My Kind of Town
>> Kahala Mandarin Oriental Awkward moments
The waitress at the Veranda poured the last of their tea -- Fawn Nakamura was having the Dragon Phoenix Jasmine Pearls, Lt. Col. Chuck Ryan the Singh Bulli Estates Darjeeling -- and took away the delicate plates that not long ago held cucumber sandwiches and scones.
Again there was a moment of awkward silence. But this was different, not the awkwardness they'd felt earlier in the day when the 51-year-old widower and the 27-year-old virgin realized that they wanted to get to know one another. By now they had comfortably leaped the chasm of the generations. This was the awkwardness of, so far so good, what happens now?
Fawn sipped her tea, in no hurry for this lovely occasion to end. "Thank you, Chuck. I'd read about having tea here, and it always sounded so elegant and nice, but there was never anyone special to enjoy it with." She paused, smiled demurely. "And it's been even nicer than I imagined."
"No, thank you, Fawn. This is a totally new experience for an old sailor." Tea and virgins -- not the normal Navy fare, although it had been a long time since his carousing days. Thirty years to be exact. The 29 he was happily and faithfully married to Mary. And the year of grief and loneliness since she was killed by a drunk driver last July 13.
"By the way, how long are you in town?"
Ryan usually had an answer ready for just about any question -- it was the only way to maintain his cover -- but this one caught him off guard. Was she asking because she wanted to see him again?
"Good question," he said, his head spinning for a good answer. "It kind of depends. Work is, ah, open-ended." Meaning it all depended on what happened after Muhammed Resurreccion from Zamboanga landed, and what their new, volunteer agent Sandy told them about his plans. Fawn must never know this, of course. To her, he was a businessman from Baltimore, into international investments and head-hunting, and not an active-duty Navy intelligence officer. "But then I was thinking I haven't had a vacation in over a year, and there's no better place for some R&R than Hawaii."
Fawn smiled brightly. "That would be nice."
"Yes it would."
Across the little table their eyes met and did not waver as they shared a smile. And Fawn thought to herself, yes, it would be very nice indeed.
The awkward moment had passed.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com