Wet: Part 2 (11 page)

Chapter 11

C
laire couldn’t contain her excitement—they’d pulled it off. The singles group came and went, and miraculously,
The Tow’d
didn’t break down once. The group loved how Paradise treated them and had already booked a repeat trip for the following year.

The day after the singles group left, a new girl showed up in the office.

“I want to sign up for diving lessons.”

Paul sat at his computer, but he didn’t even glance up. “Claire, can you get that?”

“Um, actually, Paul, you’re the one I was hoping to talk to. A couple of friends and I came to dive, but my friends preferred to go to Island Divers. I insisted on diving here though, because . . . I wanted to meet you.”

Paul looked up, and Claire noticed a quick look of surprise shoot through his eyes. The girl was a knockout. American, blonde, hot! Paul turned back to his computer. “Claire, could you get her started on the paperwork? I need to finish this.”

Claire was impressed.

Ten minutes later, Paul finally stood to greet the girl while she filled out the last few items on the forms. He offered to shake her hand, but she didn’t let go when he tried to pull away. She smiled at him.

“Just a sec.” He picked up the microphone. “Rhees, Baby. Could you come to the office, Honey?”

Paul noticed Rhees’ flushed cheeks as she walked cautiously into the office, not knowing what to expect. He’d never been so lovey-dovey over the microphone before.

“Hey Dani Girl! This is . . .” Even though he remembered the girl’s name, he made it a point to look down to get it off of the paperwork, just to make sure Rhees, the new girl, and even Claire, knew he hadn’t paid attention, or cared. “Sarah, our newest student. Sarah, this is my
girlfriend
, Rhees.”

“Hi, Sarah,” Rhees said with uncertainty. Paul hurried around the counter. He grabbed Rhees and gave her a big, hard, passionate kiss, catching her off-guard. Rhees gasped and tensed up, and he let her go before she had a chance to push him away too forcibly. His eyes pleaded with desperation, hoping she’d notice.

“Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you for a whole ten minutes. I’ve missed you.” He put his arm around Rhees, possessively.

“Um . . . on the deck, reading.” Rhees looked at the new girl and smiled. Sarah’s face registered confusion, and then Rhees looked at Claire. Claire appeared to be trying to warn her without being obvious. “Um . . . I missed you too,
Babe
!”

“Sarah, let me show you around,” Claire said. “It’s my job to initiate the newbies.” She didn’t give Sarah a chance to argue. Claire grabbed her by the arm and pulled her through the tunnel and into the equipment room.

“What was that?” Rhees whispered to Paul.

He seemed embarrassed and didn’t answer. All he could do was shrug.

“Do you want to be with her? Is that it?” Rhees finally had to ask. “You know we’ve made our point. We can end this any time.”

Rhees felt herself start to grow shaky at the thought of what might be happening—that he might be ready to end it.

“No!” The look on his face seemed very convincing. He sighed. “Let’s just say . . . having a girlfriend comes in handy.” He still had a strange expression, but after a few seconds, a sly smile broke across his face. “Bet you never thought you’d hear me say
that
, did you?”

oOo

“Rhees,” Claire said thoughtfully that afternoon when they were alone in the office. “What will you do when Paul screws up?”

Rhees scowled and then shrugged. She didn’t answer.

“Because, you know he’s bound to at some point, right? He can’t go on living like a monk for the rest of his life.”

Rhees didn’t like hearing it. “Everyone thinks I’m
broken in
now. Paul knows he can move on whenever he’s ready.” She tried to sound convincing.

“But you don’t want him to.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Don’t give me that. I see what’s going on between . . . It’s not only you. It’s Paul too.” She let out one loud, ironic breath of air. “Who would have thought? Rhees, darling, I know he’s trying. I’m amazed at how well he’s doing—I never, in a million years, would have believed he could do this, but while he’s acting like your boyfriend, you need to act more like a girlfriend.”

Rhees’ face flushed pale. She thought she knew what Claire meant and it made her sick inside, knowing she just couldn’t. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”

“No. Not that. It’s girls like Sarah. If a girl even looked at Dobbs the way Sarah looks at Paul, I’d scratch her eyes out. It’s sickening, the way she goes after him, right in front of you.”

“I told you. Paul’s a grown man. If he’d rather move on . . .” It was harder to say than she realized. “He can just break up with me or pretend to.”

