6. Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Katherine
“ S o, do you think you’re settling in okay?” Ella asks as she sets her wine glass back down on the table and scans over the menu in her hands.
I look around the small restaurant in town she brought me to; it’s calm and people are sipping on wine without a care in the world. The interior looks like someone’s gone down to the beach and collected every single shell and discarded piece of wood. It’s cute in the rustic beach kind of way. We’re sitting on the patio and I can hear the waves crashing in the distance as the sun is close to setting. It would be perfect, if I could get my brain to be completely calm.
Have I settled?
The day after Ella took me to the shop, she got me to work a real shift with Maddie, showing me all the ropes. It's been a week since then and I’ve worked a total of three shifts. I’m selling surfboards, wetsuits and everything else someone might need for the beach. Ella's also made this little hub in the store now for small businesses in the area to sell things out of her shop, like t-shirts, stickers, candles and I’ve had to restrain myself from buying everything.
It’s not all that different from the store jobs I had back in New York. Smiling at customers, talking to them about what they want or need. When it comes to the more surf specific questions, I have to turn them to Maddie. She’s been surfing since she was able to stand, she said no one expects me to know all the answers.
I can tell you one person who does.
James.
He has made it abundantly clear he has no interest in being friends.
I overheard him talking to Maddie the other day. How naive does she have to be to think she’ll really find her soulmate, it’s pathetic . They were both standing in the stockroom, and just as I was about to walk in, his words hit me like a ton of bricks. My cheeks instantly went hot, but I moved closer to the partition curtain so I could hear better.
Because I love torturing myself like that.
James, you're being a dick right now. Give her a break.
Having Maddie stick up for me gave me the courage to actually step into the room but that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about it. Like, constantly. I can’t even look at him really without feeling embarrassed.
It doesn’t help that I'm still waiting for my brain to work correctly around him so that I can actually tell him where to shove it when he’s being a dick. But as of right now, my brain either closes up with embarrassment or melts, because yes, he’s still ridiculously hot. So, for the foreseeable future, the shop will be filled with awkward silences and weird looks whenever we are left alone. I’m still not sure if they're dating. Aesthetically, it makes sense but Maddie’s way too nice to put up with him.
I look up from my own menu at her. “Yeah, I’m loving it here,” I tell her smiling as I pick up my drink.
I’m not lying. I went for a walk around the town the other day after working in the morning to get my bearings. I can’t always be relying on Ella every time I need something, I hate feeling like I’m a burden on her. The town is beautiful and just how I remember it .
Not a lot has changed which I am happy about. Some of the shops had a revamp, but the cute book/coffee shop is still standing, just with a new lick of paint. All the old knick-knack shops I used to roam are just where I remember them, full of the stuff my mom told me not to buy too much of.
Ella tells me once she’s had someone take a look at the old car she has, it's all mine, which terrifies me a little. I got my licence with Bella when we were seventeen because it felt like something we would need in the future but no one drives in New York if you can help it. So it’s safe to say I haven't driven in years, and the streets of Gull’s Bay will not be safe soon.
“Good.” Her eyes travel to the waiter walking over to us. He stops and chats with Ella for a minute before taking our order. When I’m with her, I sometimes feel like I’m with a local celebrity. Everyone knows her.
And now it feels like I am too. Every time we’re stopped, they ask why I’m here and I’m always glad that Ella says it’s a very long graduation trip.
She says she’s noticed what she called ‘friction’ between me and James. I tell her it was fine, which it is, but she says something cryptic about how she should have known he’d have a problem. I didn’t press for more information even though I really wanted to. Either way, I’m glad the whole population of Sydney isn’t aware of my soulmate search.
The rest of the night is filled with more catching up and laughter. I feel like I’m getting to know Ella all over again. I don’t know how much I’ve changed on the outside since I’ve last seen her, but I know that I’ve changed so much on the inside. I feel like I’m a different person to the one she might remember.
“It’s been two weeks since you left, and you’re telling me you haven’t met a single hot guy!?” Bella and I have worked out the time zone difference pretty quickly, even if it’s hard for her to fit me into her new busy schedule.
Her internship at the photography studio mostly consists of getting coffee and carrying stupidly heavy equipment around. Good thing my girls never been a quitter because I would have given up after the first day from the sounds of it, but it’s her dream and I’m so proud of her.
“Bella, it’s not that simple,” I try to tell her as I cross the road trying to not get run over.
She laughs. “Yes. Yes, it is. You are currently in a country where most guys walk around topless. You’re telling me not a single one has caught your eye?”
I shake my head even though she can’t see me, god what I wouldn’t do to have her out here with me. Bella always knows the right thing to say to guys, or the right thing to wear to impress them. I’m one hundred percent sure I would not have had a single boyfriend in high school or college if it wasn’t for her coaching. “Bella I don’t think my soulmate will be someone who wanders around topless.” I laugh as the shop comes into view.
