A man was on one knee, and the woman in front of him had her hands in front of her face. Slowly, she lowered them, and took his hand. Olivia and Max couldn’t hear what the couple was saying, but everyone on the beach knew exactly what was happening. After a few minutes, the man slid a ring on the woman’s finger and stood up. Everyone around them—including Max—applauded. Olivia joined in.

“Wasn’t that romantic?” Max said, after the couple waved at everyone and walked back up to the hotel.

“It was,” Olivia said.

Max turned to her and smiled. Olivia saw something in his eyes change. He opened his mouth, almost in slow motion. A sudden apprehension hit Olivia.

“You’re not going to propose, are you?” she blurted out.

His face dropped. That crestfallen look made her want to take back what she’d said, but it was too late. Damn that pineapple drink and all this sunlight; she would have done that much better if she hadn’t been this tipsy.

“Would it be so bad if I was?” he asked.

No, it wouldn’t be so bad, but also yes, of course it would be.

Shit, shit, shit, how could she say this to him?

“It wouldn’t be, if now was say … a year from now. And if in that year, we’d had even one conversation about getting married—though I’d prefer more like four or five conversations.”

Max threw his hands in the air.

“Four or five? Who needs to talk four or five times about getting married? I love you, you love me, isn’t that enough?”

Olivia took a deep breath. Every time he said he loved her like that, it made her heart want to burst.

“I do love you, so much, but that’s not the only thing. Even normal people in normal relationships need to talk through this, and our relationship has at least two or three major abnormalities.”

Max dropped down on the sand and pulled Olivia down next to him.

“Okay, fine, what do normal people in normal relationships have to talk about?”

Olivia looked sideways at him.

“You don’t … I mean …” Why was her mind suddenly blank here? “Um, things like … money, children, family, work—you know, the hard stuff. You used to be a normal person; I know you’ve had other serious relationships. Didn’t you guys have conversations about this kind of stuff?”

He shrugged.