Chasing The O

by LaBelle, Lorelai

  Vince booked one of the tours along the Na Pali Coast for the early morning and afternoon that Friday. Having an assortment of swimwear meant I had the luxury of picking outfits that suited different adventures. I chose the fluorescent green monokini for this particular one.

  I thought it would be a perfect end to a perfect week—that is, until I saw Ryan climb up the steps to the charter boat. Behind him walked a dirty blond who wore the smallest bikini I had ever seen, the tiny triangles covering only her nipples, with thin strings tied around her back and neck.

  I was positive my jaw dropped at the sight of them. “Holy fuck,” I gasped.

  Vince looked up as they walked on by the front. “That’s pretty skimpy. I’m surprised she can wear that in public and not be busted for indecent exposure or something.”

  “That’s—that’s Ryan,” I blurted.

  “Who?”

  “Ryan—the guy I dated for seven months. The guy I dated before you.”

  “Oh,” he said, processing the situation. “He’s bigger than I thought he’d be.”

  “That’s what you choose to say right now?” I shook my head. “We gotta get off this boat.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We can’t stay here,” I snapped. “I can’t stay around him.”

  “It’s a big boat.”

  “Not big enough.” I gathered my bag and water bottle, heading for the exit, but a crewmember had already unhooked the ropes that bound the boat to the dock. The captain came over the PA with an announcement.

  “No, no, no. This can’t be happening,” I muttered. I looked at Vince and received only a shrug.

  “We can move to the back,” he suggested. “We can avoid him so that he never sees you.”

  “It’s a five-hour tour, Vince!” I whispered loudly.

  “What do you want me to do? Pay the captain to turn around?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I want you to do.” I put up my hand to stop him. “I know what I said before about your money, but this is different. That asshole has hurt me like no one ever has, and just being near him makes me furious, and to see him with that—that bimbo. No, no I can’t do it.”

  Vince stood up and hugged me. “All right, I’ll see what I can do.” We walked to the back of the boat, and he climbed up the ladder to where the captain was, asking if he could talk to him. The captain, a short, round, hairy man with a sunburnt face, seemed like a cheery, reasonable guy, so there was hope.

  Vince returned a few minutes later. “He says he doesn’t do this gig for the money and won’t turn around. Now, if it were an emergency, he’d reconsider.”

  “It is an emergency, dammit!” I howled.

  “He doesn’t see it that way.” Vince folded his arm around my shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?” I considered that for a moment. “I mean, it’s not the worst thing in the world, is it? Even if he does see you, he’s likely going to try and avoid you, too.”

  “Ryan’s not like you, Vince. He might walk right up to me, plant a kiss, slap my ass, and force me into a hug so that my boobs press against him. He’s that type of guy.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what, if he starts making a move like that, I’ll knock him over the railing. The captain will have to go back then.” A sincere smile crossed his face. He was trying hard to not make this a horrible end to a great week. “Sound good?”

  I rubbed his arm. “Thanks.” We were sitting on a bench where people put on their snorkeling gear; it wasn’t made for sightseeing. “We can sit up front if you want,” I said after five minutes of boredom. He nodded, grabbed our stuff, and headed for the last bench in the front. “I’m just going to read until we get there.” Book in hand, I spread its pages so that they blocked my face.

  About twenty minutes later, a couple of tourists started shouting, and soon all the passengers were at the railings, pointing and yelling. Vince dragged me to an open space in the railing. “Oh, wow,” I gasped.

  “Crazy,” he said. “There’s so many.” All around us dolphins swam. We could spot dozens and dozens of them in the clear water. They raced along the boat, leaping next to us, then zooming underneath the boat’s hull to the other side.

  The captain came on the PA. “You’ll notice the distinctive spinning motion of these dolphins, which gives them their name. These are Gray’s spinner dolphins, more commonly called Hawaiian spinner dolphins around here.” He went on for a few minutes, telling us this was a good sign, since sharks tended to stay away when a pod of dolphins congregated nearby.

