The door slammed closed behind me. I stomped into the room, making as much noise as possible.

"Good morning sunshine!"

Brin groaned.

"My apologies," I said, setting one of the coffees in my hands on the table beside her. "Good morning comrade."

All I could see of Brin above the blankets was a mess of auburn hair. She was lying on her stomach, sprawling lengthways down the mattress like a steel rod.

"Sunshine is fine," she muttered, voice thick with sleep. "Six am starts are not."

I checked out the watch on my wrist. "Good thing it's 6:15."

Brin groaned again but started to move, slowly inching onto her knees, then back onto her heels.

"I have to say, I've never seen someone get out of bed like that," I commented.

Brin spun her face toward me and I nearly took a step back just from the sheer animosity in her gaze.

"I don't do mornings," she said.

"I can see that." I leaned over and ruffled her hair. "It looks like there was a hurricane on this side of the bed last night."

She glowered some more and I regretted teasing her, slowly inching back toward the doorway. "I'll leave you to it then. Meet you in the lobby in fifteen?"

"Make it twenty."

"Fifteen it is." I grinned. "Wear something you don't mind getting wet. And bring a spare change of clothes."

Brin appeared in the lobby twenty minutes later looking like her normal self. A cheerful smile stretched her cherry lips and her hair was tied up in a cute bun.

"Good morning," sshe sang.

Russell and Martin returned her greeting, hoisting their bags onto their shoulders.

"Good morning to you too," I replied. "I was worried you went back to sleep and that I'd have to send Martin to go upstairs to get you."

We started toward the lobby doors, where a valet was waiting with the Jeep.

"You wouldn't come get me yourself?" Brin asked.

I laughed. "Sweetheart, there are some death-defying stunts that even I'm not cut out for."

She rolled her eyes and elbowed me in the side playfully, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight to my chest to press a kiss into her hair. I don't know where the impulse came from, but I told myself it was for the cameras. Martin was already rolling since Russell liked to cut together footage from the entire day. Still, it came out of nowhere. It was the kind of thing I never would’ve felt compelled to do with Lori.

We hopped into the Jeep and set out toward today's site. I drove, and Brin hung out up front with me while Martin and Russell talked shop and filmed the landscape flashing by the windows. It was a perfect sunny day, not a cloud in the sky and not a worry on my mind.

"Where are we going?" Brin asked.

"You'll see."

Brin sighed. "You're the worst."

"Baby, you ain't seen nothin' yet."

With the help of Russell navigating from the back, we reached our destination just as the morning stiffness lifted from the air. It was going to be a hot afternoon, which was perfect for what we had in mind.

"We've got to hike in a little bit from here," I said, killing the ignition.

Brin looked uneasy, staring out at the thick canopy of green with trepidation in her eyes. “Do you think there are snakes in there?”

“Probably not,” I lied.

“Not the kind that you need to be worrying about, anyway,” joked Martin.

Brin gulped and I watched as she consciously tucked away the fear on her face and pulled up bravery in its place.

A moment later she had the steely determination of a soldier in her eyes. "Okay," she said. "What are we waiting for?"

I grinned and led the way, following the path around bends and under low-hanging branches, keeping an eye on the woman behind me.

Brin stared in wonder at her surroundings, stopping to smell some of the more vibrant flowers and craning her neck to admire the birds that fluttered through the chittering canopy.

I'd never seen someone enjoy something so much. I'd been in this business for long enough that I would consider myself to be an expert on hedonistic pleasure, but there was a stroke of innocence to Brin's enjoyment that made it so much more poignant. I realized she'd probably never been anywhere like this before, had probably never done anything like this. Through her, it felt almost like I was experiencing it for the first time too.

We finally reached today's spot, and I turned to watch Brin's face as she took it all in. It was worth it. The moment her eyes saw the cliff edge I stood on and the plummeting waterfall just behind, they bulged, and her mouth fell open.

