Wet: Part 2 (27 page)

Chapter 22

“Y
ou decent?” Paul stood outside her bedroom door. He’d left the room so she could get ready for work.

“Come on in.”

He opened the door and walked in. She stepped out of the bathroom and leaned against the wall while she brushed her teeth.

“Aw . . . sorry.” Paul turned, embarrassed, and headed out of the room. “I thought you said to come in.”

“I did.”

“Rhees, is this a joke?” He didn’t turn around, his back to her still.

She realized what freaked him out. “Paul, it’s a bikini. I’m not flashing you in my undies.”

“Bikini!” He still didn’t turn around, sounding a little befuddled. “What happened to your tankinis? I thought you preferred tankinis.”

“One bit the dust before Costa Rica. The other two are going to die any day, and I don’t want to be too close when it happens. I bought two new swimming suits on my shopping spree.” She grew confused about why he seemed upset. “You made me promise to buy stuff. I did. I actually needed new suits.”

“Yeah, but—” he sounded a little breathless. “I thought you didn’t like bikinis. Why didn’t you get new tankinis?”

“I tried. I couldn’t find even one.”

“In the whole mall?” His voice registered a few octaves higher.

“No.”

“One piece?”

“Do you realize, in a one piece, you have to strip down, almost naked, every time you have to use the bathroom? No way.”

“But—”

“Turn around. You didn’t even get a good look.”

“I did.”

“You don’t like it? I bought this brown one and a coral one.” She couldn’t help the disappointment in her voice that he didn’t approve of her choice.

“I have a dick, Rhees! Of course I like it. That’s the problem.”

She finally understood, dashed to the twin bed, and pulled on a camisole, knowing why he’d been acting so weird. The camisole’s wide straps over her shoulders were brown like her suit while the body was a soft, lightweight chiffon with colored frilly layers, each layer was a different tone of off-white to tan, but complimentary with the brown of the bikini.

“I couldn’t find any tankinis, but I found two bikinis and two camis to match. The camis make the suits look like tankinis, don’t you think? They cover me so I don’t have to feel so self-conscious being half naked all day. I figure the only time I’ll actually only be in just the bikini is when I have to take off my cami to put on my dive skin. It was the best compromise I could come up with. Do you think it’ll work?”

He finally dared to look and breathed a sigh of relief. He stared at her in wonder.

“Paul. I asked, do you think it’ll work?”

“Yeah. That’s good. You look nice,
very
nice.”

She smiled. “Good. I’m glad you like it. For a minute there, I thought you hated it and were going to rip it off me like you said you would.” She giggled.

An eyebrow cocked up and he stared at her. He’d wanted to do just that. 

“I said I like it. You always dress so well. I like it best with the cami, though.” He exhaled. “But
He
liked it better without.”

She looked down like he’d embarrassed her, but then her eyes slowly rose to meet his. “Really?” She bit her lower lip to suppress a smile he didn’t understand. She looked almost beguiling, but Rhees didn’t do beguiling, he had to be wrong. 

“Let’s go.” He suddenly felt anxious to get somewhere public.

oOo

“I want to go home early,” Rhees said to Paul. He checked his watch and couldn’t believe the hands already read three o’clock. He still had a long list of things to do since they’d been gone a week. He was about to step onto the Porgy, but stopped to talk to her. “The apartment hasn’t had a thorough cleaning since I left. I’m not going to be able to relax if I don’t scrub it down.”

“I can’t leave just yet.”

“Paul, I can walk home by myself.”

“See if Tracy or Regina will go with you.”

She rolled her eyes. “I already asked. They’re going straight to Lorencio’s place from here.”

Lorencio had shown up as a new student while Paul and Rhees were in Costa Rica. Very charismatic and carrying himself in a way that made people feel like he genuinely cared about them, he’d already made quite an impression. Everyone at the shop had already accepted him into their inner circle. 

Rhees looked Lorencio’s way when she mentioned his name. “He’s so pretty, don’t you think?”

“Pretty?” Paul shot her a cold glance. He looked over at Lorencio standing with a group of the shop people and a couple of friends from the island gathered around him, listening to stories about his visit to Cuba. Paul’s mouth twitched. “I thought
I
was pretty, though I hate being called that.”

