vacation would be ruined. She swam with full force back to shore without looking back, the whole time envisioning a great white shark taking her limbs with one massive bite.

  At four o’clock she returned to their room. After showering, she examined her naked body in the mirror. Her tan had turned out well. She hadn’t lain on her stomach much because she had no one to apply lotion to her back. Her cheeks were a little red but added a rosy glow to her typically pallid face. She chose to let her hair air-dry. The wavy look was appropriate for Maui, she thought. After applying a little makeup, she put on sweatpants and a T-shirt. She’d watch television while she waited for her hair to dry.

  She flipped through the channels. When Harry Met Sally, one of her all-time favorite movies, was on. She watched the beginning of the movie. Then at ten to five she slipped into her dress, put the plumeria behind her ear, and waited for Paul. She could hardly wait to see him, to feel his warm hugs, and to spoon with him in their king-sized bed later that night. She loved snuggling next to him. This was going to be such a fun week. The two of them in Maui, relaxing on white sand beaches, discovering the wonders of the ocean while they snorkeled together, passing the underwater camera back and forth. They would dine on shrimp cocktail in front of sunsets, growing closer to each other whenever they applied sunscreen to the other’s back. She was antsy with excitement and felt butterflies in her stomach.

  Six o’clock rolled around and still no Paul. The butterflies were driven away when her stomach growled. Curious to see what kind of food they served at the hotel, she searched the nightstand drawers for the room service menu.

  All of it was outrageously expensive but mouthwatering. They served everything from seared ahi to cheeseburgers. There were restaurants in the hotel, too. Perhaps those were cheaper than room service. As she thought about food, she remembered that she had not called Ethan to tell him she was going to Hawaii. He’d said he wasn’t expecting the photos for a couple of weeks. But she felt as if she should’ve at least told him she was going out of town, in case he needed them sooner. It probably wasn’t a big deal, but this was her first assignment, and she wanted to be professional. She decided to call him.

  She was actually kind of glad he didn’t answer the phone because she would’ve felt stupid, explaining that she was sitting in her hotel room waiting for her missing boyfriend. She left a brief message, explaining that she was in Hawaii and that she would have the pictures for him when she returned.

  After she called Ethan, she watched the local-access tourist channel. It was a complete guide to everything one could possibly do on Maui. All she heard about for fifteen minutes was the beautiful road to Hana. Apparently, Hana was the place to be. They showed clips of a hundred-foot waterfall and a bamboo forest. She’d brought her camera and eight rolls of film. It seemed as if Hana offered a million priceless photo opportunities.

  At seven-thirty she was tired of hearing about the road to Hana and was ready to find the road to a restaurant.

  He was two hours late and hadn’t called. She assumed he was in a meeting and couldn’t get away to call her. So instead of interrupting his business with a phone call, she left a note.

  Paul,

  I went to the cocktail lounge for appetizers and drinks. Sorry, but I am starving and can’t wait any longer. Can’t wait to see you! Meet me there.

  Cate

  She could’ve ordered three appetizers, she was so hungry. Why not? She thought. Charge it to the room. She settled on two: seared ahi and shrimp cocktail.

  From where she sat at the bar, she could see rays of sunlight setting over the ocean outside the hotel. A topless Hawaiian man with a tropical-print skirt lit tiki lamps with a long, burning stick on the patio behind the lounge.

  When her food arrived she immediately plucked a piece of shrimp from the plate, drowned it in cocktail sauce, and popped it in her mouth. While she worked on her appetizers, she chatted with the bartender, Chad. He had moved from Santa Barbara to Hawaii for the great surfing.

  She finished her dinner and talked with Chad until eight-thirty—eleven-thirty San Diego time.

  When she returned to the room, everything had been left in exactly the same position. There was no note and no sign of Paul. Her imagination ran rampant with explanations. What if he’d been in a car accident? What if he was being held at gunpoint by a Hawaiian thief? Or maybe he was just busy and hadn’t had the courtesy or sense to call her. She was torn between a tug-of-war of anger and concern.

  She dialed his cell phone. Voice mail greeted her after the fifth ring.

  “Paul, this is Cate. I’m here at the hotel, and I’m just wondering where you are. I’m starting to get worried. Please call.”

  She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her lipstick had rubbed off, and the plumeria in her hair was wilted. She pulled the flower from behind her ear and tossed it in the wastebasket. She kicked off her shoes and reached for the remote. It was impossible to concentrate on the television when all she could think about w
as Paul’s whereabouts, envisioning his abduction.

