PART EIGHTY-SEVEN: WELCOME TO HONOLULU

I really didn’t like packing. It stressed me out, and I always felt like I was forgetting something, but it had to be done. Patrick and I were going to be on our way to Hawaii in a day, and I didn’t want to do all my packing last minute. He would start his when he got back from a team lunch, so Tess was at our apartment helping me at the moment.
“So, should I be expecting a niece nine months after this trip, or what?” Tess asked. We might not have been actual sisters, but our kids would probably call us their aunts anyways.
“What?” I was tossing necessities like deodorant and face wash into a bag, but her question caused me to turn around. She was holding up some lingerie that I had recently bought from Victoria’s Secret. I had her going through the checklist and marking off the things I had so far.
“It’s our honeymoon, Tess. What do you expect to take to yours?”
“I know, I know. But you are married now, and I know you want kids eventually. Do you plan on waiting a while?” she wondered. I had it all planned out ever since I was a preteen - I would get married in my mid-twenties, wait about a year, and then have my first kid, which was supposed to be a boy. Then, once he was a toddler and potty-trained, we’d have another - a girl. That way, she’d have an older brother to protect her. I had been satisfied with that plan for years, and I was pretty sure that I still was.
“The plan has always been to just enjoy marriage for a while. Maybe a year, give or take a few months,” I stated.
“What does Patrick think of this plan?”
“I mean, we’ve talked about kids and everything. We both want them, but neither of us are really in a rush to have them. But…”
“There it is. The but.”
“The plan is subject to change at any time, it just depends on how we feel and what we decide. I don’t really know. I don’t want to worry about that right now, though, ya know? I just want to enjoy our honeymoon and Hawaii and if the topic comes up, then we can talk about it,” I decided.
By the time I was finished packing, Patrick had just gotten back home. At that point, Tess left and I helped him with his packing. It felt strange when we were finished. We basically just waited around for the next morning, when we had to get up early to catch our flight. l slept about as well as a kid on Christmas - it took me forever to get to sleep because I was too excited. I had never been on a tropical vacation of any kind before. Seeing as I was part of a hockey family, we usually went on ski trips so we could be around snow and ice. The trip to Hawaii would be a first for me.

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Ten hours. That was how long our flight to Honolulu was. I slept through a good portion of it, so I made sure to get some coffee to wake myself up once I decided I had gotten enough extra sleep. As we got closer to the island, I found myself anticipating our arrival more and more. Eventually, our flight attendant announced that we were getting ready to land, and a grin immediately spread across my face.
I was blown away when we left the airport. The weather was a lot warmer than it had been in Chicago, and the light breeze made the palm trees that littered the land sway. Everything there was so beautiful in a different way than my favorite Illinois city was.
Once Patrick and I got to the resort we were staying at for the week, I was even more impressed. We were staying at the beach, in a suite with an ocean view. Our suite was spacious and gorgeous, with tones of beige and white on the walls and furniture as well as beach-themed knick knacks. We had a bedroom with a king-sized bed, paired with a master bathroom that included two sinks, a walk-in glass shower with a rainforest shower head, and a deep soak tub. We also had a kitchen and living room space, of course, with a balcony right off of it.
“Welcome to Honolulu’s very own Kahala Resort! Does everything look okay?” an employee asked, setting our bags down.
“Everything is perfect,” I assured him after Patrick and I had looked around. He told us to let someone know if we needed anything or if there was a problem, and then he left us to enjoy our suite.
“This place is amazing,” Patrick gushed.
“I told you I picked a good spot!” I answered. We unpacked our things and got settled in, tired from a long flight. I almost wanted to just stay in and do nothing, but we had decided to go to dinner instead, to get a feel for the place. Eventually, we would try Hawaiian food, but for the first night, we chose the Italian restaurant they had at the resort. Pasta was my comfort food, and it was what sounded good.
Even though it was our honeymoon, the first night wasn’t all that activity-filled or romantic. After dinner, which was delicious and probably the most romantic part of the night, we just relaxed in bed - not even on the beach. The time difference was four hours, which was difficult to adjust to, and neither of us had any energy. We ended up going to bed early and we fell asleep with ease.

