“Thank you. I will be going now instead of later,” she said to the driver.
Paul wasn’t far behind her and he actually tried to open her door. He jumped in the back of the van. “Rhees! Stop acting like a baby. Get out of the van and we’ll talk about this later.”
She ignored him, staring rigidly out the front window. He growled and slugged his own backpack on the seat, already in the van. She shuddered at his display of anger but held her ground, refusing to look at him. The other guys made it back and each of them gave her a dirty look as they loaded the van.
“This is fucked up, man,” Taylor said to Paul. “I never would have guessed you’d be the first one to fuck up Testosterfest.”
Ashley suddenly showed up at the van before Taylor could get the sliding door closed.
“Why does she get to go? David! If she gets to go, why don’t I get to go too?”
Rhees jerked around in her seat to glare at Ashley. “I asked if you wanted to come. You said you’d rather go shopping at Wal-Mart. I, personally, don’t mind shopping at Wal-Mart, but you made it quite clear that you meant no.”
“I did not. I’ve wanted to come all along,” she whined.
“We don’t want to be stuck here by ourselves.” Liz and Jeannie showed up.
Everyone already in the van rolled their eyes and groaned, except the driver, who watched with fascination.
“Get in!” David yelled to Ashley, flashing Paul another dirty look.
Taylor punched Paul’s arm while slinging a string of offensive words.
Paul would normally have fought back, but he was so incensed, he couldn’t bring himself to do anything except stare angrily at Rhees. She looked straight ahead again, pretending not to notice.
oOo
They arrived at the facility and unloaded from the van. Rhees didn’t make a move to get out until the others had moved inside the building, except Paul, who stood at the entrance, holding the door for her, glaring off into the distance with an impatient look on his face. His lips didn’t move, he clenched them so tight, but the muscle in his cheek twitched furiously. She tentatively climbed out of the van and brushed by without looking at him. He didn’t look at her either, but the scowl didn’t appear to be leaving anytime soon.
They checked in, paid for the unanticipated guests and got in line at the buffet-style cafeteria to get breakfast. Rhees didn’t get in line. Paul watched her vigilantly while she found a table and sat down before he finally got in line. He made a face and gestured at the food, telling her she should eat, without having to break his silence. She shook her head and looked away.
The minute Rhees realized Paul’s attention had finally turned to the buffet instead of her, she bolted and headed toward the zip line orientation.
Paul didn’t notice Rhees had taken off until he had his food and headed toward the table where the others had started on their breakfast.
“Where’s Rhees?” he asked. The guys ignored him, confirming the tension hadn’t eased.
“I think she’s in the bathroom,” Liz finally answered, trying to be helpful. She seemed the most uncomfortable with the strain in the air between Paul and his friends.
He sat and had only taken a few bites when he figured out Rhees hadn’t just gone to the nearby restroom.
He swore. He’d been swearing under his breath since they’d left the beach house, but this time, he didn’t care who heard him. He rose from his chair so fast, the legs squawked piercingly against the hard floor in protest. He took one quick glance around, determined which direction to go, and shot off after her.
oOo
It seemed to take forever for the attendants to strap Paul into his harness, find him gloves big enough to fit, and a helmet. He tried to rush them, repeating over and over that he needed to find his girlfriend.
“I’m sorry sir. We won’t be able to let you ride if you don’t listen to the orientation, and give us time to suit you up.”
“Paul Weaver.” He heard his name called with a thick accent.
“Soy Paul.” He raised his hand to flag down the girl calling his name.
She told him, in Spanish, that a woman had asked her to get a message to him.
“Donde esta?” he snapped at the girl, and she told him Rhees was already on the gondola, headed up to the start of the zip line.
He took the note and unfolded the paper.
I’M GOING HOME. I’M DONE. RHEES
“What is it?” Bryce asked. The others had caught up to him; however, Bryce and Jeannie were the only other ones already in their harnesses. The other girls were driving Taylor and David crazy. Liz was having second thoughts, unable to make up her mind, while Ashley complained about how ugly the harness looked on everyone else and how it would wrinkle her outfit. Taylor cursed every few words and ranted.
“This is the reason we don’t bring girls to do Testosterfest activities.”
Paul stared at the note for a full minute, ignoring Bryce’s question. He just took off at a dead run toward the loading dock.
He made it to find thirty other people in line ahead of him, waiting to board the gondola to the top of the jungle canopy. He cussed when he didn’t see Rhees in the line, which meant she’d already boarded one of the cars, on her way up. He pushed his way ahead, ignoring the complaints from the other patrons until he reached the platform.
“Excuse me. I need to get on now. My party is ahead,” he told the attendant loading the gondola, pointing to the cars already filled with people and climbing their way up the jungle. He strained to see which car Rhees was in so he would have an idea how far ahead of him she’d managed to get.
“Your party will wait for you at the top. Stand over there. I’ll call you when I need a single rider.”
