Chapter 11 #2
A handsome younger guy, early twenties perhaps, was waiting with their plates at the counter.
With his tan skin and curly dark hair, he had to be of Maori descent; based on his muscular body, though, he should be anything but a waiter.
As she walked, Shanna smiled at him, then immediately tripped over the leg of a dining chair.
“Whoa, there! Are you okay?” The guy made a move to go around the counter to help her, but Shanna waved him off.
“Fine. You get used to it.”
She picked up the plate holding her pizza, quickly realizing she couldn’t bring all the food alone. Actually, she probably wasn’t safe carrying even one plate.
“Need some help?” the guy asked.
“If you wouldn’t mind. Our table is right over there.”
With the skill of a juggler, he picked up three sets of cutlery, tucked them under his arm, then proceeded with the other two plates.
“Thank you so much,” Shanna said as they delivered the food to the table.
“All good,” the man said. “I apologize for the wait, guys. Don’t know what caused it, but our order-taking system suddenly went berserk.”
Chris and Simon looked at Shanna with twin, unimpressed expressions.
“Sorry,” Shanna said to the waiter.
“Oh, there’s no need for you to apologize. Best you can do is enjoy your food!” He gave them all a nod, shot Shanna a brilliant white smile, and went back inside.
Chris dug into her pancakes without a word, while Simon followed the guy with a cloudy gaze, glanced briefly at Shanna, then started on his pizza.
“You put pineapple on it?” Chris mumbled through a mouth full of pancakes and whipped cream. “You disappoint me.”
“How will I ever recover,” Simon responded in a flat tone, very similar to Chris.
“No wonder you don’t want to go on a date with him,” Chris said.
Simon choked on the latest bite of pizza. “You what?”
“It’s not like that!” Shanna sent what she hoped was an angry glance to Chris. “Gran said I had to go on a date. It’s one of the conditions for the bonding ritual.”
“You …” Simon put a fist in front of his mouth and gradually coughed off his surprise. “You need to go on a date. That’s a bizarre condition.”
“Well, you wouldn’t know much about witchcraft,” Shanna said, feeling the need to defend Gran. Not that it was Gran’s fault; she was just following a book.
Simon rolled his slice of pizza and took a big bite. “So, when are you going?”
“I don’t know.” She lifted her chin. “I haven’t decided yet.” It was a strange feeling, being hostile to him—but something about his nonchalant tone annoyed her. Of course, she’d decided it was better he didn’t kiss her, and she was definitely not going on a date with him. It was self-preservation.
“Do you need to do it before the ritual?” Simon continued in his annoying tone.
“Yup.” Shanna’s cutlery screeched against the plate as she cut her pizza. In the uncomfortable silence, it felt like nails on a chalkboard.
After a minute of continuous quiet torture—Shanna could see that Simon was bothered, but he stubbornly kept his gaze on his pizza—Chris was the one to speak up.
“Can you two stop with the unresolved sexual tension? It’s ruining my pancake experience.”
Simon and Shanna burst into simultaneous defenses.
“I didn’t do anything!”
“What sexual tension?”
“There’s no sexual tension between us!”
Chris looked from one to the other. “Uh-huh. That’s why you two went skinny dipping yesterday.”
“I was not naked,” Simon said at the same time as Shanna went, “That’s adult business, and it doesn’t mean sexual tension.”
“Exactly!” Simon pointed to her, still clutching his knife. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Sure,” Chris drawled. “And you definitely don’t want to go on a date together.”
“No!” they once again said in unison. Shanna lowered her eyebrows. They needed to stop … matching so well.
“I have nothing against Shanna going on dates.” Simon disguised his tone by stuffing more pizza into his mouth. “In fact, she can go on a date right now, if she wants to.”
Shanna straightened up, a twinge of annoyance pinging in her stomach. “Maybe I will go on a date right now.”
“Yeah, you should.”
