Love Island

Chapter 3 - First Dates

Giselle and I laid together on one of the daybeds, sun cream on, sunglasses down. The villa had quieted from the earlier antics. The pool was nearly empty except for Lucas and Polly, who sat in the shallow end of the pool chatting. There was a large group by the bar; every few minutes, a swell of laughter would arise. And somewhere behind us, up on the roof terrace, I could hear quiet giggling. Beside me, Giselle grabbed her water bottle off the grass. The ice inside clinked against the plastic.

"Hey," I said gently, breaking our long silence.

"Hi," Giselle responded. I heard her take a sip of her water.

I pushed my sunglasses up to the crown of my head and squinted in the midday sun. "So, girl-talk. What are your thoughts on the guys?" I asked.

"All of them?" Giselle asked. She put her water bottle back on the grass and sat up. I followed her lead and did the same, propping myself up on my elbow.

"Yeah. You seem like you can read people pretty well," I explained.

Giselle smiled down at me. "Well, I don't know about that. But I've definitely got some opinions."

"Please, continue," I encouraged.

Giselle looked around the villa. Her eyes drifted over to the pool. "Lucas is so adorable, isn't he? He's got an innocent vibe, but I think he's a bit too immature for my taste, you know?" I nodded in agreement. "Still, I think he deserves better than Polly. She's obviously not interested in getting to know him."

Polly smiled with feigned interest. I followed her gaze to see Lucas enthusiastically talking about something, throwing hand gestures, and beaming. "I hope they can be friends, though. You can just tell he's a good person."

Giselle nodded in agreement and continued her analysis. "Blake-" she started, then glanced at me.

"We've only been coupled up for a few hours, you can tell me," I said.

"I think he's playing the game," Giselle said. "He doesn't seem like the type to settle down. I can tell he's into you, but I also think he's into Amelia. And probably Polly."

"I can see that, definitely. I'd still like to get to know him better, so I don't want to pass any quick judgments, but I'll keep that in mind." I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand.

"Eli." Giselle smiled fondly. I perked up. "Definitely hot, but I've always had a thing for white boys, ya know? Drives my mama crazy," she giggled. Her smile was bright and warm.

"That's fair," I commented. "My tutu still wants me to find a Hawaiian boy so that I can pass down the culture. Which I don't mind, but I can still pass down a culture, no matter the background of who I marry."

Giselle paused. "I'm sorry, did you just say your tutu?"

I laughed. "It's Hawaiian. Tutu is my grandma."

"Ooh, gotcha. Yeah, my parents are Dominican but moved to Los Angeles before I was born. I think they expect me to fly to the Dominican Republic just to find a man!" Giselle smiled and looked around once more. "Charlie's a cutie, right? When his secret was about his MBA, it made him even more attractive to me."

"I like a guy with high intelligence, but I don't know about Charlie. I go to school at IU and any boy in the business college is bad news. They're the sirens of college; they lure you in with styled hair and pressed suits for their career fairs, then they take you to a frat party, throw up Natural Light on your skirt, and cheat on you with the sorority sister across the street," I paused and reflected. "That may or may not be from personal experience."

Giselle grabbed her water bottle from the grass. "You deserve better, anyway." She popped open the cap and hovered the bottle over my side. "May I interest you in a drizzle?" she asked.