"What," she said in a flat tone. No questioning inflection.

"We're going cliff jumping," I told her.

Brin shook her head and took a step back, keen on distancing herself from the ledge. "You're going cliff jumping. I'm calling in my veto."

Russell and Martin stood behind her watching. They'd just found their day's entertainment. I would have preferred to coax her off the cliff in private. Too bad that wasn't an option.

"Come on, baby," I said, taking full advantage of the fact the camera was rolling. I could call her baby all I wanted, and there was nothing she could do about it. "It's fun. Trust me."

"Nuh-uh." Brin held her ground, meeting my impeaching stare with an unyielding one of her own. "Don't let me stop you though. You have no idea how much I'd love to see you jump off a cliff after waking me up so early this morning."

"I knew you weren't over that."

Brin cocked her head to the side and placed a contemplative finger on her chin. "On second thought, can I push you?"

"Okay, okay, you've made your point. You get to skip this one." I looked over her shoulder at Martin and Russell, who were snickering to themselves. "Looks like it's just me. How long do you need to set up?"

Martin jumped to it, skirting the edge of the cliff and looking for footholds down lower. "I'm ready to take shots up here right now, and it'll only take me a minute to get down to that lower ledge afterward."

"Perfect."

I stripped off my shirt and dropped it to the side. Brin immediately turned away, her face glowing pink.

I couldn't help myself. I strode up to her, leaning over to whisper out of earshot of the camera and the crew.

"My girlfriend wouldn't get embarrassed about me taking my shirt off."

Brin snorted. "You're sure I can't push you off?"

I just laughed and stepped over to the edge. Then the fun began.

It was a great spot. The pool below was crystal clear and felt like cool silk against my skin. I jumped in a couple of times and climbed back up; then we sat back to review the footage and see what other angles we wanted to get. Brin watched, nibbling on her lower lip. She was interested. Whatever fear was holding her back from participating wasn't going to last, and I knew all I'd have to do was coax her a little bit and she'd open up like a hibiscus flower.

"What are you afraid of?" I asked.

Brin had her legs folded beneath her on the rock, hands splayed behind her. She looked like she belonged there, part of the stone and the trees like an ancient Hawaiian goddess. Lori had always stood out, whatever the surroundings were. I could never tell whether it was all the designer accessories and perfectly styled hair and make-up or whether it was just her attitude that did it, but nobody would ever make the mistake of saying that she belonged in the wilderness. The only place Lori fit in was the city. It was the only place she was happy, too. Brin was different. She seemed at ease wherever you put her, and with her hair trailing down her back and her face relaxed into an expression of pure contentment, it was easy to think that perhaps she'd always been a part of this landscape.

Brin turned to my question and pursed her lips, thinking.

"Besides the obvious death or dismemberment?"

I laughed. "It's completely safe. You've seen me do it twice already."

"I've seen you do a lot of things I wouldn't consider safe," she replied. "You have seen your YouTube channel, right?"

I met her gaze and held it. Martin and Russell were somewhere nearby, but for a second it was just Brin and me and the waterfall.

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

Brin's forehead wrinkled in thought. "I don't know. I barely know you."

I grinned. "Wrong answer. Do you trust me? Dig deep and let your subconscious answer that."

A moment passed, one where neither of us spoke but something passed between us all the same. And then, with a slow nod, Brin said, "I trust you."

The words felt better than I expected. Her trust was a gift, something I didn't want to mishandle. I rose to my feet and offered her my hand. "Let's chuck you off a cliff then."

Brin laughed and took my hand, and the guys got into place while she approached the cliff edge and worked up her nerve. That same gritty determination that had spurred her into the unknown earlier returned. I watched it transform her face, and then she pulled off her shirt and shimmied out of her shorts.

I'd gotten a good look at her body when she was onstage dancing, but this was different. More organic. My eyes tracked down her curves, from her ample hips to her bare feet clutching at the ridges of the cliff with her toes. She was gorgeous. Flawless. Her little yellow bikini fit perfectly.

