“OK, gotta find my key,” I muttered under my breath as I shifted my shopping bag to my other hip and rummaged through my purse for my room key. It was Wednesday evening, around 6:45. Michelle and I had gone to Pearl Harbor that day, and tonight we were going to order pizza and have a girls’ night in with Jerry Maguire on cable in order to recuperate. I had gone down to check out the shopping in our hotel, and I had come back with a couple of things for the folks back home. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: yes, I said shopping, this hotel exists and it actually has a number of pretty decent shops in the lobby) I planned on buying more cheesy souvenirs for everyone before I went home.

As I entered the room, Michelle hollered from the bathroom, “Thank God you’re back! Where’s my Berry Blush lipstick?”

Bad sign. “What do you need that for?”

Michelle emerged from the bathroom in capri pants and a flowered farmer’s-daughter-ish top that tied at the shoulders. She held a tube of mascara in one hand. “Because I’m going out, that’s why.”

I was furious, but I’m an excellent actress, if I do say so myself. So I held it in. “OK...what happened to Jerry Maguire?”

“Nick called, like, two seconds after you left. He asked if he could take me out to dinner.” She threw her hands in the air in a dramatic gesture. “What could I say?”

“So when’s he coming?”

“Any minute now. Can we use the car?”

It was getting harder for me to not blow my stack. “You’re going on a date with a guy and he doesn’t even have a car?”

“None of the guys have gotten around to renting one yet. Not even your dreamboat.”

Bullseye. I could feel a full-on blush kick in. I had told her about my experience at the club, and now I almost regretted it. “Fine. Take the car.” A knock came at the door, and Michelle flew into the bathroom.

“You owe me!” I called after her as I headed for the door and opened it. Nick was standing out in the hall in the standard first-nice-date stuff, a button-down shirt and khakis. He looked good.

“Hey Natalie,” he greeted me as I let him in.

“Hi. Michelle’ll be out in a second.”

As if on cue, Michelle came out of the bathroom, looking very cute. She smiled sweetly at Nick. “Hey.”

“You look nice,” Nick told her. He had an equally cheery smile on his face. Like the very sight of her brightened his day. I wished I could do that for a guy.

“Thanks. Nat’s letting us use the car.” I reached into my purse and pulled out the keys to the Cavalier, which I still hadn’t trusted Michelle with because I didn’t trust her driving.

“That’s cool of you. You sure you don’t mind?” Nick asked me. It was sure more than Michelle had bothered to ask.

“No, go ahead,” I urged them. “Go on. Have a blast.”

They turned and walked out the door. As I watched them, Nick reached for Michelle’s hand. It was a sweet thing to watch, somehow. It made me want to throw up.

I closed the door behind me and flopped down in a chair. So here I was, all alone, with no car and no idea what I was going to do for the rest of the night. Only a loser would hang around all by herself watching a movie, and it was more fun watching a movie like Jerry Maguire with someone else, someone else to laugh and cry and cheer when Tom Cruise gets the girl. And that gave me an idea.

I reached for the phone and dialed 1807. In the middle of the second ring, someone picked up on the other end, and Brian said, “Hello?”

“Hello, Brian. What’s your favorite scary movie?” I said in my best Scream-killer impression.

“Urban Legend. That movie cracks me up. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, who is this?”

“Your worst nightmare,” I replied in my normal voice.

“Hi, Natalie. What’s up?”

“Not much. Just a typical boring night.”

“‘A typical boring night’? OK, you’re in Hawaii and you’re bored?”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. No, I’m just sort of stuck here. Michelle and Nick went out and I let them take the car...”

“Ah. I see.”

“...And since you’re such a good friend, I was wondering if you’d want to come up here and hang out.”

“Twist my arm. I’ll be up in a few.”

“Cool. Oh, and just so you know...” I glanced down at my beat-up jeans and Hard Rock Café Hawaii T-shirt. Then I glanced in the mirror and noticed that my usually well-behaved curly brown hair no longer looked so perfect. Basically, I looked pretty grubby. “I look like crap.”

Brian laughed. “Not possible. See ya.” And before I could respond, he hung up.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and a funny-sounding voice called, “Domino’s!”

I knew who it was, but I decided to play along. “I didn’t order any pizza!”

“I have an order here for an extra-large pepperoni-pineapple pizza to be delivered to Hyatt Regency Waikiki, room 2005. Are you sure that isn’t you?”

“I’m sure,” I called back as I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. Brian was on the other side of the door, trying to see through the peephole. When he saw that I was looking through, he stuck his tongue out at me.

“Just for that, I’m not letting you in!” I teased him, but I opened the door, and he walked inside.

“Man, you’re weak. I know girls half your size who would have gladly pounded me the second they heard me pull that crap with the pizza.”

“Oh, so now you want to be pounded?” I threatened him playfully. “What happened to the sweet guy from last night?”

“I’m actually his evil twin, Bob,” Brian joked as he sat down in the chair.

I laughed, plopping down on the bed. “You are such a freak.”

I turned on the TV and started flipping through the channels. A lot of them had either commercials or dumb shows. Daria was on MTV, but it was a boring repeat about a hurricane in Lawndale. Then I remembered Jerry Maguire and turned on HBO...just in time to see a freeze-frame of a laughing Tom Cruise and hear an announcer say, “The regularly scheduled programming, Jerry Maguire, will not be seen tonight. We now invite you to watch the HBO original series Sex And The City.” The same words flashed onscreen under Tom Cruise’s face.

“Ugh! I hate that show!” I exclaimed, switching off the TV.

“Well, it’s official. 47 channels and there’s nothing on,” Brian quipped. “What’s the world coming to?”

We sat in bored silence for a few minutes before he commented, “Gosh, this is exciting.”

“Well, you could come up with something fun to do instead of making smartass comments,” I retorted cheerfully. “Actually, all that talk about pizza when you showed up made me kinda hungry. Let’s go get something to eat.”

“Okay. I think there’s a Pizza Hut a couple blocks down. Let’s walk down there.”

As we walked through the lobby a few minutes later (just so you know, I had fixed myself up a little, so I wasn’t going out in public looking like a slob), I felt someone grab me by the shoulders, out of nowhere. I was so startled that I practically jumped out of my skin. When I turned around, AJ was standing behind me, laughing his head off.

“Ha ha, you’re so funny,” I said sarcastically. “To what do I owe the honor?”

“I walked down to that video store to get a movie. Where are you two going?” he asked curiously. “You’re not going on a...d-d-d-date. Are you?”

“No!” Brian exclaimed. “We are friends. We are nothing more than friends. And you are always jumping to conclusions!”

Relieved, I jerked my thumb at him. “What he said.”

“OK. Lie about it. See if I care,” AJ teased us. “It’ll just make it that much funnier when the rest of us find out the truth.” With that, he walked away, headed for the elevators.

“Why does he always think there’s something going on between us?” Brian grumbled.

“I don’t know...because he has a one-track mind?” I guessed. Not that I didn’t wish there was something going on between us.