When we left the blowhole a few minutes later, we ended up going down to the beach park for a while. At which point I dragged Michelle aside and made her explain the whole thing with her and Nick.

“What’s there to explain?” she shrugged as she took off her sandals and headed down toward the water. “Last night he took me out to dinner, we went down to the beach when we were done, we were talking and stuff…” She smiled at this. “And he told me he really liked me, even though he’d just met me, and he told me all this beautiful stuff that I’m not going to repeat because I have to have some secrets. And he asked me to be his girlfriend.”

I smiled at her. “Lucky.”

“Lucky, BS. I know there’s something you’re not telling me about what you and Brian did last night.”

I grinned mischievously. “I have to have some secrets.”

With that, we headed back down the beach toward the guys, who were watching the surfers and cracking up about something. I gazed at Brian and felt a smile spread across my face. He was just so cute when he was happy.

Michelle waved a hand in front of my eyes. “Natalie…Natalie, this is Mission Control, do you read me?”

“What?” I said absently, still grinning like an idiot.

“What are you standing there smiling about?” She looked in the same direction I was looking. “Hmm?”

“Just this really hot surfer out there,” I lied smoothly.

“Natalie?”

“What?”

“You’re full of it.”

We approached the guys, and Michelle ran up behind Nick and jumped on his back. “Hey there, stud.”

Nick swung her around on his back, put her down, and kissed her on the cheek. “Hi, babe.”

Brian and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

“That’s gonna get old in about five minutes, I guarantee ya,” he said to me in a stage whisper, shifting the camcorder to his other hand.

“I know. You can’t blame them, though. If that’s what floats their boat, then…” I shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Yeah. So, you all rested up after last night?”

I grinned. “Yup, rested and quite convinced that when I get home, I’m never taking the bus again. BART all the way.”

“What the heck’s BART?” Brian wondered as the four of us walked back to the car.

“It’s like, the subway in San Francisco,” I explained. “Only difference is, it goes under the bay instead of going over on a bridge. It’s pretty cool.” (AUTHOR’S NOTE: this is real, too; I took BART once when I was in San Francisco, and it’s cooler than your average subway)

Brian turned the camera on me. “All hail the Frisco goddess.”

I laughed, turning my head away. “Come on. Get that camera off me.”

“Isn’t she cute when she’s being shy?” Brian said in a baby voice.

“Gimme the keys, you freak,” I said as I opened the driver’s side door of the Cavalier, brushing the sand off my feet and putting my sandals back on. “I’m driving.”

“Woo-hoo! Well, I feel heavy metal…woo-hoo!” I sang along with the Blur song on the radio.

“And I’m changing the station…woo-hoo!” Brian said in tune with the song as he tuned the radio. He stopped on a DMX song and immediately started singing along to that. “Stop, drop…shut ’em down, open up shop…”

“Oh no,” I finished, hitting the buttons on the radio again. Finally I stopped on a station playing TLC’s “No Scrubs”. “Here, can you put up with this?”

“Yeah, it’s OK. Besides, it’s almost over.” Sure enough, the song ended a few seconds later, and BSB’s “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” began. “Hey, this song is, like, the best song ever.”

“Egotist!” I laughed.

A little way into the song, Brian started singing along softly. I couldn’t help but think about Tuesday night at the club, and how he had sung to me then. I wondered briefly if he meant any of it. He certainly seemed sincere enough. And sweet, and funny, and friendly, and fun to be around…not to mention one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen…did I already mention sweet?

There were all kinds of warning bells going off in my head. Don’t you freakin’ fall for him! a little voice in my head yelled. But I knew it was too late. I had already fallen head-over-heels in love with Brian, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

An hour or so later, we pulled off at another state-run beach park. This one was directly in front of a small island called Chinaman’s Hat. It seemed like a cool place.

“Hey, this place is awesome!” I declared. “I wish we had, like, a basket full of food and a stereo and some of that kind of stuff, so we could have a picnic.”

“That’d be kinda cool,” Nick said. “You know what’d be even cooler? If we had some surfboards.”

