People We Meet on Vacation Summary & ending explained

It has rained every single day of our beach vacation. The sky over Sanibel Island is the color of dishwater, and the only bar within walking distance is a sticky-floored place whose sign just says BAR.

Alex Nilsen is reading a book on his phone at the counter. Of course he is. Tall, sandy-haired, shirt tucked in like he's about to teach a class, which is basically his whole personality. My best friend, for most of a decade.

I slide onto the stool beside him and pretend I've never seen him in my life.

"Come here often?"

He doesn't look up. "Poppy."

"I don't know who that is. I'm just a woman at a bar, and you're a man who could use some practice."

That's the point of tonight. Sarah broke his heart again, and Alex, who would rather walk into the sea than flirt with a stranger, is going to need to date eventually. So I play the stranger. I'm bad on purpose, and he's deadpan back, and somewhere around the third round he's laughing so hard he has to put his phone face down on the bar.

This is what we do. Every summer, one week, just the two of us. Our lives don't overlap anywhere else: I live out of a suitcase and he lives out of a bookcase. But for one week a year, I'm the version of me I like best.

We run out into the rain at closing time, soaked in seconds, and cram into the rental car. I hold up my phone and take a picture of us, dripping and squinting and ridiculous. I already know it'll be my favorite.

That's five summers ago.

Three summers after that night, in Croatia, we ruin everything. And then we don't speak for two years.