Rhees giggled. “I know and I don’t call you pretty . . . anymore. You
are
beautiful
,
however,
and you know it,” she patronized, and pretended to punch his arm. “Lorencio doesn’t.” She sucked in her cheeks, trying to hide the huge smile that threatened to break on her face.

“Hey, watch it,” he said.

“You have nothing to worry about. You’re still number three on my short list of the
best looking men in the world
.” She fought her smile again. “But Lorencio may be number four.” She gave Paul a devious wink and smirked before looking back at Lorencio.

“Did you know he’s Rastafarian? I never would have imagined I could think dreads were attractive, but they’re perfect on him, don’t you think? He’s so tall and slender, but muscular, like you. His skin is such a pretty color.” She had a faraway look in her eyes as she stared at the new man.

“Hey! Earth to Rhees.” Paul waved his hand in front of her face, and she turned to see what he wanted, blinking out of a daze.

“Have you noticed how pretty his eyes are?” she asked, looking into Paul’s eyes as if comparing the two. “So green—I’ve never seen that color of green before. It’s like they’re transparent, but intense at the same time, almost ethereal.”

“I thought you liked blue—
mine
.” He leaned down, giving her a closer look at his own, trying to use his powers on her, but he was flustered and not in the right frame of mind. He gave up.

“He’s a pud,” he said, as if Lorencio disgusted him.

“I
said
I think
you
are better looking than he is. I don’t even know him. He’s just really . . .
pretty
. I like looking at him, but only in the way that I like to look at pretty flowers or a sunset, that’s all.”

Paul rattled his head as he turned his attention back to the Porgy. He needed to replace one of the tank clips that had broken while he was away.

“Okay, I’m going home to clean, all right?”

“I said I didn’t want you to go alone.”

“For crying out loud,” she said, a little too forcefully. She folded her arms and looked off, like she was angry.

Paul suddenly grew nervous and agitated. He stepped back out of the Porgy in a hurry. He put his hands on his hips and stared at her while he seemed to be considering something.

“On a scale of one to ten, how important is this to you?” he asked.

She stared at him, blankly.

“You said you wanted to go home,
alone
, I said I don’t want you to go home,
alone
. I need to know how important this is to you before I put my foot in my mouth . . . by putting it down.”

She stared at him incredulously. “This is your solution to the zip line crisis? Then ten!” she blared defiantly.

He sighed loudly. He looked away and back again.

“Okay.” Luckily she’d reconsidered. “Seven.”

He sighed again.

“You know how important a clean house is to me.”

“Okay,” he conceded, reluctantly. “But go straight home. Don’t stop to get groceries, don’t stop to talk to anyone, don’t dawdle, lock the door when you get home, and take your
freaking
phone with you! Keep it where you can hear it.” He gave her a knowing look before he gave in to his grin. “Just because I’m grinning like an idiot doesn’t mean I’m not serious. I’m only grinning because you’re so dang cute.”

“Well, even your
idiotic
grin is gorgeous. It’s reaching award-winning proportions at this moment.” She smiled back.

“I’ll text you when I finally get out of here and am on my way home,” he said.

She’d thought he would give up on the whole phone thing since she refused to use it, but he didn’t. He continued to throw his money away, as she described it, on the unnecessary item. He’d waited her out and won. He always won, even when he let her think she did.

“Okay.” She tried, unsuccessfully, to be annoyed with him, and looked down to hide her grin. “You know you’re a control freak, right? You just put every form of control possible on every aspect of my win, but thank you for agreeing to let me go—without a fight.” She wanted to kiss him good-bye, but didn’t dare after the way he’d been acting since his big freak out in Costa Rica. She stood there a few seconds, summoning the courage, but changed her mind and turned to leave.

“Hey! Aren’t you forgetting something?” He’d moved in close. His thumb brushed softly across her cheek as he slowly wrapped his fingers into the hair at the nape of her neck and pulled her to him for the kiss she’d wanted, the first real kiss he’d given her since that night.

“Mm!” she grunted.

oOo

“Rhees, I’m home. You decent?” Paul called from the porch, through her bedroom window.

