Chapter Six #2
She almost had to drag them from the hiking. “We have another beach. With snorkeling!” she tempted them. “We’ll head back to Hamoa Beach.”
They reached Hamoa Beach in no time.
“Whoa!” Vishal stretched as he stared at the cove that was the beach. They took the stairs down to the sand.
“Let’s go rent snorkel gear,” Karan suggested, and the guys started for the rental stand.
“I’ll meet you in the water,” Nimita said. She removed her shoes and walked with purpose toward the water. The soft sand beneath her feet was warm, even hot, so she didn’t dawdle. She wasn’t trying to get some distance from Roshan Dave. She just didn’t want to burn her feet.
“Don’t you need to be fitted to snorkel?” Roshan called, following her.
“I don’t snorkel,” she told him.
“Why not?”
“Nosy much?” She wasn’t about to tell him that the gear made her feel like she couldn’t breathe. She’d done enough sharing with him today.
Roshan let her be and joined his friends.
Nimita dropped her bag with her shoes, shorts and T-shirt, in a quiet area and continued to the water in her bathing suit.
She waded into the clear, calm water until she was nearly waist deep.
The ocean was peaceful today, and it was rubbing off on her.
She dunked her head under and swam a bit.
She reconsidered the snorkel equipment for a moment.
She really wanted to get a good look at the wildlife here.
Then she shuddered. She’d had a panic attack the one time she’d tried snorkeling.
One time had been enough. She’d had no idea she was claustrophobic until she had donned the gear and gone underwater and had the very real sensation that she could not breathe.
That everything was closing in on her. Her therapist said it was leftover from the accident.
When she had felt trapped in the car. She had no trouble going underwater just to swim.
It was the feeling of the gear that bothered her.
Deep laughter from behind her caught her attention. “Hey, Nimita.”
She turned.
“Look what we got you,” Roshan said, holding up two boogie boards with a full clear face mask built into them and two sets of fins.
She furrowed her brow.
“We got you nothing.” Vishal shook his head. “It was Roshan’s idea.” He put on his mask and tube and went under the water, Karan right behind him.
“Where is your gear?” Nimita asked Roshan.
“I got a board.” He was suddenly interested in the sand near his feet. “I get claustrophobic, and I thought you might, too.”
Nimita stared at him. “How did you—?”
“I just guessed. You love every other kind of adventure, there had to be a reason.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you really claustrophobic? Or are you just trying to be…nice?”
His sunglasses covered his eyes, but the flush on his face answered her question. He was not claustrophobic at all.
Huh.
“Give me that board,” she muttered, but there was no bite in her words. She slipped on the fins and started paddling out. She turned to see him still standing where she’d left him. “You coming or what?”
His face lit up, and he followed her out.
“So how come it’s so hard for you to get a flight home? I would think that was a perk of being a flight attendant,” Roshan asked as he caught up with her.
“I’m not a flight attendant anymore,” she said into her mask.
“So what do you do now?”
“I am currently your tour guide.” Maybe if she didn’t look up, the questions would stop. The fish were various colors and shapes, the water clear… This was relaxing.
“What happened?”
She continued her observation of the gorgeous undersea scenery.
“There was an incident with a passenger. Wanderlust and I parted ways over my ‘unacceptable behavior.’” She had no idea why she told him that, other than he was wearing her down with all the questions.
Maybe relaxing in the water pulled her guard down.
“They fired you? You literally graduated at the top of our class, how does someone like you get fired?”
She lifted her head to look at him, eyes narrowed. He could not be serious. “GPAs don’t determine your future. In fact, once I got into college, my GPA ceased to even matter to me or anyone else. Except for maybe you.” She smirked at him. “I did not peak in high school.”
“You didn’t answer the question. How did you get fired?”
“Didn’t your friends show you the video?” She stared at him a moment. She hadn’t told anyone that she had lost her job, but she knew the stupid viral video had appeared hours after it had been filmed. Knew Vishal and Karan had seen it; they’d showed it to her that first morning in the hotel.
