“I’ll be there. I just need to check on a few things here and I will swing by your apartment in about an hour. Should I bring anything? I can bring more vegetables or some salad if you think it would go with the pasta.” He looked down at his watch seemingly in a hurry.
“There’s no rush. We’ll still be there eating,” She said smiling. “Sure, bring a salad. I would love for Carly to try it. She’s always making fun of me for being a vegetarian. If she could try some good healthy food, maybe she would understand it more.”
Chris laughed. “We’ll show her. I’ll see you in a bit. Bye.”
Cathy waved as she walked back over to her own jeep. While she was driving back, she couldn’t help but to still feel frustrated. It had been a perfect day, but they still hadn’t found Mandy. She didn’t know how much longer Mandy would even be in the Stinson Beach area. It was frustrating to come so close to her, but still not be able to capture her. Even if Cathy had the chance to capture her, she still wasn’t sure what she would do with Mandy. Cathy didn’t really want to hurt her, but she feared that the evidence would soon be gone if they waited much longer to get her.
By the time she knew it, she was already back at her apartment. She saw the lights on and figured that Carly was still cooking. She was happy that her sister had decided to move in for a while, but she knew the space was small and Carly would want her to move back home again. While Cathy did seek comfort from her mother and her sister, she really didn’t want to move back into her old house. She hadn’t lived there since high school for a reason. The house reminded her too much of her father.
Having an apartment seemed to distance herself from all of the memories that haunted her. She had told her mother for years to sell the house. Cathy figured they didn’t need that much space anymore since her father was no longer with them, but her mother had insisted on keeping the house. Her mother saw it as more of a sentimental keepsake. For Cathy, it was a place of broken memories that she dreaded going back to.
Putting the past aside for a moment, she put the key into the door of her apartment and pushed her way inside. She could smell the seafood pasta the moment she walked into the door and she could feel herself fuming with hunger. Putting her backpack on the hook, she took her shoes off and started walking towards the kitchen. She hoped Carly had made enough for Chris. She hadn’t had a chance to tell Carly that Chris was coming over for dinner yet.
“Carly?” Cathy called out from the hallway, wanting to get her sister’s attention.
“I’m in the kitchen still! It’s done. Come in and eat with me.” Carly responded cheerfully. She was always cheerful when she was cooking. To her cooking was an art. It was something that she did when she wanted to relax and feel better about life. It was also a great way to take the stress away. With everything that was going on with Cathy, Carly was really feeling the stress and cooking dinner had eased some of it away.
“Thanks for making dinner, I really appreciate it. Everything smells so good,” She said grabbing a bowl of the pasta and sitting down at the table. “Did you make enough for three?” She asked as Carly took the other bowl and sat down next to her.
“I made enough for like six,” She said as she grinned. “Why? Is someone going to be joining us?”
“My friend Chris from Shark Savors. He’s coming over. He’s a vegetarian too, so don’t make fun of him. I invited him over since he helped me search for Marc all day and I am so grateful for all of the help that I can get.” Suddenly a knock at the door interrupted their conversation and Cathy got up to get it. She opened it and saw Chris with a big bowl of salad. He looked as if he had cleaned up since she last saw him on the boat. He was now wearing a collared shirt and khaki pants. Cathy had never seen him dressed up before. Usually he was always wearing sweats at Shark Savors.
“I don’t know if I brought too much or not,” He said responding to the odd look that she was giving him. He probably thought it was referring to the giant salad bowl that he had brought over. “I just didn’t want to come empty-handed.”
“Oh don’t worry about it. You’re fine. We eat a lot of salad anyways,” She said smiling. “Come in. We have the pasta. I’ll introduce you to my sister.” She led him back to the kitchen table where Carly was sitting. “Chris, this is my sister Carly.”
“It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for making the dinner. It looks great.” Chris politely shook her hand before sitting down at the table to his bowl of pasta.
