Chapter Eleven
chapter eleven
ISLA
It’s been a week since the fair. May and I have spent the last week really finding our routine and settling in. Between our different shifts at Marina’s, we still haven’t dedicated any time together to explore Ruby Cove, so that’s today's agenda.
Hotel Dolce has old-fashioned bikes for hire, so we paid up and are currently cycling down the hill in the general direction of town. There’s a light breeze catching in my hair behind me as I effortlessly pedal. There hasn’t been a cloudy day since we’ve been here, I can’t imagine this place in the colder months, I feel like it belongs purely to summer.
The sound of quiet bustle increases as we cruise along the edge of the road before parking up our bikes in the stands in front of Marina’s. We are one street back from Main, which is currently quiet as none of the restaurants lining the street are open this early. It’s a completely different vibe back here, with darker bricked buildings and fairy lights hanging between the rooflines that creates a magical feeling when night falls, but right now it almost feels abandoned. The echoes of laughter drift towards us from Main Street, signaling at the liveliness around the corner.
We get about two steps down the street before my phone buzzes in the back pocket of my jean shorts.
“Is it you know who?” May asks as I hit decline.
“Yup.”
“If nothing else, he’s persistent. I’ve gotta give him that,” she says.
“He’ll give up once he realizes I’m never going to pick up.” I hope.
My spirits lift as soon as we turn onto Main Street. Caio was right that first day when he said that this is the heart of the town, people litter the streets, waltzing across the road in no hurry as cars wait for them to pass. It’s like everyone here is in permanent vacation mode, and the easygoing feeling is contagious. The sun sits high in the sky watching over the summer day. It’s so bright, I have squint to try and read the sign that’s swinging in the breeze a few shops ahead of us as we amble down the cobbled path. I can only catch the word ‘gallery’ as the sun glints off the rest of the sign. As in Nora’s gallery?
“Can we stop here?” I ask May as we approach the building. She nods and I push one of the stained-glass doors open to enter the clean gallery.
“Wow,” May says, admiring the painting displayed in front of us. It’s the portrait of a woman, she sits looking at her baby in her arms. I can feel the warmth and joy radiating off of her through the canvas. The strokes are rough but precisely placed. Whoever painted this has an incredible ability to capture emotions so vividly through rough strokes on a canvas.
As we wander around the space, I notice a few other paintings in that same style scattered in between a variety of different landscapes and still life studies. As I wander further in, I notice there are more blank spaces than filled ones.
May walks back to the portrait at the front of the space as I reach an open archway that leads into a messy studio, a complete contrast to the gallery.
Canvases are laid against the walls and a variety of paintbrushes sit in a jar on top of a cluttered desk. I spot Nora humming away in the corner sketching on a canvas. It takes her a minute or two before she notices me.
“Isla! It’s so good to see you here darling, welcome!” The woman has bounds of energy for her age.
“This space is wonderful, Nora.”
She wipes the back of her hand across her forehead pushing her light hair out of her face. “Oh, it’s nothing like it used to be,” she says, her eyes downcast. This place is anything but disappointing.
“Have you put that sketchbook to use yet?” She changes the topic.
“Not yet,” I say. I’ve wanted to, but every time I decide against it. It’s like every time I even think about my art, doubts flood my mind in the form of my parents and Brandons words. I can’t forget those words no matter how hard I try.
Frivolous.
Silly.
Meaningless.
“Hey Miss Nora,” May interrupts us. “Cool place.”
“Thank you, girls.” She smiles at us. “What has that Caio been up to? He still hasn’t come and seen me like he said he would.” It’s funny the way she talks about him. Like he’s a young boy who needs checking up on.
“I’m not sure, I haven’t really seen him.”
Her eyebrows draw into a frown. “Oh.”
Should I have seen him? The last time I spoke to him was at his penthouse, and it feels like it’s been more than a few days since then. Since my heart raced at his proximity.
I tried to shake off the feeling once I left his apartment, but I couldn’t. It clung to me for the rest of the day. That twisting feeling that settled in my gut when he spun me around by my shorts. His presence draws me in, and it’s like I lose all my sense of self when I’m that close to him.
I’m surprised he hasn’t been staking me out, waiting for the right time to corner me with that envelope I left in his apartment. There’s no way he didn’t see it.
