Men, men everywhere.
Not a woman in sight.
Colin stood at the hull of the ship, taking one last look at the place he had been calling home for the last fourteen months.
The island had a barren, sickly look to it; a bit like someone that had lost a lot of weight in a short space of time and had come in to work too quickly when he should have been resting at home.
The white sand that had been laid on all the streets gleamed in the bright, baking sunshine. The population of workers had reduced drastically as much of the work had been completed, but he could see the remaining ones strutting about with wheelbarrows and all manners of machinery. They were covered from head to toe to protect themselves from the searing, unforgiving sun.
Don't take it the wrong way; Colin loved the sun as much as the next person, but having to work under it all day, every day for more than a year had taken its toll on him.
He hated the island. Honestly, he never felt gladder at the prospect of leaving a place behind than at that very moment.
This particular piece of land in the Bahamas had not even existed five years ago. One day, a vacationing American billionaire named Don Peterson had a light bulb moment. The conversation between him and the Bahamas government went something like this:
Hey fellas. Can I reclaim some land on that reef over there and build a five star resort?
But it would destroy the reef! It's a very delicate and important part of our ecosystem.
I have money.
Say no more.
And so the reef was utterly annihilated, sand was sucked from the lagoons nearby and dumped on top of it, making a small island that took about half an hour to run around.
Colin knew that last fact because he had run around it many times.
In the evenings of course, when the sun would not burn him into a crisp.
But now that ordeal was over and he was on his way home!
He was never the sort to get easily excited, but seeing the familiar streets, shops and his favourite hangouts made him feel oddly giddy.
He was sitting on the back of an Uber, head against the window and looking outside. He also felt comforted; knowing that his mom's cooking awaited him.
No more eating piss-standard muck for lunch, imagine that!
At long last, the car stopped in front of his place, and the driver quickly got out of the vehicle to take his luggage out. Colin was grateful for that; he didn't know if he had the energy to lift anything heavy at that very moment.
Colin couldn't really recall much of the day before, except for being on the receiving end of several bear hugs from his parents and older brother Josh.
Josh was 31, two years older than him, and had driven with his wife Lisa down from Houston to be there for his welcome party.
They would be joined by their neighbors, the Pattersons; James, Darlene and their kids Rob and Carla.
Colin was particularly looking forward to meeting Rob again, his closest friend since high school when the Pattersons moved into the neighborhood. His half-sister Carla was a lot younger; only eighteen and just graduated from high school herself.
He took his time before getting up, savouring the familiar smells of his bed linen, taking in the way the sunlight peeked onto the wall adjacent to his bed.
Oh yeah, he was home alright.
"I'll get it!" yelled Colin, rushing off to open the door to let his neighbours in.
He swung the door open and was met with a chorus of greetings. Darlene was the first to come forward and give him a motherly hug, before Rob and his dad both were patting him on his shoulders.
As they went inside, one by one, he came face to face with Carla.
And his heart skipped a beat.
The heck?
As they sat around the table, talking loudly and laughing, reminiscing and joking, Colin couldn't help but steal furtive glances at his best friend's sister.
Maybe, he thought, his mind had gone awry because he hadn't seen a young, vibrant woman up close for so long.
Ever since the Pattersons moved in around thirteen years ago, Carla was merely the younger sister.
She was only five when they first met, and was the annoying young girl who would attempt to gatecrash their Playstation gaming sessions. She would throw fits when she wasn't handed a controller, until her mom swooped in and took her away.
Colin never really interacted with her, save for the polite
Hellos
to her and her friends who sometimes stayed over as she got older.
And now here she was, sitting in front of him at the table, chewing on her chicken and looking dangerously pretty.
She had grown taller and filled in rather nicely in all the right places. Her dark hair was tied back, and her teeth gleamed pearly white against an attractive tan.
He wondered where she got that tan from. He knew that she used to be in her school swimming team. Perhaps they often swam outdoors.
She looked up and they met eyes. Colin hastily looked down at his plate, taking an inordinately long time to cut up his piece of chicken breast.
After dinner, he went over to his neighbor's and watched a dumb science fiction movie with Rob. It was one of their favorite pastimes when they were together, mostly to laugh at the awful acting, terrible plot and special effects.
As he lay in bed later that night, his mind's eye decided to flash unbidden images of Carla.
No you fucking idiot, she's only eighteen. Eleven years younger than you for God's sake! She was only seven when you were her age.
In any case, there was no way in hell that he would look for anything more from the girl. Rob was the main reason, plus their parents had always been on excellent terms with his and he wasn't going to risk any of that just to lust after their teenage daughter.
Colin tied his shoelaces before making his way outside.
The early morning air was crisp and welcomingly cool, although he knew that he will be sweating like mad after around ten minutes of running uphill.
