To be Loved

Tiana

Tiana Micheals
5 days later
3:30 pm

Jerry took us all to Hawaii. They left their sons with his grandparents which is understandable. They are only one. Makayla and Jerry have been together for 5 years now. They were engaged before they had their sons and delayed it once they found out Kayla was pregnant.

Jerry's a nice guy. He's a white man, skinny, tall, lanky and not the sexiest guy in the room but still pretty good looking.

"So, Tiana, you have your own room and Maddie you'll share with us." Jerry says giving me my key.

"Can I be with auntie?" Maddie says, clinging to me.

"I don't know, Maddie. Your aunt would want to explore the island." Kayla says.

"It's not a problem. Maddie can stay with me. We can share the bed." I say taking her hand in my mine.

"Yay!" She yells and we make our way upstairs.

***

"Maddie! Don't go too far!" Jerry yells.

We're at the beach just relaxing and enjoying the sun and ocean.

"Okay!" She says, talking with another little girl as they play in the ocean.

"I'm going to get a drink, anyone want one?" I ask, getting up and grabbing my beach bag and hat.

"No." They say and I walk over to the outside bar.

"Could I get a Mai Tai, please?" I ask the bartender. I sit down on one of the islands and take pictures.

"Tiana?" I hear a familiar voice ask.

I turn to Tyson, Thomas' friend. He's fine as well, tall, muscular, brown skin with locs.

"Tyson, hi!" I say, getting up and hugging him.

"Tiana, I always find you where the drinks are." He laughs, looking me up and down.

"You always catching me at the wrong time." I say, getting my drink and thanking the bartender.

"I don't think so." He says absentmindedly looking at me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, sipping.

"My friend Brian, it's his wedding weekend."

"Oh, so that means Thomas is here. When you see him tell him I said hi."

"Definitely, but I think he'd wanna say it himself." Tyson, says pointing further down the beach where I could make out some people.

"Okay, lead me." I say grabbing my hat and bag. The hat, I put on my head.

By the time we make it there, I've finished my drink.

"Who this?" Somebody asks as we get closer.

"This is Tiana. Tiana this is Brian."

"Ah, the groom. Congratulations. Nice to meet you." I say shaking his hand.

He's short and skinny but still attractive.

"Thank you." He says, shaking my hand.

I turn to everyone else and wave.

I spot Thomas and walk over to him.

"Thomas." I greet and going in for a hug.

He squeezes back.

"What you doing here?" He asks, surprised.

He looks good as fuck. Tats out on display. No shirt just shorts. Like he knows he's fine.

"I told you I was going on a vacation with my friend and her family. You're the one who didn't tell me this was a destination wedding." I accuse.

"You're right. So, Maddie must be here." He says looking for her.

"She's playing with another little girl."

"Surprised, wherever you go, Maddie's right behind you." He says, leading me away from the group and I can feel their eyes on me or more my ass.

"Today..."

"Auntie!" I turn to see Maddie running towards me.

I catch her and twirl her around.

"Bunny, why are you so far away from your parents?"

"We couldn't find you so we came looking for you." Maddie says, just as I see Kayla and Jerry approach.

I introduce everyone and we all chill together for the rest of the day.

***

The next day Jerry, Makayla, Maddie and I went snorkeling. It was so very beautiful. The water was beautiful and so was the fish. Then I took Maddie to learn to surf and I tried to learn myself. I let Jerry and Makayla have fun with just themselves. I also took us to swim with dolphins. That was a very scary experience for me given that dolphins are the menace of the sea. Lastly we went zip lining. I was afraid of that as well but if Maddie could do it so could I.

All in all we had a fun day and now we're at dinner meeting up with Jerry and Makayla.

"Auntie, look!" She says pointing to Thomas and a few of his friends. She runs off and hugs him.

Thomas is surprised at first but returns the hug. He makes eye contact with me and says something to his friends who look at me and walks over with Maddie in tow.

"...and then we learned how to surf but aunties kept falling off and the instructor kept having to hold her waist..."

We let Maddie talk a mile a minute while we ate. Kayla and Jerry texted they weren't coming so we just listened to Maddie and ate.

Thomas is carrying Maddie while we walk back to my hotel.

"We keep bumping into each other. Let's go somewhere together." He says, taking my hand.

"Yeah, I mean why not. Where you wanna go?" I asks, avoiding his gaze.

"Anywhere, tomorrow's my last night here. We leave Monday afternoon."

"So Brian's a married man. Congratulations to him. Marriage is a wonderful thing when you truly love each other."

"You still believe in marriage?"

"Of course! Just because I had one bad experience doesn't mean I don't believe in the idea of marriage which is to say we belong to each other forever."

"I'm glad that bad experience hasn't spoiled you for the future." He says finally connecting eyes with me.

"How's your mom?" I ask, changing the subject.

"She's good, she just was talking about you."

"Really? Why?"

"She thinks we're perfect for each other and I can't say I disagree." He says, staring me down.

We've made it to the hotel so I grab Maddie and head inside.

"It was nice seeing you, again. Call me when you're ready. Goodnight." I say, walking in without another word.

I'm not ready for another committed relationship.

So I tell myself.