Read Here Today, Gone to Maui for Free Online Page A

ears. He looked really, really cute.
    “I had to make some business calls, and I didn’t want to wake you. So I drove out to a beach and called from there. When I was done, I jumped in the water—felt great.”
    I was a little hurt that he’d gone swimming without me, but I was happy about the business calls. Every step toward a more solid business meant a step toward a more solid relationship. Right?
    “I’ve been on the phone to my office, too,” I said. (Translation: I have not just been sitting around waiting for you to return.) “I figured I’d catch people before they went to lunch. Who were you talking to?”
    “People around here, mostly,” he said. “Trying to set up some meetings.”
    I glanced at the clock. “You left pretty early. Did you wake anyone up?”
    “Nah—divers get up with the sun.”
    “I called my mom, too,” I said. “She wasn’t home, but I left a message. Did you tell your parents we were coming here?”
    He shrugged. “They don’t care what I do. I travel so much, it would be hard to keep up with my schedule.” Jimmy had grown up in Lancaster, a desert town about a hundred miles inland from Los Angeles, but his parents had moved to Arizona shortly after he graduated from high school. He’d said, “We’re just not very close—nobody’s fault really, we’re just totally different people,” but I always got the sense that he was hurt by their semi-abandonment.
    “I’d like to meet them sometime,” I said casually (and not for the first time).
    “Sure,” he said (as he always did). “Next time they’re in town.” He fingered his shark-tooth necklace.
    “New jewelry?”
    He glaced down at the neckace. “I thought a shark tooth was more manly than a lei. I bought you something.” He reached inside the white plastic bag that said ABC STORES in blue lettering.
    “This is for you.” He handed me a string of white shells on a cardboard backing.
    I smiled. “A bracelet?” Jimmy had never given me something “just because.”
    “An anklet,” he said.
    “Really?” The happy feeling spread through my chest. “I’ve never owned an anklet before.”
    “I kind of figured.” He dug into the bag again and pulled out a plastic-wrapped muffin. “I thought you’d be hungry.”
    “I am.”
    “I had one, too,” he said. “It’s not very good. I think your muffins have ruined me for anyone else’s.”
    “I think you’ve ruined me for anyone else,” I purred, slinking toward him. He circled me and held me tight.
    “I have to leave you,” he muttered.
    “What?” I said, too sharply, stepping back and looking him in the face.
    “I have a meeting today. Well, two meetings, actually. One in”—he checked the digital clock by the bed—“forty-five minutes. And the other one for lunch.” He bit his lip. “I’m sorry, baby.”
    “Oh,” I said, stepping back. “It’s no big deal. I’ll just—swim. And explore. And read. I brought a whole stack of books.”
    “You’re the best,” he said, kissing my forehead before heading to the shower.
     
     
    As disappointed as I was, there was no point letting the morning go to waste. I could settle in and do some necessary errands.
    A quick check of the brown plastic cabinets revealed salt, pepper, rice-wine vinegar, soy sauce (“please refrigerate after opening”), and curry powder. Far in the back was a tin of baking powder, probably left over from the last millennium and presumably inactive. An exploration of the lower cabinets turned up a rusted cake tin and two warped cookie sheets that just might fit in the toaster oven. And, oh—two fondue pots. Because no Hawaiian vacation would be complete without fondue.
    The condo office was three doors down from our studio. Jimmy had left me in the car when he’d checked in the night before, so I hadn’t seen it yet. I expected something dark and shabby, and I wasn’t disappointed. The room was deep and narrow, with only one parking-lot-view window to let in