Wet: Part 2

by Rivera, S. Jackson

  The girls on the other hand, would probably never see each other again. They just didn’t know that yet. Of the three, Ashley, at the beginning of the week, may have had the best chance of returning, but David had finally decided to take Paul’s advice. He’d confided in Paul how meeting Rhees, and seeing the two of them together, made him realize there really were more important things to look for in a woman. He mentioned he was toying with the idea of taking a ski trip to Utah that winter and asked the guys if they wanted to join him.

  The mood among the group seemed more subdued than it’d been all week. Everyone was tired, a little sad about parting, and hungover, but no one missed how much quieter Paul and Rhees seemed to be, toward each other. He’d pulled his chair closer to hers and sat, leaning toward her with his arm over the back of her chair, marking his territory as usual, but he never touched her and they never made eye contact.

  “Rhees, are you all right?” Liz asked. “I hope you won’t let the way that jerk had his hands all over you ruin your impression of the whole vacation. I know, after the way you reacted to Taylor’s hug, it must have really upset you, having that complete stranger getting so personal.”

  The look on Paul’s face made Liz’s voice falter. The color drained from his face. Rhees watched Liz expectantly.

  “When did that happen?” Taylor shook his head. “I don’t remember anything after I drank the wine at dinner,” he said to get a laugh. David and Bryce laughed too, nodding and comparing their own memories, or lack of them.

  “Liz?” Paul asked, anxiously. She gave her eyewitness account of the incident, including the fact that Paul had been ready to slug it out with Taylor at the moment it happened. Jeannie filled in a few holes from her own point of view and everyone glanced around at each other in uncomfortable silence. They’d all witnessed Rhees’ reaction to someone she knew, Taylor’s hug, and were sure she’d have a problem with the new revelation.

  “I don’t remember a thing.” Rhees laughed and leaned back in her seat. “Wow!” she said thoughtfully. “Alcohol is useful for so many things. The list just keeps growing. I wish I would have known, years ago.” She refused to look at Paul.

  Everyone laughed, except Paul. The new information only made him feel sick inside, more than he already did.

  oOo

  Paul and Rhees sat in their first-class seats, headed home. They’d been in a quiet mood the whole flight, not angry, just quiet as they reflected on the circumstances.

  “I’m sorry I overreacted this morning. I just really didn’t want anything like that to happen. I’m so sorry that it did. I shouldn’t have.”

  “Paul, I don’t believe for a second that you forced me to do anything, so stop beating yourself up. I’m just as much to blame.” She looked out the window of the plane when she whispered the next words. “And I said I didn’t care.”

  Paul thought about her comment at brunch. She seemed a little too relieved she’d been too drunk to remember the new creepazoid. It probably was a stroke of luck, for her sake, though he had to wonder if her disappointment about not getting it ‘over with’, hit her for the same reason—she wouldn’t have to remember that, either.

  He let out a frustrated sigh. He didn’t want to argue again. “Okay, but let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again, all right?”

  She shrugged indifferently, and he sighed again.

  A few minutes later, still at a loss for words, but hating the silent treatment, he playfully bumped her shoulder with his own. She looked over at him, finally, and he gave her a cheesy grin, trying to cheer her up. She gave him a faint smile and he took her hand in his, brought it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. She rested her head on his right shoulder and snuggled up to him while he caressed the hand he still held. They sat quietly for a while, but they both felt a little better.

  “Rhees?” Paul sounded somber. “Why did your brother run away from home?”

  She hadn’t thought about her brother since the night she’d mentioned him to Paul. She moved one shoulder up and then down.

  “I don’t know. I was only ten. My parents never really let me in on it. He was seven years older than me. He was born, and then my mom couldn’t get pregnant again. When she finally decided she’d never be able to have another baby, voila, she got pregnant with me.”

  Paul reached for her hand and held it.

  “I remember a lot of yelling. My parents would send me outside, or to my room when they started up. I could hear the yelling, but not what they were saying. And then one day, they were all screaming at each other, and Perry just walked out and never came back. I cried myself to sleep for weeks. My mom worried about me. She always worried about me, but she had to sleep with me for a while, because I guess I had nightmares then too.” She had to stop long enough to keep her composure, realizing how much she’d come to depend on Paul the way she’d always depended on her mom.

  She didn’t like the realization that Paul had taken, not only her dad’s place, but her mom’s too. She suddenly wondered how she’d manage if he left her too—when. It was only a matter of time.

  “Hey.” Paul kissed her forehead. “There’s nothing wrong with wishing painful things could have been different, that I know from experience.”

  “Why do you have to be so wonderful?”

  “Wonderful?” He humphed, showing his doubt about her description.

  “Man. I really am such a baby.” She leaned into his lips and he kissed her again. “Perry and I were never that close because of our age difference, but we were family. It really scared me that he could just leave us like that. He just walked away and never came back, never said good-bye, never gave us a second thought or second chance.” She’d always believed he left because of her.

