by Laina Turner
“Ouch! That hurt!” he said, looking offended.
“Hey, you asked,” I said, taking another bite of delicious food.
After a great meal, we were relaxing with our after dinner cup of coffee and I found I really was enjoying myself. It did feel weird being out with a man and going through those moments of what to say, what not to say, being cautious and not wanting to appear silly or stupid. Though with Tom it was easier than it had been with Steve, because there was no attraction there, at least on my end and I doubted he was attracted to me. But I was flattered just the same. Male attention wasn’t something I had gotten a lot of in the past and on this vacation that had changed a little and it made me feel good. It was a real boost to my self-esteem. Though I couldn’t help but wonder what Steve was doing tonight. I had missed talking to him today and wondered what it was he had to do this morning. I had expected to hear from him at some point today, like I had yesterday, so was a little disappointed.
“Excuse me, what?” Tom had asked me a question while I was thinking about Steve and I had missed it. I felt bad, it was rude to be out with one man and think of another man. What a problem to have. Three weeks ago when my divorce was finalized I would never have thought I would have this problem and look at me now.
“I was asking you what your plans were for tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure. Just playing it by ear.”
“I’ll be around if you want company. I’m staying in room 2361. I’d give you my phone number, but I forgot to pack my charger and its dead.”
“I’m sure there are cell phone chargers on the island.”
“I decided to try a few days without it. So far, there have been minimal withdrawals.”
“You’re a stronger person than I am. I’m not sure I could go that long.”
“We’ll see, I may break down yet.”
We’d finished our coffee and with no other reason to linger, we got up and walked out of the restaurant.
“May I walk you to your room?” Tom asked.
I hesitated. I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to know where my room was which is why I hadn’t offered up the number when he gave me his. It made no sense since I had let Steve walk me to my room, but somehow that seemed different. Plus, I felt a little trashy having two different men at my room, which was probably just silly since it wasn’t like I was sleeping with them. But still I just didn’t feel comfortable with it.
“Tom, that’s sweet, but I’m going to take a stroll around the hotel to burn off some of that good food.”
“Would you like some company?” he persisted.
I shook my head. “I think I would like to just enjoy some alone time.”
His expression darkened a little like he was angry, but I may have imagined it because he quickly had a smile back on his face and said, “I understand. Enjoy your walk and maybe we can catch up tomorrow.”
“Thanks for understanding and for the lovely dinner. I did enjoy talking with you.”
“Same here, Sterling,” he said and gallantly grabbed my hand and kissed it. “Until we meet again.”
I smiled. “You’re so sweet, Tom. Thank you.”
We went our separate ways and I hadn’t been lying, I did want to stroll around by myself. While Tom was good company, I hadn’t spent a lot of time alone this trip. It was still early and even though the sun had set, it was still warm and you could smell the ocean mixed with scents of flowers. I inhaled deeply, such a beautiful aroma.
I made my way out to an area of the hotel that was just for lounging and looked over the beach and ocean. There were other people out here, also enjoying the beauty. Some by themselves, like me, and some in couples, which made me again think of Steve.
I had been sitting there for a few minutes when I felt my purse buzz. Probably Nadine, seeing how I was doing. I opened it up and pulled out my phone to see it was a text from Steve. I couldn’t stop from smiling. I was happy to hear from him.
“Snorkeling tomorrow? 10am?” his text read.
“Sure. Coffee first. 9am?” I typed back.
“It’s a date.”
I texted back a smiley face and put my phone back in my purse. I had a date!
Chapter 11
Snorkeling was one of the activities the hotel offered, so after our coffee we headed down to the beach where they took us in small boats to a bigger boat, anchored just a few hundred yards out. I still didn’t know why he had broken our coffee date the morning before. He didn’t offer an explanation and I didn’t ask. I was happy to be hanging out with him now, and as much as I might want to know, it just wasn’t any of my business.
“You do know how to swim, right?” Steve whispered to me as we were listening to the guide go over his safety procedures.
“No. You didn’t mention swimming! You said snorkeling!” I whispered back in mock horror.
We both burst out laughing and it caused the guide to glance in our direction like we were two naughty children.
“You better behave, or you’ll get us thrown off this boat,” I said sternly.
“Yes ma’am.”
We were handed wet suits and snorkeling gear, a face mask and breathing
tube, and were told to put it on. Then to go to one of the various stations around the boat where there were ladders to get us down to the water.
As I was putting on the wet suit I couldn’t help but wonder how many other people had had this on before me or had the mouthpiece in their mouth. It kind of grossed me out.
“Salt water kills all germs,” Steve whispered.
“Can you read my mind?” I said. While I certainly wasn’t a germ-a-phobe, I couldn’t help but be a little concerned about the sanitary conditions.
“No, but I can read the expression on your face and it looked very apprehensive putting that on.”
“Ahh … are you serious about the salt water?”
“Not at all,” he shook his head. “But it made you feel better for a minute didn’t it?”