“Video?” He seemed genuinely confused.
She groaned. “There’s a viral video of what happened. But it’s not how it looks.”
“There’s always a bigger story,” Roshan said.
She considered him a moment. Fine. She lay across her board and floated like he was. “It was a series of unfortunate events.”
She paused as she recalled the day.
* * *
A middle-aged Black couple had boarded and happily introduced themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Ryan to everyone they encountered. They were on their way to Hawaii to renew their vows. Nimita recalled the pang of longing she had felt as the Ryans looked at each other with such love.
They had been followed by a woman in a vomit green designer track suit, her bottled red hair in a sleek high ponytail, who had sauntered on as if she owned the plane. She was seated directly in front of the Ryans.
Each first-class passenger was offered a small glass of champagne upon boarding, then Nimita and her colleague Shelly were to take drink orders.
Nimita had worked with Shelly just once, a few weeks ago.
It had not gone well. Shelly was twenty-two years old and, as it turned out, quite rude to passengers and averse to doing any kind of work.
Nimita had reported this to her boss. It seemed that Shelly might have found out.
Track Suit turned out to be over-the-top demanding.
First class certainly had more than its share of demanding passengers, but Track Suit was exceptional.
Young Shelly had busied herself insulting Nimita about her age and ample curves instead of seeing to the passengers’ needs.
Thank goodness her friend Michael was also working, because he was really the only help she had.
After takeoff, Nimita was delivering dirty martinis to the Ryans and to Track Suit. As Nimita was handing a martini to Mrs. Ryan, Shelly came up behind her and “accidentally” bumped her. The drinks spilled all over the couple.
“Oh. My goodness. I am so sorry.” Nimita had been genuinely mortified, even though she knew Shelly had pushed her. She gathered the glasses as the couple tried to mop up the mess. “Let me fix this.”
She returned with cleaning supplies and complimentary pajamas for the couple to wear. “You can both change while I take care of this. Again, please accept my apolo—”
“Miss,” Mrs. Ryan said kindly as she stood to go change, “accidents happen. Please don’t trouble yourself.”
“These aisles are so tight, I don’t know how you’re not all bumping into each other all the time,” her husband added, glancing in Shelly’s direction.
The younger flight attendant shot Nimita an evil smile and continued on.
The couple changed and Nimita cleaned up the mess. Track Suit kept giving her the side-eye as if Nimita cleaning was disruptive to her. Nimita apologized, but the woman simply sneered and commented that she was still waiting for her martini.
“Of course,” Nimita said as she finished cleaning. Luckily the seats weren’t wet. The couple returned from changing and started to sit back down.
Nimita offered more apologies and brought them fresh drinks.
“I am still waiting for my first drink,” demanded Track Suit.
“Of course.” Nimita went back and made a fresh drink for Track Suit. Shelly approached as she made it.
“I can take it over,” Shelly offered.
Not really caring for further interaction with Track Suit and thinking that Shelly might be feeling bad about what had happened, Nimita agreed. “That would be great.”
Nimita started up the aisle to the galley to check on the other passengers.
She had to pass Shelly as she stood chatting with Track Suit, who finally had her drink in hand.
Nimita excused herself to slide past Shelly, barely brushing her, when Shelly lurched forward as if pushed, causing Track Suit to spill her drink all over herself.
“Nimita, how could you!” Shelly shrieked.
“Did she do that on purpose?” Track Suit gasped, clearly delighted to add to the drama.
“She did! She hates me!” Shelly wailed.
“You poor sweet young thing! After all you’ve done for me!” Track Suit said, reveling in the heads turning their way.
Nimita’s mouth had gaped open. “I did not push you!”
“Then how did I fall?” wailed Shelly.
“I have no idea,” Nimita insisted
“She pushed you. Plain and simple,” said Track Suit.
“That is not true!” Nimita insisted.
“I saw it. I’m a passenger. Are you calling me a liar?” Track Suit started to stand.
