Story-A-Day #29: Last Resort

LAST RESORT

You are there with me and it is perfect, maybe a little resort-generic, but perfect. The sun is shining brightly in the equatorial skies and the flowers are blooming, a perfectly tropical scene.

Happy couples and entire families wader the manicured grounds, oblivious for a time of the lives they have left behind. They aren’t fleeing anything in particular; just happy to be away from all the things they know best. Kind of like us right now, and we couldn’t be happier.

We line up at the buffet for breakfast, heaping mounds of fruit and meat and exotic treats onto our plates before hungrily gorging them down. With bellies full, we make out way to the beach, relishing the feeling of the scalding hot sand slipping through our toes and over our feet. A pair of lounge chairs calls out to us and we carefully lay out our towels before dashing out into the warm embrace of the ocean. The waves roll past us as we look back towards the distant beach.

We float there, arms outstretched and eyes closed against the glare of the sun. We are effortlessly adrift, floating aimlessly at sea. We dig through the sand with our toes to reveal the ocean’s secret jewels, beautiful shells clasped in our hands. We watch the tiny fish circling below.

It is a perfect way to spend our time, idyllic and serene. There is no other place we would like to be.

In the early evening, the thunderstorms roll in, but they are over quickly leaving nothing but the gleam of wet in their wakes and a few swaying palm trees. As the skies clear, the stars make themselves known, an infinite blanket of twinkling lights. Music drifts from the bars as we sip our cocktail, fruity concoctions that actually taste like the fruits in their names. There are no syrups here, no synthetic versions of the delights that grown in the trees around us.

This is our world now and for the week, we will embrace it. We will not think of work. We will not think of snow. We will not think of bills unpaid or plans waylaid.

Today, in our tropical retreat, all we will think of is each other and we will be content in our knowledge that we are here together; two individuals with nowhere else to be and nothing else to do. This is our reality, and we embrace it with arms spread wide.

We are home. Together.