“I don’t want to interrupt if you’re getting ready for a movie,” she says kindly. “Just let Celine and Ethan know we’re leaving for Kauai, so if they call, they should use my cell number.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to them?” I ask.

“No, darling,” she says. “It sounds like you’re all having fun. That’s nice,” she says as Celine and Ethan laugh in the background.

When I tell them about Hawaii, they’re not surprised. “They go there for a month, every year. Our godparents live in Kauai. They’ve been asking us to go for a long time—it’s just that we’re both so busy, it never happens.”

“You guys should definitely do it. I wish I had someone asking me to go. I’d drop everything and hop on a plane. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but it’s definitely on my list.”

“We should,” says Celine, half-joking, half-serious. “And take you with us.”

“I doubt Maya would go,” says Ethan.

“Don’t I seem like the adventurous, impulsive type?” I ask teasingly.

Ethan, who’s sitting at the end of the couch—Celine between us—leans forward. “If I asked you to drop everything and go, would you go? Right now?”

I hesitate. “Not right now,” I say and laugh it out because I know he’s joking.

“Tomorrow then?” he asks.

“I can’t tomorrow. I have to work and—”

He interrupts. “See? Case closed. Let’s watch the movie.”

Monty Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different. That’s what we watch.

We all laugh until we can’t breathe anymore and when we eventually go to sleep, my stomach and jaws hurt. Poor Celine, stuck between us on the couch, had to listen to the same bits on repeat because apparently both Ethan and I know the movie by heart.

It was a good night. An excellent night.

Sixty-Two

June 12

I couldn’t sleep. The thought of Ethan reading my manuscript terrified me and even more so, the idea that he’d read an unfinished novel. After hours of tossing and turning, I got up, opened the envelope with my manuscript and started writing that ending I haven’t been able to even get close to until now. Longhand, on white paper, without stopping for a second, without overthinking it. Ten thousand words about how we end up finding each other after I return to Carmel. How magical it all is and how love wins. This feels like the perfect ending to this story. Our story. Ten thousand words led me to the final two. The ones I never thought I’d write. ‘The End’. And now my untitled manuscript also has a title. Our Perfect Day. It’s personal, raw and I adore everything about it. It should be easier now to show it to him. Should be.

“I’ll be right there,” I say to Celine who’s waiting in front of the cottage.

I get the envelope with my manuscript, put it on the kitchen counter and leave a short message for Ethan.