  “Rhees,” Paul said a while later. He was nervous, hesitant. “I—I’ll tell you why I ran away from home if—” Her eyes shot to his. That topic had always been unquestionably off limits. “If you’ll tell me . . . why you don’t like to be touched.”

  “No,” she said definitively, without having to think about it. She seemed to have thought better of it, as though she didn’t want to give him more reason to be curious. “I know how hard it is for you to even think about that part of your life. I don’t want to know.”

  She’d outmaneuvered him by making it sound like he’d be the one who would have trouble keeping his end of the deal. He glanced down, sad and even more worried.

  “I could do it. It wouldn’t be hard, now, not anymore, not with you.”

  “No,” she snapped again, but then quickly forced a smile. “I don’t know why. There is no reason—it’s just one of my crazy OCD issues. It’s not a big deal.” She tried to laugh, but didn’t sound convincing. “I don’t react that way anymore—not with you.”

  He nodded his agreement and decided to let it rest, but the nervous tick in his mouth became very active the rest of the flight as he realized he would need to do a little research when they got home. He didn’t really want to, but he couldn’t make the nagging go away. He needed to learn more about victims of child abuse.

  Chapter 22

  “You decent?” Paul stood outside her bedroom door. He’d left the room so she could get ready for work.

  “Come on in.”

  He opened the door and walked in. She stepped out of the bathroom and leaned against the wall while she brushed her teeth.

  “Aw . . . sorry.” Paul turned, embarrassed, and headed out of the room. “I thought you said to come in.”

  “I did.”

  “Rhees, is this a joke?” He didn’t turn around, his back to her still.

  She realized what freaked him out. “Paul, it’s a bikini. I’m not flashing you in my undies.”

  “Bikini!” He still didn’t turn around, sounding a little befuddled. “What happened to your tankinis? I thought you pref
erred tankinis.”

  “One bit the dust before Costa Rica. The other two are going to die any day, and I don’t want to be too close when it happens. I bought two new swimming suits on my shopping spree.” She grew confused about why he seemed upset. “You made me promise to buy stuff. I did. I actually needed new suits.”

  “Yeah, but—” he sounded a little breathless. “I thought you didn’t like bikinis. Why didn’t you get new tankinis?”

  “I tried. I couldn’t find even one.”

  “In the whole mall?” His voice registered a few octaves higher.

  “No.”

  “One piece?”

  “Do you realize, in a one piece, you have to strip down, almost naked, every time you have to use the bathroom? No way.”

  “But—”

  “Turn around. You didn’t even get a good look.”

  “I did.”

  “You don’t like it? I bought this brown one and a coral one.” She couldn’t help the disappointment in her voice that he didn’t approve of her choice.

  “I have a dick, Rhees! Of course I like it. That’s the problem.”

  She finally understood, dashed to the twin bed, and pulled on a camisole, knowing why he’d been acting so weird. The camisole’s wide straps over her shoulders were brown like her suit while the body was a soft, lightweight chiffon with colored frilly layers, each layer was a different tone of off-white to tan, but complimentary with the brown of the bikini.

  “I couldn’t find any tankinis, but I found two bikinis and two camis to match. The camis make the suits look like tankinis, don’t you think? They cover me so I don’t have to feel so self-conscious being half naked all day. I figure the only time I’ll actually only be in just the bikini is when I have to take off my cami to put on my dive skin. It was the best compromise I could come up with. Do you think it’ll work?”

  He finally dared to look and breathed a sigh of relief. He stared at her in wonder.

  “Paul. I asked, do you think it’ll work?”

  “Yeah. That’s good. You look nice, very nice.”

  She smiled. “Good. I’m glad you like it. For a minute there, I thought you hated it and were going to rip it off me like you said you would.” She giggled.

  An eyebrow cocked up and he stared at her. He’d wanted to do just that.

  “I said I like it. You always dress so well. I like it best with the cami, though.” He exhaled. “But He liked it better without.”

  She looked down like he’d embarrassed her, but then her eyes slowly rose to meet his. “Really?” She bit her lower lip to suppress a smile he didn’t understand. She looked almost beguiling, but Rhees didn’t do beguiling, he had to be wrong.

  “Let’s go.” He suddenly felt anxious to get somewhere public.

  oOo

  “I want to go home early,” Rhees said to Paul. He checked his watch and couldn’t believe the hands already read three o’clock. He still had a long list of things to do since they’d been gone a week. He was about to step onto the Porgy, but stopped to talk to her. “The apartment hasn’t had a thorough cleaning since I left. I’m not going to be able to relax if I don’t scrub it down.”

  “I can’t leave just yet.”

  “Paul, I can walk home by myself.”

  “See if Tracy or Regina will go with you.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I already asked. They’re going straight to Lorencio’s place from here.”

  Lorencio had shown up as a new student while Paul and Rhees were in Costa Rica. Very charismatic and carrying himself in a way that made people feel like he genuinely cared about them, he’d already made quite an impression. Everyone at the shop had already accepted him into their inner circle.

  Rhees looked Lorencio’s way when she mentioned his name. “He’s so pretty, don’t you think?”