“What about that guy you work with?” she quizzes. I swear this girl doesn’t miss a beat.
“God, don’t remind me.” My smile instantly fades as my eyes land on him. He’s like the devil. Speak of him and he fucking appears. I’m all but five feet from the shop and he comes running up from the beach, of course topless. I’d love to look into this guys wardrobe because I can bet I wouldn’t find a single t-shirt.
“I looked him up. He's hot. Can he be my soulmate if he’s not yours?” I have to stop myself from quizzing her about how she found him online, I don’t think I want to know.
“He’s also a total ass.”
“Talking about my ass, are we Katherine?”
Here he is, blocking me from getting to the door.
His body glistens from the sea water, or maybe it’s sweat, I’m not sure I mind either way. He’s got a crazy amount of tattoos, and because I’m trying not to look at him too much, I can’t make out what they are. But as we stand there I see what looks like a squid or octopus on his shoulder, half the tentacles falling down his back and the other half wraps around his chest, one so close to his nipple.
Oh, Jesus.
His hair is pushed back, curly locks are tucked behind his ears. I so badly wish he wasn’t hot, because then maybe my brain would work at a reasonable pace around him and my body wouldn’t be reacting in a way I wish it wouldn’t. I tell myself it’s the breeze making my nipples peak, and I just pray he doesn’t notice. I think it’s a curse in life for guys who are dicks to also be hot, it should be against the law or something. I think Satan might have made him just to torture me.
“Is that him?” I hear Bella in my ear and I try hard to not blush as he stares me down, a smirk twisting at the counter of his lips.
“Yes, Bella. Look, I have to go, I’m at work.” I rush out my words, trying to get off the phone as quickly as possible. Before it’s too obvious that we were in fact talking about him.
“No wait—” But I cut her off by shoving my phone into my bag.
“Not everything is about you James, or is that just what you’re used to? ”
Bella’s right. I've been here just over two weeks and every time I have the displeasure of being in the shop with him he seems to have at least two or three girls drooling over him. I’m lucky he mostly stays outside teaching lessons because watching these girls fall all over him is second hand embarrassment.
Girls shooting their shot is one thing, and I fully respect a woman going after what she wants, but James clearly has got no interest in them and he basically says that to them and yet here they are. I’ve seen the same girl come in every shift asking about surfboard wax. I’m no expert but surely you don’t go through it that quickly.
He presses a hand to his bare chest over where his heart should be. “Ouch. Didn’t know you were so mean, thought you were all about love, Katherine.” He pushes the door open and waits for me to walk in front of him. “And anyway, from what I can see, you don’t seem to mind the view that much,” he tells me, a smirk on his face as his eyes drop to my chest, my white dress doing nothing to disguise how my body seems to be reacting to his.
I feel my cheeks heat as I pass him. Dear god, today is going to be long.
“Tell me what you did in college?” Dom’s question is almost drowned out by the noise in the bar and also by the fact that I have not been paying attention to him.
Twenty minutes of him telling me about him … I’ve never known a man to wait a whole half an hour into a date before asking a question about the other person .
I listened for the first ten while he told me about his job, or should I say bragged about. That’s red flag one.
Red flag two would be the sports bar he brought me to. He can tell me it’s because of the great drinks, I have had three already, but it’s definitely because of the ten TV screens dotted around the space. His eyes have flicked to them in-between every sentence. I’m almost impressed that he can tell me so much while checking the score of the Australian football game showing on the TV nearest us.
The guy is a top-class asshole.
This is my fourth date in the three and half weeks I’ve been here. This is the first time where a guy has taken me for drinks, something about an evening date told me I should dress up, told me that maybe he even liked me. But as I watch his eyes trail down my neck to my chest for the third time, I’m about ready to leave, or knock his teeth out.
My pink silk bodycon dress feels like total overkill right now and I feel like everyone was looking at me as we walked in earlier. My stomach has been in bits since, my worst panic is having people stare at me or me thinking people are looking at me. Judging me. Thinking I look stupid or ugly or anything really. And this is setting me on edge. Maybe if the date was actually going well I’d feel better—but it’s not—so my brain has more space to worry.
I try to bring myself back to the conversation now that he’s actually including me in it.
“Oh, I did journalism at NYU.” I’m about to tell him all about it, but he’s already telling me about a friend or someone who did the same thing and I’m tuning him out again.
The guy is good looking, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t imagine myself spending another hour with him, let alone my whole life. The night is a bust, I know it. I’d rather be back at Ella’s in my PJs watching some romcom but I can’t tell him that. I’ll have to let it play out and hope he’ll let me pay half so I don’t feel like I’ve used him for a night out.
And then I think that maybe I have died and I’m in hell.
Burning.
My eyes travel over to the bar hoping for a waitress to see me so at least I can drown myself in another great cocktail, but instead, my eyes lock with him.
James.
He’s like a bloody parasite.
