It was hard to believe we were already half-way through our week in Hawaii. I'd had the time of my life, but the problem was the cloud that had been hovering over me since Monday. I was determined to take advantage of everything Hawaii had to offer, but in the back of my mind, I was slowly putting my guard up, trying not to fall more deeply in love with Harry, keeping my distance. Ultimately, though, I knew it was a lost cause. I was already in love with him and there was simply no way to make myself fall out of love.

Our instructions were to be ready by 8:00 AM, once again with suits, towels, as well as a change of clothes for daytime and another outfit for the evening. It felt like we were practically packing for a whole week. The destination was a secret again and we were all a bit surprised when we arrived at the airport and boarded the private jet.

I wondered how long it would be before Harry or someone else revealed what we were going to do. The flight didn't take long, but we were able to enjoy some breakfast and kona coffee, the best coffee I had ever tasted. I was determined to buy several pounds of it and ship it back home so it would be waiting for me at my apartment. 

Jordin was lightheartedly filling us in on her date with Harry the night before. I half listened and half ignored because I just wasn't sure which would be better for my heart. She told us they had done sunset yoga on the beach, went out for dinner, and then they did karaoke at a local night club. 

Harry interjected that Jordin had a pretty strong voice. I remember someone saying that about Ariana, too. If musical ability was one of Harry's criteria for a mate, then I was definitely out.

Jordin laughed and shot back, "It was fun until this dork made us sing Up Where We Belong, the corniest love song of all time!" 

Harry just laughed and said, "Oh, you loved every minute of it."

All right, enough about their stupid date. Jealousy was an ugly thing, and I wasn't used to wearing it. 

We landed in Maui and were met by a VW bus this time. We obediently climbed in and headed for the as-of-yet unknown destination. When we finally arrived at a dock announcing the name of the boat, Pride of Maui, Ben revealed that we were going snorkeling. Again.

The Pride of Maui was another catamaran, but it was at least three times the size of the one that Harry, Ariana and I had been on. The captain addressed us with a welcome and told us we would be spending the majority of the day with him, not only snorkeling, but also sailing around to hopefully spot some whales. We would also be treated to a lunch of some of Hawaii's finest delicacies while on board.

Our first destination looked like a gigantic rock sticking out of the ocean, but as we sailed closer, we realized it was a huge crescent shaped rock island. 

The captain announced, "Folks, this is the Molokini crater, a volcanic crater which has left us with not only a beautiful islet, but a thriving reef which is home to at least 250 species of fish. For those of you who have experience with snorkeling, all you need to do is report to Raelyn over there and she will equip you with your gear." He pointed to Raelyn, while she waved back. "And if this is your first time snorkeling, Jon over there will give you a little tutorial." He then pointed to Jon on the other side of the boat and Jon waved back accordingly.

Harry, Ariana, Lucy, Brittany and I all headed over to Raelyn to get our gear. The others, including Ben, went to Jon for their mini lesson. The show's cameramen and photographers stayed on board, but the Pride of Maui crew promised to take lots of underwater footage that the show could use. 

Entering the water, I immediately noticed this would be fantastically different than our excursion a few days earlier. There was an explosion of color and movement so that I could hardly decide where to focus.

I swam slowly over the surface, taking in the vast array of coral and countless different kinds of fish. I soon noticed that Lucy was swimming alongside me. I turned to acknowledge her and she gave me a thumbs up. We continued that way for a while, just absorbing the unbelievable beauty of the reef. Eventually, Lucy dove deeper to follow an octopus, while I was content to continue skimming the surface. Once in a while, one of the staff photographers would swim under me and snap a shot as I reached out to touch a bit of coral or to wave my hand through a school of fish. 

As I swam on, I felt a hand grasp mine. I looked and found Harry, smiling with his eyes. The warmth of his hand warmed everything inside me, especially since I was getting a bit chilled. We floated along that way until we spotted a huge manta ray. Using the same signal he had done the other day, he squeezed three times and we dove, swimming downward until the ray glided just beneath our fingertips. 

We swam together for a while, occasionally diving to get a closer look at things, but once we spotted a reef shark, I was finished. We surfaced and Harry assured me that they were harmless if we kept our distance. It didn't matter. I swam back to the boat. 

