Love in All the Right Places (Chick Lit bundle) (4 page)

Chapter Five

LOOKING BACK on what she had written down that day, Gio conceded that maybe there was some truth to it. What else could explain how this was the third night that he had been persuaded to accompany Min Hee and Da Kyong to dinner? And not just dinner, he reflected, looking down at the bottle of beer in his hand. Maybe she really
was
smarter than him.

Hmmm. Or maybe he should try sneaky, calculating, and manipulative. But that would mean he wasn’t enjoying himself.

And he was. He just didn’t want her to know.

It started out innocently enough. She had dropped by the museum last week, just around closing time, wondering where she could get the island’s best paella negra. He remembered a restaurant she might like and had pointed her towards it.

“Aren’t you almost done here?” she had asked him. “Come walk with me.”

Gio had been about to beg off and claim that there was more work to be done, but Yeban had entered the museum. “Sorry, Sir Gio, they said you needed an extra hand with the boards before you closed up,” he had said, panting. “I had to help out with some tourist bags so I couldn’t come right away.”

Gio had looked from one face to the other. The truth was, he had finished putting the boards away. He could continue to lie to Min Hee so he wouldn’t be roped into dinner—even if it were with a pretty girl. But on the other hand, he couldn’t exactly turn Yeban into an unwitting accomplice and keep him late to do fake work. So he had sent Yeban off with an apology and then agreed to bring her to the restaurant.

She had dropped by again on Saturday night, looking for seafood buffet. He had pointed out that they were a dime a dozen along the beachfront. She had reasoned that she wanted the best. He didn’t tell her that he didn’t know the best one either, and just walked her towards the nearest one. Then they stopped by for a few beers, almost making him miss the last banca back to the mainland.

So he really wasn’t surprised that Min Hee and her friend Da Kyong stopped by that Sunday evening. In fact, he was already expecting it.

Dinner was at a beachside bar with acoustic music. “So when are we doing this tour you promised me?” she asked. “Don’t you have a couple of days off from work?”

“Tomorrow and Tuesday,” he told her reluctantly, knowing where this was headed.

Min Hee looked gleeful. “Okay, good! We can start tomorrow. What time should I be ready?”

“I can get here after breakfast,” he tells her. “How does eight o’clock sound?”

“But I have breakfast at nine!” she protested.

“Tough. Eight then,” he said firmly, grateful that for once, he hadn’t let himself be swayed by her bargaining skills. “Are you coming too, Da Kyong?”

The older girl shook her head. “I have things to do tomorrow? But you’ll take care of Min Hee, yes?”

Min Hee laughed. “I’ll be in good hands, Da Kyong. Mr. Museum promises that nothing exciting will happen to me.”

One thing about hanging out with Min Hee was that he got used to her kind of teasing quickly. But he turned to Da Kyong and nodded solemnly. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Pick me up at my resort, okay?” Min Hee reminded him.

As if she needed to ask. Gio nodded. “All right.” He drained the rest of his beer. “Listen, I really have to go. I need to catch the boat.”

“You always leave early,” Min Hee complained. “We’re such fun company, too! Though I don’t blame you,” she added as she drained her drink. “This night feels pretty dead.”

Gio stood up to go just as Min Hee’s phone rang. Both girls jumped at the sound. He watched them exchange looks, though neither one made a move to answer. Finally Min Hee reached over and rejected the call. Gio half-expected them to laugh at each other, just as his sister Toni and her friends would when they were playing some hard-to-get game with an unsuspecting suitor. But the girls continued to look worried, and he decided to step away with a quick goodbye. Neither one seemed to notice.

* * * *

The truth was, ever since he had made the deal with Min Hee, Gio had already been busy creating the perfect tour. He had drafted one itinerary after another until he was satisfied. Part of him just hadn’t been sure that he was serious about it. But now that they were on for tomorrow morning, he began the arrangements. Just a few phone calls, and everything was set.

