Skinny Dipping

by Kaye, Alicia M

  Kelly stood up from her position hanging over the boat and talked with animation to someone. Yes, it was Matthew.

  Kelly then moved in toward him. Positioned both arms around his neck, and flirtatiously played with the lapels of his tuxedo.

  He simply tittered, didn’t seem to mind at all as Kelly leaned dangerously close to him. God, Kelly was going to kiss him. This girl got everything didn’t she? Although Sophie didn’t want to watch, she was unable to look away.

  Kelly tilted her head, noticed Sophie, standing backstage, in the wings of the Kelly show. A slow, sly smile spread across Kelly’s face.

  “Hi Sophie,” Kelly drawled. “I’m assuming you’ve met Matthew before?” Of course she had, he was her bloody client. “We’ve become very close.”

  Sophie felt her knees go out from under her like they were someone else’s. They didn’t belong to her. Her legs turned to jelly. She grabbed the stair rail, almost collapsing on the steps. What a fool she’d been. First Derek and now Matthew…she had really trusted Matthew. Thought he was in love with his ex. Not for one instant had she thought he was a player. But here he was, with Kelly, right in front of her eyes.

  “Ah, Sophie,” Matthew said, alarm in his voice. “It’s not what it seems.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  Matthew raced to her, crouched down in front of her to where she sat on the steps. “Sophie,” he laughed lightly. “Honest, please just listen.” His face searched hers, eyes wide and smiling. Her stomach turned, all handsome men were such salesmen weren’t they?

  “Please just go, this is a work function.” She put her head in her hands, wiped away a wisp of hair, trying desperately to control her expression. He didn’t move from where he was crouched in front of her. “Would you mind leaving me, so I can keep it together?”

  “Sophie, please listen, just for a second.” He reached out, touched her wrist.

  She flicked him off like an insect. “Spare me the details. All men are the same, and you’re in love with someone else. I know exactly what you wanted.” Her voice was savage.

  Matthew stood up. “Is that what you really think?”

  She swallowed, face blank. “I don’t know what to think.”

  He pushed past her. His sandalwood aftershave floated after him, up the steps, away from her, gone forever. His shoulders were pressed back but he didn’t turn round, offer a last glance.

  Sophie felt an overwhelming sadness, because surely if nothing had happened with Kelly he would have insisted on explaining, insisted that she should have listened? But he had just walked away, didn’t even put up too much of a fight. He didn’t care about her that much. Not really.

  She swallowed, clutching her hands tightly, pressing them together. She wouldn’t cry. Matthew had never been hers to cry over.

  With puzzled expression on her face, Kelly turned from the scene, and faced the sea, sipping her champagne. Didn’t she have the decency to leave with Matthew at least? Why did she always have to rub it in? She’d been reinstated in her job – wasn’t it enough?

  The engine revved, Kelly dropped her glass, she whooped with joy, making Sophie’s stomach turn; how could Kelly simply laugh when her heart felt like it had just been ripped out? Kelly reached for the glass, stupid girl. She climbed over the boat rail and stood on the edge of the boat.

  “What are you doing?” Sophie asked, calling out to her.

  “I’m doing the scene out of Titanic.”

  “Don’t Kelly, it’s not safe,” Sophie urged.

  Kelly stepped out up onto the rail at the end of the boat, extended her arms. “Just because you’re a big scaredy-cat doesn’t mean I am. I got my job back. Did you Sophie?” Kelly ribbed. She thrust her hands out, like she was flying. “I’m the King of the world. The Queen of advertising.”

  Sophie couldn’t help but snicker a bit. Kelly was extremely drunk. “Kelly, you should come back from there.”

  Kelly shrugged, standing up at the back of the boat. Her hair flew in the wind, a golden-headed goddess, hair flowing. She looked mesmerising, beautiful. No wonder Matthew went for her. Any guy surely would.

  The boat lurched.

  The force pushed Kelly who lost her footing, falling forward. Stupid girl. She wasn’t even holding the rail.

  It happened so suddenly. Kelly flew off the back of the boat. Sophie jumped up from the step, head darting around. Did anyone else see Kelly tumble off the back? The boat was still moving. Away from Kelly.

