The nervous pit in Olga's stomach didn't even wait for the sun to rise. Her body began protesting against the potentially awkward evening program early in the morning. She dreaded first dates. She hated the dreadful role-playing, the nervous laughter, and the heavy silences that occasionally set in.

Antonio, Bernard, and Eva could hardly wait to finally enter the festival grounds. They impatiently endured the long line. Eva, nervous, fidgeted with her bracelets and adjusted her two long braids. Meanwhile, Antonio and Bernard each drank a beer and teased each other, laughing loudly at their own jokes.

Rosa listened to Marisol, the tour guide turned agent-interpreter-problem solver, with boredom. The words no longer formed sentences in her mind. She watched as the woman, hired by her husband, gesticulated vigorously and importantly in her sun-faded, too-tight top.

Sylvya Tenerife was about thirty years older than in her profile picture. The two deep wrinkles between her long, downward-curving nose and mouth made it hard to tell whether they were from a forgotten scowl or simply the marks of age. With her deep, cigarette-smoky voice, she greeted the family who was awkwardly waiting in the narrow parking lot.

They had to wait half an hour for the car in the airport parking lot, surrounded by palm trees. Elena was a bit disappointed about the delay, but since she had never seen a palm tree up close before, she took photos of them in the meantime. At least she’d have something to post on social media right away.

Elena had been scrolling through posts in various Facebook groups for days. The two-week trip to the Canary Islands had to be perfect. They weren’t about to spend a year’s worth of savings just to aimlessly lounge around—they could do that in the garden for free.

It had been more than ten years since Marisol left her homeland in search of a better life. The Canary Islands, with their eternal spring-like climate and abundance of tourists, seemed like a land of opportunity for the divorced mother of two.

Tina nervously eyed her phone as it rang for the second time. Her heart was pounding in her throat. She knew Eva was waiting outside the gate in her car, just like every Tuesday morning on her day off, after dropping her son off at preschool.

The foreign man nearly tripped on the slippery rubber. Losing his balance, he leaned against the stone wall and scraped his elbow. He winced. Only the woman who had lived there for a long time was sitting in front of the padel court, smoking a cigarette.

For his birthday party, Jenő invited only a few members of the faculty and his childhood friend. One of his colleagues mentioned she would bring her friend along if Jenő didn’t mind. The math teacher had set her sights on a girl for the long-single birthday boy.