Thanks to Yeban and some of the other employees at Aqua, Gio was able to hire a local boatman to bring them around the island, one that would follow their schedule. He figured that a leisurely banca ride was a good way to ease her into a day of sightseeing. That way, Min Hee could see Boracay while it wasn’t too hot out yet and it wasn’t a particularly vigorous activity that she’d be tired by noonday.

The next morning, he packed everything they might need: sunscreen, snorkels, towels, medicine, bandages, bottles of water, and some sandwiches he got from the resort kitchen. He made sure to bring extra food for the boatmen: one skipper and two balancers. And for a treat, he had even bought her a couple of calamansi muffins before heading to her resort.

But once Min Hee saw what was on the agenda, she didn’t look too impressed. Even though she was wearing sunglasses, Gio could tell. “I told you I’ve gone sailing and island hopping,” she told him pointedly.

“You haven’t gone sailing and island hopping with me,” Gio told her, though he wasn’t feeling all that confident now.

Though Min Hee raised an eyebrow, she didn’t contradict him. Instead she walked up the narrow wooden plank, taking the boatman’s offered hand and giving him a grateful smile in return. Gio wondered how she could be so pleasant and polite with everyone else but him.

“I’ve planned a good day for you,” he announced as the boat pushed off the shore. “Eight-thirty, leave the beach. Nine, Laurel Islands. Nine-fifteen, Crocodile Island—”

Min Hee raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t tell me you’ve planned every minute of this tour.”

Gio looked back at her curiously. “I’ve planned every minute of this tour.”

“I said don’t tell me!” She rolled her eyes. “We don’t have to do everything right down to the very last second.”

“But it’s the most efficient way,” Gio protested.

“If this is what sailing and island hopping is going to be like with you, you’re not doing yourself any favors,” she teased. “Lighten up, Mr. Museum. We’ll do things your way today, but if they don’t go according to plan, we’ll be fine with it. Deal?”

“Sometimes it’s nice to stick to a schedule,” he lectured her. “You know what to expect and you don’t waste time.”

“What
do
you consider wasted time, I wonder?” Min Hee mused out loud. “What do you do with all the extra minutes and hours you’ve saved up by sticking to your schedule?” 

She had a good point. His organization skills had made things certain things easier, like working at the museum or helping his mother manage the household finances. It gave him less of a headache when everything could be neatly categorized and classified. “It just gives me more time to do more,” he said stubbornly. “I don’t have time to rest or lighten up.”

Min Hee smiled. “One day won’t hurt you, Mr. Museum. Let’s just take the day as it comes.”

Soon they anchored on the southern tip of the island. “This is where I’d go to snorkel,” Gio told her, trying to match her easygoing mood. He handed her a diving mask and a snorkel. “How good a swimmer are you?”

Min Hee shook her head. “Below average, maybe. I had to learn to swim for—” she began, then cut herself off. “I just learned to swim,” she said instead.

“Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a strong swimmer,” he assured her. “Just stay near the boat. Besides, I won’t let you drown.” 

“You have a funny way of assuring people, Mr. Museum,” Min Hee replied. “Why, are
you
a good swimmer?”

Gio tried not to grin too widely as he stripped his shirt off. He had been swimming for as long as he could remember. Very briefly during his early teens, he had considered competitive swimming, but colleges gave more scholarships to valedictorians than they did to swimmers. Even if he hadn’t trained aggressively in years, swimming still kept his arms and legs in shape. He suddenly felt the urge to show off and flex just a tiny bit. “I guess you could say that,” he told her.

Min Hee was looking at him strangely with her mouth half-open. Her sunglasses had slipped off her nose. “Uh, what’s wrong?” he asked worriedly.

She quickly turned away. “Nothing,” she snapped. “I’m taking my cover-up off so look away.”

