9. Eliana
NINE
Whoever inventedslow mornings needs to come to The Shredder House and teach Gabriel how it’s done. The sun is only just beginning to peek through the horizon, but the team is already out in the chilly ocean trying to get through an intense morning practice. Gabriel, clearly upset about the bar fight, seems to have instructed them with a nearly impossible task – master a new aerial maneuver to use in the next competition…which happens to be three days from now.
I’ve been avoiding him, scared he might fire me for being the reason the bar fight happened in the first place. I should’ve just sat with the girls and the lifeguards, or stayed with the boys by the pool table, instead of being off on my own last night. Guilt starts to build in my chest as I watch them struggling and shivering in the cold water while I sit on the dry sand, warm under my hoodie.
Because of me and my bad luck, they’re already suffering.
I squeeze my eyes shut, pushing the thought from my mind.
I should do them a favor and just leave.
As the guilt becomes unbearable, I attempt to distract myself by checking social media. I posted my first post to every social platform this morning, introducing myself to the teams’ followers. It’s doing well so far with the comments and likes growing by the minute. I had also posted a story asking them to make suggestions for content they want to see. I wasn’t expecting to get thousands of replies, but that’s exactly what happened. I decide to go through the answers tonight and begin planning the most requested content first.
As I scroll through my phone, Zale paddles to shore and runs up to his pile of belongings laying on the sand next to me, water dripping from him and onto my thigh and shoulder. I scoot away from the dripping water and look up at him as he gulps down a mouthful of his drink.
“Late night?” Zale grins.
“Not at all,” I reply dryly, “how mad do you think Gabriel is?” I ask quietly, but I swear I still see Gabriel bristle.
“Oh, he’s pissed.”
The anxious feeling in my chest grows heavier from his words.
I’m definitely losing my job.
“Zale, are you planning on standing out here all day? Or are you going to actually surf for once?” Gabriel shouts at him from the shore, waving his clipboard around hysterically. Zale drops his bottle on top of his towel, grumbling under his breath as he walks towards the water, picking up his surfboard along the way.
A gust of morning air blows my hair around and sends a chill down my spine. I pull my hood over my head, grateful that my sweats are fleece lined. Apparently, the weather is usually warm and some days scorching hot in Saltwater Springs, but all I’ve noticed is the morning chill that comes straight from the arctic.
I zoom in on Koa and begin snapping some photos, figuring I can’t go wrong with gathering shots of the team practicing for social media.
“Nice front side air reverse, Koa!” Gabriel screams out, clapping his hand while his clipboard is tucked under his arm.
From what I can tell, Koa is the best male surfer on the team. He performs the maneuver like it’s simple and I’m shocked every time he lands his board gracefully instead of wiping out. He makes it look easy.
On the female’s side, Maliah is a force to be reckoned with. Almost as if she’s challenging Koa, she performs the opposite of him, a backside air reverse maneuver, as Gabriel called it, that has him howling with excitement when she lands her board. I snap photos of her too and notice, through my zoomed in lens, that she sticks her tongue out at Koa who rolls his eyes in return.
I don’t know what happened between them after she pushed him away from the bar fight last night, but I sensed a different type of tension this morning. Instead of ignoring him as she usually does, she somewhat acknowledged his presence by offering him a fork without looking at him when they finished plating the pancakes that I’d woken up early to make. At least she’s finally acknowledging him, that’s a good first step.
When Kairi paddles back to the shore and runs to the surfboard rack to change out her board for a smaller one, Gabriel walks up to me and my heart jumps so far up my throat I feel like I’m going to puke. I ball one of my hands into a fist, digging my fingernails into my palm as I look up at his displeased face.
Something about how he looks at me reminds me of my father. Stern but caring. It makes me feel even shittier about the bar fight, especially after he pulled out all the stops to get me here.
“How are you doing? I heard about last night.”
“I’m doing okay, the team was there to help me out,” I pause, “I’m really sorry, Gabriel.”
“Don’t apologize for that shit, you didn’t do anything wrong,” he frowns at me, “but you guys should have called me.”
“It all happened really fast.”
“I’m sorry you had to experience that. Bar fights and predators aren’t something we see often in Saltwater Springs but in the cases where they do occur, we deal with it accordingly.” He sighs deeply. “I want you to know that all three men have been detained and will be charged. I’ve made sure of it. Please don’t let this scare you away from the position.”
My heart stutters in my chest at his words. He’s not firing me, instead he’s asking me not to quit. I’ve never had a job want me to stay this badly, usually they’re quick to get rid of me at the first opportunity, but Gabriel makes me feel like what I’m doing with the team is important work.
On top of that, he had a hand in catching those creeps and pressing charges. He is so connected, it’s almost scary. He has people that can wipe articles from the internet, and he seems to have a hand in law enforcement too.
