Olivia
‘Now, is this or is this not the best banana milkshake you’ve ever had in your life?’ Cece grinned, proudly raising her cup in the air as they made their way back to the beach.
‘Hell no!’ Cece looked horrified. ‘Life is way too short not to eat sugar.’
‘Ah, always the risk with a morning shake.’ Cece shrugged. ‘Have you got much to do today?’
with sweetness – under the heat of the sun, it was making her feel a little drunk.
‘Are you religious?’
‘No.’ Olivia steadied herself as a stray dog hurtled past her on the sand. ‘Definitely not.’
Her mind began to swim with images. Walking into the living room and seeing her mum and dad on their knees, eyes closed, fervently whispering prayer after prayer for Leah.
The local priest visiting the house to bless the entire family, whilst her baby sister lay in the bed next to them, unable to even open her eyes from the pain.
The funeral, with the same priest praising God for taking Leah into his arms and welcoming her to heaven.
‘But you love visiting churches?’
‘Let’s just say, I’m not very good at lying on a beach all day and reading books.
’ Olivia nodded towards the swarms of tourists that had descended upon the beach, loaded with towels and not enough sun cream.
The patchwork quilt of red and white skin was stark against the golden sand.
‘I needed something a bit more cultural to do while I was here.’
‘Ah, well that blows my offer of sitting by the ocean out of the window.’ Cece winked. ‘I have an hour until my next client.’
‘Hey, there’s always room for negotiation.’
‘Go on …’
‘I’ll sit for a bit, as long as it’s in the shade. I’ll roast in this heat otherwise.’
‘Deal!’ Cece gestured to a patch of palm trees a little to their left. ‘Over here looks perfect.’
Annoyingly, they had no towels or deckchairs to protect them from the searing hot sand, which, even in the shade of the trees, had risen to quite a temperature. Olivia hovered above the ground, switching her weight every so often between
bum cheeks so as to avoid crisping one more than the other.
As she rested her back against the rough bark of a tree, she took a moment to absorb the view.
The ocean and sky bleeding their blues into one another like halves of the same whole.
Children throwing themselves into the oncoming waves, tossing their bodies around as though they were easily replaceable.
Fishermen hauling their catch up the beach, their boats standing to attention like neat wooden toys, each painted a mixture of reds and greens and yellows.
It was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that Olivia couldn’t help but reach for her phone to take a picture.
‘I know, I know, it’s super touristy.’ She laughed as Cece watched her snap away. ‘But my friend Kate will kill me if I don’t show her this.’
‘Hey, no judgement here. I have about a hundred pictures of this beach on my phone. It’s idyllic.’
‘It is.’ She took a couple more for good measure and fired off the best ones to Kate, her brother and then, as a quick afterthought, her mum and dad.
‘I’ve been to many places in my life, but I don’t think anywhere beats this.’ Cece sighed, shuffling further down into the sand. ‘Where’s your favourite place?’
But Olivia couldn’t answer. In fact, she’d barely heard the question. Her whole being had become focused on the little notification that sat at the top of her screen. She hadn’t seen it before, the glare from the sun obscuring it from view. But there it was, almost yelling the words at her.
One new email from jpgreen@
‘Olivia?’ Cece peered over at her. ‘Is everything OK?’
How could she even think about answering that without
reading Jacob’s email? The fact that he was alive was a huge relief, but now the sting of his two-week delay pierced her heart. What was he playing at?
‘Uh-huh,’ she replied distractedly, clicking on to the message and watching as it loaded. Her eyes plucked words at random from the short paragraph on screen.
Was that it?
She tried to scroll further down the screen.
That’s it!
She read the email again. It was so concise. So cold. Where were the stories? Where was the teasing and the joking? And – she felt a hairline splinter through her heart – where was their usual sign-off?
Say hi to the ocean for me.
Jacob x
Just Jacob.
‘Olivia!’ Cece gave her a firm nudge. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Sorry. It’s just an unexpected message, that’s all.’
‘Unexpected in a good way or a bad way?’
‘Both, I guess,’ she answered honestly, staring at the message once more.
‘It’s from a friend I met out here. I hadn’t heard from him in two weeks, and he’s just replied but it feels …
I don’t know.’ She wanted to shove the phone under Cece’s nose as evidence, and at the same time toss it straight into the ocean and never look at it again.
‘He said he’s been sick – that’s why he didn’t reply – but the whole message feels a little cold. ’
‘Can I take a look?’
‘Sure.’ Olivia passed the phone, too consumed by her own
thoughts to care about Cece reading her previous messages to Jacob.
‘And you two are just friends?’
‘Yeah.’ The truth hurt to say out loud but, based on that message, there could be no denying it now.
‘Well’ – Cece handed the phone back to Olivia – ‘I think it’s a boy being his usual emotionally unaware self, and we shouldn’t read too much into these things. Plus, he said he’d been sick, which, as a seasoned traveller myself, I know can knock you for six.’
‘That’s true.’ The toilet in Jaipur came flooding back to mind.
‘I say reply as though nothing’s wrong, talk to him exactly how you usually would, and if he carries on being weird then ask him directly. Life’s too short not to eat sugar, and it’s too short to play games.’
Olivia was direct in many aspects of her life, but somehow asking Jacob why he wasn’t being his usual self with her felt terrifying.
‘Maybe.’ She shoved the phone into her pocket.
‘Actually, you know what you should
do?’
‘What?’
‘You should invite him out here for a few days. Get him doing some yoga by the ocean with the sun on his face. It’s the cure for almost anything.’
‘I can’t do that!’
‘Why not?’
‘Because …’ Olivia ran through the litany of reasons why that would be an incredibly foolish idea. Number one, she could be rejected. Number two, those godforsaken dice. ‘He doesn’t like to plan anything. It’s all very spur of the moment.’
‘I think booking a random trip to Goa because a friend asks you to come is pretty spur of the moment.’
‘I know, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.’
‘If you say so.’ Cece shrugged, stretching out her body so the ends of her toes broke the boundary of shade and peeped out into the sun.
‘Ah, this feels so nice, but if I don’t move now, chances are I’ll be stuck here all day, and I don’t think my client will appreciate sunbathing as an excuse for missing class. ’
‘No, probably not.’
‘You coming?’
Olivia knew she should head back, get herself ready to tour some more churches, but something was keeping her seated, and for once in her life, she decided to go with the urge. ‘I think I’ll stay here a little longer.’
‘No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow for class?’
‘Of course.’
‘Great!’ She gave Olivia’s shoulder a little squeeze, lowering her voice to a half-whisper. ‘You do whatever you feel is right with your friend, but just remember … life is too short for games. Say it with me. Life is too short for what?’
‘Games.’
‘Exactly!’ Cece beamed.
Life may be too short for games, Olivia thought, watching her friend disappear, but what happens when someone’s whole life is based on one?