The Light of the Blue Pearl by K.C. HAWKE Page B

far. The destination was
actually one of her favorite spots to run; a nice trail and beach
that overlooked the Golden Gate Bridge. He pulled into a parking
spot and turned off the car.
    “I thought we could have a picnic,” he said.
“Sound good?”
    “Yeah, sounds great,” she said.
    He got out of the car, opened the back and
pulled out a blanket and picnic basket. Seeing how prepared he was
was actually pretty adorable, she was really not used to someone
doing so many nice things for her.
    Again, she was struggling trying to remember
the words she had practiced in her head. Right now she had
absolutely no desire to say any of them.
    After collecting their food, he met her on
her side of the car and led the way to a nice spot on the beach. It
was a surprisingly warm and sunny day, actually a perfect day for a
picnic.
    The beach wasn’t as busy as it sometimes was
which was really nice. As they settled onto the blanket he opened
the basket and asked what she would like.
    He had her favorite, a turkey sandwich,
which she chose; he grinned at her. She just shook her head at the
idea that he had known that and silently started eating and looked
out at the water.
    Her dream suddenly came to her like a bolt
of lightening; hitting her hard even though the circumstances and
weather were nothing like it. She tried to brush it off, but
obviously not fast enough.
    “Are you alright?” he asked.
    “Yeah,” she said. “I’m fine.”
    “Are you cold? I have a blanket in the car,”
he said.
    “No, I’m fine, really,” she said.
    She turned back to the water and started
eating her sandwich again. She took a deep breath and did her best
to wipe away the feeling of dread that had swept over her so
suddenly.
    Halfway through her sandwich she looked over
at him; he was nervously eating, obviously not sure of what to
say.
    “This is really nice, Scott,” she said.
    He looked over and smiled, relaxing a bit.
“Yeah, it is,” he said. “Thanks for coming with me.”
    “Thanks for inviting me,” she said.
    The feeling the dream had hit her with was
starting to pass. She was once again feeling the happy glow that
she had felt when he had picked her up, once again pushing aside
the talk she had thought she would have been having by now; a talk
she decided she frankly didn’t want to have.
    “So what else did you bring to eat?” she
asked. It seemed the butterflies were on break and she was suddenly
starving.
    He smiled a cute grin and dug into the
picnic basket pulling out some pineapple and a couple of chocolate
bars.
    “That’s an interesting picnic choice,” she
said. “But not one I’m going to argue with.”
    He laughed and handed her a container of
pineapple and her own chocolate bar.
    Feeling at ease she leaned back on her
hands. She stretched her legs out in front of her and looked up
into the blue sky and the white clouds above them. It was an
uncharacteristically sunny day for this time of year they were
getting to enjoy together.
    “So how does it compare to San Pedro?” he
asked.
    “Well…it’s not as warm,” she said. “And I’m
not sure I’d like to go snorkeling right now – but the company is
nice.” She looked over and saw him smiling.
    “Aww, that’s too bad,” he said, lying down
on the blanket and looking up at the sky, his fingers interlaced
and resting comfortably on his chest. “Snorkeling was next on the
agenda.”
    She laughed. “Yeah, sure it was.”
    Lying down completely, joining him on the
blanket, they watched the clouds overhead float by.
    “So you couldn’t wait until Thursday, huh?”
she asked.
    “Well, I suppose I could have waited,” he
said. “But then, I have been waiting quite a while already, and I
didn’t want you to chicken out.”
    “Probably a good idea,” she said. “I was
going to cancel our date last night. But then I found the box.”
    She didn’t know why she had blurted that
out. Maybe he would think she was kidding, although it hadn’t
sounded