The Turning Tides (Marina's Tales) (18 page)

“Those girls were sure nice
.
” Ruby looked at me with a
n artificial
smile, “And they had so
much
to say about you!”

“I can imagine,” I said dryly.

“
Watch out Marina…
They all think that Ethan’s
hot
,” she giggled, batting her false lashes at him.

Ethan called for the check, and mercifully, dinner was over. I drove back to the harbor in silence.

Ethan asked me to come upstairs, but I’d had just about enough of Ruby for the time being. I begged off, explaining I should go and get some sleep.

“Are you sure?” Ethan asked with a little whine in his voice.

“Can’t you see she’s tired?” Ruby chimed in from the back seat. She reached up and patted me on the shoulder, “She needs to get some rest for our big shopping day tomorrow.”

“Would you mind going on ahead?” Ethan asked her, handing over his keys.

She took them with a
nother
saccharine smile, “Sure
honey
, but don’t take too long, okay? I get the creeps being alone at night.”

“I’ll be right up,” he reassured her. He watched her totter up the stairs with a
dejected
sigh, leaning over to rest his chin on my shoulder, “Please stay… I’ll make you breakfast in the morning…”

It was tempting, but I wanted to get as far away from Ruby’s creepy, judgmental stare as
I could
.

“Ethan… You know I don’t feel comf–” He started to kiss my neck, sending shock waves through my body that made me writhe in my seat.

“Cmon, I miss you…”

I turned to face him, struck by how much I loved him this way. Fresh from the sea, his tousled hair textured as only saltwater could, his eyes full of longing.

“You know I miss you too,” I told him. “More than anything. It’s just that…”

He kissed the objection off my lips, his hands twining in my hair.

If I was going to let Ethan know about being spied on, now was the time… I almost blurted it out, but something stopped me. I knew it would upset him,
and he’d insist that I stay
.
I wanted to get
back to my studio, and away from Ruby for the night
.
Now that I had a gun, I felt confident about being alone, and there would be plenty for Ethan to worry about after she was gone. I’d tell him later– he had enough on his plate at the moment.

I pulled away, “I can’t.”

He frowned, “It’s okay! She doesn’t
care
.”

“I do. It’s only for a few more days… right?”

He groaned with
aggravation, “I guess so.”

Ethan slumped out of the Rover, unloading his surfboard and wetsuit bag with disappointment in his every motion. I watched him in the rear view mirror with a wry smile. I wasn’t going to be manipulated that easily; Evie was much better at subtlety laying on the guilt than he was.

I leaned my head out the window, “I’ll be by first thing tomorrow… Tell Stumpy I miss him.” He smiled at that, and watched me as I drove away.

I let myself in
to
my studio, carefully locking up and laying out my weapons within easy reach. Before I knew it I was painting frantically, pouring out all of my loneliness and irritation onto the blank white canvas. Waves crested and crashed, and saltwater thundered loudly in my mind as I painted. When I finally stopped and stood back to look at what I’d done, it struck me.

The waves I’d painted were the exact shade of blue I saw when I looked into Ethan’s eyes.

~

C
hapter
T
welve

TAILED

~

I pulled up to
the
apartment, stifling a yawn. I was tired after painting
most of the
night, but a promise was a promise, and I wasn’t going to let Ethan down. As
annoying as I might find her, I’
d agreed to give Ruby a chance, and I would. I told myself that people could change, deciding to put what I knew about the past away, and make a real effort to find some common ground.

She must have been watching for me, because as soon as I parked she came rushing down the stairs, clad in yet another short skirt paired with high heels. Her platinum blonde hair was teased into a fluffy cloud, and she jangled with an armload of sparkling rhinestone bangle bracelets.

“Hey girlfriend!” she smiled enthusiastically, climbing into the passenger side along with a nauseating cloud of perfume. “Cute outfit!” She looked me up and down, “Are those
Versace
jeans?” she asked with an overly sweet smile.

“Yeah,” I admitted, suddenly queasy. I didn’t have a very good feeling about where this day was headed.

She reached over and patted my thigh familiarly, “Are you ready to shop till you drop?”

I smiled weakly, “Where to?”

We ended up going downtown, and though she didn’t buy anything, she pulled me into shop after shop. I tried my best to pay attention, but I was exhausted, and I found a few hours of browsing through the racks with Ruby
far
more grueling than an entire day
shopping
with Evie. She kept trying to get me to try on clothes I would never wear, like sequined tube tops and super short
lycra
skirts. I could see her rising irritation when I politely declined.

“
Fine with me,
little miss pampered,” she
sniffed
.
“Guess y
ou’re used to more fancy things.
”

I looked down at my jeans and t-shirt, wondering what exactly it was about me that screamed snob. “Not really,” I said
self-consciously
.

Ruby had been watching my every move the whole day, making me feel like I was
doing something
terribly
offensive
. I suppose she was simply interested in her son’s fiancé, but there was something very wrong in the way she scrutinized me; it was like a test I failed before it even started.
Despite my misgivings, I found myself earnestly grasping to find some good in her, if only for Ethan’s sake.