  “Girl overboard!” Sophie yelled, pointing at Kelly bobbing in the water.

  No one seemed to have heard her. The bloody engine, it was much too loud. Kelly’s figure was getting further away as the boat sped further away along the Thames.

  “Help! Someone’s overboard!” Sophie shrieked. She couldn’t just leave Kelly there. She needed to get someone, find some help; but by the time she did, Kelly might be miles away in the water.

  She looked around, frantic. Where was Matthew? Where was the team of lifeguards and expert swimmers who had all invited to the bloody wrap party? Where were they, now when they were needed? For an emergency?

  Swimming was for living, wasn’t it, and she could actually swim. “Jeezzzzzzzuss,” she whispered, snapping into action, throwing off her heels.

  She grabbed the life ring from the side of the deck and ran to the edge of the boat, contemplating her next move. She couldn’t exactly just jump on in, and rescue Kelly, could she? She really wasn’t a deep sea swimmer, or even a Thames river swimmer? She was merely a beginner. Intermediate if she stretched it.

  “Girl overboard,” she screamed at the top of her lungs. She stood on the edge of the boat, still hopeful someone else would come as she clutched the life ring. There was no one else. Sophie closed her eyes. “Girl overboard,” she screamed again. How many times did she have to shout before someone else would come?

  Her heart was beating rapidly. Could she do this, plunge into the murky black depths of the Thames? Could she, Sophie Smart conjure enough magic, be brave and courageous like someone else. Anything was possible. She couldn’t let Kelly drown.

  She exhaled. She jumped. “Girls overboard,” she screamed, hoping someone, anyone, would hear. Otherwise, they’d both be wading in their finery up the muddy bank of the Thames.

  The water was cold. Icy. Sophie felt her ribcage contract and for a moment she couldn’t breathe. As her head bobbed in the water, she exhaled like she’d been instructed. She tried to shake off the fear, and the next breath seemed to come quite quickly, quite naturally. Holding the life ring in front of her like she practised with her kickboard, she eyed Kelly, thrashing toward her.

  Bloody Kelly, if she was going to get hyperthermia or Weil’s disease from the dirty river water of the Thames, couldn’t she at least be rescuing someone else, someone she liked? What if there were sharks lurking beneath this water? Goodness, death-by-shark, or eel, quite an unexpected turn of events.

  Sophie pushed the thoughts from her mind. “Positive thoughts. Positive thoughts,” she said to herself. Do not think about the frightfully low water temperature, the possible drop in body heat, the low circulation.

  “Kick,” she whispered. Her legs were not going to get cramps, not here and not now. “Kick harder.” Sophie and her red life ring reached Kelly. “You okay?” Sophie panted, as Kelly’s manicured hand clutched at the ring. Kelly’s eyes shone wide with fear, lips blue and her hair hung bedraggled. “Kick your legs, keep warm.”

  A speedboat flew past, waves rising, coming in their direction. “Hold tight,” Sophie said, trying to sound calm and in control. What had possessed her to think she could be the heroine in a crisis? And why wasn’t the bloody speedboat stopping to pick them up instead of sailing on past? She was waving, after all.

  Terror filled Sophie’s body as the waves from the speedboat approached. Sophie thrashed her legs, remembering the safety skills she was taught. She needed to relax and feel the rhythm of the waves, rise and fall. Rise and fall.

 
; Kelly clutched at the life ring, pulling plastic with a jolt, and the ring suddenly slipped from Sophie’s grasp.

  Sophie screamed, water splashing into her mouth, choking her. Lifting her body with all her might, she thrust her body up, out of the water, nails scratching the side of the ring. She missed. She wasn’t made to be a bloody lifeguard. She had a real water phobia. A fear. What the hell was she doing saving someone’s life? She fell back into the depths, sinking into the Thames.

  Sophie’s head sank below the surface and she swallowed a mouthful of water. She clamped her mouth shut; she didn’t want to swallow any more. She’d die from drinking the polluted river water, probably filled with rat’s urine or something equally disgusting. She needed to spit out, or she’d get some type of infection, or virus, and she’d end up in critical condition in the hospital. Not from drowning, but from the filthy, stinking Thames. Dying. Oh God. She was probably already dying, because she was surely sinking, struggling in the Thames.