He didn’t know why she sounded so irritated all of a sudden but he complied. He removed his glasses as well, but part of him instantly regretted it. Min Hee quickly turned around, before slipping out of her white crocheted sundress to reveal a two-piece suit. He studied her as much as his near-sightedness would allow him, letting his eyes trail the striped bikini top, the boy-cut bottoms, and the toned expanse of skin in between. He wondered how it would be to put a hand on the small of her back, under the pretense of assisting her down or steadying her in this gently rocking boat. But he had to look away before he was accused of ogling.

Gio cleared his throat and moved nearer the banca outrigger. He swung his legs over the side. “Ready to go?”

“Ready,” Min Hee declared, walking up to him.

Gio went into the water and then resurfaced quickly to help Min Hee down. He could tell that it might be a bit scary for someone who wasn’t used to pump boat, but she didn’t complain. She carefully balanced herself on the bamboo rigging then crouched down to jump into the water.

She had a big smile on her face when she surfaced. “The water’s amazing! And I can see straight through!”

“Put your mask on,” he told her. “We’re going to dive.”

Min Hee’s initial hesitation showed when she refused to let go of the boat’s outrigger. She would gamely put her head into the water to look at the fish, but she always kept a hand on the frame. It kept her from diving any further, but Gio understood. If she had just learned to swim, it might have been asking too much for her to get used to the idea of snorkeling.

“What’s that orange one?” Min Hee asked, pointing to a fish through the water.

“I think it’s a damselfish,” Gio replied. He had to squint to be sure. “Unless it has a longer mouth, then it’s probably a butterfly fish.”

Min Hee looked at him curiously. “You’re a historian, not a biologist, am I right? Why do you know so much about this?”

Gio gave a self-deprecating laugh. “When I found out I was going to start working here, I really wanted to know everything I could. So I read up on even on the wildlife and the marine ecosystems of the place. You might think it’s a bit boring but it made me realize how little I really know.”

“Was this your first job?” she asked.

“I worked in the city before coming here,” he replied. “But I was born and raised on the mainland, so it was an easy decision.”

She studied his face. “You don’t seem to think so.”

Gio laughed again. “Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?”

“Ma’am?” the boatman interrupted. “Do you want to feed the fish?” He was standing on the outrigger, handing Min Hee a small plastic bag of stale bread.

Min Hee took it excitedly. She let go of the frame and swam closer to the boatman, who tossed the bag to her lightly. Gio moved to where Min Hee was and soon both of them were tossing tiny pieces of bread into the ocean.

“They’re not biting,” Min Hee told him, almost accusing.

He laughed. “And that’s my fault how?”

But pretty soon the fish came closer. Min Hee handed Gio the bread and slowly went down, not even noticing that she wasn’t clinging to the outrigger anymore. Gio retied the bag, hung it from one of the bamboo poles, and dove in after her. Under the water, he could see Min Hee cupping her hands as a small school of fish dared to come closer. When they resurfaced, she removed her snorkel and smiled widely at him.

It felt good to stay here and swim. It wasn’t every day that he had a chance to relax with a confidently sexy girl beside him, especially one who didn’t seem to notice just how many heads she turned. A small canoe paddled closer, selling treats like coconut juice and ice cream, perfect for a hot day. Min Hee bought coconuts for the two of them and once they were done drinking the juice, the boatman cut the meat up into smaller sizes that they could chew while talking.

“Do you know that the first guide Da Kyong and I had told us that the sea out here had five different colors?” she asked conversationally after they had finished the last of their coconuts.

“Really?” That was the first he heard of it, but looking out into the ocean, it made sense. “Dark blue, green….”

“…White, turquoise and… I forgot the other one,” she giggled sheepishly. “I know! Don’t say it! You’re not the first person to tell me that I need to start paying more attention.”

“What’s it like back in Korea now?”

“Cold.” She pretended to shiver. “It’s the middle of winter over there. Everyone wears coats or mufflers. I bet my friends wished that they were having their vacation in a tropical country!”

“Maybe you should invite them to come with you next year,” he said without thinking.