Page 46 of Here for a Good Time
“Try ‘every single breakup he’s ever had,’” Leila answers. “Antonio is what we call ‘a dick.’”
“I prefer ‘wild stallion,’” Antonio says.
“Ew, don’t tell me you’re one of those,” I say, wrinkling my nose. “You need to do better.”
“Zwe, maybe you can teach him how to be a real man.Please?” When Leila simultaneously juts out her bottom lip and widens her eyes, she looks like one of those adorable cartoon meerkat mascots that could convince you that purchasing car insurance is a good choice even if you don’t have a car right now.
“Nah, you have it backward—” Antonio shakes his head, and makes a show of puffing his chest. “Now that I know he’s single, once we get back to the mainland,I’mgoing to showMr. Zwehow to be a real Casanova. And think of the story we’ll have to tell! We had to hide in the jungle because masked gunmen were chasing us?” He lets out a low whistle. “The girls will lap it up.”
“Women,” I correct.
“Sorry. Thewomenwill lap it up.”
I wave a hand. “No, I meant they’re not masked gunmen, they’re gunwomen. All of them. Or at least, they’re female-presenting. Whatisthe procedure for asking your kidnappers their preferred pronouns?”
“Wait,” Leila says, leaning forward. “How do you know they’reallwomen? I’d assumed they were the same gang who robbed the Second Heaven Resort the other month—”
My jaw drops. “Wait, this has happened before? Where is this other resort?”
“I didn’t hear anything about that,” Antonio says.
“It’s in the other direction from the mainland,” Leila says. “It happened in the middle of the night. They held the receptionists who were on duty that night at gunpoint and made them transfer all the money into an offshore account. Thankfully nobody was hurt so management kept it really tight-lipped. I only know because their manager warned Sandra, who warned me. But—” She returns her attention to me. “—that gang was definitely a mix of men and women, according to the Second Heaven team. How do you knowthesepeople are all women?”
“They passed us in a buggy after we left our room,” I explain. “It might not be anything, but it’sinteresting,at the very least. A horde of armed women taking over an island resort? You don’t seethatin the movies.”
“Yay, feminism,” Zwe says, and gives the air a weak punch.
“Are you sure?” Leila chews on her lip. “I’m pretty sure the two that got me at least were men.”
“Really?” I’m not doubting her, but I know what I saw. “Zwe, you saw them, and you thought they were all women too, right?”
“Well, the one whose mask you kicked off definitely was,” he says. “But other than that… it was dark, and we were rushing, and we don’t even know if we sawallof them.”
“Antonio?” I ask him. “What do you think? All women or not?”
He shrugs. “To be honest, I’m not sure. They didn’t do a lot of talking, and they had different body builds so I can’t tell for certain. I was also more distracted with making sure my grandpa was okay.” His face falls again at the mention of his grandfather. “Do you… do you think they’ll hurt him?”
“No,” Zwe says firmly. He puts an arm around Antonio. “You said it yourself, they seem to be taking good care of everyone so far. If they wanted to hurt you, they would have already. And if theyarethe same group that robbed the other resort, that means they’re only after the money, which is good. It also means they should be leaving soon, if they haven’t already. I know it’s hard, but let’s try not to preemptively worry. Why don’t we get some sleep?” he says when Antonio yawns.
“Not going to fight you on that,” Antonio replies.
We’d agreed earlier that we would take shifts so one person would always stand watch. Zwe volunteers to go first.
“What are you going to do?” I ask as I settle into a pile of leaves to the best of my abilities, my backpack doubling as a pillow.
“Read, probably,” he says. He brandishes the hiking map from his back pocket. “Or study this map. I know the routes are incorrect, but the better we understand this island’s geography, the better our chances of survival are.”
“You can take a night off from being Protective Dad Zwe, you know,” I say, cocking a brow. “Do some yoga or meditate.”
He rolls his eyes. “Go to sleep.”
“Yes, Dad.” I give a two-finger salute. “You’ll wake me if you need something? Like if you get cold and want your hoodie back?”
He smiles and tucks the shoulders of his hoodie tighter around my figure. His body heat feels nice when he leans over me, nicer than even the fire. “I promise. Now go to sleep.”
“I can’t wait to be home,” I mumble as I close my eyes.
He squeezes my arm. “Me, too.”
