Page 14 of Slipperless 3
To my pleasure and surprise, she looked at ease and rested. Not only that, but she was clad in a fine white hotel bathrobe that hugged her curves in all the right spots. I began to admire other assets besides her baby blue eyes and kissable mouth. My cock twitched. The silent, lust-filled stares didn’t go unnoticed for long.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Gabe?”
I set my coffee cup on the railing.
“Just admiring the scenery.”
Fiona rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Perfect. Nothing like getting under her skin a bit to start the day out right.
I winked at her and gestured for her to come stand next to me.
“How’d you sleep?”
“Fine,” she replied. “There’s something about being away from home… I didn’t wake up once all night.”
I smiled. “Good. Glad to hear it. Did you have anything to eat yet?”
“No, not yet.” Fiona looked out towards the bay as she answered me. A steady breeze rustled her hair.
“Well, you better grab something. We’ve got to leave in an hour.”
“Oh?” she said, as she turned to face me. “I thought we had a bit of down time for a couple of days.”
“We do. This isn’t work-related.”
Before she could reply, I pointed in the direction of the bay towards the sailboats.
“See that?”
Fiona swiveled her head and followed the line of my finger. “See what?”
“The sailboats.”
“Yes. What about them?”
“That’s what we’re doing today. Just you and me. We’re going sailing.”
All of sudden, Fiona showed me the back of her head as she broke her gaze on the bay. She began to walk away from me and I studied her as she moved. The boards of the veranda creaked a bit as she stepped until at last, she stopped, about ten feet away. Grabbing my coffee cup, I made my way over to her.
After taking a sip of the smoky blackness, I closed to within a few feet of her.
“Something the matter?”
“I-I can’t go on a sailboat, Gabe.”
“Why? Are you afraid you’re going to fall overboard and drown?”
“Something like that.”
I wrinkled my brow and made my away around in front of Fiona. As she came into view, I noticed she’d started to spin the gems on her bracelet back and forth. I watched for a couple of moments, and after another gulp of the bitter dark liquid, I spoke once again.
“Wanna talk about it?”
“No,” she said with a whisper.
As Fiona finished her thought, she attempted to walk past me. I stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
“Gabe please…”
“What? What’s going on with you Fiona? Why are you afraid of the water… going sailing?”
She tilted her head upwards, and as her eyes came into view, I noticed they held a thick gloss in them. A fraction of a second later, tears began to flow. Fiona’s lips curled upward, and before I realized it, she crushed herself into me. As she sobbed, uncontrollable jerks of her shoulders and pulses of her torso shook her. I slid my arms around her upper body, holding her with a tender, but firm embrace.
We stood there in silence for the better part of a minute as she wept. I did my best to comfort her, but she seemed to be inconsolable. Her body shuddered as wave after wave of emotion ripped through her. The nearby canopy echoed with the sounds of her wails and moans until at last, I moved my hands to her shoulders and leaned away from her.
“Fiona. What is wrong? Was it something I said?”
Red-eyed and puffy cheeked, Fiona looked up at me through a sheen of grief. She shook her head. “N-No. I-It’s n-not you, Gabe. I-I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, Fiona. Whatever it is you can tell me.”
She shook her head again. “N-No, I-I can’t. I can’t. I can’t…”
I glanced down at her bracelet once more. “I noticed you touched that just before you started to cry. What’s with the charm bracelet, Fiona?”
Fiona made two quick swipes across her face, erasing the tears as she did. After a sniffle, she stood tall and grew stone-faced.
“Gabe, please. I asked you politely. I don’t want to talk about it, okay? I’m sorry for behaving like that.”
I shook my head at her sudden obstinacy. “Okay, Fiona. I won’t press you on it. I’m going to get ready.”
With that, I turned and began to walk away. As I did, Fiona cleared her throat. “Where are you going?”
I stopped and did half-turn, looking at her over my shoulder. “Sailing. Remember?”
“Oh,” she said with a nod. “Right.”
