Sunny flinched away, smirking. “Careful. You might pee on yourself.”

“I’m not cleaning it up.”

He pulled out his phone. “Was so busy watching you for signs of further distress that I forgot to text the group.”

A warm sensation rose in my chest, and not the heat exhaustion kind. His worry was utterly sweet. Maybe Sunny had a sunny side to his doom and gloom after all.

“What do you want to do?”

I pulled away from my thoughts. “I can call Diya. You go back to your friends.”

He seemed genuinely perplexed the way he looked at me. “Isn’t your sister working? I’ll take you back.”

“Ubers exist here. Go enjoy yourself and be with your friends.”

He glanced past my shoulder. “Nah. I didn’t want to come anyway. Now I have an excuse to leave.”

I snorted. “Am I your scapegoat? So your friends can blame your girl when you ditch them? Savage. They’re going to be rooting for you when you tell them about our breakup.”

“First of all, it will look disconcerting on my part if they know you left because of getting ill and I stay out here instead of taking care of you. But more importantly, I need to make sure you don’t relapse.”

“I won’t. As long as I stay away from intense heat and sun, I’ll be fine. Look, no more goose bumps.”

He eyed the arm I was holding out as evidence. “So those bumps are normal?”

I looked down at a hundred tiny water blisters created by my sweat when the sun was trying to cook my flesh. I cringed, retracting my arm, embarrassed. I, however, refrained from popping them so little pockets of water oozed out. “They’ll go away.”

Sunny texted again before buckling in. I followed suit when he eased out of the parking lot. “Even if your sister drove you back, you’d be left alone. Not taking that chance.”

I watched his profile. I never had the chance to just look at him. Usually, we saw each other in passing or during brief conversations or at meetings when I was focused on important things. Sitting here in silence while he drove was surprisingly pleasant. Might as well enjoy it while it lasted, because it would be short-lived. “You’re not annoyed that you have to leave?”

“I’m annoyed they dragged us out there and you got sick.”

The right corner of my mouth went up. Was he actually mad for me instead of at me?

He side-eyed me. “What are you staring at?”

“You have a nice side to you.”

“You think I look nice from the side?”

“That’s not—you know that’s not what I meant.”

He focused on the road.

I clapped my hands. “Let’s get shave ice.”

“You almost passed out.”

“And ice helps. So does sugar.”

“Were you faking it?”

“Yeah. I faked water blisters. Witness my powers.”

“Fine. Where do I go?”

I gave him directions. We could go only one of two ways on the highway, and we took a right, toward the villa, to a little shave ice shop tucked out of the way in Kawaihae. There was enough shade on the stretch of restaurants, shops, and convenience stores to stand outside and not pass out.

“What are you getting?” I asked when Sunny parked mere feet from the front of the shop.

“Nothing.”

“Why not?”

“Seems like a lot of ice.” He indicated the sizes with his chin. They had one size: extra large.

“Okay. Let’s share?”

He gaped at me as if sharing shave ice would send his soul into the ether to be pulverized.

Naturally, I ignored him. “What flavors? I like blue Hawaii, mango, cherry, blood orange, and lychee.”

“Hmm…” There went those forehead wrinkles while he contemplated sugary syrups as if decoding a secret.

“It tastes best with ice cream and a snowcap.”

“What the hell’s a snowcap? Ice on ice?”

“It’s sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top, tastes way better than it sounds. Trust me.”

He pressed his lips together.

“Just one bite?”

He sighed. “Whatever you’d like, I’ll try it.”

I beamed.

“Just…calm down. Don’t pass out.”

“I won’t pass out. You saved me.”

With that, I slipped out and ordered a scoop of ube ice cream buried beneath a dome of shave ice, drenched in three flavors of syrup with a snowcap and a shake of li hing mui on top for a little tartness.

Sunny was suddenly behind me, or maybe he’d always been there, and slipped his card out to pay before I could dig through my small purse.

“Saved me and paid for a shave ice? What a day.”