“Only a couple. You look great in those too.”

“Uh-huh.” He laughed again.

Back at the car, we did our best to brush the black sand from our feet before climbing in, but it was that sticky kind of sand that wants to go home with you. The rental car place was going to love us when we returned the car.

I only realised later, as we drove to our next destination, that there was something quite special about our excursion to the beach. We were there together, but independently, and both seemingly happy with that dynamic—more like a couple than two people in a vacationship. God, I hated that stupid word.

Our last stop before we got to our accommodation was actually a little way past Hana. Josh had read about a general store, Hasegawa’s, that, apparently, we could not miss. It sounded cool, so I was more than happy for the detour, even just to see what they had.

Well, they had everything.

The building itself looked like it would crumble to the ground at any moment. Some of the uprights leant, the tin roof was rusted—just like in that B-52s song from the 90s—and it looked like it would barely withstand the rain we’d encountered earlier. The inside was even more precarious, with shelving units that looked more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa than shop shelves, and goods piled up everywhere.

“Okay,” said Josh. “There’s a place like this in the small town where my grandpa lives and when we go there, we play this game. Here.” He handed me a shopping basket. “You choose the five weirdest things you can find—they should be really different from each other—and then we meet back here in five minutes. The one with the best basket wins.”

The teacher inside me wanted to know more. Who gets to decide who wins if we’re both competing? Do we have to buy what’s in our basket? What if we choose the same thing—is it null and void? But I had no time to ask these questions, because Josh said, “Starting now,” and disappeared down an aisle.

Crap! I told my inner teacher to shut up. I had to win this challenge! Josh was practised, but I had beginner’s luck and a lifetime of shopping experience on my side. I went the opposite direction to Josh, dozens of weird things catching my eye.

I half-ran from aisle to aisle, only meeting up with Josh twice. Both times I shielded my picks with my arms, and we eyed each other like the adversaries we were. A few times I found something better than an item already in my basket, so I abandoned the lesser one on the nearest shelf.

“Time!” I heard Josh call from the other side of the store.

“Coming!” I called back. Several people turned at the sound of my voice. It was only then that I realised there were other people in the shop. We probably seemed like a pair of oddballs—not that I cared.