Chapter 15 #2
‘All right, let’s get you some fruit and water to replace those tears. You heard him…’ He leans across the table for flavoured water and pours me a glass. Mimicking his friend’s accent, he states, ‘You need to hydrate.’
My amusement is short-lived though, because I realise now that Williams knows the truth… ‘Amanda doesn’t know, does she, about…?’
He hands me the full glass. ‘It’s not my story to tell.’
I nod. ‘Thank you.’
As I’m finishing my second glass of flavoured water and a plate of watermelon, Gregory gives Amanda a hand back onto the yacht. She pats his shoulder and says something that makes him shake his head with a smirk.
Williams and I watch them, waiting for a clue, but they apparently won’t be giving any insight. Hiding my no doubt red and puffy eyes behind my sunglasses, I say, ‘I’ve hydrated.’
Gregory bites into a piece of watermelon. ‘Good.’
‘Can I know what we’re doing now?’
‘I’m taking you diving.’ His wide, youthful grin makes my lips turn in response.
‘Diving how? Like off the boat?’
He chuckles. ‘Scuba diving. Wet suits, regs, tanks.’
‘I can’t just dive. I’ve never done it before.’ As I say it, I’m already giddy about the idea.
‘That’s the point, baby; I want you to experience it. With me.’
‘But won’t I need lessons?’
‘Ja. I’ll teach you.’ His playful South African twang thickens, making my stomach jump.
‘You’ll teach me how to dive?’
‘You only need to know the basics.’
‘How many times have you been diving? I’ll be breathing through a tank. I don’t think it’s—’
He places two fingers over my pout. ‘I’m a qualified instructor. So’s Williams, and he’ll be with us.’
‘You’re a dive instructor?’ I ask through his fingers. ‘When on earth did you have time to become a dive instructor?’
‘In case you haven’t noticed, angel, I own a yacht that anchors in the Caribbean.’
‘All right smart-arse. When do we start?’
‘Right now.’ His eyes are beaming as he inclines his head in the direction of the harbour. I see Carl loading six tanks and bags of equipment onto a speedboat with purpose-made holders for the tanks. I stand to get a better look.
Two strong arms wrap around my waist and a chin rests on top of my head. ‘Excited, beautiful?’
‘Ha. Damn right I am.’
* * *
Carl manoeuvres the dive boat into a small bay where we’re the only people in sight. A small cove of golden sand, flanked by rocks, is decorated with pebbles and shells where waves are rolling gently to make white fluffy clouds on the shoreline.
Gregory stands on the front of the boat in only a pair of board shorts, his tanned skin enhancing the muscles of his already striking body. He drops anchor and gives Carl a thumbs up, then stands, legs spread for balance, with a smug half-smile as I stare, unashamedly delighting in his splendour.
‘Like what you see, baby?’
‘Always.’
He jumps down to the small deck space, taking off his shades to show me the playful sheen of his eyes. Happy and carefree, at least for a while, in his board shorts with dark hair messed up from sea water, he looks his age.
‘You can stay in your bikini for now; we’ll be shallow and the water’s warm. We’ll put you in your gear on shore and go over the basics.’
‘Hmm, and there was me thinking I’d mastered the basics.’
‘Let’s hope you’re as good at the dive basics as you are at the other basics,’ he says with a wink that makes me chuckle.
Williams makes his way ashore with two dive tanks and Carl follows with two sets of everything else.
Gregory jumps into the water then holds his hands to lower me.
When we reach the sand, he talks me through the equipment and very briefly how to set it up, whilst Williams and Carl catch some rays on the beach.
When Gregory feels I’ve sufficiently listened, repeated back to him and absorbed everything he has to say, and I’ve managed not to laugh at his patronising method of teaching for more than five entire minutes, he helps me into the BCD jacket.
He talks me through strapping myself in with the belt around the waist and harness-type straps over the shoulders, all the while holding onto the tank and breathing apparatus attached to the inflatable jacket, taking the weight for me.
‘These things weigh a tonne,’ I say, bending forward slightly to ease the weight of four metal blocks attached to my waist by a coarse, thick material belt.
‘They won’t feel too bad in the water. Ready?’
‘Yep.’
‘All right, it’ll feel heavy when I let go of the tank. Head into the water and kneel. I’ll bring your fins.’
‘Okay. Let’s do it.’
