Page 39

A Final Fortune

O

ver the hour that followed that final hour, they packed up, boarded the resort’s seaplane, and returned to Viti Levu. From there, they took a rented van back to Nadi Airport. They’d be leaving at nearly eleven in the evening, and it’d be early in the afternoon of the same day when they landed. That was the day—the second Sunday—they’d be getting back. The day they’d lost on the flight here.

Before all that, Liam and Victoria stood alone in their bure. They’d packed everything away; it all stood in a neat pile near a pretty underutilized front door. Now, they shared a moment looking at the bed they’d shared for the past week.

And also…

“You’re still at thirty, right?” Liam asked. “Unless that poker game got more involved than the first one?”

“It did, but I still am,” Victoria said, a slender smile on her face.

“Do I have time to fix that before we regroup with the others?”

“Given your skillset, you might, but I won’t let you,” the buxom woman answered cryptically.

Liam’s troubled expression—he didn’t want to end his trip with a failure, even if today could hardly be seen in such a way—grew Victoria’s smile ever so slightly. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him.

That was the last they’d spoken of it since heading off to find the others. All packed, all dressed, and all planning to stay awake for a little bit of the flight home, they drove to a grassy airport, flew over a brief expanse of ocean, and then drove to Avril’s jet. Her family’s “smaller” one.

They were in the air, all looking out a window, thirty minutes later. Watching the lights of the sparse cities go by, then the mountains, then the other side of the world’s largest ocean. And then the smaller islands east of Viti Levu.

And then those, too, were gone. And they were heading home.

“So, we all had a fun time,” Avril said, and it wasn’t a question. After watching the islands go by, they’d all gathered together without a word. “Any favorite experiences?”

“Seeing sea turtles,” Anna immediately said.

“A boring answer, but just the time on the beach,” Tess, the woman sporting a new tan, said. “If I have to pick something specific, it's the day we walked all those trails.”

Avril nodded after each of these statements, as if giving her stamp of approval on them. Her emerald eyes shifted toward Victoria.

“And you, Auntie? Keep it PG, now. I know you finally got some action and all, but this is a respectable plane ride we’re on.”

Avril’s typical antics resulted in Victoria’s typical flat stare. “I would say the first day, visiting the gardens and the mud bath, happens to be my favorite.”

“And I’ll vote for our first beach day,” Avril said. “Liam?”

He’d been expecting it, but he still stiffened a little as everyone else turned their attention toward him. What was his favorite moment on the trip? He was grateful that Avril had excluded all the romantic events, as he’d have been royally screwed otherwise. He didn’t know how he could pick from those.

“I’d also go with the mud bath,” Liam said, receiving several “of course you’d say that” looks. “That, or the snorkeling. It was a lot of fun.”

“Picking two, huh?” Avril said. “How like you.”

Liam shrugged and smiled.

“On another topic,” Avril said, looking from person to person. “Three of us managed to complete their fortunes.” Her eyes landed last on Victoria. “Unless I’m mistaken, our birthday girl did not. Liam?”

“I never got the piece of paper back, or told that it was completed,” he admitted. “So, I don’t think it was.”

“It wasn’t completed,” Victoria confirmed.

“Well, at least give it here, so we can see what you were supposed to do.”

In that moment, Victoria did something that Avril would have done. She didn’t get up, head to her suitcase, then dig out the fortune she’d opened a few days ago. Because it wasn’t there.

Instead, she reached into her shorts’ pocket. And instead of handing it to Avril, she handed it to Liam.

He had barely three seconds to read what was inscribed upon the little slip of paper. Victoria was up on her feet during that time, reaching out to grab his wrist.

Liam read the fortune but was yanked to his feet before he could fully register its contents. The fortune escaped his grasp, landing on the ground. And he was pulled away, toward the private suite at the back of the plane.

Tess picked it up. She read the same words he had, and her eyes widened. They thrust themselves after her colleague and the neighbor she had in her grasp.

Jaw ajar, she was still staring as Victoria guided him into the private suite, shut the door, and pushed him onto the soft couch within.

Victoria pulled her shirt off.

Liam finally fully registered what the fortune had said.

We’ll have sex in a unique place—on a plane, or a boat, or something. It’ll be fucking great.

#077

Soon after, technically before both their vacation and her thirty-fifth birthday saw their end, Victoria completed that fortune, and in doing so, brought herself to number thirty-five—two higher, actually. And the fortune was entirely right. It was fucking great.