  Surely, someone would rescue them? This wasn’t it, was it, the place she would drown? She wasn’t going to die with her greatest achievement, being Kelly’s rescuer. And how could she be the rescuer if she didn’t actually finish the job?

  She still was living, and would have a long and lovely life ahead of her. She propelled herself up, her head thrusting itself above the surface. She spluttered, spat, feeling cold and very anti-river, a polluted river was not the place for recreational swimming.

  Suddenly a large hand grabbed her, steadying her. “Just breathe. Sophie, just breathe.” She turned, to see her life-saver. Matthew. “I went back to talk to you and saw you jump off the boat. It’s okay, the boat will rescue us. I’m here if you need me.” He squeezed her hand for reassurance.

  Sophie felt a surge of anger, her gaze darting between Matthew and Kelly. “I don’t need you to rescue me. You know perfectly well I can swim because you forced me to learn.” She felt her eyes blaze, her anger suddenly warming her body, moving from the depths where she had hidden her feisty rage that first day when she struck the swimming lesson bargain with Matthew.

  “I gave you a choice, I didn’t force you,” he muttered.

  Her anger rose from the depths of her thrashing feet, and bubbled out in her voice. “Just because I was the consultant and you were the client, didn’t mean you could simply demand that I face my fear of the water. That was your position of power and you used it against me.”

  Matthew looked pale. “So in times like this, you could survive – and you’re doing really well. I thought you’d forgive me after you’d learned.”

  She swallowed, realising she was sounding very ungrateful, and looking around saw she was indeed safe with her head above water. She bit her lip. “Thank you for teaching me, you have saved my life and I will be eternally grateful.” She lifted her chin. “Obviously I no longer feel the same amount of fear in the water; as you can see. I’m dealing with it.”

  “Well,” he said slowly. “I’m here to help anyway; just in case.”

  “Oh, no.” She shook her head vigorously. “No, thank you. I’m absolutely fine to make my own way back to the boat, now that it’s stopped, thank you very much,” Sophie stated, still treading water.

  “Sophie, you don’t have to swim back, the boat will turn to find us.”

  “I’m not ‘a cause,’ just because one day I might need rescuing.” She felt her face hot, tears springing from the corner of her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. “I’m not someone to convert, someone who needs to love the water just like you do. I’ll never be a mermaid. I’m not a princess. I’m not a bloody prude, either. I’m just a girl, and I like the land and everything that goes on with it. If you liked me, at all, you would have respected me for that, and you would have taken me for what I was, for what I am.” Sophie stretched her arms forward and swam, hiding her face, hot from tears streaming down her face and into the cold water as she did her very best freestyle, heading toward the boat, which hadn’t turned around yet.

  She didn’t need Matthew. She would be fine to get back on board. She’d be fine without him.

  Chapter 31

  The three water adventurers were rescued and safely on board the wrap party vessel, warmed by emergency blankets. Each of them dealt with the Thames swimming experience quite differently. Kelly, couldn’t stop talking, thanking both Matthew and Sophie for saving her. Matthew nodded, smiled. Sophie sat in complete silence.

  She refused to look at him. The party had only just started, and would continue for several hours, but Sophie was getting off the boat. She needed to go home, return to the safety of the shore, and escape from Matthew.

  Sophie sipped the champagne as the boat turned around, suddenly wanting to get ridiculously drunk.

  “Soph, congratulations for being the heroine tonight.” Bradley rushed over to her. “You certainly know how to live your work, don’t you?” How many drinks had he had?

  “I’ve always had a passion for…” She paused, she was going to say the water, but who was she kidding. “For adventure.”

  He slid onto the bench next to her, draping his arm around her shoulders. “Look, Soph, I’m really sorry about all the pressure this year. I made a hasty decision making you redundant. You’ll forgive me won’t you? I want you back. I should have trusted you to get on with your job, with Barney’s, with the Silver account.” She could smell the alcohol on his breath.