We talk with Nora for another five minutes before making our way back out into the heat.
“I don’t know when I’ll start getting used to this kind of heat.” May fans herself with her hands.
“I’ve definitely got a newfound appreciation for air conditioners,” I add.
A line forms out on the cobbled path a few shops ahead of us, and people are fanning themselves as they wait. It's good to know the locals are just as affected by this heat as we are. Two young girls come bounding out of the shop with ice creams in hand, giggling and licking as they pass us. I raise my brows at May in question.
“Oh, go on then.”
We sit on the stone wall with our ice creams, our legs dangling over the ocean. We both got the shop’s signature dulce de leche flavor.
The sun is quickly melting the dessert, causing me to frantically lick around the edges before it drips down the cone and onto my fingers.
I hate the feeling of that sweet stickiness between your fingers that you can’t get rid of until you find somewhere to wash your hands, so I’m doing my best to prevent that from happening today. I wouldn’t have this problem if I just got it in a cup, but there’s something about a waffle cone that I can’t resist. They remind me of summers with my family when Miles and I were young, we used to go for ice cream every Sunday night after dinner at our grandparents’ house.
It started with Miles begging our parents to take us the first few times, but it quickly became a sweet tradition we would do every year over the summer.
Memories like that force me to remember how close my family used to be before I grew up and their expectations sat so firmly on my shoulders.
I munch down on the last of my cone as I look over to the docks. It’s a picture-perfect day so lots of boats are out on the water.
A flash of dark curls catches my eye down the dock as Marina walks towards us in a green bathing suit that makes her olive skin pop.
“Fancy seeing you two here,” she says approaching us. “What are you guys doing right now?”
“We were just gonna head back?— “
“Already? The day’s just getting started,” she gestures towards the water. “Come out with us. We are headed out to one of my favorite spots, come on.”
She reaches her hands out for us to take. It’s not like we had anything else planned, so we follow her as she leads us down the dock. She slows in front of the most ostentatious yacht I have ever seen before jumping on board and disappearing inside, leaving May and I on the dock staring at the thing.
This is some next level shit.
A minute later, Caio emerges, and my breath catches at the sight of him in just a pair of striped blue and white board shorts. God, I knew he would be ripped under those button ups, especially after the ease with which he hoisted me over his shoulder the other day, but fuck.
He caught me off guard when he threw me over his shoulder after the fair. I wasn’t expecting it one bit.
I struggle to keep my gaze at eye level. He smiles as he leans over the edge offering his hand. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I take his hand and step onto the boat. He helps May on as well before we follow him around to the front of the boat where Marina is seated with Rafael and an unfamiliar guy with a small smile lighting up the harsh lines of his face as he takes us in. His green eyes stand out against his tan skin as they roam over us. Tattoos are scattered across his skin, his arms and legs painted with pictures.
Caio automatically rests his hand on my lower back, and my skin tingles at the contact as he moves us further into the space. Why does it keep doing that? “Guys, this is Heath, Heath this is Isla and May.”
“Ah, the infamous new duo. How are ya?”
Is that an Australian accent?
May bolts forward, moving to sit on the bench seat beside him before casually stealing the beer from out of his hand. “Better now that I’ve got this.” She takes a big gulp, making me thirsty as I watch her.
“Yeah, no worries,” Heath says, waving a dismissing hand. “You go for it. I didn’t want to finish that anyway.” He runs a hand over his buzzed brown hair.
“You want a drink?” Caio asks with a laugh. He always seems to know what I’m thinking before I’ve even thought it.
“Maybe just a water?”
“Sure.” He walks over to a bin on the floor, and I can’t stop my eyes from ogling him as his abs contract as he bends down to get me a bottle. I’m not usually so affected by a man’s body, but I can’t seem to stop perving at him.
“Thanks,” I say when he comes back and hands me a bottle of cold water. I take a big sip, quenching the dying thirst I hadn’t realized I’d built up since leaving the hotel this morning.
Caio goes to the helm to get us out on the water, so I join the group nestling between Marina and May who have quickly settled into a deep conversation with Heath about goats?
“They’re gorgeous little creatures and good companions at that,” he says. “Wait till you see ‘em, they’ll win you over.” May cackles a laugh while Marina rolls her eyes as if this isn’t a new topic of conversation. I can’t say it’s a conversation I expected to come out of this guy’s mouth. He’s got the whole tattooed, serious, brooding guy look, but then he starts talking.
