Once Upon an Island

Arya doesn’t answer.

I look at Kate and Renee. Kate crinkles her eyes and holds back a smile, but she doesn’t say anything.

“What?” I turn to Renee. She’ll tell me. She’s a straight shooter.

Renee smirks and then brushes her cheek. “You’ve got a little something. Right here.”

I reach up. There’s a sticky substance on my cheek. I look at my finger. It’s chocolate.

“And right here,” says Renee. She dabs her nose.

“Are you kidding?” I ask.

“And here,” says Kate. She touches her chin.

I yank out my phone and flip the camera to look at myself. My face is completely smeared with melted chocolate. I drop my phone and stare at my friends in horror.

“You jerks! You let me go up there smothered in chocolate.”

They all start laughing. “It was funny,” Kate protests.

“Funny until the face police called me a sad, self-pitying singleton,” I say.

But then, I can’t help myself, I start to laugh too. Because I look ridiculous, and the billionaire turned out to be a real Moby Dick, and my friends are awesome, and coming to this brunch was way more fun than sitting at home eating ice cream in my underwear.

“Question,” says Kate.

“Yeah?”

“Are we still planning to land the billionaire and his friend?”

I shake my head. No way. No how. “I’m out.”

“Good woman,” Renee says.

“I’m in,” Arya says.

I give her a look.

“What? His friend could be nice.”

I shrug. He could be.

“Well, it’s not for me. I’d rather end up a sad, self-pitying single old lady gorging myself on chocolate then marry that pompous, tropical shirt-wearing toad.”

“Too bad,” Kate says. “He’s practically begging you to marry him and then divorce him so you can take half his fortune.”

I choke on a laugh and then shake my head. “No. Not even for that. I have standards to keep. I promise you, I’ll never, ever date or marry that pompous, pretentious man. And that’s the end of that.”

This may be a small island, but if there’s any luck in the world, I’ll never have to see him again.