“When has anything happened here, Imogen?” I laugh.
My sister took on the role of big sister and mom when our parents passed and despite the fact that we are both adults, she can’t seem to let go that I can look after myself. She would have me live with her and Shawn, her husband, if she could, just to protect me.
“It’s not the point, Ness,” She says, “I like to know you’re home safe. We close late and it’s dark.”
I roll my eyes, “I’m fine. I’ve just been going for a few walks.” It’s easy to lie about it, too easy. I didn’t want anyone to know about Kolt and our secret meetings down at the docks. It was our thing, our secret. It felt sacred and not to be shared.
It’s not like I’m keeping anything important from her, flings happen without anyone knowing all the time. It’s not like I’m going to fall in love with the guy. We have made it clear it’s only for now, he isn’t staying, neither am I, and after this is done it’s not like I’ll ever see him again anyway.
Even if I’m attached to him right now. I can let him go when the time comes. It’s no big deal.
I can care about him; it’s all going to be fine.
My lips tingle with the memory of his kiss. He kissed me like we were the only two people to exist on this small island. He owned me irrevocably in that moment, when our hands held on tight, and our mouths crashed in a kiss that had been building over several days of silly games and long hours spent in the dark.
But he’d arrived with a bloodied lip and broken ribs, and the fact that I don’t know what happened still sits heavy and sickeningly in my stomach. I just can’t imagine something like that happening here, so where was he before he met me out on that dock?
Not my business, I tell myself. This is nothing but fun.
We’re friends. That’s all. Friends who share earth shattering kisses.
I’m not even going to address the fact that I was completely ready to give my first time to him last night. I can’t give a man, at least ten years older than me, who I don’t even really know, my V card.
No.
I can’t possibly do that.
My eyes flick to Imogen, checking to see if she has an inclination as to what is happening inside my head. Me and my sister are close, she knows I’m a virgin, but she doesn’t need to know I’m thinking about giving it to a man I barely know, and has made it clear they aren’t sticking around.
I wash my hands a second time, and then wipe them dry on a towel, “We open in five, see you out front!” I call to my sister, escaping out the swing door. The diner, despite the low population here in Ravenpeak Bay, is always busy. We are the only real bar and restaurant in Ravenpeak Bay, and without much to do here during the evenings, we are always busy.
Tourist season kicked off some weeks ago, so new faces are a constant rotation through the door along with the regulars we can always count on.
At four, I flip the sign on the door and unlock it, and within a few minutes we have our first customer. Reggie, a regular comes and sits himself at the bar. Like clockwork, he orders a whiskey, neat, and a bowl of loaded fries. Was it healthy? No. But he’s almost eighty, still has all his teeth and mans a fishing boat like he’s still in his twenties, so he’s got to be doing something right.
“Coming up, Reg,” I tell him, grabbing the bottle and a glass before I put his order through to the kitchen. Imogen and Shawnjoin me in the bar a few minutes later, ready for the evening rush.
With tourists packing out the place, there is no time to stop and talk, which means there is no time for my sister to question me some more. There is only so much I can take with her interrogation; she knows it too.
The smell of grease and beer saturates my clothes, my hair, and despite washing it before I came to work, it feels greasy. My shoes have started to stick to the floor behind the bar, thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol and soda that has been spilled. It’s loud and busy. It’s home.
My parents started this diner when they first got together too many years ago to count, and as Imogen and I grew, we started to get involved too. My parents died some years back now, first my mom to cancer and then my dad to a heart attack, and we’ve looked after the place since. We inherited it, a partnership and for as long as we can remember the Hale’s have lived and breathed this place.
But Imogen knows my dream to go and get a degree. I’ve always been interested in medicine and had applied to go to college. We both know I don’t plan to stay.
It’s five past eleven when the crowd starts to thin and almost midnight when I lock the door behind the last customer.
I slump into one of the booths, taking a minute to breathe before I’m on my feet again to help clean up, ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
I decide to shower before I head to the docks. I smelled too much like grease and beer and didn’t want to subject Kolt to that stench. Once I’m clean, I dress in a pair of leggings and anoversized tee, shoving my blonde hair into a bun since I have no energy to dry it. And then I take a walk down to the docks, the air expelling from my lungs in a rush as the sounds of the ocean reaches my ears. The inky water laps at the shore, the sky clear and speckled with twinkling stars.
The dock is empty when I get there, though I had hoped Kolt would be waiting.
I try not to let disappointment slump my shoulders, the steady thump of my sneakers on the wooden planks joining the sound of the water gently lapping against the shore.
I get to the very end.
And there’s someone swimming in the water.