  We watched the dolphins for as long as they stayed with us, but the boat kept on traveling north, and eventually the pod turned back or headed out to deeper waters. On the way back to our seats, I heard, “Maci?” from behind me. The resonant voice caught my attention immediately. I spun on my heels and saw Ryan standing at the end of the row.

  “Oh my God! Ryan.” I tried to sound surprised, but I didn’t think it came out very convincing. “I can’t believe I’m seeing you here.”

  “Just on vacation with my girlfriend,” he said. His shirt was off and his muscles rippled under the sunlight. His smooth black skin looked even smoother than I remembered. “Hey, babe, come over here. I want you to meet someone.” He waved over the blond. “Babe, this is Maci, one of the girls I dated before you.”

  “Hi,” she said in a high, whiny voice. She stuck out her hand. “I’m Claire. It’s nice to meet you.”

  I shook her hand despite the rage inside me telling me not to, for fear that I might crush her hand. But what animosity between us existed? She wasn’t even the slut he cheated on me with. How could I blame or resent her? I kept my grip to a professional firmness.

  “Hi. It’s nice to meet you. This is my boyfriend, Vince.” Vince stood up and shook both of their hands.

  Uninterested in Vince, Ryan went straight to talking about himself, locking eyes with mine. “Yep, I’ve been playing indoor football for the Portland Gorgers these last few months.” He stretched out his arms behind his head like he used to do, showing off his muscles for a crowd. “You’ve probably heard of them—they have ads all over facebook. We play in the Moda Center.” His bragging tensed me up so much that I started grinding my teeth.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard of them,” Vince said. “I thought about buying the team before they relocated, but I really wanted to buy the Blazers. I just can’t get Allen to sell.”

  Ryan thought it was a joke and hurt his gut laughing so hard. “You found a real comedian, Maci. A true funnyman.” He popped Vince on the shoulder.

  Vince tapped him back. “I am pretty funny, but I wasn’t joking, Allen really won’t sell.”

  “Ah, man, you’re too much,” Ryan laughed. “I never took you for the jokester type, Maci.”

  “I think you should go back to your seat,” Vince said smoothly.

  All of Ryan’s humor vanished. “What’s that?”

  “I think you should go back to your seat,” Vince repeated. “Before I have to bribe the captain to leave you stranded in one of these valleys.” He nodded at the sharp hills of the Na Pali Coast.

  I could see Ryan’s explosive anger rising up, his fingers curling into a fist. I jumped between them to diffuse the situation. “Ryan, just go back to your seat.”

  The blond bimbo put a hand on his chest. “Come on, baby. You can’t afford to lose it here. Don’t spoil the trip, baby. Come on.” She tugged at his arm.

  “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood, man,” Ryan snarled, pointing his finger at Vince. “If I wasn’t, I might have the sense to rip off your balls and feed them to the sharks.” He turned around at the insistence of the bimbo, heading back for their seats.

  “I wonder why your mother didn’t think he was a catch,” Vince teased, sitting back down. “I thought he was real charming myself.” He laughed, mostly to himself, pulling me in close after I returned beside him. “See, that wasn’t so bad. Not worth leaving the ship and blowing the whole afternoon. Now it’s over and done.”
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br />   “Ryan has real anger issues,” I said, nodding ahead at my ex, who was fidgeting in agitation. “And he really hates being told to do something.”

  “I’m not worried about it,” Vince asserted, “and you shouldn’t be either. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the tour. We’re going snorkeling in Hawaii after all. It’s something to be excited about. Forget about them—let’s focus on us and the moment, all right?”

  That was all I wanted to do. He made it sound so simple, but Ryan got under my skin in the worst way, eating at me with anger and bitterness. “I’ll try,” I said with sincerity. The boat weaved in and out of giant caves and through massive holes in the rocky shore. The stunning beauty of the coast was a spectacle to behold. The captain turned back south once we had explored half a dozen caves, and anchored the boat after fifteen minutes or so, preparing for an hour and a half of snorkeling.