“I should!” She stood, putting her hands on her hips. Her confidence wavered when she realized she had no candidates. Unless …
The Maori guy had exited the restaurant, waving at someone inside, his server’s apron off.
Shanna would never be as audacious, but her wounded pride would not allow her to sit back down.
She didn’t need Simon for a date! She was a fine, reasonably—perhaps—attractive woman, and she could get a date if she wanted to.
She started walking over to the man, but Simon followed. “What?” she barked at him.
He waved his right hand, showing the wrist tattoo.
Oh, shoot. She hadn’t considered that. “Stay behind, then. A hundred feet is plenty.”
She continued toward the guy, smiling as she caught his eye. “Hi.”
“All good with your service?” he asked. “My shift is over, but if you need anything—”
“No, no, everything is perfect. I …” She wrung her hands. “This is a bit odd, but would you go on a date with me? Just a casual one!” she quickly added. “A walk around, or something. I—eesh—uh—”
Dammit. She’d never been this nervous when talking to people. She’d blame this one on Simon.
The guy’s eyes widened, but then he said, “Sure, I reckon I could … right now?”
“Yeah. If you wouldn’t mind.”
“Sweet as.” He scratched the back of his head. “But cliché with the tourist spot and all, but do you want to go on a walk to the rocks? They’re cool as.”
“Lead the way, sir!”
He laughed, gesturing her over the road. “Don’t call me sir, though. I’m Nikau. Nick for friends.”
“All right … Nick?”
“And you are?”
“Shanna.”
“Well, nice to meet you, Shanna. How come you’re here, date-hunting?”
Across the road, they headed down the footpath, surrounded by thick coastal brush reaching to their heads.
“I’m traveling. Following my mom’s footprints, actually. She was here a long time ago.”
“Aww, that’s sweet,” Nick said. “Are you doing the ‘taking photos at the same locations’ thing?”
“I hadn’t thought about that.” She smiled, and as the path narrowed, their shoulders touched.
Pretending to look down, she threw a quick look over her shoulder, but because of the curves in the path and the thick bushes, she couldn’t see Simon.
Her tattoo hadn’t yanked yet, though, so he had to be following.
“That’s a sweet tattoo,” Nick said, pointing to her wrist. “What does it mean?”
“A bond.”
“To your mother?”
“Huh?”
“It’s on your right arm. For us, the tattoos on the right side of the body are dedicated to our mother’s ancestry.
Left is for the father’s.” He showed her the inside of his forearm, with a spiral tattoo that looked like a band made of fish scales.
“Mom said I had to get this one done before I left home. It’s meant to be for abundance and health, and the spiral shape’s all about growth and new beginnings. ”
“Oh, that’s lovely. May I see?”
Nick nodded, and they stopped. She leaned in, touching the tattoo with her index finger.
Gravel crunched behind them as Simon rounded the corner, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw them, then walked backward behind the bushes.
“Wasn’t that your mate?” Nick asked.
“Mate? No, nooo, we’re not—we’re only friends!”
Nick gave her an easy laugh. “That’s what I meant. Mate as a friend.”
Of course. Silly her. “Uh—maybe he also wants to see the rocks?”
“Wanna wait for him?”
“No! It’s fine. Let’s go.” She nudged him forward.
The bushes soon opened to a view of the ocean and cliffs of dark gray rock, with horizontal lines running through them.
“The Pancake Rocks,” Nick announced with his arms spread, then laughed at himself. Shanna joined him.
“They’re stunning.” She leaned on the wooden fence guarding the sheer drop to the ocean.
The horizontal layers were so perfect, spread only inches apart from each other, it looked almost unnatural—like a computer glitch had occurred in the rocks.
Shanna mused at the thought. She might be bad news for technological devices, but nothing she could do could make for such a magnificent display of nature.
Beyond the outcrop, the coast continued, thick and lush green, reminding her of Jurassic Park.