“Almost,” she yelled back. “I made you a quesadilla to hold you till dinner. It’s in the microwave.” She reached around the doorjambs to pull the lock off the screen door so he could come in.

He waited a second for her to close her bedroom door so she could finish getting ready in private. Paul walked into the kitchen and opened the microwave he’d bought for her. She insisted on cooking for him once in a while in exchange for all the nights he took her out for dinner and never let her pay.

He snarfed down two-thirds of his quesadilla immediately, but set the last piece on the counter to grab a beer from the fridge. Rhees walked into the kitchen as he picked up the remaining quesadilla and took another bite.

“I can’t believe you ate that after setting it on the counter. Do you have no fear of germs, whatsoever?”

He smirked, his tongue in his cheek. “When was the last time you disinfected the counters?”

“About two hours ago. I used a whole bottle of disinfectant on this apartment. I am pleased to announce that the kitchen and bathrooms are clean enough for even me. No one is going to call me a dirty girl.”

Paul swallowed wrong and coughed, knowing she didn’t realize what she’d just said. “Dani Girl, you are without a doubt, not a dirty girl.
And,
with you around, I’m more afraid of the chemicals on the counter because of your immaculate cleaning habits than I am of any little ole germs.” He stuffed the last bite into his mouth with a snap of his teeth.

“Oh, great!” she exclaimed. “Not only do I have to worry about germs. Now I have to worry about chemicals too.”

“Oh, no! Chemicals are our friends.” He realized what he’d done. “They keep us safe from all the bad—” He couldn’t bring himself to say it. He laughed, flashing one of his best smiles, and shook his head at her with a sigh. He tolerated her obsessive-compulsive behaviors, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that her fears were normal.

“I’m sorry, Baby, but I’ve been a slob my whole life, and I haven’t died yet.”

“You’re not a slob,” she said. “You’re quite good at picking up after yourself and keeping things in their place—as long as you know where that place is.”

“Once you organized the office, the media room, the room that has no purpose, our gear closet, the equipment room . . . and my apartment, yeah, I’ve managed to
keep
things organized.” He finally had to smirk. “I wouldn’t dare disrupt your tidy little world. I’m still working on keeping my clothing piles to manageable proportions, though. I’m sorry I don’t take care of it right away.”

“You don’t have piles.” She smiled at his description. “You leave the clothes you wear in the evenings on the twin bed, but you put them back on in the morning before you run to your apartment to change into your swimming shorts.”

“But
you
don’t leave your clothes on the twin.”   

“It doesn’t bother me. It’s not really the clutter or dirt, just the germs.”

“Clutter and dirt don’t bother you? That’s why you scamper around cleaning and organizing everything.”

“That’s only because I like to keep busy. Yes, I like to organize, but it doesn’t bother me when Claire undoes it almost as fast as I get it done.” She giggled. “And you should talk. You don’t like dirt any more than I do. You just pay people to clean up after you, while I prefer to do it myself.”

Paul’s eyes widened and then narrowed as he thought about it. Before Rhees, a few of his Coitus Club groupies took turns cleaning his apartment, but he’d had to “fire” them. They refused to believe a romp on cleaning day was no longer part of the job description. He’d found an older, married woman he could pay to do it.

“Germs aren’t a problem for me. If I can’t see ‘em, ‘live and let live’, I say.” He licked her face from bottom to top to make his point. Rhees surprised him by returning the gesture from his collarbone to his Adam’s apple.

“Mmm . . . Where was I?” It took a minute to get his brain to work again. “I . . . uh—I just—I like the way
clean
, high quality sheets feel, but I hate changing them.” They used to need changing regularly. Nowadays his apartment was nothing more than a place to shower and change his clothes. “But now that I don’t sleep there anymore, I’m pretty much paying Edna to keep my surfboard dusted off.”

oOo

“Does anyone know why Lorencio decided to leave?” Mitch asked. “He flew out on the first plane this morning.”

Paul and Rhees sat in the gazebo and had just shared lunch. They sat close, looking through one of the books on the sea life in the area, trying to identify a creature they’d seen on their morning dive. Rhees glanced over at Mitch and Christian.