“It’s nice to meet you as well. Cathy talks about you all the time,” Carly simpered. She took the salad back to the kitchen while saying, “Thanks for the salad. It looks delicious.”
“No problem. I have so many vegetables and fruits back in the lab. If you ever need any, just let me know.” He started cutting up his pasta with a fork and a knife.
Carly made a motion for Cathy to follow her back to the kitchen. Cathy excused herself and went through the double doors to the kitchen. She loved the way that her apartment was set up. Even though it was small, she loved the privacy that each room offered. There was only one bedroom but it was off to the side of the apartment. The rest of the space was wide and open, just the way that she liked it with features that added privacy to each room. She didn’t want to leave this place. It was her home.
“So who’s Mr. Military Man?” Carly whispered to her in the kitchen. “He’s quite a hunk. He’s so into you.”
“Carly! You’re horrible. He’s not into me, he’s just trying to be nice. He knows Marc meant a lot to me and we have been spending the last few days trying to find him. We’re just friends. He understands what I am going through. When he was in the marines, he lost a lot of his friends.” Cathy explained with a sense of truth, but Carly was not backing down.
“I’m just being honest. He’s into you, I can tell. No guy comes over dressed up in his Sunday best if he’s not serious about a girl. Plus he brought that huge bowl of salad. It’s not even what he brought that is giving me that idea. Can’t you see the way that he looks at you? He wants you. Anybody could see that.” Carly simpered again.
“Carly, it’s not like that I swear. We’re just friends, he’s probably just being nice because he feels bad for me. He’s been nothing but understanding. It would be terrible timing, Marc just lost his life a few days ago. He hasn’t even been gone a week. Do you know how wrong that just sounds? Plus we are being rude. We’re leaving Chris all alone out there.” She pointed towards the kitchen door and started walking out as Carly grabbed her hand.
“I’m just saying the truth. I can’t help that you don’t want to hear it. And hey, if a guy like that was into me, nothing would stop me. And see you have thought about it. I know I would have.”
“I’m going out to go sit with Chris,” She said ignoring her sister’s comments. She didn’t want to think about any of that right now. Cathy knew for herself that Chris wasn’t interested in her anyways. He could have any girl he wanted, he wouldn’t want to be with her. Besides, he was one of her best friends. It wouldn’t feel right if they started dating, especially under these circumstances. Cathy knew where her heart was and it was with Marc. She loved him with all her heart and she wasn’t going to give up the fight until she brought him justice. “Come join us.” She said to Carly before leaving the kitchen.
“Nope, I’ll let you two love birds do the talking.” She laughed as Cathy threw the door in her face.
“I’m sorry about my sister. She’ll be in the kitchen cleaning up.” Cathy sighed as she sat down next to Chris. “She’s being difficult.”
“Believe me I understand. I have a little sister of my own. Sometimes she was just a pain.” He smiled pushing away his bowl of pasta. “That was good, thanks for inviting me. I figured out some new tactics we could try to capture Mandy.” He said changing the subject rapidly.
“You know how it is then,” She laughed. “I’m glad you could come. Spill out those ideas. I’m curious to know.”
“I was thinking we could try the cage tac
tic again. It seemed to work before,” He said as his tone turned serious. “That’s how we got her to come close a few weeks ago. I do also have another idea, but I don’t know if you are going to like it. I really don’t like the idea much myself.” He looked down into the table as his cheeks flushed. She couldn’t help but like the way he looked when he was embarrassed. It was the only time that he had ever let her see him vulnerable.
“Oh, what did you have in mind? I’m up to try anything at this point. I’m starting to get desperate. I don’t know how much longer that we have. This is the time period that Mandy always disappears isn’t it? I don’t want to miss out on catching her. She won’t be back for months and we will have missed the perfect opportunity.” She looked into his eyes and found hope. She knew he wouldn’t give up easily.
