Chapter Fifteen
chapter fifteen
CAIO
I’ve been tossing and turning in bed for the last hour. I keep checking the time thinking I’ve been lying here for half the night, but every time I check it’s only been another ten minutes. I succumb to looking once more, it’s now 12:00 a.m. Fucking hell. I’m not going to make any progress like this, so I rip the sheets off my body and decide to go the one place that always clears my mind.
The elevator doors open on the ground level. It’s empty at this time of night, the only person here is the hotel security guard Marco, who watches over the lobby overnight. I give him a nod as I pass by, walking down the hall until I reach the end and pull on the frosted double doors that lead to the pool. I step in and my eyes are immediately drawn to the tall windows. In the daylight you can see out to Ruby Cove from here, even better when we open the bi-fold doors up to the lawn and people float in and out. But now the view is the picture of midnight, with twinkling lights scattering across the dark night.
This is my favorite place to be when I can’t switch my brain off. The feeling of the water around me always seems to calm me, and I swim laps until my mind is clear as the water I’m submersed in.
The sound of lapping water draws my attention to the pool in front of me and my eyes catch on the figure in the middle of the pool, her dark hair trailing behind her as she peacefully floats on her back.
I should go, but every fiber of my body is telling me to disturb her. After not getting more than a glimpse of her for the last week, my eyes are greedy at the sight of her floating in the water, her eyes closed as she lets the water carry her weight. I flick off my sandals and walk further into the room, my feet are silent as I walk across the cold tile. Isla hasn’t moved since I got here, my presence obviously not noticed. I lay my towel on a bench as I contemplate whether I should stay or go, but I came here for a reason. Seeing Isla was not that reason, but I’m more than happy for the distraction of her.
“Well, the universe obviously has plans for us,” I say. Isla startles, her body sinking into the water before she whips around to face me. Her alarmed expression softens when she sees it’s me. Something pulls in my chest at the thought of that.
She turns away from me and begins swimming in the opposite direction.
“Is it the universe?” she asks, looking over her shoulder at me as she continues, “or are you stalking me, Fernando?”
I look up at the ceiling, smiling at the use of the nickname Isla and May gifted me with the day we met.
I look back to her and she’s facing me now with a breathtaking smile lighting up her face.
I shrug. I can’t help the smirk curving at the corner of my mouth. “You caught me there.”
She’s got that timid smile curving at the corner of her mouth. “Should’ve seen the red flags when you picked me up on the side of the road and brought me back to your place. Rookie move.”
I pull my shirt off ready to get in, and when I look back Isla has gone quiet. Any smartass remarks she had left up her sleeve are gone, her smile gone, it’s like a punch to my gut as she vacantly stares into space.
I move down the steps and sink into the water, wading over closer to her.
“I can’t help but be glad that you didn’t,” I say, continuing our conversation.
A shy smile graces her face as she glances over her shoulder at me.
She moves to float on her back again, and I follow her lead doing the same.
“What are you doing here?” she asks after a moment of silence.
“Couldn’t sleep. You?”
“Same,” she murmurs.
We float in silence for a while, the only sound being the small waves hitting against the pool walls. It feels comfortable, which is something I rarely feel with someone I don’t really know. But I can’t pass up the opportunity to dig a bit deeper with her. I want to know everything about Isla, anything she is willing to share with me.
“So, why art?” I take a chance on the idea that she might open up to me.
The sound of water moving catches my attention as she moves to tread water in front of me, I match her.
She hesitates, I can almost see the cogs spinning in her mind, see her considering whether she wants to open up to me or not, before she finally caves, giving me a glimpse behind that wall of hers. “I don’t know, it’s always been something I’ve connected with.” Her eyes light up as she talks. “I like having something out there in the world that is purely mine, something that people can look at and they can see the world the way that I see it.” I smile at her admission; a few bricks falling off the top of the wall.
“I was always attracted to the fact that it doesn’t necessarily need to be perfect, but recently I, uh…I lost sight of that a bit.” Her voice loses its spark as she admits that last part.
“Nora hasn’t mentioned you going down there at all, or have you snuck an easel into your room without management finding out?” I tease.
“No, uh...” She swims backwards, distancing herself, either from me or from the conversation, I’m not sure. “I haven’t painted in a while.”
“Why did you stop?” I ask.
“I don’t know, it just...things got a bit complicated.” She avoids my gaze, and I can’t help but feel like those bricks just got laid back up. It’s obviously not something she wants to open up about now, and that’s okay.
“Well, at some point I’d like to see the world through your eyes, if you’d let me,” I say.
She gives me a shy smile. “Maybe one day.”
What could ever make her not want to do the one thing that clearly brings her joy? I want to know, but I don’t push her on it. When it comes to Isla, I’m walking a thin line between not wanting to push her and ruin anything, and begging her to tell me everything there is to know about her.
“So why Dolce?” she asks, treading water just in front of me. “Where did the name come from?”
I smile as the thought enters my mind. “When I first saw the hotel, I fell in love immediately. It was this quaint beautiful thing, and it was up for sale. I could just see it in my head, the vision of what it could become one day. The old man who was selling it, his name was Dolce. Gabriele Dolce. He built this place, all by his own hand back in the seventies. He asked only one thing of me when I bought it off him.”