“You jerk!” I playfully swatted him on the arm. I almost felt like a kid again. We were carefree with our banter. It was fun and, more importantly, easy. I couldn’t really even remember feeling this way with Brian even when we first started dating, but then that was a long time ago and I was a much different person then.
We finally got in the water and I was amazed at how vibrantly beautiful the fish were. The colors were amazing. Something right out of “Finding Nemo”.
I saw Steve point to his left where a beautifully colored turquoise and black fish swam by. Since I couldn’t talk with the snorkel in my mouth, I gave him a thumbs up. I was captivated by the beauty down here.
We spent the next thirty minutes taking turns pointing out all the amazing things we were seeing and then heard the whistle blow from up top. That was our signal to come back on the boat. They had to conduct a head count before we could go back in. Something they did every 30 minutes or so to make sure no one drowned. Their exact words, which hadn’t been that comforting. I had paid some attention when the captain was talking. I turned back toward the boat and was following Steve. I had almost reached the ladder when I felt something touch my leg startling me and all of a sudden I was yanked underwater. Far enough that water filled my snorkel. I started choking and kicking, trying to loosen the grip of whoever was holding my foot. Finally, I kicked free and made my way to the side and put my hands on the ladder, quickly climbing up. I was still choking and coughing up water when I made it on deck.
Steve grabbed my shoulder, “Are you OK? I thought you were right behind me. Did you swallow water?”
“Someone. Pulled me. Under,” I gasped.
“Are you sure?” he looked alarmed.
I nodded and sat down on one of the benches trying to catch my breath.
“Let me get the captain. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded, throat still burning from swallowing water and trying to breath.
Steve reappeared a few minutes later with the captain.
&nb
sp; Steve pointed to me and said, “See, she’s still trying to catch her breath. She said someone pulled her underwater.”
The captain looked at me, more skeptical than concerned. Probably thinking I was some pain in the ass tourist overreacting.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a piece of seaweed touching your leg? There’s a lot of tall growth around here.”
“No!” I said angrily. “A piece of seaweed wouldn’t pull me underwater.”
“Sometimes it can wrap around your leg and get you tangled up,” he offered, as a way of explanation. I had no doubt he had seen his fair share of hysterical women in his line of work, but I had not imagined being pulled underwater. I was positive of this.
“Seaweed wouldn’t leave marks!” I said pointing to my right ankle. It had red welts and was starting to bruise. “At least marks in the shape of fingers,” I added.
The captain’s demeanor changed when he could see the welts. The outline of the hand of whoever had grabbed me was clearly visible. Even if I had doubted myself, this was all the proof I needed. It wasn’t seaweed that touched my leg.
By then a small crowd of the other guests on the boat had gathered around. Some seemed concerned and some probably just wanted to know what was going on. I was embarrassed at the attention and then when the captain announced we were cutting the excursion short, I felt bad.
“I’m sorry to ruin your fun,” I said to the few people still sitting around me, feeling guilty we were heading back to shore because of me. It wasn’t fair to all of them who’d paid good money for this trip.
“Don’t worry about it,” said the female half of one couple next to me. “If there’s someone in the water trying to drown us, I didn’t want to go back in there anyway!”
“Maybe I did imagine it?” I said, even though I felt positive someone had tried to pull me under. “After all, if it was someone who grabbed me, where did he go?”
“You’re not imagining things, Sterling. Look at your ankle. That’s not from seaweed,” Steve said. “Maybe whoever did this had a scuba tank and swam off somewhere else. If he didn’t have to come up for air, we wouldn’t see him. The bigger question here is who would do this to you?”
I looked at Steve and shrugged my shoulders, “I’m a guest here just like you all. Any enemies I would have would be back in Ohio and I don’t think they would have followed me here, much less tried to kill me,” I said, trying to force a laugh, because the thought of someone wanting to hurt me in any way was laughable. I didn’t run around with people who killed other people because they were mad. Plus, the only person who would be mad at me was Brian and our last conversation was actually civil.
It only took a few more minutes to get back to shore, or rather where the small boats were waiting to take us to shore and we finally got back to the beach.
As we were dropped off, I saw a police jeep with two officers waiting. The captain had personally brought us to shore and when he noticed I saw the officers, he said, “I radioed them from the ship, so you didn’t have to wait.”
How nice of him, I thought sarcastically. Just what I wasn’t looking forward to. Another interrogation. As much as that’s not what I wanted right now, I knew it needed to happen.
“At least this will make for an interesting vacation story,” I said to Steve, trying to make the best of things. The last time I had talked to a police officer before this vacation was when I got pulled over for speeding and that was years ago. Now twice in the last few days I’d been interrogated. People back home probably wouldn’t believe me. I knew I could hardly believe it myself.
I recounted my story to the police, who seemed as skeptical as the captain, even after showing them my ankle. The red marks had all but faded, and while there were the beginnings of finger-shaped bruising, without the accompanying red marks it was hard to see and I could tell the police weren’t taking this very seriously.