He was doing his routine warm-ups and stretches when someone called out his name.
He turned around and saw Carla approaching him, with that darned smile on her face that his mind had suddenly decided to find endearing.
"Hey Colin, mind if I join you?"
He raised his eyebrows.
"You run?"
She laughed.
"Yeah, don't sound so surprised. I started a little after you left last year because I was having trouble maintaining my weight. I wanna stay fit for college."
"Oh that's good. Yeah of course you can join, I could do with a partner," Colin replied.
She smiled, and they chitchatted as they did their stretches. He learned that she had been accepted at Granville University and would be going off in the fall. She wanted to join the swim team there as well and sounded very enthusiastic about everything.
Colin tried to remember if they had such a long, fruitful conversation before, but failed. He suddenly felt bad for not paying more attention to this girl, because she seemed to be levelheaded, articulate and very enjoyable to converse with.
He took the opportunity to look at her more closely as she stretched.
There was no doubt that she had grown up to be a rather beautiful yount woman. Her deep brown eyes were the same colour as her hair, and he was suddenly struck by the fact that her heart-shaped face with high cheekbones was very similar to her mother's.
She was wearing a red vest and running shorts. Swimmers engage in a procedure known as "shaving down", meaning they had to shave their body hair down to the skin in order to improve aerodynamics.
He could see that she had not been skimping on that part during her break from swimming.
Her arms and legs were bare and as she raised her arms above her head to stretch, he saw that her underarms looked smooth, as though hair had never grown there before. He wondered if she waxed.
Once they finished their stretches, they ran up the road. Colin knew that she hadn't been running for as long as him, so he made sure to run at a comfortable pace for her. She worked hard and held up fairly well, albeit struggling briefly during the run up the hill just outside their neighborhood.
About forty-five minutes later, they were back, Carla panting noticeably harder than Colin. She leaned against the fence that separated their houses.
"Well, that was rather fun, wasn't it?" Colin asked lightheartedly.
Carla attempted to glare, but couldn't help but smile at him.
"You did that sprint on purpose, didn't you?" She asked between breaths.
"Yes," Colin admitted, "I like to do a little sprint at the last mile. You did a lot better than I expected, well done!"
She looked rather heartened by that.
"Can I join you again?" she asked hesitantly.
Colin felt his heart swell up.
"Of course you can! I really enjoyed this; I wish I always had a running partner now."
And so it became something of an early morning ritual for both of them. Colin would wake up at five-thirty, get ready and wait for Carla outside her house. They tried to vary their running routes just to keep things challenging and after a few weeks, he noticed significant improvements in both of them.
Running alone had its perks, but when done with a partner, Colin realized that he was more willing to push himself further.
Being an athlete herself, Carla had a competitive streak about her and this complemented him well too. Sometimes he did it just to impress her, but most of the time he found that her enthusiasm just rubbed off on him.
It was great and he loved it.
A couple of weeks after arriving from the Bahamas, he started going to work at the local headquarters of his workplace. He had spent much of his time since graduation from college hopping from one remote location to another and truth be told, it was starting to wear him down.
He had applied for a vacant supervisory role and luckily, they had accepted his request. He was happy to have his own desk and computer.
Really, it was time to concentrate on the more important things in life. He had had his fun.
Rob was already married and had a baby on the way, while Colin had never been seriously involved with a woman all his life. He wasn't one of those people who vowed to remain celibate; he just happened to be married to his work.
Now that he had landed himself a 9 to 5 position, it freed up a lot of his day to pursue other tasks.
Carla crept up behind him just as his mind was engrossed with these other tasks. She poked his sides, causing him to yelp and jump. She laughed.
"Urgh I wish you would stop doing that. What if someone sees?"
"Well," she said, "Then they would know that you're ridiculously ticklish."
It was Saturday morning, which happened to be their longest run of the week. They ran at a comfortable pace around the town, taking in the sights, savoring the early morning air, occasionally waving at familiar faces.
By the time they returned an hour later, they were both drenched in sweat but in high spirits.
Colin loved the runner's high.
"Hey, Colin," Carla started.
"Yeah?"
"Do you have any plans for next weekend?"
She was gazing at him in a rather peculiar way. He could sense a bit of hesitation in her. The way she stood, her hands knotted, with eyes full of doubt in what he assumed were signs of nervousness, suddenly made her look very young.
"No," Colin replied, wondering what was coming his way. "No plans yet. What's up?"
"Well," she began, wringing her hands while standing on one foot, "I was wondering if you would like to go camping with me. I was supposed to go with a couple of friends but they had to call it off. I still want to go, but you know, it will be weird to go camping alone."
"Erm, sure. I haven't been camping for a long time; do I need to know survival skills or what?"