“Rhees.” Claire wheeled her computer chair closer to her and turned Rhees’ chair so they were face-to-face. “If Paul were
my
boyfriend—if this was Dobbs we’re talking about—Dobbs understands. He may think about other women. I can’t control his thoughts, and sometimes letting him have a fantasy or two actually works to my favor.” Rhees didn’t understand—especially the sad look that flashed across Claire’s eyes as she’d said it. “But he wouldn’t dare sleep with anyone else because he values his life.” 

“But we’re just pretending to be in a sexual relationship,” Rhees said. “He really is my friend though, and friends don’t put demands on each other like that.”

“Rhees, honey. Listen to me, okay?” Claire looked into her eyes. “I don’t know how much longer Paul can keep up this thing you two have going, but he’s not ready to stop. I don’t understand what’s going on with him, but he needs this, at least, for the time being. I see it every day. But a little territorial behavior will go a long way in making sure a man like Paul remembers that.”

“Okay,” Rhees grumbled. “I’ll try.”

“Don’t try. Do!” Claire seemed desperate to get it through to her friend. “And while you’re at it, you need to be more convincing in the,
I’m his girlfriend
department.  I actually think Paul would appreciate a little help with the skanks. Sarah’s not the only one throwing herself at him.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ve overheard things. Sarah isn’t the only cheap trollop sniffing around your man. The other girls are complaining, wondering how a man like Paul wants to have a girlfriend who is so cold—physically. People are noticing how hard it is for you to let him touch you.”

Rhees threw her hands over her face. It was difficult to hear someone tell her the same thing that had been going through her mind for weeks.

“Listen Sweet. Just try, okay?”

Rhees took a deep breath and nodded.

oOo

Rhees tried for the next few days to act more girlfriend-like, but she felt too inadequate to pull it off. At least Sarah, the new girl, didn’t appear to get the message. She constantly hounded Paul, acting, Rhees thought, obnoxiously slutty. Even Paul rolled his eyes at Sarah, walked away from her in the middle of her sentences, and tried ignoring her completely, but she didn’t give up.

Rhees’ attempts to initiate affectionate behavior led Paul to falsely get his hopes up. When he reciprocated the affection, she tensed up, writhed away, and downright scorned him.

“Trouble in paradise?” Sarah asked Paul after watching Rhees suffer through one of his surprise affection bombs, aimed at getting Sarah off his back.

“Never,” Paul answered tersely.

“That’s interesting, because I really get the vibe Rhees just isn’t that into you. She’s crazy. Who couldn’t be into you?” She tried to make eye contact, but he wouldn’t look her way.

He gritted his teeth and regretted what he believed he needed to do.

“I guess she’s just so
into
me in private, she’s too worn out for a lot of PDA, she needs to save her strength—or should I say—I’m so
in
her?
”
He arched his brow suggestively, but on the inside, he felt sleazy for making such a dirty slur against the girl who was his beautiful, virtuous princess. Sometimes the stakes in this game got a little high, even for him.

“
I
am into
her
, so until she kicks my sorry ass to the curb, I’m in it—
with her!
” He hoped that settled it once and for all, but it didn’t.

oOo

That afternoon, Rhees was surprised to find Paul at his computer, in the middle of the day.

“What are you doing in here on this lovely afternoon?”

Paul didn’t want to tell her how he’d grown tired of Sarah’s constant flirting, and the office sounded like a good excuse to be out of her reach. Looking for things to do in the office made him think about the business he’d neglected for so long. 

“Rhees.” He reached for her and pulled her onto his lap. “There are some things I should work on. I’ve been ignoring it for years, but this new, “
it’s time to grow up
”, plan you have me on is making me feel like I should, at least, take a look at it. I may seem a little preoccupied for the next few days. Okay?”

“I don’t have you on a plan. Is that what you think? Paul?” She didn’t like what he’d said.

“It’s a good thing, Dani Girl. I like that plan.”

“No.” She put her hand on his cheek, but he quickly shushed her with a kiss. “What is it you’ll be working on?”

He shrugged. “Just business. Old investments, unrelated to the shop. I’ve left it all on auto-pilot for too long. I think, maybe I’m finally ready to take a look at it, make sure it’s all still doing what it’s supposed to be doing. I’m sure after all this time, there will be things that need to be rearranged, restructured, that sort of thing.” He forced a smile, knowing how he could get when he was in businessman mode—the man he’d been trying to run away from the past five years.