“They’d make for a good stew too.” Rafael lets a smirk slip before taking another sip of his beer from where he sits on the other bench.
“Rafael Deo!” Marina lobs a cushion at his head which pulls a genuine smile from him as he dodges the attack. It might be the first I’ve seen from him.
“Come on, Raf, we all know that you have a sweet spot for Betty, you don’t need to pretend.” Heath shoots a wink in his direction, earning a laugh from all of us as the boat pulls away from the dock and we start off towards the horizon.
My phone has been buzzing in my pocket on and off for the last half hour, I excuse myself from the game of UNO we were playing on the deck to go inside and check it out, resulting in substantial booing from both May and Marina. Those two are like little kids together.
I plonk myself down on the couch before pulling out my phone. There is message after message from Brandon, venturing between kind concerns, and then progressively getting more frustrated. Capital letters and exclamation marks accentuating his demands for me to come home. I don’t know why he wants me to come home so badly, we broke up, it’s not like we were happy together.
We used to be. When we first met, I remember thinking he was the perfect guy, with that blond hair swished perfectly into place and his perfect smile. He made me feel special at the start, sending me huge, gorgeous bouquets of flowers to me at school. He’d take me out to fancy dinners and kiss me in front of all of his friends.
At first, I felt so valued. I felt good. Until those things would only happen when other people were around to witness them, and I realized it was all just for show. I was just for show, and he was only using me for what he could gain from our relationship.
I lied. I know exactly why he wants me to come back. In his mind me leaving ruins the perfect little image he had going on, but I was sick of being an accessory to that image. The image he so desperately needs to be in place if he wants a job offer from my father. Which is what he’s been pining for throughout our whole relationship. It’s sick. Even worse that I was so blind to it for so long, I couldn’t see the red flags through my heart eyes.
It was his top priority, and he’d do anything to reach his goal, including steamrolling me by siding with my father in suggesting I need to find a “proper career” and personally, I don’t want to be in a relationship with a man who doesn’t believe in me, and who makes me not believe in myself. Once that seed of doubt was planted in my head, it took root, and now I’m struggling to dig it out. I want to be with someone who uplifts me, someone who doesn’t measure my worth by my success, and Brandon obviously wasn’t that guy.
“Hey.” Caio leans against the door frame. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I wave my phone in front of me. “Just got text bombed by my ex, that’s all.”
“Ah.”
I gesture to the couch across from me and he wanders in, sitting with his arm on the back of the couch. He’s doing that thing where he searches my eyes for answers to questions that he hasn’t asked.
“Recent?” he asks.
“What?”
“The breakup.”
“Oh, yeah, but a long time coming. It just took me a while to realize that I deserved a hell of a lot better.”
“I’m sorry that you ever had to realize that.”
I look away. “Yeah…” he doesn’t push me for more and I’m glad for it, I don’t really feel like bringing down the mood today. It’s gracious of him considering I basically forced him to talk about his family the other night. But today I’m just not in the mood for it.
“So, is this your boat?”
He scrubs a hand across the back of his neck. “Yeah, is that weird?”
“Not weird just…intense,” I laugh. “It’s pretty cool really, how often do you guys come out on the water? A ton I bet.”
“Not as much as we should.” A small smile forms as he looks around the boat as if recognizing it for what it is for the first time in a while. “I try not to throw my money around too much?—“
“Oh, says the guy who I met while he was driving a Ferrari.”
He blurts out a laugh. “Okay, well, I don’t have an excuse for that one, but in a town like this we kind of needed a boat, no?”
“Sure, but this isn’t a boat it’s a fucking monstrosity.” He laughs again and it lights up his whole face.
He isn’t cocky with his money though, talking to him, being around him, he doesn’t make you feel like he’s better off for it like some people do. He doesn’t flash it in your face just because he can.
“Hey guys,” Marina pops her head in the door. “We’re here.”
We walk out onto the deck where the others are stripping off into their swimsuits. We’ve stopped in what seems to be in the middle of nowhere, it’s blue for miles, but to our right is a chunk of tall rocky land.