He sees me and I give him a small polite smile before turning back and paying plenty of attention to my date. Because even though I’m having one of the worst dates of my life, James does not need to know that.
I can’t seem to shake him, he’s everywhere I go.
This is the third time he’s magically been at the same place as me and I’m starting to think it’s not a coincidence. The first time, a coffee shop in town. That was easy to explain away, he didn’t say anything to me and I’m not even sure if he saw me that time. He was sat in the corner when we got there.
Date two we went to a breakfast place in Sydney. Cute .
Unfortunately, for me, he thought I was Canadian. Let’s just say he didn’t like Americans and was, in his words, ‘insulted’ by me being an American. He finished that date pretty quickly. I actually laughed when he said it, I couldn’t help it. As Bella would say, it was good for the plot.
Where was James you might ask? Saving my butt, that’s where.
My date had driven us to the place and I ended up stranded. I paid for our coffees and took them to go. Then I walked outside to call Ella to see if she could come get me or tell me how to get the ferry back. But before I could, James was just rolling past in his truck and pulled in when he saw me. He didn’t really ask what happened but I got in and he took me back to Gull’s Bay.
A weirdly nice thing for him to do considering I’m convinced that he hates me. I hadn’t seen him in the restaurant but when he passed me a doughnut in a wrapping from said breakfast place, I knew he had to have been there and had seen the whole thing.
Strike two of me being embarrassed around him.
Then for the third date, he wasn’t there and I was almost sad about it.
I was stood up.
That one might have hurt the most. Might have.
And that brings us to date number four, going about as well as a root canal.
Maybe I’m just not made for this. I have thought about asking Ella for my necklace back, regardless of only being here for a month. I need to stop being such a baby about this. This is what I have to do, my soulmate is not going to turn up on his own. I need to put myself out there even if it means I have to endure a million bad dates.
But does that mean I actually want to sit though this one any longer? No, and as if on cue, my bag starts to vibrate.
“I’m so sorry, I need to get this,” I tell him as I stop him mid long story as I see Bella’s name flash up on my screen. I basically fall off my chair trying to step away from the table so quickly.
“Yeah, of course, no worries.” He flashes me a smile as I walk towards the door, it’s far too loud in there to talk to her and honestly I need the air.
“Thank god,” I say as I pick up her call while leaning up against the wall of the bar, happy to not have Dom’s voice in my ear.
“That bad?” she questions.
“That bad. He has asked me one question about myself since we got here.” After the last terrible date, Bella told me she would call me after half an hour to save me if I needed it, and god do I need it. I don’t feel like I’m asking for too much from these guys, am I?
“Christ! What’s wrong with the guys on your side of the world, maybe you should come back?” I turn to look through the big window next to me so I can see my date.
“You know I’ve only been here like a month right? Sadly I think it’s going to take longer than that to find my soulmate.” My eyes travel as I look into the room from outside. Then, I see something I don’t think will end well for me.
The six foot something surfer moving towards my date!
This date might be going as well as the Titanic but he doesn’t need to know that. He doesn’t need to know anything.
“He’s here again,” I say quickly knowing she’ll know what I’m meaning. “And he’s walking towards my date.”
“Go!” Bella has now come round to the fact that yes, James is gorgeous, but he is my nemesis and nothing is more true than hating your best friend's nemesis. That’s how we are.
I hang up with her, while making up some excuses in my head as to why I must leave and beeline for my date but considering my five steps are the equivalent to James’ one, I’m no match and he’s here before I can blink and is talking to him.
“Oh, Katherine, I didn’t know you were on a date with Dom.” The words drip from his mouth as he smiles and I want to die again.
“You never mentioned you worked with James,” my date says and he must not realise that’s because I haven’t had the chance to tell him my last name let alone who I work with.
Then it clicks. You’ve got to be shitting me!
He knows him! They know each other!
I try my best to not fall right through the floor and right down to my fiery death .
“You guys should come join us,” James offers, pointing over to Maddie and a couple of other people sat at the bar. I decide this has got to be another coincidence because he’s with other people, and honestly why would he be stalking my dates. It’s a ridiculous thought to even cross my mind.
Even if it is, James doesn’t realise he’s saving me again.
My date must think this is a car crash too because he nods quicker than I’ve ever seen someone do, he doesn’t even look at me until he’s picked up his drink and is moving towards the group at the bar.
“Is that okay, Kat?” he finally asks, and as much as I’d like to leave, I’m already dressed up and getting a ride back with one of them wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Maddie’s there too, so what’s the worst that could happen?
The cogs in my mind kick in, thinking over everything before I nod and smile at him and he’s off again before I can even regroup.
James leans down toward me, the tall bastard. “Search going well then, Katherine?” His smirk is evil and handsome and I’d like to slap it off him and also make out with him, I hate myself for the second one.
I pick my drink up from the table before plastering a perfect smile on my face. “Shut up.”