“We could get one of those long fishing lines that fisherman use. We would bait the hooks with fish and it would basically just be the waiting game. The only problem with using a fishing line is that we are probably going to end up catching other marine animals and I know you don’t want to do that.” He looked at her expression as if he was trying to figure out how she would react or what she would say next.
“I think those ideas would be effective, but I think we should wait awhile until we try them. I love animals too much to injure more of them. When we accidentally caught that seal today, it nearly broke my heart. I was just glad that you were able to heal him. Let’s just stick it out and see if we can catch her on the line. Maybe if the weather is clearer, we will have a better chance of capturing her. I’m not ready to give up yet.” She stated with decision.
“I had a feeling you would say that.” He gave her a warm smile. “I figured you wouldn’t want to hurt more animals. I feel the same way. I didn’t even want to suggest the other ideas, but I figured why not just throw them out there and see if we come up with something else. We’ll keep trying the line. I’ve got everything ready for tomorrow.” He looked down at his watch. “I should probably get going. I have classes early tomorrow. I will see you tomorrow afternoon. Thanks so much for dinner. I had fun.”
“I had fun too,” She said as she got up to lead him towards the door. She felt a little sad that he was leaving so soon. In times like this, she didn’t like to be alone. She liked to surround herself with people who cared about her and made her feel better. Chris was one of those people. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, good luck with all of your classes tomorrow.” She opened the door to let him out as she finally saw Carly emerge from out of the kitchen. Cathy wished she would go back in and clean up. She knew nothing good could come from this.
“Bye Chris!” Carly yelled out obnoxiously. “Cathy really likes you, I hope I get to see you again really soon!” She ran back into the kitchen before Cathy could give her a piece of her mind. She knew Carly was really pushing her to move on with Chris, but they were just friends. Cathy wasn’t ready for another commitment, she didn’t know if she ever would be again. A part of her had died when Marc died.
Cathy’s cheeks turned bright red as she stared at Chris who was still standing outside of her door. “I’m so sorry about that. She has a big mouth.” She stared at the ground self-consciously.
Chris grinned. “It’s okay. She’s just honest. You have to appreciate that in a person. I wish more people were like your sister. Have a great night,” He said as he started walking away. He turned back suddenly and asked, “Cathy?”
“Yes?”
“I like you too. It’s fun doing stuff together. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He started walking down the stairs as Cathy just stared in wonderment. She wasn’t sure if Chris meant that as a friend or as something more. The timing seemed off to her. She knew he wasn’t the type of guy to make a move on someone who had just lost someone so important in their life. She decided to just take it as a friendly compliment. Friends could miss each other and want to spend time with each other. She didn’t want to think of it as being something more and it probably wasn’t. Overthinking things was what she always tended to do for some reason.
Chapter 16
It had been over two weeks and Mandy was still out on the loose. Chris and Cathy had been going out on the boat nearly every day, searching for some sign of her. Cathy was starting to worry that she had left the San Francisco area completely. The thought of never capturing Mandy, bothered Cathy unto no end. She thought that after two weeks they would have found her. Mandy wasn’t even showing up on Marc’s mobile shark tracker anymore. Cathy knew that most shark trackers only lasted a few months, but they had just tagged Mandy recently. It couldn’t have been more than a month or so since they first tagged her. Cathy was starting to lose hope completely.
“Don’t do that.” Chris said as he looked at her from behind the wheel.
“Do what? I wasn’t doing anything.” She looked off the side of the boat. Every day she was sailing on this boat. While she loved boating and loved the ocean, but she was getting tired of going back home with nothing to show for it. Marc had been gone for more than a month and she still wasn’t having an easy time coping with it. Each day just got worse. She couldn’t imagine living this way for the rest of her life.
“Give up. I can tell in your eyes that you want to. It’s only been two weeks. Like I said I’m in this with you and we’re not giving up.” Chris took hold of the wheel and brought the ship out further into the sea.
