*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.*
“Louise, can you pass me the sunscreen?” Jane, my best friend, held out a tanned hand, not bothering to look over from behind her giant sunglasses. Reluctantly, I snatched the pink Coppertone bottle and gave it to her. I waited for her reply, but as predicted, there was none. “Do you think Nick is coming today?”
“I don’t know,” was what I told her. Who cares, was what I thought. It was better if Nick didn’t show his face. At all.
My eyes scanned the beach ahead of us. Hollywood Beach was quiet. Unusually quiet. The last of the spring breakers had left, but the remnants of their last week still hung around the edges of the overstuffed trash cans. At least the ocean breeze wasn’t poisoned by their partying.
“I’d think you’d really like him. The person he is now. I mean, sure, he did cheat on me, like months ago, but he’s really working on us now,” Jane reassured me, even though I’d made it clear beforehand Nick was on my list. And the list was not a good thing. She turned to me. “What are you reading?”
“To Kill A Mockingbird,” I replied, glancing back down at the book opened up in my hands. Jane scoffed, but said nothing. I knew what she thought. She wasn’t much of a reader. She was more of a reality TV binge watcher.
Ahead of us, an elderly couple sauntered hand in hand through the sand, grinning. A sound that resembled more of a growl than a groan came from Jane. I was about to give her what for when I realized her response was directed at her cell phone. She’d finally taken off her sunglasses to reveal her dark, hungover eyes, only to check her texts.
“Can you believe that Nick is not coming after he promised to show up? Ugh, what a jerk,” Jane complained. Yes, I thought, I can believe that the man that you’ve caught cheating on you three times in the last six months flaked on you again. It would be more shocking if he did show up for once.
“Yeah, so weird,” I muttered, hearing movement behind us. Something shifted the bushes behind us, and I jumped, turning around. Jane let out a scream that was so high-pitched someone would have thought someone attacked her. Then her scream turned into a high pitched echo of laughter.
“Nick! You came!” She leaped out of her chair and into his arms, smacking her lips against his. Then she turned to me, showing off Nick as if he was some trophy. He used to be fit and someone easy on the eyes, but he’d grown a beer belly and a bad smoking habit, which made him less desirable to people like me, but more desirable to Jane, oddly enough.
“Hey,” Nick greeted me. I held up a hand, giving him an effortless wave. We exchanged a look and I thought he was going to say something, but Jane tugged at his shirt, pointing to the crashing of the waves against the shoreline.
“Come on, let’s go for a walk,” she offered, eager to see why he was an hour late. He nodded, glancing back to me once more before Jane pulled him along.
I watched as they walked, seeing the desperation in Jane’s eyes and the distance in Nick’s. They were on two different planets. Opposing dimensions. And as much as they held hands and met up at the beach every week, there was no stopping it.
At some point, just like the cruise ships that lined the piers down the street, they would drift apart. They will go their separate ways and I’ll be there, as always, ready to pick up the pieces for Jane, all the while she finds Nick 2.0. And the cycle will begin again. The tides will shift and we, too, will change our course, heading for the next inevitably horrible destination.
