Terminal

No sooner had Sean hung up the phone than there was a knock on the door. Sean read over the directions as he walked to the door. Absentmindedly, he opened the door without asking who it was or looking through the security peephole. What he didn’t realize was that Janet had hooked the security chain. When he pulled the door open, it abruptly stopped, leaving only a two-inch crack.

Through the crack Sean saw a momentary glint of metal in the hand of whoever was at the door. The significance of that glint failed to register. Sean was too embarrassed to have bungled opening the door to focus on it. As soon as he reopened the door properly, he apologized to the man standing there.

The man, dressed in a hotel uniform, smiled and said there was no need for an apology. He said he should apologize for disturbing them, but the management was sending up fruit and a complimentary bottle of champagne because of the inconvenience of not having a nonsmoking ocean-view room.

Sean thanked the man and tipped him before seeing him out, then he called to Janet. He poured two glasses.

Janet appeared at the bathroom doorway in a black one-piece bathing suit cut high on her thighs and low in the back. Sean had to swallow hard.

“You look stunning,” he said.

“You like it?” Janet asked as she pirouetted into the room. “I got it just before I left Boston.”

“I love it,” Sean said. Once again he appreciated Janet’s figure, remembering it had been her figure that had first attracted him to her when he’d seen her climbing down from that countertop.

Sean handed her a glass of champagne, explaining the management’s gift.

“To our weekend escape,” Janet said, extending her glass toward Sean.

“Hear, hear!” Sean said, touching her glass with his.

“And to our discussions this weekend,” Janet added, thrusting her glass at him again.

Sean touched her glass for a second time, but his face assumed a quizzical expression. “What discussions?” he asked.

“Sometime in the next twenty-four hours I want to talk about our relationship,” Janet said.

“You do?” Sean winced.

“Don’t look so mournful,” Janet said. “Drink up and get your suit on. The sun’s going to set before we get out there.”

Sean’s nylon gym shorts had to double as a bathing suit. He’d not been able to find his real bathing suit when he’d packed in Boston. But it hadn’t worried him. He hadn’t planned on going to the beach much, and if he did, it would have been just to walk and look at the girls. He hadn’t planned on going into the water.

After they’d each had a glass of champagne, they donned terrycloth robes provided by the hotel. As they rode down in the elevator, Sean told Janet about Malcolm Betencourt’s invitation. Janet was surprised by this development, and a little disappointed. She’d been envisioning a romantic dinner for just the two of them.

On the way to the beach they walked by the hotel’s pool, which was a free-form variation of a clover leaf. There were half a dozen people in the water, mostly children. After crossing a boardwalk spanning a narrow tongue of mangrove swamp, they arrived at the Gulf of Mexico.

Even at this hour, the beach was dazzling. The sand was white and mixed with the crushed, sun-bleached remains of billions of shellfish. Redwood beach furniture and blue canvas umbrellas dotted the beach directly in front of the hotel. Groups of dawdling sunbathers were scattered to the north, but to the south, the sand was empty.

Opting for privacy, they turned to the south, angling across the sand to reach the apogee of the small waves as they washed up on the beach. Expecting the water to feel like Cape Cod in the summer, Sean was pleasantly surprised. It was still cool, but certainly not cold.

Holding hands, they walked on the damp, firm sand at the water’s edge. The sun was dipping toward the horizon, casting a glistening path of golden light along the surface of the water. A flock of pelicans silently glided by overhead. From the depths of a vast mangrove swamp came the cry of a tropical bird.

As they walked past the beachfront condominiums just south of the Ritz Carlton, real estate development gave way to a line of Australian pine trees mixed with sea grapes and a few palms. The Gulf changed from green to silver as the sun sank below the horizon.

“Do you honestly care for me?” Janet asked suddenly. Since she wouldn’t get a chance to talk seriously with Sean at dinner, she decided there was no time better than the present to at least get a discussion started. After all, what could be more romantic than a sunset walk on the beach?

“Of course I care for you,” Sean said.

“Why don’t you ever tell me?”

“I don’t?” Sean asked, surprised.

“No, you don’t.”

“Well, I think it all the time,” Sean said.

“Would you say you care for me a lot?”

“Yeah, I would,” Sean said.

“Do you love me, Sean?” Janet asked.

They walked for a way in silence watching their feet press into the sand.

“Yeah, I do,” Sean said.

“Do what?” Janet asked.