I shook my head. “There aren’t any decent waves here.” I shoved him playfully. “And what makes you think I’d go anywhere near a surfboard anyway? After what happened to me Tuesday.”

“Hey, check it out,” Brian said. He jumped up on a picnic table. “We rule!” he yelled.

I laughed. “Oh yeah, you’re cool,” I said sarcastically.

Suddenly, a thought struck me, and I really needed to talk to Michelle. So for the second time today, I dragged her aside to talk to her.

“I need your advice on something,” I said to her as I stared out at the waves.

“About?” she prompted.

I sighed. “I think I might be in love with Brian.”

Michelle looked at me with the most serious look in her eyes I’d seen in a long time. “Are you sure?”

I nodded.

“Then you have to tell him.”

“But that’s the problem,” I said softly. “If I tell him, what if he doesn’t feel the same way? I’ll end up getting hurt again.”

“That’s the beauty of this situation. This is unique. If he doesn’t feel the same way, we’re only going to be here a few more days before we go home, and you won’t have to ever see him again.” She paused. “Personally, I think you should go for it. You have nothing to lose.”

“Our friendship,” I pointed out. “I don’t know if you and Nick have come out of your little world long enough to notice, but Brian and I are actually pretty good friends, even if we only just met. I don’t wanna lose that.”

“That’s true,” she said thoughtfully. After a moment, she added, “But if you really do think you’re in love with him, are you going to let that stop you?”

“No,” I said, feeling a strange sort of calm settle over me. “You know what’s weird? I can’t believe I’m getting good advice from someone younger than me.”

Michelle shrugged. “Stranger things have happened.”

By the time we were back in Waikiki, it was almost ten o’clock. We’d been driving around the island all day, with plenty more stops along the way. We’d even decided to go to Diamond Head, but we had chickened out about halfway to the top. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: that’s a…well, basically it’s a big rock outside Waikiki; there’s a good hiking trail that goes up to the top of the place, and when you get up there it’s one of the best views you’ll ever see)

As we were driving down Kalakaua, along the beach, coming from Honolulu, I was sitting in the backseat next to Brian, who was sound asleep. Michelle was driving (at this time of night, I didn’t care who was driving), and Nick was in the front seat. They were talking softly, about what I didn’t know. It occurred to me that I really needed to talk to Brian. But I definitely wasn’t about to do it around Michelle and Nick.

I reached over and tapped Brian on the shoulder. “Hey, Bri,” I whispered.

He stirred, turned toward me, but didn’t open his eyes. “Mmm…what?” he mumbled.

“I need to talk to you.”

He opened his eyes and shifted in his seat, leaning closer to me so he could hear me loud and clear. “OK, I’m here. I’m listening.”

I glanced around. “In private.”

He nodded. “Oh, OK.” He leaned forward and tapped Michelle on the shoulder. “Hey, can you pull over up here and let us off?”

Michelle turned and looked at us in disbelief. “Seriously? Why do you need to do that?”

I gave her a Look. “Why do you need to know?”

Recognition dawned in her eyes. “Ohh.” Suddenly, with a jerk of the wheel and a screech of tires, she pulled over a couple blocks from the hotel, at the entrance to Kuhio Beach Park. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: this is a really nice stretch of beach near the Hyatt Regency Waikik, which is also real, if I didn’t mention that before)

“See, this is why I didn’t want you to drive!” I exclaimed as the sudden jerk of the car sent me flying into Brian.

“Quiet, you,” Michelle grumbled good-naturedly. She twisted around in her seat. “Is this…” When she saw me and Brian lying on top of each other, she grinned mischievously. “Good Lord, Nat, you could wait until you two are out of the car.”

“What are you talking about?” Brian said, sounding a little confused.

Oh, if you only knew. “She doesn’t know,” I said hastily. “Nick, can you get out for a second so me and Bri can get out?”

Nick just smirked at me. “What’s it worth to you?”

I reached in the pocket of my shorts, pulled out a handful of spare change, and dumped it in his hand. “Here. Now let me out!”

Nick got out of the car and flipped the seat back down so Brian and I could get out.

