Two and a half hours later, around 11:00, I plopped down in one of the chairs in front of our lane, grinning triumphantly.
“Four out of five...who's laughing now?" I laughed.
“I was off tonight!” Brian protested. “My brain was elsewhere. Let’s go five out of six!”
“No!” I exclaimed. “We’ve been in this damn bowling alley for God only knows how long. And it’s late and I’m tired so can we just go back to the hotel?”
“Of course. How...selfish of me,” Brian said in a dead-on impression of Ace Ventura. “Let’s do all the things that you wanna do.”
I grinned at him. “Good. Glad you see it my way.”
As we walked to the bus stop a few minutes later, I saw the bus pull up at the stop.
“Uh...Brian...do you still have the bus schedule?”
“Who cares about the bus schedule? If that’s our bus, we’re about to miss it!” He grabbed my hand and took off down the street, pulling me along behind him.
“Bri! You’re gonna pull my arm out the socket!” I hollered, trying hard to keep up. I like to think I’m a pretty decent runner, but it’s one thing to run by yourself and quite another to be pulled along.
When we made it to the bus, we collapsed into a couple of seats toward the front, laughing.
“Still wish I hadn’t pulled you along?” Brian teased me.
“No, as long as we didn’t miss the bus.” As we pulled away from the curb and headed back into downtown Honolulu, I suddenly realized something. “Where’s this bus going, anyway? It’s not headed back toward the hotel.”
Brian turned to the guy sitting behind us. “Excuse me, where’s this bus going?”
The guy gave us kind of a funny look. “Outlet mall in Waikele.”
"What?!" I exclaimed. “This is unbelievable.”
“Why? Where’s Waikele?” Brian asked me as he turned back around.
“Half an hour west of here!”
Because of all the stops along the way, it was about midnight by the time we reached Waikele and turned around to go back to Waikiki. Unfortunately, by now I was really tired. I had gotten in around midnight last night, gone to bed at 1, and gotten up at 7 this morning to go to Pearl Harbor. It didn’t help that it was cold on the bus.
“God, it’s freezing in here,” I complained.
Brian laughed. “You whine more than Napa Valley.” A moment later, he slipped his arm around my shoulders. “Better?”
You have no idea how much better, I thought happily. But all I said was, “Yeah. Thanks.” I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. “I’m gonna take a nap. Good night.”
“Good night,” he said softly.
I yawned. “Oh yeah, and one more thing. Don’t dis on Napa Valley. My friend Kelly from summer camp lives there.”
With that, I shut my mouth and tried to sleep. It shouldn’t have been that hard, but somehow, it was hard. It was actually a good thing I hadn’t fallen asleep, because for all I knew, this trip would be the last time I got to spend any time with Brian. So I just sort of sat there, leaned against him, and thought about stuff. It wasn’t terribly surprising to me that my thoughts drifted to the funny, sweet, kind, and altogether decent (not to mention hot) guy sitting next to me.
Brian was such a good friend to me. I had only known him a couple of days, but already I felt like I had known him all my life. I couldn’t believe the incredible luck that had let me meet him. I wondered what would happen after I went home. I knew he lived in Florida, and I lived in California, and that a long-distance relationship might not work, but...Wait a second, I thought to myself, what do I mean, “relationship”? Do I really feel that way about this guy?
Duh, answered the other little voice in my head. That was my last thought before I dozed off.
After a few minutes, I felt Brian squeeze my shoulder, and I heard him say, “Hey, Natalie. Wake up.”
“No...I don’t wanna go to school, Mommy. I wanna stay here and bake cookies with you all day.”
“Sorry, kid, but you’re going to school. Now get your lazy butt out of bed.”
“Shut up, Brian.” I opened my eyes. He had leaned to look at me, and our faces were only inches apart. If I wasn’t such a wimp, I could have kissed him right then. If I wasn’t such a wimp.
“OK, what’d you wake me up for?” I yawned.
“We’re back at the hotel.”
“No we aren’t. We only left Waikele a few minutes ago.”
“Nat, it’s almost one o’clock.” He held out his hand so I could see his watch. Sure enough, it read 12:53. Almost an hour had passed in what had felt like a few minutes.
“Well, what do you know?” I said, surprised. “Come on.”
He slowly withdrew his arm from around me, and we stood up and got off the bus. I think we were both pretty tired as we walked through the lobby and headed for the elevators.
“Were you sleeping too?” I asked him as we rode upward.
He shook his head. “Nah, your snoring kept me awake.” I rolled my eyes, still too tired to come up with a decent comeback, and he continued, “I’m just kidding. But no, I didn’t take a nap. I just sort of sat there. There was this couple sitting on the seats along the wall, being all cute and stuff. I got a kick out of watching those two.”
I couldn’t resist. “You like to watch, huh?”
“Nat...” he began, but just then we reached the 18th floor. “Boy, are you lucky this is my stop.”
“Yeah, see ya later,” I said. He turned to leave, but then he stuck his foot in the door to keep it open.
“Aww...brothers don’t shake hands, brothers gotta hug!” he said in a pretty good Chris Farley voice.
“I’m not your brother!” I laughed, hugging him. I gave him a quick, friendly peck on the cheek. “I’ll see you around.”
“OK. Bye.” He walked out the door, and I headed up to the 20th floor and back to my room.
When I walked in, it was dark. The lights in the hallway cast a pale rectangle of light on Michelle, who was lying in bed, squinting up at me. I had probably woken her up.
“Nnngg...where you been, big sister?” she mumbled.
I grinned mischievously. “Long story.”
“Were you out with Brian?” she asked as I walked further into the room, dropped my purse on the table, and flopped onto my bed.
“Maybe,” I responded, still grinning.
“Where’d you guys go? What’d you do?” She paused, sat bolt upright, and turned on the lamp. “Was it a date?!”
“Wouldn’t you like to know!” I teased. But instead of keeping her in the dark, I told her the condensed version of the story, making sure to leave out the memorable part of the long bus ride.
“K, so it wasn’t a date, it was a friend thing, and you had tons of fun anyway,” Michelle said when I was done.
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty much the gist of it.”
Michelle laughed, throwing a pillow at me. “I don’t believe you."