May and Marina are the first to jump in, screaming as they fly off the edge of the boat. I take my shorts and T-shirt off stripping down to the lavender bikini I put on this morning. I stand over the edge looking down at the girls, it’s a bit of a jump from here.
“Afraid of heights?” Caio’s gaze quickly rakes down my body.
Glancing down at the water I’m thinking twice about my original answer. “Nope.”
“Good.” He wraps his arms around my waist pulling me with him as he jumps.
“Caio!” I can’t help but scream on the way down.
My flailing arms cling to him in the quick descent. My screams muffled as we hit the water, lucky for me it’s not too cold. It’s the perfect temperature to be a refreshing contrast to the thick heat of the day. Caio grins like a little kid as we break the surface. I shake my head, unable to hold back my own smile.
Water sprays us as Heath bombs into the water, any closer and he would’ve landed on top of us. I can only imagine what a rat I look like right now with my hair plastered to my head. I try to smooth it back, but I can’t tell if I’m making it better or worse.
“Come on,” Marina yells out as she begins swimming towards a cave opening in the land that I didn’t even notice. Caio raises his eyebrows in challenge following her. May and I exchange a curious look before following them all towards the opening.
We swim through the mouth of the cave and are immediately transported. The cave is deep, it’s like a canal, with the only light coming from the opening we just swam through, creating a dark and cool atmosphere. The water is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s almost glowing and moving like it’s got a mind of its own.
Fluorescent blue surrounds us. It’s so clear I can see my hands and my body floating around beneath me, it doesn’t feel like I should be able to. I swirl my hands around beneath the surface in disbelief before looking up to see Caio smiling at me, like he’s enjoying watching me more than the view around us.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Marina yells out. “You see why it’s my favorite spot now?” She turns to float on her back looking completely at peace.
I definitely can.
“It’s incredible,” I say, quiet enough that only Caio can hear me.
“There are a few spots like this dotted along the coast, we are lucky to have one so close.” He swims closer, floating just in front of me.
His eyes bore into my soul. Having his attention solely on me in this moment feels like I’m on stage under a spotlight and I’ve forgotten my line. What is it about this guy that makes me either speechless or blurt out nonsense?
“You’re going to love this. Follow me,” Marina says.
We all follow her further into the cave. Caio has a knowing smile on his face as we reach a ledge that Marina boosts herself up and onto. “Come on,” she says.
I brace my hands on the rock in front of me, wondering how the hell she just did that. May and Heath make their way up from another spot.
“There’s a notch in the rock you can put your foot on to help you get up,” Caio says from beside me.
I lightly move my foot around looking for it, trying not to graze my foot against the rock. “Where?”
“I can show you. Do you mind?” Then his hands are on my thigh under the water. I nod, and he maneuvers my leg to the right spot where my foot finds a little step that I use to push myself up onto the rock. He quickly follows me up.
“Thanks.” He just nods in response as we follow over to where Marina is standing with May and Heath.
As I sidle up next to my best friend my eyes catch on what they’re all looking at. I let out a little gasp as I look down at a rock pool in front of me. It’s big and filled with bursts of color. Pink and orange coral create castles under the water, with green kelp acting as flags waving in between them. And sitting on the sand at the bottom of the pool are octopuses. Blue tentacles all curled up next to each other. I can’t take my eyes off of it, it looks like a different world down there.
My fingers spark and my stomach drops at the feeling. I look down to see Caio’s knuckles brushing against mine. “Pretty cool, isn’t it?”
“They come here to breed,” Marina says. “But over the years we see more and more of them here out of that season. They’ve come to like it here, just like we have.”
“It’s amazing.” I feel a sudden breeze over my knuckles and realize Caio’s hand is gone. I look up to him. He opens his mouth and then shuts it, obviously thinking better of what he was going to say. His eyes look past me to the cave entrance.
“I’m going to go check on Rafael, okay?” He flicks a few beads of water at me from his fingers before he jumps off the rocks and starts swimming towards the cave entrance, back to the boat where Rafael stayed.
“We should probably get going anyway, it’s getting late,” Marina says after a while of us all staying in silence, watching the underwater world in front of us. We begin to make our way towards the end of the cave, towards where Caio and Rafael are waiting. I still stumble when I think about where we are and how we got here, but every day we spend here I feel a little lighter. A little more grounded. A little more like I’m going to struggle when it gets to the end of summer, and we have to leave this place.