  “It’s fine. Honestly, it’s fine.” As she looked at Bradley, she realised even with his God-like features, he was only human.

  “Shall we talk about you being reinstated on Monday?”

  “Sure,” she nodded.

  Kelly approached, and her stomach lurched, thoughts of Matthew floating through her mind.

  “Soph,” Kelly said in a meek voice, her lips were more of a normal colour, though still slightly tinged with blue from the chilly water. “I wanted to thank you for jumping overboard and saving me. I was scared out there.” Bradley looked on in approval, then took his leave, wandering to a bunch of women at the other side of the boat.

  Sophie nodded. “No problem. You’d have done it, too, if you were in the same position.”

  “You are quite a girl.”

  Sophie shrugged, looking down to the ground. She didn’t need to be complimented by Kelly.

  “I know this might be a little too late and all. I wanted to say, I’m sorry.”

  Sophie guffawed. “What for?” Her felt chest tight, her head shot up noticing Matthew watching them. “Sorry, for Matthew liking you? Don’t be silly, that’s life. Men are jerks. I’ve had enough experience with that.”

  Kelly frowned, shaking her head. “I don’t know what you think happened with me and Matthew but he’s nothing more to me than a client. He just gave me an idea for my next campaign and... well he’s pretty cute, so I thought I’d make a move. Story over. I didn’t realise you two had a thing going. You go, girl.”

  Sophie smiled tightly, realising she’d already given away far too much to Kelly, the girl who’d use anything to sabotage her. She shot a glance in Matthew’s direction. People were talking to him, but he seemed to be in a daze. Although, his gaze was on them. No, on her.

  “Look,” Kelly continued, “what I’m trying to say is..., no one in advertising is ever nice. People are ruthless, step on people’s throats if someone gets in the way, that’s the motto I got taught. I guess you’re not like that, and besides we’re on the same side. So, I’m sorry.”

  Sophie swallowed. “It’s all good. Advertising is a hard game. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I overheard Bradley giving you your job back. You will come back, right? So we’ll be working together possibly for quite a long time. Maybe we could start again and... maybe you could forgive me and give me a chance?”

  Sophie looked at Kelly, and nodded. “Truce?” She extended her hand. What did she have to lose? Kelly was already an enemy. But she was also extremely talented. And if the truce held and they became allies, they’d win loa
ds of work.

  “Truce.” Kelly took her hand, shaking it firmly.

  ***

  The boat arrived at the dock, and Sophie smiled politely and took her leave. Matthew followed her onto shore. She walked quickly, trying to get away from him.

  “Soph,” he said, softly. “Wait,” he called.

  She wouldn’t, she couldn’t. She didn’t feel ready to face him yet. But his legs were longer than hers, and he caught up to her and stepped in front of her, blocking her path. Preventing her from moving. He took her hand, like he’d done so many times in the pool.

  “Soph, I care a lot about you. Really. And I don’t think you’re a charity case. I just liked you and wanted to spend some time with you.” He looked at her, searching for a reaction. “I’m sorry if it came out as blackmail. I want to be with you. I don’t love anyone else.”

  Sophie bit her lip, squeezed his hand. She looked at the man next to her. Did he just say he loved her in an indirect way?

  “Soph, say something, please.”

  “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions.” It was the first thought that ran in her head.

  He chuckled, running a hand through his blond hair, the hair she desperately loved. His gaze fell to the ground. “When you were in the water, swimming away from the boat. Swimming to save Kelly – swimming really well mind you – I knew you didn’t need me to rescue you.”

  Sophie swallowed. “I probably did; I was just too angry to admit it. But I did mean what I said out there. I will forever be thankful for you teaching me. Your lessons saved my life you know.”

  He took her hand in his grasp, his eyes wide and sincere. “When you were out there, I couldn’t not go after you. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you because..., well it’s quite simple really… I love you.”

  She knew she loved him, too. She leaned forward and kissed him, even though she knew he should really be the one to make the first move. She felt his lips on hers, his hands behind her head. “I love you, too,” she breathed, feeling a current of desire run though her body. She looked at his face, and felt a sudden and sharp wanting. His dazzling blue eyes and the dimple when he smiled.