Mandy stared at the luggage carousel spinning slowly in front of her. The completely empty carousel. She looked up at the sign. It quite clearly said “UA flight 155 from New York”, her flight.

She was the last one there. Everyone else had been greeted with cries of “Aloha!”, decked with fragrant flower leis, gathered their luggage and left. Mandy had barely scraped enough cash together for all her bridesmaid expenses and the trip. There was no way she could replace all her clothes, let alone the bridesmaid dress.

With a sigh, she set out for the United Airlines desk. There was no way she would survive her sister’s destination wedding in Honolulu, Hawaii with just the comfy sweats she was wearing, her pjs and the cute bikini she had thrown in her carry on at the last minute. Her sister would kill her. They had argued about the bridesmaid dresses so often, an allegation that Mandy had lost the dress on purpose would not be out of line.

Forty five minutes later, all she could get out of United Airlines was that they would track down her luggage and deliver it to her hotel as soon as possible. She turned to walk out and almost ran over a short man with freckles and bright red hair smiling at her.

“Hi,” he said. “I couldn’t help but overhear. You’re Mandy, Michael’s soon to be sister-in-law. “I’m Brian. I’m on of Michael’s groomsmen.”

“Oh, uh, hi,”. She stammered. “Yes, I’m Mandy. My sister mentioned you.” What she didn’t say was the tone of her sister’s comments was less that flattering. Apparently she had tried to talk Michael into picking someone taller and less funny looking, but Michael had held firm.

“I’m sure she did,” the his eyes crinkled indicated he was aware of the tone of her comments and was amused by them.

“She’s going to kill me. Or worse, she isn’t going to kill me and I’ll hear about this at every family gathering for the rest of my life.” She covered her face in her hands. “Maybe I should just double down and show up in this bikini.” She tugged it out of her carry on and waved the yellow and green bikini around.

“Perhaps I can be of assistance.” He said.

Oh, no. She thought. He’s going to offer me money, and I can’t take it. “Uh, thanks, but I don’t think so.”

He turned to the woman behind the United Airlines desk. “Will you please hold my luggage and send it to the hotel with hers?”

The woman took some convincing, but finally agreed to do it.

Then he offered his arm, and guided her over to a small shop that seemed to be mostly bathing suits. She was confused, if there was anything she didn’t need, it was another bathing suit.

He walked up to a rack of Speedo’s and flipped through until he found a bright yellow one with green trim. “I think this will do. It will go nicely with your bikini.” His eyes twinkled with mirth. “What do you think? It will look stunning with my super pale skin and starter beer belly. Your sister will be so upset with me, she won’t even think about you.”

Mandy stared at him in amazement. “You would seriously do this for me? Seriously. She at least loves me, and I still think she’ll kill me. God only knows what she’ll do to you.”

He laughed. “I would absolutely do this for you. So what do you think?”

“I think I love you,” she said, only half kidding. No one had ever been willing to make a fool of themselves for her, or stand up to her sister, for that matter. “Remind me to ask you to marry me if we both survive this.”

He laughed. “We should at least go on a date first.” He paid and they headed out towards the taxi stand. “So if we survive this, I’ll ask you on a date then you can ask me to marry you!”

“Agreed!” She said. Everything was going to be all right.