“Chris, it’s just hard. I still haven’t done anything to bring justice to Marc. I thought by now that we would have had something. I’m sure any remains that were within Mandy will have been gone by now. I think we missed our opportunity that day we caught the seal. She’s probably migrated by now. We may never see her again.”
“I know it’s hard, but I don’t want you to give up on the fight. All of the evidence will probably be gone from inside her, but you will still be able to catch her to bring Marc peace. Don’t worry so much. It’s not time to give up yet. I’m sure we will find her on the shark tracker once again.” He said firmly.
“Yeah Cathy don’t give up,” Carly chimed in. Cathy had almost forgotten that she had joined them. Carly had been so busy and overwhelmed with school, it was tough even being able to see her these days. “We’ll find Mandy. We won’t stop until we do.” She paused. “I have some bad news.”
“Oh no, Carly what happened? Is it something with school?” Cathy asked worriedly.
“Yes. I didn’t maintain the 4.0 that I promised you at the beginning of the semester. It looks like I will be cleaning your apartment every weekend.” She sighed looking down at the floor of the boat.
“Oh, that’s all. I forgot we even made that bet. You don’t have to clean. We’ll just forget that the bet ever happened.” Cathy stated in an empathetic tone.
“It’s a lot more than just that. I didn’t do too well. So I am switching schools. I hate to tell you this now, but I am probably going to move back in with Mom. I can’t afford to pay rent for an apartment and go to this new school. The school I am transferring to is more expensive and Mom’s house is closer to it. Plus I want to be able to save for a new car.” She looked up at her sister searching for more empathy.
“You don’t have to pay rent. I didn’t even have a roommate before you moved in. I don’t mind paying for the both of us. I’ll even pay for your expenses if you need me to. I really don’t want to go back to living alone. Not after everything that has happened,” Cathy said as she ran a hand through her hair stressed. “I know it’s not a big space. Maybe we can get a bigger apartment somewhere else that would give us more room.”
“No, no Cathy. I don’t want you to pay my bills. I do love living with you though. Why don’t you move back home with me? Mom would love it. It’s great when all three of us are living together.”
“I don’t think I can right now. I have the apartment leased for another year. Ugh, I just remembered that. What am I going to do? I cut back on my hours at the aquarium so I could use more of my time to help find Mandy. I don’t know if I ca
n even afford the apartment by myself anymore.” She stressed by pacing back and forth on the boat. The rocking motion of the waves were making her dizzy. She already felt confused and uneasy by all of this commotion that Carly was causing in her life.
“I’ll be your roommate,” Chris jumped in the conversation as Cathy and Carly turned away from each other and looked at him in shock. “My lease to my apartment is up anyways. Plus the buddy I was living with is getting married, so I assume he will be moving in with his wife.”
“I only have a one bedroom. Are you sure that will work for you? Thanks so much for the offer Chris. You have no idea how much that will help me. It would work out great too. We’re best friends and we practically spend all of our time together anyways, so it’s like why not live together.” Cathy said excitedly.
It had been a while since she had been this excited over something. Usually her days were filled with the monotonous pain of missing Marc every moment. Carly was constantly gone and she wasn’t able to spend much time with her. She had planned on moving back home a month ago, but the lease hadn’t been up and it just seemed as if she never found the time to move. The constant battle of trying to find Mandy, dealing with school and working at the aquarium were too much for her to handle. She couldn’t imagine planning a move on top of all of that. When she moved, she would be forced to pack up Marc’s stuff and put it away. She wasn’t in the mood for that just yet. She wasn’t ready to let go.
“I don’t mind crashing on the couch. Believe me I have seen worse.” He chuckled. “I’ll even help Carly move out. I know a strong guy comes in handy when moving. I can probably even get some other members of Shark Savors to help us move.” He said as he parked the boat at the dock. Another day had gone by without a trace of Mandy. Even Cathy could tell that Chris was exhausted, but he still didn’t show any trace of wanting to quit the chase.
Shark Lover Page 23