I looked at her for a moment before turning away again and heading inside. But, I hadn’t gotten more than a foot or two before she spoke up once more.
“Gabe, wait.”
I paused and pivoted until I faced her. “What?”
Fiona drew her hands together in front of her body and started to walk in my direction. The entire time, she kept her head down and clutched her charm bracelet until she stopped about a foot away.
After she did, she reached up and pulled her hair behind her ears. In the distance, the whistles of a dozen forest-dwelling birds filled the air with a symphony of chirps. The energetic tone of their sounds stood in sharp contrast to the somber look on Fiona’s face as she looked into my eyes.
“I… I’ve never told anyone this before.”
I nodded, but didn’t respond.
She groaned, seeming as if a sudden jolt of doubt hit her.
“Okay, okay,” she began, as she raised her hands, showing me her palms. “I’m just going to tell you.”
“All right.”
“The reason I’m terrified of the water… It has nothing to do with being afraid to drown, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Um, see… When I was ten years old, we went on a family vacation. My mom, Dad, two brothers, my grandmother and me. We always went to the beach on vacations. Believe it or not, I used to love the water. But I don’t anymore, not since that vacation.”
I felt a hollowness hit my gut. There was no question in my mind as to how this story would end. I interrupted her.
“Fiona, you don’t have to do this. It’s okay. Really. If you don’t want to go with me, it’s fine.”
“No, Gabe,” she replied right away. As she spoke, I noticed her demeanor change once again. Still sad, she seemed stoic and determined. “I want to tell you. I trust you.”
“All right, Fiona.”
Fiona then proceeded to recount the horror of the summer vacation that took the lives of her entire family. They’d apparently gone sailing when the vessel capsized at the whim of what investigators expected was a rogue wave. The life jackets were still on board. It was more than eight hours before the first rescue team arrived, and by then, it was too late.
They’d all drowned.
Apparently Fiona had fractured her arm a couple of days before and had been unable to go and had instead, stayed behind, cared for by her grandmother. Through gulps of grief and swaths of tears, she concluded the story by lifting the arm with the charm bracelet on it.
“M-My grandmother gave this to me not long after,” she said. Fiona gestured towards the stones, telling me the lost family member each represented. “I-I’ve had to get a larger bracelet as the years have gone on, of course, but remember when you asked me at the bar about it?”
I smiled at her. “Of course.”
Fiona paused for a moment to collect herself. With a succession of wipes across her cheeks, she exhaled and continued.
“Well, I lied to you, obviously, when I said it didn’t mean anything to me. It means everything. I’m sorry I wasn’t truthful.”
“Fiona, don’t even worry about it,” I said, as I stepped towards her. “Look, I… I feel like shit. Hell, if I’d known about this, I never would have suggested we go sailing in the first place.”
“It’s okay, Gabe. There’s no way you could have known. You don’t have to apologize. I’m grateful for the offer, though.”
It was one thing to know about their deaths ahead of time but I hadn’t meant to hurt her in the process. Maybe that was a bit of karma coming back at me for checking on her in the first place. Even so, that’s a risk I had to take at the time. The simple fact was, I wouldn’t have done anything different.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her.
“Look, Fiona,” I began, nodding in the direction of the bay. “I’m gonna skip sailing. We’ll do something else.”
Fiona’s eyes widened. “No, no, Gabe. Please don’t do that. I want you to go sailing if you want to. Just…”
I tented my eyebrows with an expectant look. “Just… what?”
“Promise me you’ll stay close to the bay.”
I chuckled. “Fiona, I happen to be an expert swimmer. I was captain of my college swim team. Not only that, but I’ve been a certified diver since I was a teenager, and I’ve also done my fair share of free diving.”
Still not swayed, Fiona blinked. “What’s free diving?”
“The same thing as scuba, except with no oxygen tanks,” I replied. For emphasis, I tapped against my chest. “It’s all about the lungs, and I’ve got some of the best.”
