Chapter 17
The Beauty Amongst The Chaos
Alianna splashed cold water over her face repeatedly in the bathroom at work. She had tucked her phone back into her apron pocket, furious with herself for allowing this conversation to begin taking place while she was at the café.
She hadn’t been able to reply to him. What could she say, while she was here, of all places?
She finished in one hour. One slow, torturous hour. Then she’d work out what to do.
Straightening, she dried her face with a paper towel and exited the bathroom. Tom lounged behind the counter. There was nobody else here, and soon they’d be getting ready to begin closing up.
“Are you...alright?” Tom asked, hesitantly.
“Yes. Yes, I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” Alianna rushed out.
“That’s...good. Although you have tissue paper stuck to your face.”
“Gods!” Alianna said, grabbing her phone and using the camera to see where the paper was so that she could remove it. She saw an icon at the top of the screen: one unread message.
“What’s got under your skin this evening?”
“It’s nothing,” she said, tidying away menus.
In her haste, she knocked a small pile on the floor and bent over to pick them up.
Among them was an advertisement for a local painting workshop, a flyer for a dog walking business that some sneaky person had left in there, and one of the flyers for the museum that John had left several days before.
A nagging voice in her mind told her to check that unread message.
She would wait until closing. She did not want any further questioning from Tom.
Tom had never shown romantic interest in Alianna, or anyone else she knew, for that matter.
But he was nosy and judgmental. Alianna was certain he’d have something to say about the tall, dark stranger from the café, messaging her mere days after meeting him, let alone the comments he’d make if he realised she was getting all hot and bothered because of said stranger.
“Did you make it to that marine life exhibition?” Tom asked, moving around the counter, spray bottle in hand to start cleaning tables.
“No, not yet. Things have been a bit busy.”
“You’re never busy. What have you been up to?”
“It may surprise you to know, Tom, that I do have a life outside of this café and my dog walks. What I have been up to is none of your business.”
“Alright, alright. I’m just trying to work out why you’ve been so out of sorts all day.”
Tom was right, Alianna supposed. She had been distant today. Her mind kept going to the conversation she’d had with Natasha that morning, encouraging her to involve herself with Max. She wouldn’t call it a relationship, because that wasn’t what it was.
It was fun. That’s all it could be.
Couldn’t it?
Long-distance relationships could work, sometimes. Although he still hadn’t said where he was actually from. Maybe that was a sign that he didn’t want anything more serious, and was just looking for some company and pleasure while he was here.
She continued to silently debate this with herself as the next hour passed by.
On autopilot, she cleared tables, stacked chairs, counted the ironmarks in the register, cleaned the coffee machines and panini presses.
When she finally followed Tom out and called “see you later” over her shoulder, she instantly pulled her phone out of her pocket. She still had one unread message.
Hot Max From The Beach
18:34: I’ll be truthful; I didn’t expect you to go silent on that message. Either I have completely scared you off, or you’re sitting quietly somewhere, alone, thinking of me. Which is it?
Alianna felt a rush of warmth through her core as she bit her lip and contemplated her response to his message.
Ali
19:12: im sorry. i was at work. Youll be pleased to know, I had to throw cold water over my face for five minutes because of your text.
Alianna could picture him laughing at her reply, a smug smile on his face as he typed back.
Hot Max From The Beach
19:14: The last thing I want to do is be an inconvenience while you’re at work. Let me make it up to you. Do you like swimming? It’s a warm evening. I have seen a few people getting pizza from a portable food hut. We could have a swim in the sea, and get pizza. Shadow is invited.
Ali
19:15: portable food hut? Are you from the 1800s? Yes, i would like pizza and a swim. Shadow will steal your pizza. Let me take him for a walk and ill meet you at the beach. West or east?
Hot Max From The Beach:
19:16: West. I’ll see you in an hour?
Ali
19:16: an hour xo
***************
After walking through the park with Shadow, feeding him, and leaving him at home listening to what she had always assumed was his favourite radio station, Alianna walked to the beach to meet Rionan.
She had put her hair up in a messy bun and wore her favourite navy-blue bikini.
She’d thrown a simple, loose dress over the top for ease.
When she arrived at the beach, she walked a little way down, spotting Rionan sitting on the sand.