  Intuition told her that he was working late. But how hard was it to pick up the phone and call? She knew that part of his being a salesman involved wining and dining his clients. Sometimes his socializing took longer than planned. But what about common courtesy?

  She remembered the first few months of their relationship. He had traveled a lot, but if he was ten minutes or an hour late on returning a phone call, he provided lengthy, satisfying apologies, worrying that he’d upset her. Perhaps he was taking her for granted. Or perhaps he was leading some kind of double life that she wasn’t aware of.

  She began to imagine that he secretly had a girlfriend in every city that he visited, and Cate was just one of them. But then why would he invite her to Hawaii? She tried to be logical. He didn’t have time to cheat on her. He was just busy, and he would be home any minute.

  She must’ve dozed off because the next thing she heard was the front door slamming shut. Groggily, she sat up.

  “Paul?”

  “Hey! God. I am sooo sorry.” He was wearing khaki pants, a short-sleeved button-down shirt from Banana Republic, and sandals. “I got stuck with my boss. At the last minute he decided to have a cocktail mixer for this company. He said I’d be outta there no later than six, and I just got stuck. There was nothing I could do.” He sat down on the bed next to her and squeezed her knee. “Anyway, it’s great to see you.”

  “Why didn’t you call?”

  “I tried. I left my cell phone in the rental car, which was in valet, and I couldn’t remember the damn phone number here. I feel terrible.” He kissed her on the forehead. “So what did you do today?”

  “I went snorkeling in that place that you suggested, and then I went to the lounge by myself for dinner.” She didn’t feel like discussing her day with him. He was over five hours late. She was irked! “I waited for you all night. I was really worried.”

  “I’m sorry. I really am. I had not planned on this. But we can spend more time together tomorrow, and I don’t have any appointments on Wednesday, so we can spend the whole day together. We can do whatever you want.”

  “What kind of people do you work with on these trips?”

  He shrugged. “All kinds of people. Some of them are older and some of them are just like us.”

  “Have you been working with a lot of women lately?”

  He laughed. “No!” He turned his head to an angle and smiled. “ I think somebody is a little jealous.”

  “I’m not jealous. I just can’t help but wonder. That’s all.”

  “Well, you have nothing to worry about.” He playfully squeezed her boob. “You look cute.”

  She wasn’t in the mood for sex, and was relieved when he stood up.

  “I’m gonna take a quick shower and then we can . . .” He smiled at her mischievously. “Play.”

  She lay in bed listening to the drone of water rushing through pipes, and the muffled sound of Paul whistling. By the time he was finished showering, Cate was sound asleep—San Diego time.

  3 • Sampling

  Paul didn’t have to be at work until noon, so they spent the entire morning together. She’d forgiven him for working late the night before after he apologized profusely. Besides, he was here for business, and she’d just flown out to see him. The last thing she wanted to do was get in the way.

  They ordered room service and ate it on the patio. Then they went for a long walk barefoot on the beach. Shortly after they returned, Paul was off to his appointment.

  Before Cate went to the beach, she watched a little of the local tourist station on TV. Aside from the road to Hana, Hilo Hattie was the next place on her list to visit. She watched clips of a pseudofamily wearing matching Hawaiian-print skirts and leis as they browsed through the gigantic gift store, pointing out an assortment of Hawaiian souvenirs to one another. Maybe she’d go there the day before she left. Today she planned to soak up more sun and indulge in more seafood and fruity cocktails. Paul was supposed to return by six.

  As planned, she spent the day in the sun, the first part at the beach, the second at the pool. When she returned to the hotel room, the light on the phone was blinking.

  “Hola or aloha or whatever. It’s me. I have bad news. I won’t be home ’til around eight. I apologize. But after that, we’ll go out for some late-night appetizers. Then we have all day tomorrow. Anyway, I promise I’ll be back around eight. I can’t wait to see you. Adios.”

  At least he called this time. She still felt a flicker of annoyance but decided she would go to Front Street tonight. She’d kill her irritation with shopping. After all, Paul had paid for most of her trip, so she could splurge.

  She took a cab to Hilo Hattie. She had barely set foot in the store when a Hawaiian woman approached her.

  “Welcome to Hilo Hattie!” She slipped a shell necklace over Cate’s head. Then she handed her a shopping basket.

  “Thanks,” she said, surprised by the complimentary jewelry. Maybe she should return to the store seven or eight times, and should give necklaces to her friends and family at home.