“How did you manage to find them?” I ask.
“The security camera footage at the bar showed them messing with the drink before offering it to you. I handed that over to the police this morning and they were able to find all three men fairly quickly.”
“Does the footage also show the fight?” I ask, worried that the boys will get in trouble since they threw the first punches.
He pauses and studies me for a moment. “Not anymore,” he says, “anyways, the team will be doing more underwater practices in the coming days, so you’ll need to get gear for yourself. Why don’t you head on over to the local surf shop after this practice to get wet suits and a waterproof case for that camera?”
“I can go with you,” Kairi offers as she walks up to us with her new smaller board tucked under her arm, “I’ve been needing to visit and get a new wet suit anyway.”
“That would be nice, thanks,” I say, smiling as she runs back out to the ocean, paddling her way to the others.
“You still have my credit card, right? Use that to pay for everything,” Gabriel says, returning his attention back to the team.
“I can’t do that; you already have a hefty bill from the bar to pay.” He turns back around and his blue eyes find mine as he frowns.
“I have the money to spend, why not spend it?”
“At the rate you’re letting us spend, you might end up penniless by the end of the week,” I joke.
He smiles a real smile and I notice he has dimples that somehow make him look even more angelic, as if that were physically possible.
“I could never be penniless, Eliana.”
I bite the urge to ask him how much a surf coach makes and decide to save that question for Kairi when we go shopping, hopeful that she knows the answer.
Returning my attention back to my camera, I point it toward the ocean searching for Griffin. When I find him, I notice he’s hanging back from the others as he struggles to keep balance on his board. Every time he stands up, I see fear written all over his face. I snap a few shots before Gabriel blows his whistle and everyone starts to paddle back in.
Gabriel dismisses everyone but places a hand on Griffins chest, stopping him from leaving. I stay behind, pretending to pack up my equipment very slowly as I eavesdrop.
“Stay for another hour, we’re going to start from the basics,” Gabriel says in a stern voice, “starting with riding the white water to shore.”
“You’re fucking kidding me, that’s beginner crap,” Griffin responds, his face turning red.
“You’re surfing like a beginner out there, Fin,” Gabriel hisses., “I can’t allow you to enter any competitions at this rate, it would ruin everything we’ve worked so hard to build.”
“That’s complete bullshit,” Griffin raises his voice.
Despite not agreeing with Gabriel, Griffin turns around and walks back into the ocean, throwing his board down and hopping on. When he reaches the lineup, his eyes find mine and he glares at me as I feel a charge shoot through my whole body, head to toe.
“Ready?” Kairi asks beside me, pulling my attention away from his hypnotizing grey eyes.
“I thinkyou should get two wet suits. One full body for the extremely cold mornings and then one that’s short for when it’s not that bad,” Kairi says, shuffling through the racks of wet suits.
“Can’t I just wear a normal bathing suit for the mornings that aren’t too bad? I never knew how expensive wet suits are,” I say, holding up the price tag of the closest wetsuit.
Two wet suits would come out to just over five hundred dollars after taxes.
“No, the water is still cold. Trust me, you’ll want to wear this. Plus, you’ll thank me after Fin sees how nice your ass looks in it.” She giggles, tossing two wet suits in my size into my arms.
“Excuse me?” I choke. “Nothing is going on between me and Fin. He literally acts like he hates me for whatever reason. I can promise you, I don’t care what he thinks of my ass.”
“I’m not so sure he hates you,” she says, a small smile playing on her lips as she walks over to the surfboard racks, “I think he just hates how distracted you make him.”
“What do you mean?”
“He stares at you all the time, even during practice.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I say, brushing off her suspicion.
“Eyes speak, Eliana. It means everything.”
She pulls down a beautiful white foam board with lavender and pink flowers painted all over it.
“I think you should get this, too,” she says, examining the board.
“Not happening. I have no idea how to surf.”
“It’s never too late to learn. I’m sure Fin wouldn’t mind teaching you, and it’s probably more to his benefit since it’ll help refresh all the beginner basics he seems to have forgotten,” she says, waving the cashier over.
A tall, lanky, teenager walks over to us. His brown hair is tied up into a bun atop his head, with curly strands pointing in every direction, and he exudes “hipster-esque” with his lensless, oversized glasses. I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling or giggling as he winks at Kairi, his shoulders pulled back in mock confidence.
“Hi, beautiful,” he says confidently, taking the board out of her hands.
“Hi, James.” She ruffles his hair, like he’s a little boy.
“It’s Charlie, sweetheart.”
He blatantly ignores her friend zone attempt and checks her out, biting his lip as his blue braces glisten in the overhead lights. She looks at me over her shoulder with an expression that screams please, God, help me. I turn around to stop myself from letting a laugh burst through my lips.
