Kimo cringed when Diya ended with, “So a tourist found a dead feral cat and yelled at the first staff he saw, calling them a murderer and how he was summoning PETA. And I happened to be walking by, and you know me, I don’t play with that mess. Yelling at my staff like some entitled asshole. Like, sir, did you see my staff kill this cat, who happens to be feral and destroying this part of the island with out-of-control numbers? I mean, if you want to get into it, let’s talk about the amount of fuel it took for you to fly here, the trash you’ve accumulated by being here, and all the touristy stuff you’re doing destroying the reefs, polluting the air, and damaging the land.”
Sunny shook his head. “I had no idea tourists were that bad.”
We gawked at him. I muttered, “Seriously?”
“I mean, I know American tourists are an international joke and entitled everywhere they go. But I didn’t think they were this bad going to another US state.”
“A brown state,” Kimo reminded. “Recently colonized, recently stripped, recently scattered people. It might as well be a foreign country.”
“Feels like it,” Diya added. “We’re in a drought but this area uses up a lot of water to keep it green; the state encourages hotels to keep using water for tourists while locals have to ration. Had a woman complain about not having hot water during the entirety of her twenty-minute shower, and I was like, ma’am, do you understand locals can’t even use up that amount of water in one day?”
Sunny nodded, frowning, as if he might be reevaluating his entire presence here.
Kimo sighed. “We could talk all day about the inequality here and then to have tourists shove it in our faces, but! This is a happy evening with family.” He raised his empty glass, and we followed suit on instinct, only for him to laugh and nudge Diya. “Woman, where’s these delicious drinks you said you were making?”
Diya feigned insult and dramatically pushed out of her chair, muttering, “I work all day only for you to cook a great meal and then expect me to deliver on the drinks I already said I was going to make with all the ingredients prepared by you.”
Sunny chuckled as Kimo grinned, even as he was checking out Diya’s backside. Sigh. Okay, to have a man look at me like that every time I walked away would be nice. Wasn’t going to lie. My sister really was out here in the middle of the ocean living her best life and I loved it. I loved this for her.
I leaned toward Kimo and said, “A woman who can make you drinks. You better put a ring on that.”
He simply smiled. And I wondered…wait, was he considering proposing to my sister?
I gave him a curious look before helping Diya with the fancy drink glasses. She was deftly dropping chunks of pineapple and dragon fruit into the blender, dousing it with coconut cream, and plopping in a handful of ice.
“With or without alcohol?” Diya called out across the bar counter.
“With!” everyone concurred.
She added a splash of rum, closed the lid, started the blender again, and leaned against the counter with a hand on her hip.
“Are you and Kimo thinking about getting married?” I whispered, even though the blender was doing a fine job at keeping our conversation private.
We glanced at the guys chatting when she shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind. We’ve talked about it, tried to work out the logistics of different cultures, languages, and religions…but I don’t think anything too serious. Like I wouldn’t call Mummie and tell her.”
She stopped the blender while I arranged the glasses for her to pour a beautiful, thick mix of pinkish-purple drink. The color was the most amazing shade I’d ever seen, and I loved it. It was the type of color one could get lost in, of rich Hawaiian sunrises, orchid leis, dramatic lipsticks, and lush silks that complemented my skin tone in the best ways. It was the type of color that one could see, taste, smell, and feel.
“But would you say yes?” I asked quietly, watching her add whipped cream and then going to the fridge to pull out a small bag.
A smile swept across her face, the kind a person couldn’t hold back even if they tried, the kind that said the answer as clear as day. My little sister would marry Kimo in a second.
She plucked out purple and white orchids from the bag, already washed and wrapped in a paper towel, and arranged one flower to each glass.
“I want to live inside this color,” I told her as she handed me a drink. I held it up to the light before taking a second one to Sunny.
Diya took hers and one for Kimo. We retired to the lanai, where large string lights added ambience so we could enjoy the sunset.
Even though there were four lounge chairs, Diya curled up alongside Kimo, who wrapped an arm around her and thanked her for the drink. They clinked glasses, and ugh, if they could stop being adorable for a second, that would be great because Sunny and I were as far from snuggling as a “new couple” could be. In fact, our chairs weren’t even touching.
I took a sip of the slightly sweet, slightly tart, slightly alcoholic, fully creamy drink. I threw my head back. “This is so good! I missed this so much!”
“Better than ube?” Diya teased.
I shot her a look. “I saw ube paste at KTA. Do you know what we could make with that?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know damn well you didn’t go to the grocery store.”
“But I did go to their website.”
“To see what UX you’d improve on?”
“Yes. Always. But also to see if they have ube anything. Which they have lots of.”
“Enjoy this.”
“This is perfect. I don’t think ube could elevate this any more than what it already is.”
“Shocking statement!”
“This is very good,” Sunny agreed, raising his glass to his hosts. “Thank you for this. I…wasn’t expecting so much.”
“Hospitality?” Kimo asked. “You’re dating Bhanu, so you’re pretty much like family, and we have lots of aloha for our fam.”
Sunny and I gave each other a quick look, and I was beginning to feel bad again. Kimo and Diya were being so hospitable for a lie. I was sure they’d understand once I explained, but why ruin the moment? Not that I had to try, because the world’s biggest moment blocker was blowing up Diya’s phone.
“That better not be work,” I told her, nodding at the glorious shades of orange and pink brushed across the sky as the sun descended and set the water on sparkling, golden fire.
“It’s Mummie!” she said with cheer.