  Hilo Hattie was a Hawaiian gift world. Racks covered with every variety of Hawaiian shirt, dress, and ensemble filled the store. A corner of the store was devoted to macadamia nuts. They sold every flavor known to man. There were beach towels, magnets, candles, shot glasses, hats, sunglasses, and every kind of Hawaiian souvenir one could ever want.

  She was holding three sundresses and two T-shirts when she exchanged her basket for a shopping cart. She tried on eight dresses, picked out one for herself, and moved on to searching for gifts for others.

  She picked out a Hawaiian-print shirt for her father, a package of stationery with blooming plumerias on it for her mother, plumeria-scented candles for Jill, Beth, Leslie, and Sarah, beach towels for Emily and Bradley, and a tiny, adorable Hawaiian-print dress for their unborn child, even though it wasn’t due until November, and she didn’t know if it was a girl.

  She bought everyone, including herself, a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. She picked out additional boxes of plain salted macadamia nuts, garlic macadamia nuts, and two boxes of chocolate caramel macadamia nuts. Beach towels and straw hats were so cheap she might as well stock up on those, too, so she tossed another towel and a cute straw hat into the cart. She loved Hilo Hattie!

  She was in the checkout line when she realized she’d been inside Hilo Hattie for two hours. Paul would be back by now. She quickly paid her bill and took a cab to the hotel. When she returned, the room was frigid. The air-conditioning had been left on full blast again. She turned the freezing air off and bundled up in the blankets.

  Hungry, she decided to eat some of her macadamia nuts. She set up a sampling station on the nightstand next to the bed. She lined up the boxes of plain, garlic, chocolate, and the chocolate caramel, then tasted each. She liked the chocolate-covered the best and polished off half the box by the time Paul returned. She’d been too engrossed with her macadamia nuts to be annoyed by his late arrival.

  “Well, I see you did some shopping,” he said when he noticed the Hilo Hattie bags piled next to her suitcase.

  “Do you want a macadamia nut?” She held out the chocolate caramels.

  “No. Thanks.” He set his briefcase on the bed. “Let’s go eat some real food.” It was midnight San Diego time, and she wasn’t particularly hungry. Maybe if he had been on time she would still be looking forward to dinner.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll go.”

  As they walked through the courtyard of the hotel, Cate wondered if Paul would go out to eat with her if she were four hours late.

  14 • The Road to What?

  They drove in Paul’s rented red Ford Focus to Hana. Whoever had used the car before them had ignored the Thank You for Not Smoking plaque mounted on the dashboard. The car smelled of cigarette smoke and sickly sweet air freshener with a coconut twist. Paul was behind the wheel, and Cate was in charge of navigating. She held the crisp ma
p on her lap. For several hours they drove around windy, skinny cliffs covered with gigantic tropical trees, blooming flowers, and thick green foliage. Occasionally, skinny long rodents resembling the offspring of a gopher and a dachshund ran across the road.

  “Christ!” Paul yelled every time he slammed on the brakes.

  They passed a poor weenie rodent that hadn’t made it to the other side. Cate wanted to cry for the dead animal.

  They heard the same Puddle of Mud song, “Blurry,” four times in one hour. Cate was beginning to suspect it was the island’s anthem.

  Rain clouds dotted the sky, but the air was warm, and sunshine occasionally seeped through the clouds. They stopped once to take a picture of a rainbow on the horizon.

  The tiny town of Hana was unlike anything Cate could’ve imagined. Settled on a cliff, it overlooked beaches covered with fine, grainy obsidian sand and white, foamy waves. Old wooden buildings and grazing cattle dotted the sprawling green pastures.

  They stopped at one of only three restaurants in town, a walkup window with a menu of sandwiches and hamburgers. They ate hamburgers with fries at a picnic table near the water, listening to the waves crash behind them. In Hana, the deep seas stretched to eternity, and Cate felt as if she were light-years away from the rest of the world.

  After they finished eating, they drove to the trail that led to the one-hundred-foot waterfall and bamboo forest. They changed out of their flip-flops and into tennis shoes. Right before they set out for the journey, a forest ranger warned them that the hike would take at least forty-five minutes each way. Cate couldn’t wait.

  The trail was rugged. Giant vines from surrounding trees created tricky and treacherous grooves in the earth. She felt giddy with excitement as she passed each priceless photo op. She took pictures of the bubbling waters of some of the smaller waterfalls and streams they encountered on the way to the big one. She captured the vines in the earth and the huge lime-colored leaves that grew like lily pads from the trees. She snapped at the overhangs and cliffs that plunged into deep valleys of nothing but greenery.