The First Billion

Before long, they'd broken their promises and she was telling him about her teenage years- high school at Choate, college at Georgetown, business school at Wharton. Her father was in international business, her mother had passed away years ago. He told her about school in Brownsville, about being one of twenty-four Anglos in a graduating class of eight hundred, about thinking he was Mexican until he was six and went home crying to his mother and demanding to know why his hair wasn't black like everyone else's.

Afterward, the two climbed into Gavallan's Jeep for a drive up the Hana Road. She wasn't the only one who knew their way around Maui. Half an hour later, he pulled into a drive-by just past Hoolawa Bridge.

"Come here," he said, running round the Jeep and offering a hand down. "Five minutes to the most beautiful spot on God's green earth."

Cate regarded the trail before them. A dense tropical canopy obscured the path ten yards in. " 'And they were never found again,' " she said, shaking her hand free and setting off into the jungle.

The path led up a steep hill, following the course of a tumbling stream. Cate's pace soon slowed and Gavallan took the lead, careful to point out the exposed banyan roots and moss-covered stones that one could trip or stumble on. Though the night was cool, both were soon covered in a light sweat.

"I thought you said five minutes?" Cate asked, stopping and placing her hands on her hips, her breath coming hard.

"Okay, maybe ten. But we're almost there. Fifty yards max." Gavallan brushed back a smattering of low-hanging vines, praying he was on the right trail and that he could find the way back to the Jeep. No sooner had he rounded the next bend than he came upon it: a wide pool fed by a crescent-shaped waterfall that dropped from a cliff twenty feet above. A half moon shone high in the sky, and its reflection was caught in the pool's obsidian calm.

"It's beautiful." Cate stood at the edge of the water, her arms wrapped around herself. "Should we go in?"

"If a little mountain water doesn't scare a city girl, why not?" Gavallan bent low and stuck a hand in the water. Fur-eezing! The stream was fed from the summit of Haleakala, elevation 10,500 feet. Him and his big mouth. "It's great," he said, even as he suppressed a shiver. "Not bad at all."

Cate stepped closer to him, her hands rising to her neck to untie her dress. Suddenly, she stopped and fixed him with a wary grin. "You didn't bring me up here to seduce me, did you? I mean, you don't really think I'd sleep with you on our first date?"

"Of course not… er, um, uh… well, I am an optimist."

"I like optimists," she said, dropping her hand from her dress and running it along his chest. "Tell you what: Think positive and I'll let you buy me dinner tomorrow, too. Deal?"

"Deal."

Then, kicking off a zori, she dipped a toe into the pond. "Not too bad at all. Enjoy yourself."

And before he could ask what she meant, she pushed him into the pond, shorts, T-shirt, Top-Siders, and all.

***

Gavallan stared down at her sleeping form, remembering the moment. Three years.

Just then, Cate opened her eyes. "Hello," she said sleepily.

"You never told me why you said no."

"Sorry?"

"You never gave me a reason."

She sat up stiffly. "I didn't know I had to."

"You don't," he said. "But I'm asking you to. It's time we were honest with each other."

Cate threw him a suspicious look. Pulling off the sheets, she rose and walked past him to the bulkhead counter where the first officer had set up an urn of coffee and laid out some cellophane-wrapped sandwiches. "Tuna… chicken salad- what do you feel like?"

Gavallan padded across the cabin, taking up position at her shoulder. "Cate."

She turned to face him. "It just wasn't right."

"What wasn't right? We didn't get along? We weren't okay in bed? We didn't like the same movies? You liked Chinese, I liked Indian? What exactly?"

Cate started to say something, but caught herself. Frowning, she shook her head as if to say, "No, no, I'm not playing this game," then brushed past him.

"Cate, I'm talking to you."

"Excuse me?" she asked, snapping her head. "I don't recall being one of your employees. You can't order me to talk back. Just leave it, okay?"

And shooting him a dismissive glance, she continued to her seat, making a derisive noise on the way, a frustrated exhalation that sounded like a tire bleeding air.

It was the look that did it- the condescending way she had of averting her eyes, of showing him the back of her hand as if warding off an autograph seeker. Until then, he had kept his cool. It had been a difficult day- the hardest he'd known since the war. Neither of them needed another spate of accusations, rebukes, or recriminations. Then she gave him that look, and his calm was a thing of the past. Lost like a candy wrapper out the window of a speeding car. His heart pounded. Blood raged in his ears. Grabbing Cate by the shoulder, he spun her around and looked her straight in the face.