“Thank you,” I said sweetly to Nick. “Now was that so hard?”

“Nat, you have a key, right?” Michelle asked me. “I don’t care how late you come back as long as you don’t come banging on the door in the dead of night.”

“Gee, since you ask, oh kind, sensitive sister of mine,” I said sarcastically, “I do have a key.”

“OK, good. Now come here.” I walked over to the driver’s side and leaned down, and she whispered to me, “I don’t know if you’re going to need it, but good luck.”

“Thanks,” I whispered back. I straightened up and walked over to Brian. “C’mon.”

“I’m coming,” he said.

As we walked away, down the beach, I didn’t hear the car leave. When I turned around, Nick and Michelle were still parked there, staring after us like a couple of morons.

“What are y’all doing?” I hollered at them. “Go home!”

“Yeah, quit eavesdropping on us!” Brian called. I could hear the idiots in the car dissolve into laughter, and a moment later they peeled out of there at light-speed.

I pretended to shudder. “I really don’t trust Michelle with that car at all. I hope Nick makes her pull over and switch places.”

Brian laughed. “Nick isn’t much better. He once ran into a lamppost when we all went to England and he tried to drive on the left side of the road. The cops were like, ‘You bloody tourist, you’ve got to pay for that or you’re going to the clinker!’” He imitated a British accent.

“I probably would have been like, ‘Bite me.’” I burst out laughing. “And then I probably would have been arrested!”

After that, we fell into sort of a funny silence. We just sort of walked along the shore, neither of us speaking. I was trying to gather my thoughts and figure out what I was going to say. It wasn’t a fun process, either.

After a few minutes, I felt Brian reach over and take my hand.

“Hey, you OK?” he asked me gently.

I nodded. “I just…why don’t we sit down?”

We sat down, right there in the sand. It was a cool, clear night, with the stars shining softly in the sky. The sound of the waves crashing in front of us was one of the most peaceful sounds I’d ever heard. I was just starting to feel calmed-down when the other shoe dropped.

“So…what did you need to talk to me about, anyway?” Brian said slowly after another few minutes had gone by.

Damn. Courage time. I could feel my hands getting all cold and my mind going numb. I didn’t know what to say, how to tell him that I was crazy about him, or what he was going to say. For a moment, I thought about just bailing on the whole idea. But I knew I had to go through with it.

“Well…I-I just wanted to say, um,” I stammered. I’d never in all my life felt like such a moron. “Thanks. I…I’ve only known you a few days, and already I think you’re one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”

“Oh.” I thought he sounded a little disappointed for a minute there, but if he was, he got over it fast enough. “Well, thanks.”

I turned and looked him in the eye, and I took a deep breath. Here we go. “Here’s the thing, though. I’ve only known you a few days, and already I think I’m falling in love with you.”

There. I’d said it. Unfortunately, now I felt really dumb and shy and moronic. He hadn’t even said a word yet. He was just sitting there, staring at me in sheer surprise – and joy, maybe? I couldn’t tell. I held his gaze for a moment before I looked away, staring out at the ocean until my vision blurred. I realized there were tears in my eyes.

“Natalie?” Brian said quietly. His hand went up to my cheek, gently turning my head so he could look into my eyes. Then he smiled this heart-melting smile, and suddenly I knew what he was going to say a split second before he said it.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” he continued, still smiling at me.

I could feel the tears spilling over, but they were happy tears. One rolled down my cheek, but Brian reached up with his other hand and wiped it away, holding my face in his hands and looking deep into my eyes for a long moment. Then he leaned in and kissed me softly.

When that long, absolutely wonderful kiss was over, he pulled back slightly and looked into my eyes again. “Be my girl?” he said hopefully.

Gee, how could I refuse? “Yeah,” I said softly, smiling at him. “Of course.”

He kissed me again, pulled me into his arms and held me tight. Eventually we both got tired, so we lay back on the sand. (No, we didn’t do anything. Sorry to disappoint you.) After a few minutes, Brian fell asleep, and I lay there in his arms, listening to his heart beat, until I fell asleep too.