When he finally walks away, we casually look through the clothing racks and surf accessories. She studies some of the clip-on fins hanging on the walls while I pick up a waterproof camera case.
“This shopping trip is starting to look like it might be over Gabriel’s budget.”
“He doesn’t have a budget, he’s filthy rich,” Kairi checks the price tag on a fin.
“Surf coaches really make that much money?” I ask, contemplating why I’m in marketing instead of coaching.
“He used to be a pro world surfer, kept winning first place in almost every single competition so he was racking in all the money from the wins and from his sponsors.”
“Woah, I didn’t know that.”
“Search his name tonight if you want to know more, he is a very famous name in the surf world.”
“Why’d he stop?”
“I guess, when you’re at the top for so long it gets boring,” she shrugs before handing two zinc bottles to Charlie along with my camera case as we approach the checkout counter.
He totals up our order and I nearly puke from the number staring back at me, an extra zero added to what I thought I’d be paying. With a trembling hand I give him Gabriel’s credit card and he swipes it, handing it back to me seconds later.
“Can you have these delivered to The Shredder House?” Kairi asks him, leaning forward on the checkout counter, propping her chin on her fists, and batting her eyelashes at him.
His face is scorching red as he stares at her, and I swear I see drool pooling from the corner of his mouth. He blinks twice before shaking some sense back into himself.
“Y-yeah of course, Kairi,” he says breathlessly. “I’ll drop it all off on my lunch break in an hour.”
“Thanks, James,” she says, blowing him a kiss before she locks arms with me and walks us out into the bustling streets.
“It’s Charlie,” he calls out as the door closes behind us.
We make our way over to a beach themed ice cream parlor and grab a seat at their outside patio while we wait for our ice cream to arrive. I had ordered a Seabreeze Caramel Crunch, which is just a fancy way of saying Caramel ice cream. Kairi ordered the Sandy Shores Cookie Dough flavor.
“So, back to you and Griffin,” she says, staring out at the calm ocean as couples walk along the shore, hand in hand.
“There is no me and Griffin.”
“I think there is.” She wiggles her brows at me. “I’ve never seen him get as protective as he did last night. He wouldn’t punch someone and risk getting booted off the team, I think our Fin has a little crush.”
“Why would he get booted of the team for punching someone?”
“Coach is strict on the no physical fighting rule. If we break it, we get kicked off the team and out of the house, no second chances.”
“Oh my god.” That guilty feeling from earlier eases itself back into my stomach and I thank the heavens that my ice cream hasn’t arrived yet.
I was so worried about Gabriel firing me, I never considered the possibility that Griffin or Zale could get fired too.
“Don’t worry, he’s usually a bit more lenient with Griffin and Zale. They’ve known each other for what seems like forever. He’ll probably just get more stern with them for a few days.”
“Thank goodness,” I release the breath I was holding.
“Hmm, looks like someone was worried about Griffin,” she says, side-eyeing me with a smirk.
“Anyways,” I roll my eyes with a small smile, “Zale and Koa were protective too, that would mean, by your logic, that they all have a crush on me which is highly unlikely.”
“Zale definitely isn’t protective – he’s just a hot head – and Koa is always protective, but not Fin.” She smiles as she returns her gaze to the ocean. “He insisted on being the one to drive you home, even though there was more than enough room in the team van.”
My cheeks grow warm from her insinuation, but I don’t say anything, which seems to spark her curiosity as she turns to look at me with a wide grin.
“So, what exactly happened on that drive? I couldn’t help but notice you guys got back home much later than the rest of us.”
“Nothing happened! We just stopped to get some food before coming home,” I mumble.
“He bought you food?” she squeals. “He wanted to make sure you weren’t going home hungry,” she coos as she puts a hand to her heart, and I swear her eyes start tearing up as she lets out a sigh.
“You’re looking too much into it, he was hungry and I was hungry, so we got food.”
“And drove home to eat it?”
I hesitate, her eyes growing more sparkly. “Not exactly.”
“Oh. My. GOSH!” She squeals, jumping out of her seat. “Tell me everything.”
So, I do. I tell her about the picture in his visor, I tell her about the lookout point, and the conversation we had about his injury. By the end of it, she’s calmly back in her seat nodding quietly.
“There’s definitely more to the story that he isn’t telling anyone. I also think that accident scared him. He looks absolutely petrified out in the water, it’s sad to see.”
“I noticed that during this morning’s practice too,” I nod in agreement.
“He needs to learn how to trust himself in the water again,” she says as our ice cream arrives.
But how does he do that?
I spend the rest of our time there slowly eating my caramel ice cream while playing out different scenarios to get Griffin to become more comfortable in the water again.
It doesn’t take long for the perfect plan to form in my mind.