“And a bit ahead is the blowhole,” Nick said. “When the sea is rough enough, you’ll get water bursting out through the narrow cracks.” He squinted with one eye. “Feels like there’s a joke in there I should use on a date.”
Shanna giggled.
As they continued walking, and Nick explained more about how the rocks were formed—from earthquakes over millions of years, which flattened the seabed each time—she said, “You know a lot about this. But you said you weren’t from here?”
“I’m taking a year off before I return to my studies in Auckland,” Nick said. “Traveling around. Picking up whatever work is available. Been along the west coast for a few months now.”
“Oh! You might be able to help me then. This is one of the places my mom had been to.” She pulled out the postcard. “But we’re not sure which one it is. Something to do with the gold rush?”
Nick looked at the card, turned it around, and read the message: “I wouldn’t exchange this for all the gold in the world.”
“One of the mining towns. Probably Ross,” he said. “It’s further down the coast, hard to miss. Do you have a map?”
“Yes, here.” She unfolded it, and they bent over, Nick showing her where they were right now, then tracing the road down to Ross.
“Sweet as, you have an actual map.”
“Technological devices are notoriously unreliable in my vicinity.”
“Oh?”
“Long story.”
“Well, we’re about halfway through the walk, and I don’t know how far into the date.” He flashed her a cute, lopsided smile. “But I understand if you don’t want to reveal all of your secrets. Play it cool.” He winked.
Considering how much of a disaster this date could have been, she’d really chosen well. In another reality, she might have really liked Nick. Well, she liked him here as well—at least as much as she wasn’t preoccupied with a certain other maddening man stalking her despite not wanting to date her.
“Anyway, if you want, I can mark some cool points on the map—scenic lookout spots and such,” Nick said.
“I’d love that! Here.” She brought out a sharpie and laid the map on the flat side of her bag.
As Nick bent to write on it, Shanna caught Simon, standing down the path, much less than a hundred feet away, with a rather unimpressed look on his face. As she stared at him, he wordlessly stared back and only raised his hand, waving the tattoo.
She sent him a narrowed-eye look, hoping to say, “As if that’s the problem.”
He gave her a sickly-sweet smile.
She made a shooing motion with her hand.
“Sandflies?” Nick asked.
“Huh?”
“I thought you were chasing them. Nasty buggars.” He handed her the map.
“Oh, no. I was stretching my arm.” She smiled at him and threaded their arms, making sure he wouldn’t look in Simon’s direction. “Shall we?”
Over the next few minutes, they reached the furthest part of the Pancake Rocks outcrop, with unparalleled views of the turbulent ocean. Shanna had seen Simon following them one more time, but then suddenly, her wrist yanked.
She pouted, yanking forward. He thought he could control this date, huh?
She’d been used to the occasional tug by now—it happened here and there when one went to the bathroom while the other forgot to move closer, or Simon parked the car and went to the hotel lobby, forgetting they had to go together. But now, as she yanked again, her wrist firmly held back.
She couldn’t move.
“Something wrong?” Nick asked.
Shanna tugged again; it may have given in an inch, but no more. What the hell was Simon doing? Hugging a tree so she couldn’t yank him forward?
This was below even childish.
“Give me a second.” She flashed Nick a sorry smile and marched back down the path, hands clenched into fists. Now he had decided to be the jealous husband? He wanted this bond undone. He wanted nothing to do with her. He said he did not want to go on a date.
“Simon!” she hissed, looking around the bushes. Where was he? “Simon! Stop it, right now!”
Her wrist had stopped tugging, so he wasn’t moving further away. She paused at the highest point of the path, where the bushes had cleared, offering a view of the rocks on both sides—the open ocean on one and the ragged crevice of the blowhole on the other.
She was just about to turn, begging forgiveness from Nick and unloading it onto Simon later … and then, her heart froze.
A part of the fence that had been perfectly fine minutes earlier, when she’d walked by, had collapsed outward.
And down into the ocean.