"Whenever you're ready," called Martin from down below.

Brin walked to the ledge, and a bit of that nervousness crept in again as she peered over. Then she turned to face me, a massive smile dominating her mouth.

"Here goes nothing," she said.

And then she spread her arms and fell back.

Something changed in Brin after that first jump. It was like she'd chipped away the rest of her fear and now she was glowing. We did a few more dives from the cliff, and then we trudged back up to the Jeep and hit the road for the next adventure.

It was one of the most enjoyable afternoons of my life. We drove down to a deserted little cove, where I'd heard there was a perfect spot for snorkeling. Brin loved it, pointing out yellow and blue Triggerfish, reef sharks, and long, strange looking Trumpetfish. We dove down to get a better look a Stingray sailing along the sea floor, then surfaced together, laughing. She was chatty and excited, and for the first time, I felt like I was the one having to keep up with her and not the other way around. I liked that. I liked that she'd found something here, something that had made her come alive. Not that anyone could ever accuse Brin of sleepwalking through life.

When we finally dragged ourselves out of the sea, we collapsed onto the beach next to each other. Martin and Russell were somewhere nearby, though I didn't know if they were still filming or not.

Normally I would check in with them, see if there was any other footage we could get to cap off the day's adventures. Normally I'd be looking at the setting sun with a director's eye, wondering how we could turn it into the perfect shot. Instead, I was content just to sit next to Brin, letting our bodies dry on the hot sand and watching the sun sink below the skyline. We were quiet for a long time, but it was a pleasant kind of quiet. A companionable silence.

Brin was eventually the one to break it, dragging her fingers through the sand and staring far beyond even the sunset.

"This is the kind of thrill I normally go for," she said. "I know it lacks adrenaline, but isn't there something exciting and wild in watching the world turn?"

I chuckled. "Not sure I'd use the word wild."

She turned to me, though her expression was still far off. Her lips quirked at the corners. I couldn't take my eyes off of them.

"It’s like that Neutral Milk Hotel song. How strange it is to be anything at all,” she said. "And here we are, just being. Existing. Breathing in and breathing out, while millions of tiny cells in our bodies are performing a massive choreographed dance to keep us alive. And that gigantic ball of gas and flame is the instrument that's keeping us all alive. Sitting here, staring out at it, facing the object of our life and also our death." She shrugged. "I don't know. It feels exhilarating to me. There are millions of reasons we should have never existed, but here we are. The craziest thing you can do in your day is be aware of that."

When she spoke, she meant it. I got the impression that her surface fear wasn't the only thing that had fractured today. This trip was changing her, and I was lucky enough to watch the metamorphosis. It occurred to me that for this second of being alive, this moment of experiencing the thrill of merely existing, I had the perfect partner. There was nobody else I would rather be with.

"I like that," I told her, meeting her gaze. "I like that a lot."

Something passed over Brin's features, but I couldn't tell what. A moment of decision, maybe? Then the answer became clear.

She leaned toward me and planted her lips on mine. Desire quickly supplanted surprise as the electricity of her lips drew me in. Her mouth was soft, moving nimbly against mine. She tasted of salt from the ocean and something all her own, all delicious. I pulled her closer, and she sank against me, fitting perfectly against my side.

She broke the kiss. Her eyes were laughing. "There. Now you've had your brand of thrill too."

"You guys ready to go?" Martin called from somewhere behind us.

I turned and waved at him. He and Russell were packing up. When I turned back to Brin, she was already staggering to her feet. I cast one last glance at the setting sun and bid it farewell.

Brin and I staggered into our room hours later, exhausted. After a delicious dinner downstairs and a couple of drinks, both of us were ready for bed. My last thought as I drifted off was that it felt natural falling into bed next to her. How could one day change so much?

The only problem, I thought, sleep dragging me down, was that our relationship wasn't meant to change.