Nimita was trying to keep it together. Track Suit couldn’t have seen what hadn’t happened, but Nimita couldn’t argue, either. “No. But you must be mistaken.” She noticed phones pointing in their direction now.
“You’re calling me a liar,” Track Suit insisted. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
“I didn’t see her push anyone,” said Mrs. Ryan mildly.
Track Suit stood and turned on her. “And what the hell do you know about it?”
“I know what my eyes saw. And this sweet woman was just trying to get by.” Then Mrs. Ryan pointed at Shelly and added, “That one fell on you all on her own.”
Tears left Shelly’s eyes as fast as they came as she turned on the woman. “That is a lie.”
“I have no reason to lie,” Mrs. Ryan insisted calmly.
“Oh, but I do?” Track Suit turned around to face the woman.
“I don’t know about all that. I’m just saying no one was pushed.” She let her gaze land on Shelly. “Though I wonder now about just how hard you must have shouldered your colleague when she spilled drinks on my husband and me.”
Shelly widened her eyes in shock. “Are you implying that I pushed her?”
Voices were rising. This was becoming a scene. Even more phones were out and recording.
Nimita stepped in and put her hands out as if she were calming down children. Or wild animals. “We all have a long flight ahead of us, let’s just sit and calm down—”
“After you ignored me? And then pushed this sweet young thing when she tried to help me?” Track Suit was near shouting. “I’m soaked through.”
“Allow me to get you a change of clothes—” Nimita started.
“I most certainly will not! You’ve ignored me since I boarded the plane. You’ve been—”
“That is a lie.” Mrs. Ryan stood up. “She has been nothing but wonderful.”
“She’s a bully,” shouted Shelly. “Just because she’s older. She tells me what to do—”
“I’m the senior attendant. That’s my job!” Nimita defended herself.
“But you’re mean about it,” Shelly insisted, fake tears making their appearance again. “Just because you’re so old that you shouldn’t even be flying anymore! Anyone else would have been promoted to some desk job, but you’re stuck here and you’re bitter.”
Nimita just stared at Shelly. The young woman had no idea what she was talking about.
Passengers were yelling at each other. Nimita could not calm them down. Videos were posted by the time they landed. Multiple videos. Turned out that Track Suit was the daughter of some big-wig in the company.
Nimita was jobless by the time she hit baggage claim.
* * *
“Is that why you didn’t have a room?” Roshan asked. His voice was low, but it carried some tightness.
She nodded. “Well, all the rooms for the airlines were booked. I raced around the island trying to find something open, but they book up quite fast. Especially Hawaii.” She shrugged. “This hotel was my last hope. So now I have no job, and I didn’t have a flight home arranged,” she admitted to him.
“That is…scary.”
She nodded. It certainly was. She should be more panicked. But it was hard to feel the panic out here. Clear blue skies and perfect water and sand… She sighed, content, at least for the moment. The panic would come soon enough. Probably as soon as she saw her sister.
“You look like you’re too relaxed to panic at the moment,” Roshan said.
She snapped her gaze to him. Was he reading her mind?
“Sorry, but the look on your face. I can tell you’re not that concerned right now.”
She pressed her lips together.
“Don’t worry. Not everyone can read you. And that was just a guess.” He paused. “Why did you quit BME to be a flight attendant anyway?”
“And you’ve reached your quota of questions for the day,” she said as she stood and started to walk away.
She paddled until it was shallow enough to walk.
She moved too fast in an effort to get away from Roshan and some of the truths she had just shared.
She was feeling vulnerable and did not want to be in his presence.
And she most certainly was not going to acknowledge, let alone answer, his question. Though she felt his gaze on her.
So focused was she on putting real physical space between her and Roshan and his questions and smile, she failed to navigate the rocks properly.
As a result, she stubbed her toe on one and slipped.
Pain shot up her other foot as it came down hard and twisted, putting her off balance.
She flailed her arms and went down backward, landing with a splash, her bottom hitting the sand beneath the shallow waves. She fell back and bumped her head.
Great.