Harry tried to persuade me to stay, but I told him, "I'm getting cold anyway," which was the truth. I longed to let the sun dry me with its heat. 

He followed me up the ladder and then tugged me inside the cabin, just for a moment. "I feel like I did something to upset you. You're pulling away from me," he said. 

There was no use lying to him. "I am, actually. I want to give you everything, Harry, because I'm falling for you. I don't want to hold back. But until you can give me all of yourself, I have to protect myself." 

His eyes showed his hurt, but he said, "I understand that. But I don't want you to pull away. We only have two weeks left and I want to know everything I can about you. Remember what I told you the morning we talked about Sara?" 

I knew he was referring to what he said, that I meant more to him than anyone here. But he couldn't exactly repeat it on camera. So I nodded and said, "I think so." 

"It's still true. Just don't pull away. Please? I need to know you're in this one hundred percent."

"I want to be, but it doesn't seem fair," I said, unintentionally pouting. 

"I know that, and I'm sorry. But please, just don't shut me out. Talk to me. Let me know what you're thinking. Don't just ignore me. Please." His last please sounded so desperate. 

"All right," I said, my face softening into a smile. I took hold of both his hands and stretched up to kiss him. I meant for it to be a quick, sweet kiss, but he lingered, making it a deeper, more meaningful one. 

The words I love you were on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't say it. Not yet. Not here. I wasn't sure when or even if I could, but I wanted him to know. Even if it meant giving him all of my heart.

Lunch, as promised, was a smorgasbord of Hawaiian goodness. There were so many dishes to choose from that I decided to try a little bit of everything, or as much as I could fit onto my plate and into my stomach. I started with a pasty white bun, called manapua, which was stuffed with chicken; then I added a bit of ahi poke, which was raw yellowfin tuna marinated in a delectable sauce, and then a small bowl of saimin, similar to Asian noodle dishes with veggies, herbs and chicken, in this particular variety. There were so many more foods to try but I was stuffed. 

The good news was that during lunch, Ben informed us that in the evening, we would be attending a traditional luau, which would require a significant appetite as well. 

As the captain had promised, we sailed around the crater and into the open waters where we were treated to the sight of humpback whales breaching as if they were showing off for us, more dolphins, and a few sea turtles. That was enough to satisfy my craving for the ocean for a long time to come.

Arriving back in Maui, we were taken to a hotel where we could get some rest, but it wouldn't be long. There was an activity planned just for us women a few hours before the start of the luau. We were told to come in shorts and t-shirts. 

When we arrived in the makeshift dance studio on the first floor of the hotel, I laughed out loud. Seeing the grass skirts and floral embellishments, it was obvious we were going to learn the hula. Once we had all arrived, a rather large, older woman introduced herself. "I'm Ebony and I'm going to teach you some basic hula steps. This is my assistant, Malia," she said, motioning to the young girl with her. "We thought it might be fun to surprise Harry during the luau with your new skill. How does that sound?" 

I was a little tentative, not sure about the attire. I raised my hand timidly and asked, "Will we have to wear coconut bras?" And everyone laughed, even Ebony. 

"No, child, we don't torture the tourists," Ebony chuckled. "You can just go topless," she said, now with a straight face. My eyes widened as she broke into laughter. "Joking, of course. We have many sizes and varieties of halter tops you can wear, if you're comfortable with those. Otherwise, a t-shirt will work just fine. And you can wear shorts underneath your grass skirts if you'd like, although they are very thick and cover everything."

"So, we have to dress up like this?" Jamie asked shyly. 

"We won't force you," Ebony laughed. "But wouldn't you like to have this experience be as authentic as possible?" 

"I guess so," she said, her face relaxing. 

Ebony then taught us some of the very beginning steps to the hula. Two steps left and tap your right toe as it lands; two steps right and tap your left toe as it lands. Easy so far. Then stepping back to the right, we were to land on our toes, slowly rolling down to our heels while lifting the opposite hip, creating the classic sway. We practiced that for a long time, with Ebony encouraging us, sometimes grasping our hips to teach us the sway.

"Very good, Brittany," she said.

"You're a natural, Lucy." 

"Victoria, show Harry you can use those hips." 

"Hula is a sensual, flowing dance. Let your body move like the waves of the ocean." Ebony observed us as we moved to the gentle Hawaiian music. "Yes, very good. Let Harry see you move your bodies. Let him get excited about touching you." With that, we all giggled a little, simply because we were caught off guard by the words coming from this portly older woman.

