– Can I play?
Asked Litz to a few cruisers who were playing beach volley. Playa de las Teresitas was the closest beach to the harbor and they would spend the afternoon on the beach, at Bambù club. She felt a bit out of breath for sport, but it was better than sunbathing and the bar was too crowded. The players were all German: two brothers from Berlin and a woman from Munich. By the way they talked, composed and slightly shy, Litz guessed the two guys were nerd. They were IT developers. The woman was way older than all of them and she was a professional photographer. She was quiet as well.
– You can take my beach bed, if you want.
Said the taller brother, called Hans, when they ended playing. His tone was low, stable and vaguely sweet. He reminded Litz of her last boyfriend. She looked at him while he was going to the bar. He was attractive. Not the kind of macho man you would stare at, but definitely someone you would bring at a wedding party as +1. While she fantasyzed about what kind of guy she might bring at her next wedding party to impress her friends, the German woman took a photo of her.
– Oh, no, please, I don’t look good in pictures!
Litz said promptly.
– It’s alright, don’t worry, it was just a test. I will delete it. I’m preparing for sunset to get a few stunning pics for my portfolio.
Replied the woman, called Carla.
L: – Do you travel a lot for work?
C: – Not necessarily, but I like it. Two years ago, my husband and I got divorced, so I decided to leave Munich for a while. Luckily, my job allows me to be location indipendent.
L: – That’s amazing, Carla!
Hans came back with his brother Luke and invited the two women for dinner downtown. They had a couple of hours before the departure of the boat. First Carla took her photographs of the beach at sunset, mostly to people who were doing incredible acrobatic yoga just a few meters from them. Then they took the bus to the city.
The bus was full of cruisers and John, her crush, was there as well. She could not help to compare him with Hans, who was sitting next to her. Hans was at least ten years younger and looked definitely “less problematic”. If she had brought someone like John at a wedding party, she would have made the other female guests happier than herself.
After walking a bit in the center, Litz and her three German buddies stopped at a bar to get a quick dinner, which ended to be a dish full of chicken and frites, all covered by ketchup sauce. It was disgusting, but Litz was hungry. She laughed inside when her buddies complained about the Spanish beer instead.
Luke shaked everybody up pointing his finger to the watch and Litz started to feel anxious. According to Google Maps, the boat was at thirty minutes walking distance, but they had only fifty minutes before departure. They walked fast, almost silent, checking the direction once or twice. They had reached the path to the entrance in the harbor, when Hans stopped and said:
– Wait a minute. I need to buy a souvenir.
Litz: – What?! A souvenir, now?!
H: – My grandma collects snow globes. I bring her one from everywhere I go.
L: – A snow globe?! Are you serious?! We are in Tenerife, for God’s sake!
H: – You don’t have to wait for me, if you don’t want. There is a souvenir shop down there.
He pointed a shop at the border of the harbor. Litz was shocked by the request, just twenty minutes before the departure of the boat. Hans ran toward the shop alone and left them staring at him. After a couple of minutes waiting for Hans, they left walking fast, passed the harbor’s controls and relaxed a bit. Litz started to repeatedly turn back to see if Hans was coming. “He is brave, after all”, she thought. At some point, she heard him arriving running behind them with a plastic bag. He showed them a nice little snow globe, with a beach inside and outside the writing “Tenerife”. They all yelled at his madness while they were passing the cruise controls, only ten minutes before departure.
In the lift Litz released the anxiety with a deep breath. Hans asked her to join them directly to the party. She refused politely, saying she needed some rest. Actually she just wanted to wear a dress.
