Trancas Canyon

Hurricane Warning

Madli had never been through a bad time with Luke. In their two years together, they had only known fun and adventure. It had all been an upwardly mobile trajectory for both of them in their respective careers and their romance. They had met on a sultry 4th of July night at a rooftop cocktail party hosted by Amanda, one of Madli's law school girlfriends. Had it not been for the biting commentary he was making about cable news from the other end of a table where Madli was sipping her sangria, she would not have noticed him at all.

"I know I shouldn't be, but I'm always disappointed when hurricane warnings get downgraded."

With his scruffy curly hair, inked up arms and hipster T-shirt, Luke was not her type at all. Over the years her taste in men had evolved. From a young age, she had been drawn to the tall, lanky and blue-eyed boys who were the opposite of her own exotic look. It wasn't until graduate school that she became attracted to a richer, more sophisticated type of handsomeness.

Men typically used the word adorable to describe Madli so she was surprised the next day when she received Amanda's text messages about Luke.

He thinks you're hot! He asked for your number.

Madli had inherited her father's Mexican metabolism. She had always been more Rubenesque than the women she had grown up seeing on television and in advertisements. At her thinnest she was somewhere between a size ten and a size twelve. This had made her feel very insecure especially since her Estonian cousins had always been long limbed, lean and athletic. Unlike Madli's high maintenance curly hair, her cousins had easy to manage straight hair which she had always envied.

Madli was flattered but that was about it. She typed a text back to Amanda.

I'm not into those floppy haired boys anymore.

Her phone chimed again. Amanda was clearly determined.

How long has it been since you've been naked with someone?

It was a fair question. Madli hadn't dated anyone since her brief and disastrous relationship with a law school classmate. She had been friends with Geoffrey for the better part of the first year before he began subtly courting her. It had taken her by surprise and initially made her uncomfortable. Geoff was a nerd and Madli had trouble thinking of him romantically. He turned out to be a great kisser and she fell hard for his sweet and doting nature. Geoff held her hand and talked her off the ledge when she panicked about her course load. They spent hours passionately kissing then stumbled onto stress relieving naked study sessions where they read out loud to one another in nothing but their underwear.

Eventually Geoffrey had made himself vulnerable to Madli and shared that he was a Born Again Christian. He lovingly held her hands and looked her in the eye as he told her he had been raised without religion. In college he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He added that the image of Ganesh's elephant head on one of her yoga tops made him uncomfortable. He had similar feelings about the Buddha statue she kept next to her herb garden in her window box. He also didn't like her substitution of the word Universe or Source for God when she talked about spirituality.

The conversation had taken Madli by surprise and left her confused. For the better part of their first year, Geoffrey had known about Madli's interest in spirituality and Eastern cultures so she didn't understand why he had pursued her.

Their break-up was humiliating. Madli felt judged and the level headedness that made Geoffrey a wonderful partner made him an unfeeling ex-boyfriend who carried on without a second thought. "He'll rue the day," Amanda had said to comfort her. Years later, here was Amanda pushing her to get out there again.