It took us a while, but we finally had a short dance prepared. We chose our grass skirts and we all ended up choosing floral halter tops as well, instead of t-shirts. Ebony and her assistant put flowers in our hair and laced fresh flowers around our necks and wrists. When we were ready, we watched ourselves perform the dance one last time in front of the studio mirror. I was pretty impressed by the lot of us, I must say. I wondered what Harry would think.

The sun was low in the sky as we lined up to enter the luau. Harry stood at the entrance and his eyes popped as he saw us, followed by a huge dimpled grin. 

The master of ceremonies addressed us before we entered. He spoke of a tradition in Polynesian culture, a greeting called honi, where two people greet each other by touching their noses together and breathing in at the same time. By doing this, they were sharing ha, or the breath of life. It was a sign of welcome, friendship, intimacy, a way to show that you're allowing the other person to share your space. 

As we entered, one by one, Harry greeted us this way, and lingered with each for a moment, just sharing breath. No words, just breath. It was surprisingly intimate, but short-lived for each of us.

We took our seats and a formal welcome was given by the important-looking master of ceremonies, well as important as anyone can look in a grass skirt, but he carried himself with a definite air of confidence. After that, women in grass skirts and coconut bras came around carrying trays of cocktails and of course, we all selected one or two to try.

There were a few demonstrations of local arts and crafts while we enjoyed our drinks. After that, the Master of Ceremonies drew our attention to the ima, which was an in-ground firepit where a pig was roasted for the luau. We walked over to the pit and watched as they literally pulled a whole roasted pig from the pit and carried it to the table. I hoped they would at least cut some of the meat off in order to serve it because I wasn't sure if I could stomach having to pull my own meat off a roasted animal.

Dinner was buffet style and I was very relieved to find the pork cut and chopped for us to serve ourselves, along with chicken, fish and countless other dishes, many of which I didn't recognize. But in the spirit of adventure, I took a little of almost everything. 

Once we sat down to eat - we had a large enough table to seat all eight of us - we were treated to some musical entertainment. At one point, a large man playing the ukulele stopped between songs and said, "I'm sure everyone has noticed by now, but we have a celebrity in our midst. Mr. Harry Styles of One Direction is here with seven beautiful women as they compete for the World's Most Eligible Bachelor. Let's welcome them!" We received hoots and hollers and plenty of applause while we waved gratefully. 

Then the man said, "Harry, would you like to come up and sing a song or two with me?" 

I honestly thought he would, but he looked a little shy, responding, "No, thank you. I'll leave it to the experts. Besides, I don't want to abandon my dates." The man with the ukulele laughed and resumed playing. 

After the live music, the Master of Ceremonies once again took the stage, informing everyone that there was yet another special presentation. All of us stood up and walked away from the table, while Harry watched us, rather mystified. When we climbed the steps to the stage, he started laughing until his eyes watered, knowing we were going to do the hula for him. The music started and our hips swayed and Harry's enormous grin never left his face. 

The evening culminated with Polynesian dancers performing dances from various regions. The most impressive was the Samoan Fireknife dancer performing very interesting yet scary feats with his burning machete. 

On the short flight back to Honolulu, we were mostly quiet, with subdued conversations occurring here and there. The atmosphere wasn't one of exhaustion, but rather a full contentment at having spent the day immersed in Hawaiian culture, side by side with the man we were all falling in love with.

* * *

The next day was yet another daytime activity with Harry, who would have another one-on-one date tonight. Instead of hitting the ocean yet again, we went on a tour of notable places on the island of Oahu. With Harry acting as our tour guide - prompted by a real tour guide speaking through his earpiece, we visited Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and ʻIolani Palace. While these seemed like very cliché places to visit, Harry made them fun with his little comments and side quips. And of course, none of us minded hearing his voice for most of the day. The sites were interesting in their own right, and it was actually a relief to not have to do something so physical for once. Besides, the culture of Hawaii was shaped by everything we encountered, so it was actually quite fascinating. 

When we returned to the hotel, instead of heading back to our suites right away, Claudia ushered us into the living room suite, as I'd begun to call it. Harry had departed from us, probably to take a breather and freshen up for his date. Small talk was required, although I usually tried to talk about something substantial with whomever happened to be sitting next to me. The date card soon arrived and Victoria grabbed it this time. "Lucy, I want to know everything about you. Meet me at 7:00 and let's see if we can make history. Love, Harry." 