  Afraid of being eaten alive, I had trouble overcoming the initial fear of getting into the water, hanging back with my flippers on. Vince swam at the edge of the boat. “The water is great,” he said with irregular breaths. “I’ll be right by you the whole time. We can just swim around the ladder.” His encouragement and assurances finally broke me down as my curiosity urged me into the warm water.

  “I can’t believe how warm it is,” I gasped, my right hand still on the boat. Not able to breathe through my nose, the snorkeling gear added a level of anxiety, one that took a few minutes to adjust to.

  With the underwater camera strapped around his neck, Vince took photos of all kinds of fish. A big group swam under the boat and came so close I thought they would bump into me. Most of them veered away at the last second, missing my body by less than an inch.

  It took about forty minutes to acclimate to the water atmosphere. By then I was ready to explore the coral and rocks away from the boat. We dove down a little, watching an eel swim in and out of the rocks, both of us taking pictures. Every time we saw a new fish, excitement forced us to point and shout like little kids.

  Diving deeper, I was positive I saw a Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, the state fish, and tracked it across a field of rocks. Pictures of the state fish were all over the shops on the island, but I wanted to capture one on camera myself, and so I continued to follow it until I was within range to get a clear shot, about a foot away. Satisfied with my effort, I looked around, and became all too aware that Vince wasn’t within sight. Panic stabbed my heart with needles.

  Breathing had already been a challenge, and now it was verging on dire. I could see the boat in the distance and swarm hard for it. But then something moved in my peripheral, something big.

  I jerked my head right and my heart stopped for a moment. Swimming along the ocean’s floor, a giant blue body streaked through the water. Trying not to hyperventilate, I bolted for the safety of the boat as fast as I could, unable to think straight.

  But as the streak swam closer, I saw that it was a dolphin, not a shark, as I had feared. There were four of them swimming for the boat and the people splashing around. My heart calmed, but an impulse still told me to clear the water.

  My eyes darting between the boat and the dolphins, I never noticed Vince shooting through the water to my left. He grabbed my arm, and panicking, I punched him in the shoulder, mistaking him for a threat. He put up his arms to show that he wasn’t.

  I pointed at the boat and together we swam toward it. I flew up the ladder and onto the safety of the deck. People were shouting in astonishment as the dolphins darted around the water. Vince joined me on the boat. “You all right?” he asked.

  I nodded, out of breath. I hadn’t recovered my lungs yet and gave him a smile instead of words. “I thought—thought it was a shark.”

  Vince held me tight. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “One minute I was tracking a fish, and the next—poof, you’re gone.”

  I eased his conscience. “I did the same thing. It’s okay, honest. It’s all right.”

  “I’m going to ride me a flipper,” I heard Ryan yell, looking over the railing.

  Vince glanced up at him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he told Ryan.

  “Man, don’t tell me what to do,” Ryan snapped. “I’ll do what I want.” He jumped overboard.

  “See,” I huffed, still catching my breath. “He doesn’t like to be told what to do.”

  Vince shrugged.

  I never went back in the water, too afraid that the dolphins might turn evil. Vince swam the rest of the time with them, which lasted about ten minutes before they moved on. Ryan was as loud as ever, bragging about how he rode one of them by its fin. The captain wasn’t at all happy about that.

  After we pulled up to the dock and were waiting to exit, I could hear Ryan behind us. “No, baby. She meant nothing to me. She’s not like you. She did nothing for me with those little titties. You’re the kind of woman a man needs—not her.”

  I felt Vince clench up. He set our stuff on a bench, then spun around abruptly, swinging a fist. He punched Ryan square in the jaw and sent him over the railing. Ryan battled the water, shouting.

  “She was too good for you, you fucking moron!” Vince snarled. He grabbed our things, retrieved his wallet, and stuffed ten Benjamins into the captain’s hand. “That never happened.”

  “It was a smooth docking,” the captain said with a grin, as we walked down the gangplank.

  “I can’t believe you just did that,” I said, astounded.

  “He had it coming,” he laughed.

  I wrapped my arms around Vince’s shoulders and kissed his bare chest. I was utterly turned on. “What do you say we celebrate back in the bedroom?”