Paul knew Rhees had no intention of waiting for him and he was ready to pull his hair out by the time they finally called him. He wasted no time jumping in so the gondola could be on its way.
“Sir! You must sit. No standing in the car.”
Paul sat to appease the man, but stood again as soon as they were on their way and the attendant turned his attention back to the next load. He continued to look for Rhees to no avail. The gondola climbed through the jungle, rising higher and higher from the ground below. In places, they floated two hundred feet above the ground while they skimmed along the treetops. His car finally reached the point where they broke above the trees and the view opened up, when he spotted Rhees, at last, nine cars ahead of him.
“Rhees!” He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled.
He saw her look up to see who’d called. He waved. She folded her arms and made no attempt to return his greeting. He could feel the heat of her glare despite the distance the nine cars put between them.
“Wait for me when you get to the top!” he yelled again.
Rhees shook her head with enough exaggeration to make sure he saw it across the long gap. He was too far away for her to see his expression, but she knew a Paul-Storm was brewing, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near it when it broke. She looked away to make her point.
She refused to look his direction again until she heard several people scream, sending her heartbeat on a race. The distraction with Paul had kept her mind off of the heights and the nervous anticipation of the impending zip line ride—fear of what she was about to do. But the screams brought it all back. She looked around to see what caused the commotion—sure someone had fallen to their death and sure she would be next.
She looked up and found the reason for the screams. She watched in horror as Paul flew from his gondola car to the one ahead of him. Again, there were screams, and she realized he’d jumped twice. He caught the rail, and as he pulled himself up and into the car, the gondola jerked and he fell back. He dangled from the car with only one hand. Rhees screamed and raced to
the back of her car to get a better look, causing her car to sway and the people in it to yell at her.
The people in Paul’s newly acquired car scrambled to help, pulling him inside. She watched as he shook them off, apparently trying to convince him not to jump again.
“Stop, Paul!” Rhees shrieked. “You’re crazy! Just stop it, right now!”
He jumped again and caught the rail with his hand. Swinging his leg up, he wedged his foot between the rungs on the rail and used it as leverage to pull the rest of his body into the car. Rhees watched in horror, hopeful, but concerned for the people in the car as they attempted to keep him from jumping again.
She knew him too well and worried about anyone who stood in his way. He managed to stand, wrestling with them as he forced his way over the rail again, but thankfully, they’d succeeded in pulling him back inside with each of his attempts, so far.
“Paul! Stop! Please!” Rhees begged hysterically. He didn’t listen. She watched him struggling to free himself from the grip of the people trying to hold him in the car, determined to jump again. He was coming for her, and he would kill himself trying.
“Paul! I swear, if you jump again, I will too!”
That got his attention, but he didn’t believe her. He pulled himself free and climbed over the rail again. Someone regained a hold of his leg so he couldn’t leap. Rhees stood, taking advantage of his distraction. The people in her car didn’t notice her climb onto the bench and she grabbed the rail that encircled the car. She looked down. The tops of the trees were so far down, and the ground, she couldn’t see it through the high canopy. It made her dizzy, and it took a second to regain her equilibrium.
The car ahead was about eight feet away. She wasn’t sure she could make it, and wished she could get a running start. She would have one chance to grab hold of the bar, and she reminded herself how her body’s weight would work against her own hands. She would have to not only catch it, but hang on for dear life.
She turned back to look at Paul. He stood, poised to jump, so she pulled herself up and threw her leg over the rail. She was too short and lost her balance trying to hoist the rest of her body over. She wobbled and her hands slipped just as someone in the car grabbed her, giving her the brace she needed to right herself on the outside of the rail.
“No! Rhees! Please don’t. I’ll stop,” he begged. “I’m stopping. See? I’m climbing back into the car.” He did, and he raised his hands to show surrender. “Get down from there. Please?”
She looked down, and back up at the car ahead again.
“Please don’t let her jump,” Paul called to the other people in her car, and more of them grabbed her, trying to talk her out of it. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out before climbing back inside.
“Are we on some kind of hidden camera show or something?” someone in the car asked. Rhees’ body trembled violently. She covered her face with her hands and broke into sobs.
Her gondola finally reached the disembarking station. The attendant opened the door, and Rhees nearly bowled him over when she jumped out. She made a dash for the first zip line platform, running and passing people on the narrow trail. She could hear them grumbling about her cutting in line, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t ready to face Paul and couldn’t afford to give him the chance to catch up.
She reached the first station and ran to the front of the line despite the complaints from the other patrons. The station attendants concentrated so hard on making sure the riders were hooked up properly and thankfully didn’t notice. She watched as they hooked up the man they were working on and sent him on his way.
The attendants gestured for her to step up. Still shaky, she hesitated, wanting to turn back, but the idea of meeting Paul on the trail at the moment sounded worse than what she was about to do. She almost laughed. Jumping off from the safety of the station to careen along miles of metal cable—tiny little cables—at a hundred miles an hour sounded better than facing him.