He releases the tank and I fall back, slapstick style. ‘Holy shit, that’s heavy.’
Gregory catches me with a hearty laugh.
‘Don’t tell me you’re ready if you’re not. Ready?’
I blow out. ‘Yep. Ready now.’
‘Okay, go on,’ he laughs.
On our knees, just below the surface, Gregory teaches me how to breathe through my own regulator and switch mine with his spare if I get in trouble. That thought scares me. He shows me how to clear my mask and retrieve my regulator if it falls out of my mouth.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll be with you. I won’t let anything happen to you.’
‘I know you won’t.’
When we’re back on the boat, Carl drives us to a stick poking out of the waves, which is apparently a marker for a dive site.
‘I was out here with Bryony last week and we saw four turtles,’ Carl tells me.
‘Turtles?’ I turn to Gregory. ‘Seriously?’
He nods with a delectable smile.
‘Oh my gosh, I’ve only ever seen them in Attenborough documentaries.’
Gregory hands me a short wetsuit. ‘Put this on.’
‘Aren’t you wearing one?’
‘I’ll be fine in shorts. You might find the water cold down there, especially your first time. It’ll make the weights more comfortable on your hips, too. Dunk the suit in the water first; it’s easier to get in when it’s wet.’
‘I’ve no doubt it is,’ I say with a mischievous wink.
When I’m suited up, he makes me recite the pre-water kit checks he taught me but he does the work. ‘Big willies really are fun,’ I tell him. ‘BCD. Weights. Releases. Air and final check.’
He helps me sit onto the rim of the boat, then fixes himself up and when I hear an almighty splash, I find both him and Williams and Gregory surfacing from under the water.
‘What on earth? How do I do that?’
‘Fully inflate your BCD. Good girl.’
‘Don’t good girl me.’
‘Christ. Come on then, big girl, put your hand over your mouthpiece and your mask. Now cross your legs and—’
When I surface, Gregory and Williams are on my side of the boat. Gregory removes his mouthpiece to speak. ‘Okay, you need to deflate your BCD and sink down. Don’t forget to go slow and equalise your ears like I showed you. If your ears hurt, kick back up just a little and try again.’
My heart starts beating fast but I deflate my BCD and sink just like he taught me. Williams is there hovering just above the ocean bed and once I’ve managed to stabilise my buoyancy, he signals to ask if I’m okay then for me to follow him and as I do, I notice Gregory slide in line beside me.
It takes me a minute or two to adjust to being in the water, trying to remember everything I learned and swim and float at the same time.
Gregory stays right by my side the whole time and signals to ask if I’m okay.
My breaths come thick and fast, many more bubbles rising from my regulator than the number coming from Williams and Gregory combined.
Gregory rolls onto his back and looks me in the eye, reassuring me and making me feel safe.
My breathing calms and when he’s satisfied, he drifts back to my side.
He takes my hand, rolling his thumb across my knuckles, guiding me along with him.
Now. Calm. Safe. I start to appreciate this new, colourful, exquisite underworld.
We move over corals, pinks, purples, blues.
Gregory points out an enormous aqua and purple giant clam that snaps shut when we move close.
Small, orange, weed-type things, beautiful and bright, like jelly, are just like I’ve seen on TV.
Gregory leaves me briefly to swim to the mini bushes and points out a fish that looks just like Nemo.
I hear a ting and I’m surprised by how easily I can manoeuvre to look at Williams tapping his tank with a piece of metal.
He places one hand over the other, fingers bent, interlaced and pointing to the seabed, and he turns his thumbs in circles.
Gregory moves quickly at the signal I don’t recognise and, taking my hand, he glides us towards the spot Williams is watching.
A huge, beautiful green turtle moves its arms elegantly up and down and drifts through the water.
The sight is so profound, the bubbles from my regulator stop until Gregory taps my back.
The most important rule is to breathe, Scarlett; you mustn’t hold your breath underwater.
I nod and take a breath that makes me rise in the water so Gregory has to take my hand quickly and pull me back to his level, where I continue watching the turtle and follow behind as it swims away from us.
When it eventually moves into the distance, I’m so giddy, I roll in the water, amazed at the feeling of complete weightlessness.
Freedom. So far removed from the real world.
And I get to share my technicolour heaven with the man of my dreams.
His eyes are beaming when he swims alongside me.
I point to my eye, then my heart, then right at him.