Free Whispers by Robin Jones Gunn

Martes.”
    “Teri’s tamales at seven on Tuesday,” Scott decoded.
“Bueno
. And don’t make me remember any more Spanish than that!”
    “I’ll see you Tuesday,” Teri said as she opened the door for him. “Thanks for the flower.”
    Scott lingered by the open door, only a few inches fromher. He gazed into her eyes and said, “So all is forgiven?”
    Teri nodded.
    “Bueno.”
He leaned down as if he were about to kiss her. Instead he whispered, “Tuesday.” Then he touched her cheek lightly and left.
    Teri felt mesmerized. A swirl of fireworks ignited the instant he bent close to her. She closed the door and slipped back into bed beneath the whirling ceiling fan. Everything was quiet and calm. Everything except the hissing sparklers inside her head.
    How did Scott do that to her? Why had she never felt that way with Luis? Teri could tell herself why Scott was not the right guy for her, starting with all of Anita’s concerns about his not being serious in his commitment to Christ. If Scott hadn’t kept his high school promises to God, why should he keep dinner date promises with Teri?
    Still, Scott made her feel emotions she had felt before, but never all together in one relationship. He melted her. And whenever he touched her, there were fireworks.
    Now Teri had an even tougher question for herself. Had she really felt those same fireworks with Mark last summer? If so, why had they fizzled out? Was it some sort of enchantment that came with this island paradise? She fell asleep wondering.
    The next morning at 6:10, Teri was even more convinced she was in paradise as she drove to Lahaina. The sun had already made its debut over the west Maui mountains and was racing with her down the highway. She passed the Ka’anapali Resort and thought of her first night on the island when they had eaten at Lelani’s Restaurant. Mark had told her a whale’s skeleton was on display in Whalers Village. They hadn’t seen it that night, and now she wondered if he would offer to show it to her another time.
    What am I doing? I’m hoping Mark will set up future dates with me. That’s crazy! There’s nothing between us anymore. Is there? Why is it I go for months—no, years—without any prospective relationships, and now, here I am developing something with Scott and maintaining this unresolved thing with Mark? Weird. Weird, weird, weird
.
    Teri parked in front of the huge banyan tree and walked over to the Pioneer Inn. For such an early hour, a number of people were out and about. A woman in a weathered straw hat was hosing down the sidewalk in front of the shops behind the Pioneer Inn. She wore a baggy green mu’umu’u, and a stubby cigarette jutted from her lips. Teri guessed this leather-skinned woman had seen plenty over the years here at the Lahaina harbor.
    Directly in front of the Pioneer Inn was a dock full of boats of all shapes and sizes. Some of them were filling with passengers already, headed out for all-day sails to neighboring Lana’i and a favorite diving spot, Molokini.
    She found the outdoor restaurant at the front of the Pioneer Inn, facing the harbor and the inviting Pacific. Teri had eaten breakfast here with Mark last summer. She remembered his telling her that until the late 1950s this two-story inn was the only visitors’ accommodations on that side of the island. It seemed hard to believe that in less than fifty years so much development had taken place in west Maui.
    The building looked authentically aged with deep green walls, red roof, and bright white trim, which might well have been its original colors. She knew Lahaina had been an important whaling port during the mid-1800s. If she had been meeting a man here 150 years ago, he probably would have hunted and skinned whales for a living instead of studying how to preserve them.
    “I’m meeting someone,” Teri said, as the hostess reached for a menu by the front cash register. She was wearing a mu’umu’u and had her thick black hair