Lucy beamed while the rest of us went back to our suites.

A shower was in order and then a few minutes of shut-eye before I met up with the others for dinner. I wished I could just pull out my phone and call my dad, but that wasn't exactly possible. Even though it had been less than a week since I'd seen him, I felt like it had been a year with everything that happened in Hawaii. 

The other five ladies and I met in the lobby and then we walked a half-mile to Duke's, a casual place with a tiki vibe and a patio dining area from which we could watch the sunset. The food wasn't necessarily Hawaiian, but the atmosphere was, so we were happy with it. The others ordered drinks immediately while I decided to stick with water for tonight. 

Without the protective cover of the producers, or Harry for that matter, several guys tried to hit on us while we enjoyed our food. We tried to keep it quiet that we were with the World's Most  Eligible Bachelor, but they kept coming. Finally, Jamie had enough and loudly announced, "We're lesbians! Now leave us alone!" The rest of us couldn't help but laugh at her very loud, and very false disclosure, but it pretty much stopped the advances. Of course, it only briefly occurred to me that we might have some women hit on us, but since there was an even number of us, hopefully most would assume we were paired up. 

After dinner, we all walked along the beach and just enjoyed the sound of the surf pounding against the shore. Victoria and I struck up a conversation, and this time, it was about Harry. 

"I know how you feel," she told me. "About Harry. You have something special with him, but you don't know for sure if he's going to choose you. It sucks because I feel that way, too. It's just so easy to get along with him, so it feels like this amazing chemistry, but I can't help but wonder if it's just that he's so personable, you know?" 

"Yeah, I completely get it. My mind plays over all the possibilities constantly, and it's driving me crazy. Whose stupid idea was this show anyway?" I laughed bitterly. "People in the real world don't go about dating this way."  

"You're right," she agreed. "Except if we hadn't come on the show, we would have never met Harry, and that would be really sad. He's really one in a million."

"Why can't he just marry all of us? Come on, we can petition for polygamy, it won't be that hard. Almost anything is possible in the state of California," I said and we both doubled over laughing. Even if that were a remote possibility, I would never want to share him with someone else. That's what makes love so special - the intimacy that two people share, only with each other. 

"Have you dated much before?" She asked me.

"I had a few steady boyfriends, mostly in my younger twenties, but nothing was ever serious enough to even mention marriage. I guess I just didn't know what I wanted."

"Do you know what you want now?" She continued.

"That's easy. I want Harry. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the fact that he's a celebrity and I would basically have to share him with the world."

"I hear ya," Victoria replied. "But you know Harry. He's very sweet and intuitive. I think he'll be really good at prioritizing private time with his wife and family." 

"I guess so," I said. "It's not a deal breaker by any means. It's just that I wasn't expecting to be dating a world-famous singer. But I've been able to step back from that and see that he's really an amazing person." 

Victoria agreed and we walked the rest of the way back to the hotel in silence. It seemed there was a hierarchy forming. Victoria was afraid of Harry choosing me over her, and I was afraid of him choosing Ariana over me. Was anyone else in this situation? I mean, any one of the remaining women would probably say she was falling in love with Harry, but were all seven of us so confident that we would be the one he finally chose? If that was the case, he would leave more than just one or two broken hearts behind.

_____

Okay, so it was a double update after all! Yeah me! 

The karaoke idea was sent to me by @ser3nD1pity. However, I couldn't think of a way to use it with just Harper or a group setting since I already had those planned out. But lucky Jordin got to sing with Harry. That's one of my life goals, to be honest. I want to sing a duet with Harry of "Baby, It's Cold Outside." lol

Writing about Hawaiian food made me hungry for Filipino food! The manapua buns reminded me of siopao, which I loved. And in the Philippines, a roasted pig was common for big celebrations - it was called lechon, and I swear I could have eaten a whole pig myself, lol! 

There won't be any more underwater adventures. I seriously gave myself a panic attack looking up all those pictures! I'm terrified of deep water, especially endless deep water. If I can see the walls of a pool, I'm okay, lol. But looking at those deep ocean pics freaked me out a little too much!