She thought about it some more. She’d be suspended two hundred feet above the ground, in the middle of the rain forest, by nothing but a harness and a couple of metal clips—yep, still better than facing Paul.
She stepped up and numbly watched as the attendants connected her to the line. She screamed bloody murder, a reflex she couldn’t help, when they pushed her off the platform and she dropped.
oOo
Paul ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck while he waited for his car to stop. A long and colorful stream of cuss words flowed from his mouth by the time the attendant finally opened the door and he jumped from the gondola. He sprinted along the trail, trying to catch Rhees, but he stopped cold when he recognized her scream, sending chills down his spine. He’d watched her run from the gondola, knowing she ran from him, and it wrenched his heart. The words of her note flashed through his mind, again. “I’m going home. I’m done.”
He hunched forward and rested his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath—he felt out of breath, helpless and weak. He didn’t know what to do, how to fix it. Memories from his past blasted his head. The memory of the last time he’d tried to fix it, but failed—the events that made him need to run away. He wasn’t supposed to let himself feel for anyone again. It’d all sneaked up on him. He mindlessly pulled his phone from his pocket and punched a few buttons.
“Claire,” he whispered. His voice failed him. Silence hung between them for several seconds.
“Paul?” Claire finally responded, warily. “What’s wrong?” She couldn’t manage more than a whisper either. Paul would never call her from Testosterfest unless something was very wrong.
“It’s Rhees.” He broke. It came out a bleak sob.
“Oh my God,” Claire wailed. “What happened? Not Rhees! Tell me she’s all right?” Claire imagined all sorts of horrible accidents Rhees could have been involved in.
“She’s leaving me. She’s going home—back to Utah. She said she’s done—I knew she’d get tired of me. She’s leaving.” He choked the words out and moaned miserably. Silence strangled the line again. “Claire! Help me. I don’t know what to do.”
“What did you do to her?” It came out accusing and harsh.
“I don’t know!” he snapped. It took him a second to continue. “You know me . . . I told her she couldn’t do the zip line . . . you know her, too. It didn’t go over so hot.”
“That’s it?” Claire was confused. It didn’t sound as critical as she’d originally thought. Not bad enough to send Rhees back to Utah.
“She said she’s done. She’s going home.” He almost sobbed again. “I don’t want her to leave.”
Claire didn’t speak again for a moment, shocked to be having this discussion with Paul, of all people. “None of this makes sense. She told me the island was her home now. She said she never wants to go back to Utah. Did she actually say Utah?”
Paul shoved his hand through his hair. He knew that. He dared to feel a little hope. “You think she meant the shop?” He almost laughed as relief set in.
“Paul!” Claire yelled over the phone, so loud he had to move the receiver from his ear. “You do not want to screw this up. This thing you two have going.”
“I know.” It came out exasperated.
“I mean it. Whatever you did this time—you’d better fix it.”
His breath caught at how Claire used the same words that had run through his mind only seconds before, what he wanted, but didn’t know how to do.
“Fix it,” he mumbled.
“In the beginning, the night you two kicked off this farce, I was so angry, thought she was an idiot, that I’d misjudged her brain power, you know, for getting mixed up with you. But when you came to our apartment the next day, I saw something—I’ve been seeing it since. She’s even smarter than I ever imagined. Rhees is . . .
the first girl who’s ever been smart enough to get under your skin. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
He didn’t answer.
“Paul, she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you. I hope you realize that. I think you do, or you wouldn’t have called me. If you let her get away . . .” Claire paused for an uncomfortable amount of time. When she spoke again, she sounded like she actually cared, something he’d never heard directed at him. “I could tell you were trying to pick up the pieces of your life when you showed up on the island. You were still missing some, and you had a few pieces in the wrong places, but I’ve seen it getting better since Rhees has been around. I’m not sure I could handle watching you fall apart again.” Another stretch of silence. “You don’t want to let her get away.”
“It might not be my choice. It may be too late.” His voice came out low and hoarse. He cleared his throat.
Claire laughed. “Am I not talking to Paul? Mr. I-Get-Everything-I-Want?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Claire. She really is too smart to put up with me.”
“I’m going to tell you something. Don’t you dare tell her that I told you. I would never betray her trust under normal circumstances, but this is an emer—Oh God, I can’t believe I’m doing this. Rhees told me that when you use your magic, hypnotic eyes—for the record, those are her words—there are times she thinks that if you would hold out a little longer—if you didn’t take pity on her and let her go from your spell, she wouldn’t . . . be a virgin anymore.” Claire waited for his response.
It took him a second, but he laughed. “You do understand she probably means that literally.” He laughed again at the thought of Rhees. “It wouldn’t surprise me to discover she believes I really could take that from her with just my eyes.”
Wet: Part 2 Page 21