Oh right. I told him I’d tell him at home.
I nod. “Okay, that’s fair.”
Julian lifts my hand to his lips and kisses the back. “I won’t be long. Stay here. No one will bother you.” He points to a mini fridge at the back of the room “There’s plenty of water in there. Drink something.”
I make a face but don’t say anything. He’s right to tell me to drink something. I haven’t had anything besides coffee and the tonic he left for me.
“Okay, I promise I’ll have something.”
Julian looks appeased. “Thank you, Maris. I won’t be long.” He leaves and the soft click of the door shutting behind him sounds too loud in his now silent room. Why does every space that he’s been in feel so empty without him? Even the house has started to feel off without him. Maybe it’s because I forgot what it’s like to spend time with someone. I’ve been on my own so long that I’m hungry for his company.
He’s ruined my ability to be alone.
I survey the room and nod in approval. Julian’s office is nice and spacious. It’s sparsely furnished but that makes sense. He just got here and we haven’t had anyone in his position for a while.
“Fucker,” I whisper as I stomp across the room to the mini fridge. I may as well start on the water now. If he sees that I haven’t had anything he’ll probably make me drink two. The mini fridge is newer, at least for Vesper Point. It’s stainless steel with a digital clock and temp reading on the top of it. I open the mini fridge and true to what Julian said it’s full of water and sports drinks.
I grab a red sports drink instead of water and take a long swig. I feel better almost immediately. I guess I was dehydrated from all the fucking blood loss. I sip my gatorade and look out the window. Outside the rain has picked up. The drizzle has turned into a proper storm. I lean my forehead against the cool window and watch the sea. The waves are rough and choppy, white-capped and crashing against one another in a frenzy that forces the sea up the cliff face. Water sprays up and is carried by the wind towards the hospital. I watch the rain hit the glass until something in the sea catches my eye. At first I think it’s debris, some piece of trash that’s washed up on the shore only to be dragged back out to sea by the storm but the more I watch it, the more I know how wrong I am.
I push away from the window and stare.
It’s a person.
A woman.
“What the fuck?” I watch as the person moves with the water. They’re not fighting it. They’re swimming. The dark water is inky black and wild. The woman is pale enough that she stands out like a pinprick of light in the midnight sky. Who would be out there in this storm? There’s a lot of crazies in town and some of them do like to cliff dive or swim when there’s a tide warning but this isn’t that.
The woman is swimming like there isn’t a storm. She isn’t making a move to get to shore. She swims like the sea is her home. She moves, fluid and smooth through the water, arms like knives that propel her forward for a minute before she changes direction. I watch as she turns onto her back and floats in the water, face towards the skin. The woman floats for a few seconds before she turns and looks at the hospital. I gasp and take a step away from the window. There’s no way she’s looking at me.
“She can’t be.”
Even if she could see me, she couldn’t actuallyseeme. She’s at least half a mile off. Except that she is. The woman swims forward a few strokes, tilts her head and then settles in right where she is, bobbing in the choppy water that goes calm around her. While a storm rages, the ocean settles around her and only her.
I don’t move and neither does she. We watch each other, but then the woman swims back as a wave swells. I expect her to rise with the water but she doesn't. Instead, she does a backstroke and vanishes from sight beneath the rising wave. I don’t move. I keep staring at the spot she went under and wait. She has to come back up, but after a few minutes, I scan the sea and don’t see her.
The woman is gone. Entirely fucking gone.
I press my hands to the window, getting as close as I can to it and look all around but there’s no one in the water. The cove in front of the hospital only stretches a few miles out in either direction before the cliffs open to the sea. Did she swim that far? Could she swim that far underwater? I squint when the wind picks up, it makes the rain come sideways and it’s nearly impossible to see anything now. The storm grows and the steady drum of rain on the hospital roof and the windows of Julian’s office grows with each passing minute. The rain is so loud that I don’t hear the door behind me open.
It’s only when I see their reflection in the window that I realize someone is behind me.
I whirl to face the person and almost let out a laugh of relief. It’s only Liz. The lizard part of my brain swore it was going to be the woman from the sea. If it had been her, I don’t know what I would have done but seeing as it’s just a small town bitchy nurse, I know exactly what to do.
I cross my arms and glare at Liz. “What the fuck are you doing in here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
I take a step towards Liz. It’s satisfying to watch her back up when I do. Good. She’s not entirely fucking stupid.
“This is my husband’s office,” I say. Yes, I’m fucking crazy to say it. We’re not married and I think he’s influencing me to want him but those are really small things in the grand scheme of making Liz eat shit. “I have every right to be here.”
Liz breathes in deep and her face goes splotchy. Oh, she’s pissed off big time.
“I fucked him,” she lies and points at the couch beside the door. “Right there. I’ve been fucking him since he came to town.”
I roll my eyes. “Sure, Liz.”
“You think I’m lying? Anyone here will tell you. We’ve been on dates too, which is more than I can say about you. No one has seen him take you anywhere.”
