“Have you been to Float yet? It’s upstairs. That’s actually where we usually go after a few drinks here,” Will explained. “It’s on the roof of the hotel.”
We exchanged numbers, storing them in our phones.
“Call me tomorrow night, and we’ll meet up, okay?” He gave me a chaste kiss on the cheek and a brilliant smile.
I got up to leave the table, tapping Sarah on the arm. I’m going up, I motioned with my hand. Are you going to be okay? I mouthed.
She waved me away, obviously annoyed at my mothering. Sarah went clubbing weekly in L.A. I waved at Will, who looked somewhat confused about which way to go. Sarah leaned close to Owen, and I had no idea if she was whispering to him or kissing him. I knew Will would be a definite third wheel. I felt like the worst wingman ever. But I needed my bed. When I got up to the room, I crashed facedown, still in my dress, and didn’t wake up until nine the next morning.
Sarah managed to wake up and shower before I rolled out of bed.
“What time did you get in?” I asked incredulously.
“Three-ish. Do you want to do the whale watch today?” She perched on the edge of the bed to watch the weather channel on mute.
“Um. I don’t know. Sure. Can I wake up first?” Yawning, I swung my legs over the side of the bed. Sun streamed in through the windows. The crisp white sheets with lime-green coverlets and modern furniture, all lines and angles, gave the room a fresh, contemporary appeal.
“Oh, how was Owen?” I asked sleepily, trudging to the bathroom.
She gave me a Cheshire cat grin. “Exactly what I needed. He has a fabulous apartment.”
I stopped in my tracks. “You went to his apartment?”
She made a disgusted noise. “Stop being a mother. For once.”
I shrugged and padded into the bathroom. I took another long, hot shower without any interruptions. No one needed anything from me. No one was waiting for me when I exited to tell me that Leah had spilled her milk, or stole her doll, or ripped a page in her book. I took my time getting ready, wanting to look good for the second day in a row. The vacation was performing its rejuvenation magic. I felt lighter, freer.
We barely made it to the dock in time and boarded the already crowded boat. We took a spot along the railing and prepared for our three-hour boat ride. Not a boat person, I was expecting to feel seasick.
About an hour out, we saw a group of three gray whales and one baby calf, and any concern I had over seasickness vanished. They swam close to the boat, so that we were lightly sprayed by the V-shaped blow. The largest one, “an old mama,” surfaced right at our rail and stayed even with the boat.
Our tour guide announced that almost all gray whales go blind in their right eyes eventually. The whale’s blind right eye gazed unseeingly at me, mottled with white milky spots in black glass. Her gray-speckled skin was cracked and bore battle scars, thick and jaggedly torn flesh that had healed, reopened, and rehealed, the cost of protecting her babies in the harsh open ocean. You have been through some serious stuff in your life, I thought, a defensive mother, traveling alone with her offspring, shielding her calf from the perils of the month-long journey.
Feeling sentimentally connected, I knelt down at the rail until I could almost run my hand along her barnacled surface. She veered left and gave a short blow goodbye as she rejoined her pack, the spray misting the boat. I watched the mammals fade into the horizon until I could no longer differentiate between the whales and the waves.
A megaphoned voice broke into my reverie. “Ladies and gentleman, that was somewhat remarkable. Typically, the gray whales will come up to the boat because they’re curious about the people, but they do not frequently swim with it, as they are afraid of getting hit by the propellers. That one also came significantly closer to the boat than we usually see. So I hope you enjoyed that unusual event!”
There was a din in the crowd as people took pictures, exclaimed, and pointed. The rest of our trip was uneventful; we saw dolphins playing, but nothing came close to the mottled old whale. We docked just in time, as Sarah and I were both feeling mildly nauseous from the ride.