We stepped out of a shoe store, and the harsh light of day made her makeup look like a mask. The visible line of demarcation along her jawline gave her an oddly vulnerable quality, as if she was trying desperately to hide something she hated about herself.
Ruby was still a beautiful woman, but there was something
discontented
about her
,
something
that screamed desperation
.
I felt a sudden rush of pity.

We walked past a little nail salon and she grabbed my arm, “Come on girlfriend, let’s go get a mani-pedi!”

She pulled me in and we sat down side by side while our feet soaked and our nails were buffed and polished.

“Us girls are high maintenance, right?” she winked at me.

I thought of Evie and smiled, “For sure.”

“You should have some tips put on,” Ruby said, looking askance at my short, unpolished nails.

“I don’t think so,” I shook my head
no.
“I’ll just break them
off
surfing.”

She wrinkled her nose, “I don’t know why you’d wanna be out there in the water with all those creepy fishes and
octopuses
and things.”

I laughed, thinking of the mermaids and whales, “They don’t bother me.”

“Don’t you ever worry about getting eaten by sharks?” she asked sarcastically.

“Never,” I replied.

I waited for Ruby to finish, watching as she got her nails touched up. It brought back memories of sitting and waiting while Evie got primped and preened at her own private salon, and I fell into a nostalgic reverie. The familiar sounds of the driers, the chatter of the women, and even the smell of the nail polish had always been like a ticket into the world of feminine mystique, something that was sorely lacking in the rough-hewn life I led with my father.

Ruby’s voice snapped me out of it, “Oops, looks like I forgot my credit card… Do you mind getting this one sweetie?”

“No problem,” I rummaged in my bag for
some
cash, careful not to disturb
my weapons
. I turned to find Ruby watching over my shoulder,
and
her eyes bugged out with the undue respect that money always got. I was glad the gun was tucked away out of sight.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the Taser.

“Uhm, nothing,” I replied, zipping up my purse and busying myself with my overstuffed wallet.
Ruby’s eyes focused on the bills a
s I pulled them out, and I was
embarrassed, because it only served to reinforce her view of me as a spoiled rich girl.

Then I felt something else, and I froze. The tingling sensation I’d experienced
on my last
night
of
surfing had returned. There was someone watching us, and this time they were much closer. I looked up slowly, but all I could see was the street reflected in the glass window of the shop across the road.

“Come on Ruby,” I motioned for her to follow
.
“Let’s go take a look at those sunglasses.”

We walked a few shops down to a store that we’d passed earlier, and started trying on different pairs. I used the mirror in the store to watch the street outside, and was rewarded by a glimpse of my stalker strolling by with his hands in his pockets. He wore a khaki trench coat with the collar turned up, topped off by a knit hat pulled down around his ears. Dark sunglasses obscured his eyes, and I couldn’t tell if he was the same one from the city or not. He paused, pretending to look in the store window across the street.

“I’ll get these for you,” I told Ruby, taking the glasses she liked to the counter. I chose a pair with mirrored lenses for myself, and paid for them both.

“Thanks hun!” she said, surprised by my sudden interest in shopping
, and
delighted at my sudden interest in shopping for her.

“I need to pop in and see my friend at his coffee shop for a minute,” I said with a little shake in my voice, still feeling
eyes
watching me. My hair stood on end; there were no mermaids here to track. I wondered if he was going to try and grab me in broad daylight, and I tried to act naturally even as I broke out in a cold sweat.

I rushed Ruby down the street into Bill’s place, relieved to find him behind the counter.

“Hi Bill!” I said enthusiastically, “This is Ruby. Can you get her a coffee while I run upstairs to get some more paintings?”

Bill smiled wide at Ruby, clearly happy to see her, “Sure
thing
!”

I walked out of the coffee shop, strolling down the street as nonchalantly as possible. I stopped to look in shop windows, holding my new sunglasses in my hand and using them to see behind me. By the third store I spotted my tail again, and I knew for certain that it was me he was stalking. It was all I could do not to pull out my gun and shoot him where he stood, but I had to keep my head. I needed to find out who sent him, and what he was up to.

I was going to catch him this time, and just the thought of it made my heart beat faster. The blood pounded in my ears, the rush was the same as the one I got dropping down onto a towering wave. My predatory instinct had been activated; I was too excited to be afraid.

I took a deep breath and steadied myself, trying to keep my walk loose so as not to betray the tension coiling up inside of me. I sauntered over to the familiar surf shop, looking in the window until I saw him again, reflected in the convex lenses of my glasses. I went into the shop and pretended to look at the boards against the walls.

I felt more eyes on me and glanced up to see the two familiar clerks staring intently at me. I smiled at them, going up to the counter, “Is there a back way out of here?”

They exchanged a surprised glance, and the white blond one answered, “Uhm, yeah, but it only goes out to the dumpsters.”

I started moving to the back of the store and the tall one called out, “It has an alarm on it.”

I stopped and pivoted back, leaning towards
them with a conspiratorial tone,
“This is kinda embarrassing, but my ex-boyfriend is following me, and I could really use some help slipping away…”

“Sure thing,” the blonde boy said with a knowing smile, grabbing a set of keys. “But I need to turn off the alarm first.”

I followed him through the racks of wetsuits, casting wary glances behind me. I stood shifting from foot to foot while he disabled the alarm.

“It’s not Kimo, is it?” he asked.