“What was it?”
“That he wasn’t forgotten. I kept that promise in the best way I knew how.” The look on her face as she takes me in is so beautiful, I want to drown in it.
“Are you a good swimmer?” I ask, changing the conversation.
“Depends on how you define a good swimmer.” Her mood has instantly lightened with the change of subject.
“Well, we‘ll have to test it now, won’t we?”
“And how do you propose we do that.” She catches the look in my eye and follows me as I move towards the end of the pool.
We both hang on to the edge with our left hands. I look to her, and determination is written all over her face. “Ready?”
She nods before counting down. “One…two…three!” She’s barely finished saying the last word before she takes off leaving me in her waves, but I’m fast, so I catch up easily enough, hitting the end wall before turning around at the same time as Isla.
I look over to her, wrong move. She flashes one of her stunning smiles at me, stopping me in my tracks. She’s unreal.
She splashes water in my eyes that are too busy admiring her to pay attention, before speeding off towards our starting point.
That little cheater.
I kick off the wall before following her to the other end of the pool. She reaches the end seconds before I do.
I’m usually a sore loser, but not today, I couldn’t care less about winning or losing as Isla pushes up to sit on the edge of the pool letting me see the body that’s been hiding under the surface. She’s wearing a blue bikini that leaves little to the imagination.
I think blue is my new favorite color. From that little sundress to this? I’m so gone.
She crosses one leg over the other as a smug expression climbs up her face. “I would be happy to accept a gold medal for my win, or alternatively some of Vanessa’s fruit tarts would also be considered.”
“You cheated ,” I say, looking up at her.
“How did I cheat?” She plays innocent as if she didn’t know I’d be completely distracted by her looking at me the way that she did. As if she doesn’t realize what she does to me.
I shake my head smiling at her, before I wrap my hands around her tiny waist and yank her under the water with me. She lets out a little yelp on the way down. I come up shaking my head before she pops up before me, her hair plastered over her eyes as she giggles, god I love that sound. She tries to push it out of her face but she’s not having much luck.
“Here,” I say, running my fingers through her hair helping her move it off of her face. She’s looking up at me, quietly allowing me to help her tuck the wavy strands behind her dainty ears.
“Hey,” I start, now’s a good enough time than ever to ask. “There’s another event coming up next week, did you want to come with me?”
She looks at me, something like confusion swimming in her eyes. “Is Stefan forcing you to bring a date again?”
“No, he’s not.” I just want to spend time with you again.
“Oh, okay. So you just want me to come as…a friend?”
I grab another strand of her hair, tucking it away, but I don’t let go until my fingers reach the very end of the strand. “Is that what you want it to be?”
“Well, that’s what we are, aren’t we?” Her eyes are shining with uncertainty.
“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?” She doesn’t say anything, just continues to look at me as we both float here together. “You can call it whatever you like, Isla. Just come with me, please?” I don’t have a word for what we are, but considering how close we are, and the speed with which her chest is rising and falling, friends isn’t the term I would use to define us, but if she wants to call us friends then she can, that doesn’t change the fact that I want her by my side.
“Okay,” she says quietly and relief ebbs through me, I didn’t realize I was holding my breath waiting for her response. “I’ll go with you.”
Isla’s hair is dripping, leaving a trail of water droplets as we walk back to the elevators. I’ve got a towel wrapped around my waist and she has hers wrapped around her body, she’s holding it up under her shoulders as we stand waiting for the elevator, she’s doing her best to avoid looking at me. After our moment in the pool she quickly moved away, climbing up the stairs and wrapping her towel around herself, and I didn’t want to stay there by myself.
Any peace I was searching for earlier in the night is lost on me now, I’m not going to get any sleep tonight, but I’d rather spend another five minutes with her than swim laps in the pool thinking about her. Thinking about how her little waist felt beneath my grip.
The elevator is taking a while, considering it’s the middle of the night. After more not so comfortable silence we finally hear the ding and watch as the doors open in front of us.
“Goodnight, sir,” Marco’s voice cuts through the air. “Have a good evening.” He has a sly smile attached to his face with that comment.
I send a nod his way before stepping into the lift, Isla has already selected the button for her floor. So I reach past her to tap my access card for my penthouse. As I move back past her, I notice goosebumps crawling up her arms.
“Are you cold?” I ask, frowning.
“No,” she breathes, still avoiding making eye contact. This lift is bigger than most, but it’s never felt smaller than it does now. The tension in here is enough to crack the door open midway. I smile as I realize why the little dots are trailing along her skin.
She doesn’t once look my way, her hair dripping on the floor is the only sound besides the quiet hum of the lift carrying us up. My eyes betray me as they sneak another glance her way. The tips of her ears are flushed—a dead giveaway for how she’s feeling.
“Are you nervous, Isla?” I catch her eyes in the reflection and can’t help the smirk teasing my lips.
She doesn’t look away now, but she doesn’t answer me either. Her chest rising and falling rapidly.
The elevator stops and I lose eye contact with her as the doors open to her floor.
“Goodnight Caio,” she says, bolting out the doors before I could say it back. The doors close, leaving me and the puddle of water she left behind to ride to my floor in silence.