Boracay Sunset – Part 2: The Long Way Home

The beach walk back to the hotel had taken an hour, mostly because they kept stopping to look at the stars. Miguel had pointed out constellations he could not properly name and made up three of his own. Ana had told him one of them was a seahorse, and he had insisted it was a dog.

At her hotel gate, he stopped and turned to face her.

"I'm diving at seven," he said. "The reef off Crocodile Island. I have one empty spot on the boat, and I'm too much of a coward to ask you properly."

"You're a diving instructor," said Ana. "You're not a coward."

"I am when it comes to you," said Miguel, quite plainly. "Will you come?"

Ana looked at him for a long moment, the streetlamp making a soft halo in his hair.

"Yes," she said. "But I'm not carrying any tanks."

"You'll carry your own bag," he said, smiling. "That's the whole deal."

The boat was small and blue, with a wooden deck that smelled of sunscreen and diesel. Miguel handed her a snorkel and a mask and showed her how to fit them without letting water in. His fingers were patient and careful against her cheek, and she felt her face warm in the bright morning sun.

The reef was another world. Shoals of yellow and blue fish drifted past her hands. A sea turtle glided below them, unhurried and ancient. The water was so clear it looked like glass.

When she surfaced, Miguel was waiting, his hair slicked back, water running down his shoulders.

"Did you see the turtle?" he asked.

"I saw it," said Ana. "I thought it was you. You move like that in the water."

"Like a turtle?"

"Like someone who isn't afraid of the deep part any more."

He went very still. Then he reached out, carefully, and brushed a wet strand of hair from her face.

"Ana," he said quietly. "Can I tell you something?"

"Yes."

"I haven't been afraid of the deep water since the first night you laughed at my seahorse."

She laughed, and felt her heart turn over. "You're very dramatic."

"I'm very honest," said Miguel. "And I'd like to kiss you, right now, in the middle of the reef, with a fish watching. If you'll let me."

"Yes," said Ana, and then, quickly, "But if I say stop, you stop, and you still have to give me the mask back."

"Done," said Miguel, and he kissed her.

The sea rocked them gently. The sun was warm on their wet shoulders. The kiss was salt and laughter and a little bit of shyness, and then something deeper, steady and sure.

When they parted, Ana was breathless and grinning.

"Green?" Miguel asked, low.

"Green," said Ana. "Very green. Take me back to shore before the boatman sees us and starts a rumour."

"He already has," said Miguel, laughing. "He's been waving at us since we got in the water."

On the boat home, Ana sat beside him on the wooden deck with her hand in his, watching the island shrink behind them, and wondered how long she had been waiting for a weekend she had never planned.