I know they’re supposed to go home, but would it really be so bad if I suggested Ross reconsider? Their life in the Blue is a literal fantasy, but if the way they looked tonight—and the way I know we both felt tonight—is any indication of the magic we could create together, it couldn’t hurt to ask.

There’s one person I know who’d have something helpful to say about this from experience: Kavya. Thanks to her mom, she could let me know just how to tell Ross all the things they’d be missing out on if they swam back into the ocean at the end of their Journey. And if Kavya helps me turn The Tourist into The Resident, I’ll owe her for life.

I finally get a chance to talk to Kavya that Wednesday at the beach club’s smoothie bar after work. The past couple days have been sightseeing and kissing and unbuttoning jeans at night, and I wanted to tell Kavya about how I’m getting more and more attached to Ross, but she’s been distant. Any time I tried to talk or text she had to run off to study. Today’s lifeguard duty was the first time I actually got to be around her for more than five seconds, but now she’s just sitting here blank-faced after I told her about how Ross and I are starting to feel more real couple-like, and how when we had sex it felt like we flowed together.

“Wow, dude, that’s, like, really poetic,” she says, but it comes out all robotically and stiff.

I expect her to go on, because any time I brought up having sex with Dominic, she was full of jokes, or asking if I wore a rubber so that she “had my back while I had somebody’s backside.” If I thought her being off was just a phase, it’s only getting worse.

When we sit there in an awkward silence, I finally say, “So, um, the plan to win Dominic back is off. I realized I don’t want him. It’s messed up to want someone back who’d be willing to dump his current boyfriend at the drop of a hat, right? Like, he should have a bigger heart than that. He should have had a bigger heart with me too.”

Kavya rolls her eyes, but for the first time all night she cracks a smile. “That’s what I was trying to tell you this whole time. But I’m glad you came to that conclusion.”

“Yeah, I was a little blinded by heartache, I think. And Ross helped me get over that. They actually got their Journey Mark because of it. So, they can go back home on the Blue Moon. Like they’ve planned all along.”