“Bullshit,” Paul said succinctly, and it was very rare that I heard him swear.
I couldn't help smiling a little. “If you say so.”
“I do,” Paul said. He shook his head. “Don't spend your whole trip worrying about what's happening around the office. Have fun. Come back when you're good and ready.”
Chapter Six
Gretchen
I sighed and stretched, still feeling a bit sleepy but knowing that I had to get out of bed before it got too late in the day. I had never been the type of person to laze away the entire day in bed. That was just a waste, as far as I was concerned. Anyway, it wasn't as though there was anything worth staying in bed for.
Even though it was Tuesday, I didn't have any appointments on the schedule that day. I still wasn't entirely sure how that had worked out, but hey, I wasn't complaining! Instead, I grabbed a book and went out to my front porch, lying down in the hammock that I had strung up out there. For a moment, I just swung there, enjoying the warm breeze and smiling at the palm trees, at my tropical life. Then, I opened the book to where my bookmark was and began to read.
I was getting into it when Mina hopped up the steps onto my porch. “What a beautiful day, huh?” she said.
I smiled and put the bookmark back into my book. I was right in the middle of a juicy scene, but I knew that Mina wasn't going to give me time to finish it. Sure enough…
“Why do you read those things anyway?” Mina asked, getting a glimpse of the cover of the book. “You'd be better off keeping up with world news. Those silly romance novels are just filler.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Because you do s
uch a good job keeping up with world news?”
“Yeah. I watch The Latest religiously, and I read a bunch of different magazines, and-”
I burst out laughing, unable to help myself. “Mina, entertainment news hardly counts as world news,” I told her.
Mina shrugged. “It's news, and it happens in the world. It's world news. And you never bother to keep up with any of it. You can't imagine how much drama has gone down just this week.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, I don't care about any of that stuff,” I told her. “Who kisses whom and who wore what. I just don't see why any of that matters.”
“Well, how are you ever going to meet a hot millionaire if you don't even know who the hot millionaires are?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye.
I laughed again. “You're ridiculous,” I told her succinctly. “Sure, there are plenty of millionaires who come to Hawaii probably, but they don't hang out in the places that we go. They'll be at the fanciest restaurants and the fanciest clubs and the fanciest, well, everything!”
Mina shook her head. “But seriously, if you're going to read anything, why romance novels?”
I bit my lower lip and shrugged. “I guess I just like to have hope,” I told her. “It's a nice escape from reality, and it's nice to think that maybe, just maybe, there's-”
“Some Prince Charming who's perfect for you, who holds the door for you and brings you breakfast in bed and is 100% perfect? You really believe in that stuff?”
I blushed a little. “I don't believe in that,” I said. “I don't think there's a perfect guy or anything like that. But it's nice to think that there's someone out there, that there is true love. Can you imagine having a feeling like that? I was talking to a woman in my shop a while back, and she was telling me that if she had to go back and do her whole life over again, she'd still pick the same guy and would still do everything exactly the same. Don't you want to have that feeling?”
“I don't want to think about living life all over again,” Mina said, shaking her head. “I'd rather just focus on the life that I'm already living and do the things that I want to do now. And right now, I'd like you to go get changed so we can go surfing!”
I laughed but rolled out of the hammock, knowing that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. Anyway, it would be nice to go surf; the waves had been great the last time I'd gone, and I wanted to get as much of that into the season as I could.
“Do you believe in true love?” I asked Mina as we paddled out onto the water. I just couldn't seem to let go of the conversation that we'd had that morning.
Mina snorted. “Not even in the slightest,” she said, shaking her head.
“Really?” I asked, surprised. “But your parents-”
“Love each other very much,” Mina agreed. “But that doesn't mean that they were destined to be together or any of that stuff. They just ended up together, in the end. It's as simple as that. If they had ended up with other people, they could have been just as happy, or not, but it wouldn't have been because there was something better out there. There are people who we're more compatible with than others; take you and me, for example: we make great friends. But that doesn't mean it's impossible for us to have different friends who we're just as happy with.”
I frowned, watching the waves. “But have you ever even been in love?”
Mina laughed and shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “I haven't even been in a steady relationship unless you want to count whatever that was with Nicky.”