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In the morning, I woke up to the feeling of Patrick’s strong arms wrapping around me.
“Wake up, Lean,” he murmured, and I reluctantly opened my eyes. I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to be awake yet.
“What time is it?” I wondered.
“It’s sunrise.”
“Sunrise?” I couldn’t remember the last time I was awake for sunrise.
“Yeah. I thought you might want to see it,” he explained. I rolled over to face him and rubbed my eyes.
“Come on,” he prompted me. He took my hand and helped me out of bed. I followed him to the window, where he pulled back the curtains and I smiled at the view. It was breathtaking - the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It might have felt really early, but waking up for that was so worth it. We had gotten plenty of sleep, anyways.
“God, I love it here,” I laughed, wrapping my arms around his torso as we gazed out the window.
“Me too,” he agreed, hugging me back.
A few photographs later, we both finally left the window and decided to start getting ready for the day. I called dibs on the shower, and surprisingly, rather than suggesting that we just share it, Pat told me to go ahead, that he had something he needed to do anyways. I was a little taken aback, but I let it go. I went ahead and took one of the nicest showers ever - I could really get used to staying in that suite. By the time I stepped out and got dressed, I found Patrick in the kitchen, making breakfast.
“You’re cooking?”
“Yep. I did a little quick shopping while you were in the shower,” he replied, scooping chocolate chip pancakes onto a plate.
“Wow. First you make sure I get to see the sunrise, and then you make me breakfast? How hard are you trying to score brownie points right now?” I chuckled.
“Pretty hard, actually,” he laughed in response. “How am I doing so far?”
“Good,” I decided.
After breakfast, we went out on the beach. It was the perfect weather to get in the water and cool off. After a little tanning and Frisbee in the water, we decided to do a little exploring. There was a ton of space and lots of things to do - we just hadn’t discovered it all yet.
“Let’s see. There’s a spa, a pool, kayaking, we could rent bikes or boogie boards…oh, I know what you’d want to do,” Patrick read off some of the activities listed on the resort website.
“What?”
“The Dolphin Quest.”
“As in, swimming with dolphins?” I was suddenly really excited.
“Yep.”
“Can we-“
“Of course, why else would I mention it?”
Patrick and I headed out to the lagoon where the Dolphin Quest took place. There were six dolphins to play with, and we made reservations for a private session, so we’d get them all to ourselves, with a trainer of course. I absolutely couldn’t wait. I had always wanted to have an experience like this one, but I never had the chance until that day. As soon as we got in the water with the amazing creatures, I was all smiles. But, despite the fact that Patrick had tried to pretend that it wasn’t a big deal, he was just as happy and smiley when he got to pet and play with them. It was really cute, actually. He even made a friend…or, maybe more than that.
“She just can’t seem to get away from you,” I giggled at one of the female dolphins who kept swimming back to him.
“I think she might have a crush,” the trainer laughed.
“Sorry, I’m kind of taken,” Patrick apologized, petting the dolphin’s back.
We played with the dolphins for a while and got pictures with them and then we got lunch at the beach. After lunch, we went out for a bike ride, which was something I hadn’t done in forever.
Since we had an eventful day, we stayed in for the night. Even though I was having a lot of fun, it still felt like more of vacation than a honeymoon. While Patrick wasn’t in the room, I rifled through the bottom drawer of the dresser and found some of the lingerie Tess had made fun of me for. I decided that it was as good a time as any other to give it a shot. I quickly wrapped it up in my pajamas as he came back into the room.
“Is it pajama time?” he asked, noticing the clothes I was holding.
“Yep, I’ll be back,” I said before disappearing into the bathroom. I put on the lacy black and lilac corset, along with the underwear to match. I was surprised at what I saw in the bathroom mirror. I looked…sexy. I grabbed my robe and put it on over everything, then stepped back out into the bedroom.
“What’s with the robe?” Pat questioned me, his eyebrows raised. He was in actual pjs, which consisted of shorts and a t-shirt.
“I went shopping not too long ago,” I clarified, untying the knot of the belt and letting my robe drop to the floor.
“Whoa.” Patrick scanned every inch of me as I made my way over to the bed where he sat.
“So, what do you think?”
“I think you’re the hottest Victoria’s Secret model I’ve ever seen,” he grinned, pulling me onto his lap. I knew I was blushing, but I kissed him harshly so he couldn’t tell.
“The things I’m going to do to you tonight…” he muttered, already breathless in between kisses.
“Like what?” I asked, looking deep into his eyes.

“Whatever you want,” he whispered into my ear, sending a chill down my spine. This was what I thought of when the word honeymoon came to mind. I guess Tess had every right to tease me.

Notes