Page 85 of The Hitchhiker in Panama
“What are you doing here?” I exclaimed. And then I caught sight of his backpack on the ground beside him. I gripped his forearm. “Eivind, what are you doing here?” I repeated.
“I want to come with you.” He shifted his feet, nervousness tightening his features.
“To South America?” I said slowly.
“Yes, but also, to Australia. And wherever else you want to go. I’ll get a better job. A career, one that uses my degree, and we can live in Australia and buy a house.”
I laughed in relief. “Eivind, hang on. We don’t have to plan out everything right now.”
He cracked a smile. “You want to make a spreadsheet later?”
“Very funny.” I poked his side and then slid my arms around his waist. Eivind exhaled deeply and relaxed against me. “I am so glad you want to be with me.” I squeezed him extra hard. “Thank you.”
He pulled back and looked me in the eye, cupping my cheek and stroking it with his thumb. A tear rolled down, and he kissed it away. “I think it is a little crazy how much I love you after such a short time.”
“I love you too. And I feel the same way. We’ve been through so much together already.”
“Yes,” he said. “We have only known each other for six weeks. But if we were dating in regular lives, that would have been, what? Ten or twelve dates?”
I tapped his nose with my finger. “Instead I’ve been stuck with you for a month. All day, every day.”
Eivind hugged me tightly again. We stood there for a moment, the bustle of the hostel around us.
We finally pulled apart.
“I have not booked the flight yet. I am not sure if I can get the same one as you, but maybe I can use the internet here and try to book it?”
“Actually,” I said, “I don’t think I want to leave.”
Eivind looked down at me quizzically.
“I accept Jonas’s and Elayna’s apologies. And I admit, I may have been a little overly sensitive and let my feelings get hurt.”
“Ah, Lila. Youarea good sailor.”
“How about ‘I show a lot of promise’?”
Eivind grinned at me. “Okay, that is fair.”
“You know what makes a good sailor, Eivind?”
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “No, what makes a good sailor, Lila?”
“Lots of practice. Why don’t we go help Jonas sail to New Zealand?”
Eivind pulled back, shocked. “You would do this?”
“If I’m your priority, then you are mine. And I know how much it means to you to help your brother. Just promise me that if it gets to be too much, we find a solution together, okay?”
Eivind responded by pulling me close and crushing his lips against mine. I let him in, and he swept me up and squeezed me tight.
When we finally gasped for air, he managed to say, “I did not think I could love you more.”
He moved to kiss me again and I stopped him. “Wait. We don’t have to sail twenty-six days at sea again, do we?”
Eivind laughed. “No longer than a week in one go.”
“Oh, thank God.”