The police pretty much told me there was nothing they could do and sent me on my way, saying if it was a person it was probably kids playing a prank. It seemed like a pretty dangerous prank to me but what did I know? They gave me their contact information and told me to call them if I experienced any further trouble. They seemed so nonplussed by it I wondered how often this kind of stuff happened or if they just really thought I was imagining the whole thing.
As Steve and I walked back up to the hotel, I said, “This is so frustrating! I’m not imagining things. That was a human hand on my foot, not a seaweed rope or whatever they called it.”
“I know Sterling, I believe you.”
“Why would anyone want to scare me? I mean that’s the only reason someone would do something like that, right? Because in their own twisted way they thought it would be funny?”
“I don’t believe for a minute it was a kid joking around,” Steve said. “I think it could be related to the people who broke into your room.”
I looked at him, “But the police didn’t seem to think so.” I had told them everything that happened to me since being on this vacation. The luggage being switched, my room being ransacked, I had told them I felt someone was following me when I was in town but nothing seemed relevant to them. At least that’s the impression I got when I told them about it. They thought it was seaweed or a fish and I was being dramatic.
“You really think it could be the same people?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but what other reasonable explanation could there be? With your luggage being lost, then getting the wrong suitcase, someone breaks into your room, you think someone’s following you, and then this. Too many out of the norm things to not be related. Unless, of course, all your vacations are like this and if that’s the case, you should stop going on vacation,” he joked.
“Trust me, if all my vacations were like this, I would stop going on vacation.”
“Then if it’s not related to all these crazy events, what other reasonable explanation is there?”
I shook my head no. “You got me, Matlock.”
He looked at me and pretended to be insulted. “Are you saying I look like Andy Griffith?”
“Nah, you’re more like Remington Steele,” I said, referencing the show by the same name.
“I like to think of myself more like the character Bruce Willis played in Moonlighting. What was his name?”
“David something, I watched both of those with my mom all the time.”
“Me, too. We may have to start our own detective agency to solve this,” Steve said.
“If all our knowledge is going to come from 80’s TV shows, I’m not sure how successful we will be.”
“What do you mean? They always got their man!”
“Yes, but we’ve already been on this case more than an hour so we’ve run out of time,” I said referring to the length of the TV show.
“You hungry?” Steve asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“I could hear your stomach growling.”
“Great detective work,” I teased. “Nothing like almost drowning to wake up a girl’s appetite.”
“If you’re not sick of me yet, want to grab some lunch? Or would you rather go back to your room? I can understand if you’re not up to it.”
“Not at all, let’s go. It would take a lot more than a little attempted drowning to stop me from wanting to eat,” I said, knowing that I needed a distraction that would temporarily put the morning’s events out of my mind and lunch with Steve would be perfect.
We were half way through enjoying burgers and fries at the hotel café when Tom walked by. I didn’t see him until he was almost past our table and we noticed each other at the same time. My heart kind of dropped and I could tell he was just as surprised to see me as well. I found myself hoping he would just walk on by and not stop. I should have known I wouldn’t be that lucky and started to panic even though I had nothing to panic about.
“Sterling! How nice to see you,” he said looking at me and then looking at Steve, a little bit of confusion on his face.
“Hi, Tom. What a pleasant surprise,” I said, my voice cracking with nervousness.
An uncomfortable pause went by and I knew I needed to say something.
“Tom, this is Steve. Steve, Tom.”
The two men shook hands and I wanted to crawl into a hole. Luckily, I was saved from any more conversation.
“I’ve got to get going. Nice to meet you, Steve. Maybe I’ll see you later, Sterling?” Tom said, more in the form of a question than a casual statement.
“I’ll be around,” I said in a non-committal way.
A few seconds after Tom walked away, I felt I had to say something. I was uncomfortable and could only imagine what Steve was thinking. I figured I would rather know for sure than to wonder.
“I can explain …”
“No need to, Sterling,” he interrupted with a smile, conveying he wasn’t mad or upset, at least as far as I could tell. “It’s not like we’re in a relationship. We’re hanging out enjoying each other’s company. You can do that with anyone you choose. No explanation needed.”
“Ok,” I nodded, not letting on that what he said kind of hurt. Because he was absolutely right. We didn’t owe each other anything. We were on vacation for goodness sake. A few more days and we wouldn’t see each other again. Something I had said to myself several times but hearing it from his mouth was somehow harder. I admit I had let myself be caught up in vacation fantasy romance more than I probably should have.
The rest of lunch seemed a little uncomfortable, at least for me, and I was almost glad to see it end. A first when it came to spending time with Steve. I just couldn’t stop thinking about what he said, and the whole notion of eventually dating, being in a real relationship was just so foreign to me. Here on vacation it was a different environment, and didn’t seem as weird but I couldn’t help but wonder what it might be like back home in my normal environment and the thought made me shudder.