He was staring up at the sky, like he had been when they were last here.
He hadn’t spotted her (or at least she presumed he hadn’t), and she approached quietly.
He had sand scattered through his tousled hair, like he’d been here for a while. And he was wearing…
“You are wearing shorts,” Alianna exclaimed, “swim trunks?”
Rionan rolled over in the sand, propping his head on his hand and smiling at her lazily. She felt that all too familiar fluttering in her stomach. “I can’t very well swim in full-length trousers and a shirt now, can I?”
Rionan was, uncharacteristically, wearing a black t-shirt. It was the first time she’d seen him out of finer, more formal clothing. It struck her as odd. He didn’t look bad. Far from it. It was just not the Rionan that she’d got used to seeing.
Standing up, he pulled his shirt over his head, and Alianna sucked in a breath. She’d never been able to see the dark swirls of ink tattooed across his chest and shoulders before. They swirled like smoke, over his shoulders, presumably to his back.
“I didn’t know you had tattoos,” she remarked.
“Oh yes. I have had them for so long that I often forget they are there.”
He turned so that she could see the tattoo that extended onto his back. The swirls travelled down until they reached a small depiction of a well, which sat at the bottom of his back. She moved forward, without thinking, instinctively tracing a finger over one of the swirls. He stilled at her touch.
“What is it?”
“It reminds me of my home. Where I am from. What I’m responsible for.”
“You’re responsible for a well?”
“You could say that, yes.” He smiled. Alianna wasn’t sure if she imagined it, but there seemed to be a sorrow to his expression. Rionan cleared his throat.
“Come on,” he motioned to the sea. “Unless you’re staying on the shore?”
“No, I’m not. I’ll be there in a second.”
“Alright.” He shrugged as he walked the short distance into the crystalline water.
It was perfectly flat this evening, and he created ripples all around him as he strode in.
Alianna watched Rionan move gracefully into the water, diving under when he got deep enough.
As he surfaced, droplets of water ran across his hair, his skin, and glistened in the sun.
She took in the muscles of his arms as he swept his hair out of his face once more.
The way the air around her seemed to alight with a strange static, as if saying to her, “wake up, get in.”
Alianna sucked in a breath and pulled her dress over her head. She threw it down next to his shirt, kicked off her shoes, and walked towards the sea, trying her best to look effortlessly sultry.
She looked up from the sand. Rionan’s eyes were locked on her, his face still. His nostrils flared once in their strange way that she had noticed, but wasn’t perturbed by, and she paddled through the water towards him.
Alianna pretended she hadn’t noticed the intensity of his gaze, because after last night, she wasn’t sure how she should act right now. Should she move closer? Stay away? Flirt with him?
So, she lifted her feet behind her and began swimming through the water ahead of them.
The sea was quiet, still, and inviting. There was no one else in the water this evening, and the empty sand stretched as far as she could see.
A peaceful slice of serenity, just for them.
With exceptional stealth, Rionan caught up with her, swimming alongside her.
It was rare that Alianna felt comfortable when it fell silent, in the company of others. Yet there was nothing awkward about silence with Rionan. She enjoyed speaking with him, laughing, but the silence seemed to convey something all on its own.
Alianna stopped swimming and began treading water, looking out to the horizon. She didn’t have to look sideways to know he had done the same thing.
“I love swimming,” Rionan said, voice quiet.
“Where I am from, we had a beautiful lake. Huge. With a gorgeous waterfall at one end. The lake was surrounded by trees, and the most stunning birds lived in them. I’d often go there in the evenings to swim.
I’d sit under the waterfall and watch the birds.
I could close my eyes now and hear their songs. ”
“It sounds wonderful,” Alianna said earnestly, turning to face him.
“It was.”
Rionan was still staring out to the horizon, all signs of joking lost from his expression.
“Why does that make you sad?”
His eyes met hers. “Do I seem sad?”
“You do. You seem full of sorrow. You said was. Is the lake not there anymore?”
Rionan sighed. “The lake is still there. The water was...corrupted. Polluted, in a way. Awful creatures live in the water now. The birds moved on when everything changed. The singing stopped.”
“Awful creatures? Like, piranha?”
He smiled softly, a sadness hiding behind it. “A little bit like piranha.”