  “Pretty?” Paul shot her a cold glance. He looked over at Lorencio standing with a group of the shop people and a couple of friends from the island gathered around him, listening to stories about his visit to Cuba. Paul’s mouth twitched. “I thought I was pretty, though I hate being called that.”

  Rhees giggled. “I know and I don’t call you pretty . . . anymore. You are beautiful, however, and you know it,” she patronized, and pretended to punch his arm. “Lorencio doesn’t.” She sucked in her cheeks, trying to hide the huge smile that threatened to break on her face.

  “Hey, watch it,” he said.

  “You have nothing to worry about. You’re still number three on my short list of the best looking men in the world.” She fought her smile again. “But Lorencio may be number four.” She gave Paul a devious wink and smirked before looking back at Lorencio.

  “Did you know he’s Rastafarian? I never would have imagined I could think dreads were attractive, but they’re perfect on him, don’t you think? He’s so tall and slender, but muscular, like you. His skin is such a pretty color.” She had a faraway look in her eyes as she stared at the new man.

  “Hey! Earth to Rhees.” Paul waved his hand in front of her face, and she turned to see what he wanted, blinking out of a daze.

  “Have you noticed how pretty his eyes are?” she asked, looking into Paul’s eyes as if comparing the two. “So green—I’ve never seen that color of green before. It’s like they’re transparent, but intense at the same time, almost ethereal.”

  “I thought you liked blue—mine.” He leaned down, giving her a closer look at his own, trying to use his powers on her, but he was flustered and not in the right frame of mind. He gave up.

  “He’s a pud,” he said, as if Lorencio disgusted him.

  “I said I think you are better looking than he is. I don’t even know him. He’s just really . . . pretty. I like looking at him, but only in the way that I like to look at pretty flowers or a sunset, that’s all.”

  Paul rattled his head as he turned his attention back to the Porgy. He needed to replace one of the tank clips that had broken while he was away.

  “Okay, I’m going home to clean, all right?”

  “I said I didn’t want you to go alone.”

  “For crying out loud,” she said, a little too forcefully. She folded her arms and looked off, like she was angry.

  Paul suddenly grew nervous and agitated. He stepped back out of the Porgy in a hurry. He put his hands on his hips and stared at her while he seemed to be considering something.

  “On a scale of one to ten, how important is this to you?” he asked.

  She stared at him, blankly.

  “You said you wanted to go home, alone, I said I don’t want you to go home, alone. I need to know how important this is to you before I put my foot in my mouth . . . by putting it down.”

  She stared at him incredulously. “This is your solution to the zip line crisis? Then ten!” she blared defiantly.

  He sighed loudly. He looked away and back again.

  “Okay.” Luckily she’d reconsidered. “Seven.”

  He sighed again.

  “You know how important a clean house is to me.”

  “Okay,” he conceded, reluctantly. “But go straight home. Don’t stop to get groceries, don’t stop to talk to anyone, don’t dawdle, lock the door when you get home, and take your freaking phone with you! Keep it where you can hear it.” He gave her a knowing look before he gave in to his grin. “Just because I’m grinning like an idiot doesn’t mean I’m not serious. I’m only grinning because you’re so dang cute.”

  “Well, even your idiotic grin is gorgeous. It’s reaching award-winning proportions at this moment.” She smiled back.

  “I’ll text you when I finally get out of here and am on my way home,” he said.

  She’d thought he would give up on the whole phone thing since she refused to use it, but he didn’t. He continued to
throw his money away, as she described it, on the unnecessary item. He’d waited her out and won. He always won, even when he let her think she did.

  “Okay.” She tried, unsuccessfully, to be annoyed with him, and looked down to hide her grin. “You know you’re a control freak, right? You just put every form of control possible on every aspect of my win, but thank you for agreeing to let me go—without a fight.” She wanted to kiss him good-bye, but didn’t dare after the way he’d been acting since his big freak out in Costa Rica. She stood there a few seconds, summoning the courage, but changed her mind and turned to leave.

  “Hey! Aren’t you forgetting something?” He’d moved in close. His thumb brushed softly across her cheek as he slowly wrapped his fingers into the hair at the nape of her neck and pulled her to him for the kiss she’d wanted, the first real kiss he’d given her since that night.

  “Mm!” she grunted.

  oOo

  “Rhees, I’m home. You decent?” Paul called from the porch, through her bedroom window.

  “Almost,” she yelled back. “I made you a quesadilla to hold you till dinner. It’s in the microwave.” She reached around the doorjambs to pull the lock off the screen door so he could come in.

  He waited a second for her to close her bedroom door so she could finish getting ready in private. Paul walked into the kitchen and opened the microwave he’d bought for her. She insisted on cooking for him once in a while in exchange for all the nights he took her out for dinner and never let her pay.

  He snarfed down two-thirds of his quesadilla immediately, but set the last piece on the counter to grab a beer from the fridge. Rhees walked into the kitchen as he picked up the remaining quesadilla and took another bite.