  “I like the way you think,” he said, opening the car door for me with a huge grin on his face.

  20

  ALL IN

  We departed Kauai on the earliest flight the next morning. Neither of us wanted to leave, but we had to get back to reality, and a part of me missed the bakery and all the friendly faces. After the long plane trip, all I wanted was to sleep. My plan was spoiled at four A.M. I woke up to the sound of Vince shifting things in his closet.

  “Vince?” I said, thinking he was right there. I rolled out of bed, heading for the light, through the split bathroom and into the walk-in. Vince was sitting on the ground, packing his suitcase. “What are you doing? Why are you packing?”

  “I have to go to San Diego,” he said, shoving socks into his carry-on.

  “What do you mean? Now?”

  “Yes, now,” he said hurriedly. “I just got a call. It’s an emergency. I have to leave right away.”

  “Emergency?” My brain barely processed what he said. “What is it? What happened?”

  “I’ll explain as soon as I know all the details.” He zipped up the suitcase and stood. “I don’t know exactly when I’ll be back. It could be a few days. I doubt more than a week.”

  He dashed for the kitchen. I hurried after him, my head groggy, and my stomach queasy. “You’re just going to leave like that? No warning, no explanation?”

  “I don’t know enough to explain.” He snatched his keys, a banana, and a few energy bars. He kissed me by the elevator. “I’ll call you tonight,” he said, stepping inside. Soon he disappeared into the morning before my brain could comprehend what had happened.

  Worry fully woke me before long. I stood in front of the bedroom windows, gazing out on the city, puzzling out what business could be so urgent that compelled Vince to leave for San Diego at four in the morning. He had big clients in San Diego, sure, but nothing that would make him bolt so quickly. I tried Vince a few times, but it went straight to voicemail.

  I decided to give Alma a shot—she had been remarkably kinder after Terrance left, especially when I called her on that terrible Monday and let her know we were all right and that Vince was fine. “I always knew something was off about him. I could feel it,” she had said. “I never imagined that he was in love with Vince though. Strange, how love works.” I gathered a hint of vulnerability in those words, but
before I could get any more emotion out of her, she said goodbye in a rush. Ever since that day she showed a little decency towards me.

  She picked up despite how early it was, but she knew less than I did, without any idea that Vince was even back, let alone that he’d left again.

  I paced the house for most of the day. Stress and uneasiness plagued my nerves and stomach. For background noise, I turned on the TV, listening to the news. I figured if it were huge, one of the news channels might have something to report.

  “I’m freaking out,” I said over the phone to Danielle.

  “Why don’t you come home?” she suggested. “If he’s going to be gone for a while, there’s no reason for you to stay there alone. Come home and we’ll figure it out together.” I followed her advice and drove home.

  When I opened the door, Danielle eyed me like I had just caught her doing something naughty, nervous and shocked. “What? What is it?” I asked. She pointed at the TV, turning up the volume.

  Some CNN reporter I’d never seen or heard of was doing the broadcast. “The seven bodies arrived shortly after eight last night at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego. They were discovered on a small island in the Pacific by an American couple on a sailing trip from Australia to San Francisco, who had stopped for a day at the secluded beach before stumbling on the bodies.

  “Flight ANZ107 from LAX to New Zealand crashed three years ago over the Pacific near Fiji, more than two hundred miles from where the seven bodies were found. Dental records confirmed the deceased as John Drexler, Danny Larson, Greg Turtledove, Gary Vosloo, Michelle Dotson, Windy Pirri, and Skye Burkhart. We have yet to get an interview from any of the surviving family members. We’ll have more for you as the story develops.”

  Danielle muted the TV. “That’s her, isn’t it? Vince’s old fiancée?”

  I nodded slowly, the wave of shock hitting me hard. I stared at the screen. It didn’t seem real. How could it be real? She’d been dead for years—how could her body just turn up like that? I dialed Vince a hundred times, but every call went straight to voicemail. “What does this mean?” I asked Danielle. She shook her head. “Skye was the love of his life. Her death devastated him to the point that he’s barely ever actually gotten over it.”