“Check your bag, little moon. And I want you to know, I shopped for you, not me.” He winks like the cheeky fuck he is.
I pull the door shut, and in the privacy of the change room, I somehow find a way to steady the erratic beats of my traitorous heart. I don’t wipe his scent from my face though.
And he was right. Darius did buy for me. Kind of. A one-piece bathing suit in vibrant emerald-green, high cut but the butt is full which kind of surprises me.
I fling open the door and then do a mad dash into the shower, still not one hundred percent sure of what is going on.
The mystery continues as we both walk through the next room. Other people are sitting in a large pool of water; the place is dark but not pitch black.
Darius pays them no regard. He does walk in front of me though until he catches himself, and then he stops.
“Here, little moon, these are our seats.”
He climbs in the water, taking a lounged position between two metal handles. It’s clear the bars designate where the seats are and to help you climb in.
The water is warmer than a spa, softer like a bubble bath. It’s got a faint smell of the ocean.
“Spring water, infused with minerals so it won’t sting,” he says as he leans back.
I do the same.
A voice interrupts my thoughts and keeps me from asking him what’s going on. “Two minutes until the start.”
The people down the other end of the large pool stop chatting, they dunk under the water and lean back like they’re waiting for something. Darius does the same.
It doesn’t feel like it’s two minutes but all of a sudden what light was on the room blacks out before droplets of water hit my face.
“Dare?” I ask, suddenly anxious.
His hands stay under the water, but they rub up and down my leg. “Sit back, Heidi, let it happen.”
The noise of falling rain gets louder, the smell of petrichor adds to the build-up, a low rumble of thunder echoes in the room. Someone whispers down the end of the pool, and I catch on to their excitement, not their words.
The rain starts to fall harder, the thunder gets louder and the deep, vibrating rumbles roll together. It feels exactly like the start of a tropical storm.
A sudden blast of lightning strikes, lighting up the ceiling and the thunder drowns out the noise of the rain.
“What is this, are we going to freaking die?” I squeal, grabbing at my chest, trying to stop my heart pounding.
“Sit back, little moon, let it happen.” He doesn’t open his eyes, but he sits up taller like he’s trying to reach into the downpour that is torrential now. The sounds continue to get louder and louder, until it gets to the point where you can hardly hear your own thoughts.
It’s intense and exhilarating.
I jump with each lightning strike and thunderclap; the rain keeps falling harder and faster. My emotions get caught up in the craziness and almost become their own storm.
Movement catches my eye, and I realise almost all the other people are standing in the middle of the pool, yelling up at the sky, like full gut-wrenching screaming. It’s impossible to hear over the endless roil of the storm hitting the room.
I get caught up in the moment like everyone else. Instead of being weirded out by it, I go with it. Standing in the warm waist deep water being pummelled by the rain and urged on by the noise of the storm, I let go.
I let out everything I’ve been bottling up. I scream at the world how fucking angry and sad I am.
And the room takes it.
I don’t even stop screaming when Darius stands behind me. If anything, his hands on my hips shore me up. Lending me his strength while he pushes me into the eye of the storm as it rips over us.
I check over my shoulder, his eyes are locked on mine. His mouth moves, I don’t hear a thing he says but I still understand him. “I got you, little moon,” he repeats.
I have to look away. The conflict I feel for him matches the ferocity of the storm we’re participants in. My ears hurt at how loud everything rages around us, and there’s a point where we’re whipped around as gusts of wind howl through the room as strong as Mother Nature on a bad day.