Rhees had to be the only reason he’d been thinking about that part of his old life again. The new self-awareness program he had himself on, because of her, had him thinking about a lot of things besides being a man-whore, a tyrant, and an overall asshole.

oOo

Rhees sat across from Paul, reading. He sat at a table on the deck at Tanked with his laptop, absorbed in his recent business project. He said he preferred they hang out where she wouldn’t get lonely while he engrossed himself in his work.

He didn’t talk much about it, and Rhees didn’t understand it when he did, but while he worked, the rest of the world ceased to exist, even her. She understood why he’d apologized for it up front. She missed him.

“I’m thirsty. Would you like a beer?”

He grunted but didn’t seem to notice when she got up. She wandered around the bar, saying hello to everyone who’d come into the bar since she’d arrived and then ordered a soda for herself, a beer for Paul.

She knew, based on the past few nights, that they’d be there a while. He’d lose track of time, and when she grew tired, she’d tell him. He’d say, “Just a minute”, and another thirty minutes would go by before she’d tell him again and eventually, she’d have to literally pull him away from his work so they could get some sleep.

She didn’t mind. It was just another demonstration of his inability to do anything halfway. She wished he’d find a better balance between his obsession to get this project done and taking care of himself. If it weren’t for her, she thought for sure he wouldn’t have eaten, or slept for days. 

She headed back toward his table with their drinks but stopped dead in her tracks.

“How about a beer, Babe?” Paul didn’t look up from his computer.

“Sure,
Babe
. Anything for you, what kind would you like?”

The strange voice made him look up, but seeing for himself didn’t lessen his confusion. He hadn’t noticed Rhees leave or Sarah sit down in Rhees’ stead. Sarah smiled, and shamelessly undid one more button, exposing even more of her cleavage than before.

“Where’s Rhees?” He glanced toward the bar, searching for her. Sarah shrugged, but didn’t drop the annoying smile on her face.

He finally caught a glimpse of Rhees laughing with the bartender before she turned and headed back to their table with a soda in one hand and a beer in the other, his favorite brand. Such a little thing, but—he faced Sarah again and smiled, thinking this flirtatious, forward woman didn’t stand a chance against his Dani Girl. He found it surprisingly nice how comfortable he’d become with Rhees and the way she seemed to read his mind, anticipating when he’d want a beer and she knew what kind he drank.

Rhees made her way slowly, cautiously, to Paul’s table, watching him smile at Sarah. The warmth in his eyes for the new girl troubled her.
Scratch her eyes out.
Claire’s words ran through her mind. What a stupid saying, she wasn’t exactly sure how to do that, but it sounded pretty good at the moment. She walked up right behind Sarah and stood for a second, trying to decide what to do. Paul looked from Sarah to her.

“Hey.” He smiled up at her, so genuinely, all relaxed, as though he hadn’t just been caught flirting with another woman. Rhees waited for him to vault into a lame excuse about what the two of them had been doing, but he didn’t say anything else. His right eye did its adorable winky thing instead.

Rhees glanced away for a second, took an extra deep breath, and moved to his side of the table where she set his beer down in front of him. She finally dared to look at Sarah, who now watched, with what Rhees imagined, an arrogant air on her heavily made-up, slutty face.

“Hey,” Rhees replied back. She still hadn’t taken her eyes off Sarah. “I brought you a beer. How’s the
work
coming?”

She set her own drink on the table and slid her hands around Paul’s neck and down his chest from behind, pretending to look at his computer screen as if she understood what it was he was doing. She leaned into him so their cheeks touched, and then, so out of character, she turned and feathered his jaw with her lips, nipping at him sensually. She reached his mouth and tenderly gave him a long, but soft, kiss. His lips parted and she felt his surprised intake of breath.

“I’m going home . . . to bed.” She used the most seductive voice she could manage, and didn’t break contact with his eyes as she slowly pulled away, begging him with her eyes to leave with her . . . If he knew what was best for him. She finally broke contact and moved so she stood behind Sarah again. She mimed the actions of pulling a pistol from a holster at her hip, and she shaped her hand to resemble one. She pointed it at the back of Sarah’s head.