She turned the phone toward me, and I called my dad collect. “We’re at the hotel,” I said.

“Get a couple rooms and charge everything to them,” my dad said.

“We only need one room, Dad.”

He paused for a second. “Oh. Okay.”

I handed the phone to the woman and waited while my dad gave her his credit card information. She handed it back to me and finished typing.

“Is there a gift shop at the hotel?” my dad asked.

“Yeah, I can see it from here.” The gift shop was just around the corner from the front desk. From what I could tell, it looked pretty high-end.

“Buy whatever you need. I’m working on getting you and Anna out of there. The Malé Airport sustained some damage, but they told me they haven’t had to cancel too many flights. A commercial flight isn’t going to work so I’m working on chartering a plane. Your mom wanted to fly over and get you, but I convinced her that you’d get home sooner if you didn’t have to wait for her to come to you first. I’ll call your room as soon as I have the details but be ready to leave by morning.”

“Okay, Dad. We will.”

“I don’t even know what to say, T.J. Your mom and I are still in shock. Your sisters haven’t stopped crying, and the phone is ringing off the hook. We just want to get you and Anna home. I’ve already talked to Sarah, and I’ll make sure she gets all the information as soon as I have it.”

We said goodbye, and I handed the phone back to the woman behind the desk.

“We’re pretty full,” she said. “But we do have a suite available. Will that be okay?”

I smiled and said, “That will be just fine.”

Anna and I walked into the gift shop and looked around, unsure where to start. It was divided in two. One side had racks of clothes – everything from souvenir T-shirts to formal wear – and one side had nothing but food. Candy, chips, crackers, and cookies lined the shelves.

“Oh my God,” Anna said, and took off.

I grabbed two shopping baskets from a pile near the front door and followed her.

I handed her one and laughed as she tossed Sweet Tarts and Hot Tamales into it. I picked up a bag of Doritos and threw them in, followed by three Slim Jims.

“Really?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, smiling at her.

After we filled one basket with junk food, we headed to a rack of toiletries.

“There’s probably soap and shampoo in the room, but I’m not taking any chances,” Anna said, grabbing more and adding toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, razors, shaving cream, and a brush and comb.

Next, we picked out a T-shirt and pair of shorts for me. Anna waved a package of boxer briefs in my direction, and I shook my head but she nodded, laughed, and threw them in the basket. I reached into a barrel full of men’s flip-flops and picked out a black pair.

A nearby rack held sundresses and I selected a blue one for Anna. She found a pair of sandals to go with it.

Anna scooped up some underwear, and a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and we carried the baskets to the counter, charging everything to our room.

We rode the elevator to the third floor. I slid the key card in, and when we entered the room, the first thing I noticed was a huge king-sized bed piled high with pillows. A large flat screen T.V. hung on the wall across from the bed and four dining chairs and a table sat next to a roll top desk and mini refrigerator. The living room area had a coffee table, couch, and two chairs arranged in front of another T.V. The air conditioner blasted frigid air into the room. A tray of four plastic-covered glasses sat on a low table by the door. I unwrapped two, walked into the bathroom, and filled them at the sink. Anna followed me, and I handed one to her. She stared at it for a few seconds before she raised it to her lips and drank.

We checked out the rest of the bathroom. A giant glass-walled shower occupied one corner of the room and a marble counter with two sinks and a basket of soap and shampoo stood between the shower and a deep Jacuzzi tub. Two white robes hung on a hook by the door.

“I’m going to call Sarah, so I can get my mom and dad’s number. I told her to have them wait by the phone. How many hours behind Chicago are we?”

“I think eleven. When I talked to my dad he said it was already 8:00 p.m there.”

Anna sat down on the bed and grabbed the pad of paper and a pen from the nightstand. She picked up the phone and dialed. “It’s busy. I’ll try her cell.” Dialing again, she waited and then hung up the phone. “It just kept ringing.” Anna frowned. “Why isn’t she answering?”

“Because she’s probably calling everyone you know and they’re calling her back. Her phone will probably be ringing for the next several days. Let’s get in the shower. You can try again as soon as we get out.”

We stayed in the shower for almost an hour, scrubbing and laughing. Anna couldn’t stop washing, even after I told her she was definitely clean.

“I’m never going to take another bath for as long as I live. I’m officially only taking showers,” Anna said.

“Me, too.”

When we finished, we dried off and put on the bathrobes. Anna squeezed toothpaste onto two toothbrushes and handed one to me. We stood in front of the double sinks brushing, rinsing, and spitting. She put her toothbrush down and said, “Kiss me right now, T.J.”

I picked her up and set her on the counter, then took her face in my hands. We kissed for a long time.

“You taste incredible,” I said. “You smell pretty good, too. Not that I ever minded when you didn’t.”

“This is better, though,” she said, resting her forehead on mine

“Yes.”

We left the bathroom, and I stretched out on the bed with a room service menu in one hand and the T.V. remote in the other. “Anna, take a look at this.” She was tearing into a package of sweet-tarts but she plopped down next to me and checked out the menu. She handed me the bag of Doritos and I opened them and crammed a handful into my mouth. Nacho cheese had never tasted so good.

It was hard deciding what to order because we wanted everything. We finally narrowed it down to steak and French fries, spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and chocolate cake.

“Oh, and two giant Cokes,” Anna said.

I called room service and placed our order. Anna grabbed the key card and something off the low table by the door and said she’d be right back.

“You’re naked under that robe,” I reminded her.

“It won’t take long.”

I channel-surfed. Every station was broadcasting tsunami coverage. Anna came back into the room carrying a small bucket. I sat up. “Is that ice?” I asked.

She put a piece in her mouth and said, “Yep.” She lay down on the bed next to me and I watched her suck on it. She sat up and untied my robe. Opening it, she ran her hand gently along my side. Despite the pain, my body responded to her touch immediately.

“You have some spectacular bruises developing here,” she said. “What happened?”

“There was a huge tree trunk in the water.”

“You don’t get along well with those,” she pointed out.

“This one hit me.”

Anna put another ice cube in her mouth and kissed my neck and my chest.

“How long until room service gets here?” she asked.

“They didn’t say.”

Anna kissed my stomach and moved lower. When I felt her mouth on me, I gasped because it had never been cold before. I closed my eyes and rested my hands on her head.

When room service knocked on the door a little later, I tied my robe and answered it. The man that delivered the food put everything on the table and as soon as I added a tip and signed the check, we spread it out, taking the lids off.

“We have silverware,” Anna said. She held up a fork and stared at it for a second before spearing a meatball.

“And chairs.” I said, pulling one out and sitting down next to her. I handed her some garlic bread and cut a piece of steak. I groaned when I put it in my mouth. We fed each other bites off our forks and drank our Cokes. Our stomachs filled up fast; we weren’t used to such heavy food, or so much. Anna carefully wrapped up all the leftovers and put them in the refrigerator.