“Not sure I’m a fan of this sudden role reversal,” she says, dropping her forehead against her shoulder. “I like being the cool one.”
“What do you know, so do I,” Charlotte says, rubbing soothing circles along Riley’s spine.
“So this was your plan the whole time? Take me out to gain an advantage?”
Charlotte presses her lips together as she watches Riley wallow in her misery. She shrugs mysteriously.
“Are we far enough out? I might just jump in,” Riley continues, already moving to take off her shirt.
“I think so,” Charlotte nods, squinting into the sun to look out over the ocean. Then she turns back to Riley, and realizes with a jolt that this means she gets to see her in her bikini again. “Can I help?”
“No, I got it,” Riley says, chucking her shirt to the side before untying the strings of her shorts. It isn’t until she catches Charlotte’s gaze that she understands what herimplication was. “Oh,” she says dumbly. “Wait, if I put my shirt back on, will you take it off for me?” she says with a teasing lilt in her voice, but her usual smugness has seeped into the ocean mere minutes ago.
“Too late.” Charlotte pouts, and starts unbuttoning her own jumpsuit. When Riley’s eyes lock onto her exposed cleavage, she swirls her finger for Riley to turn around and look away. To her surprise, Riley doesn’t challenge the request and goes back to taking off her own shorts. When she’s down to her bikini, she hoists herself up on the edge of the boat and, without fanfare, drops backward into the ocean. When she resurfaces, she takes a deep, relieved breath.
“That’s the good stuff!” she sighs, sweeping her wet hair back.
Despite Charlotte’s earlier teasing, she is relieved to see Riley like this too. “Feeling better?”
“So much! I told you, once I’m in the water I'm completely fine.” Riley swims around the back of the boat, holds onto the small iron ladder with one hand, and sticks the other one up. “You should come in!”
Charlotte laughs and tips her chin at Riley’s hand. “You’re funny. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
Riley scrunches her nose and slams her first into the water, annoyed at Charlotte seeing through her scheming. In return, Charlotte takes her time laying out the goggles and snorkels for easy access, aggravating Riley even further.
“Congratulations, these turtles have grown beards,” Riley complains when Charlotte finally uses the ladder to ease herself into the water. Before she can say something snarky back, one of Riley’s arms—the one not still holding onto the boat—has slipped around her waist to help her keep her head above the surface. “Oh! Caught a mermaid,” Riley says in mock-surprise.
“Look whose charm has returned now that she’s not on the big scary boat anymore,” Charlotte mutters under her breath, secretly loving the return of their trusted dynamic.
“It was never gone, Charlie.” Riley tightens her grip and Charlotte almost loses her train of thought, so she quickly decides to say it out loud.
“Why do you insist on calling me Charlie?” She makes an effort to keep her expression open, to sound curious instead of looking to start a fight.
“It sounds cute,” Riley simply says, but the tilt of her head implies she knows what Charlotte is actually after. “Do you… do you want me to stop?”
The truth is; Charlotte doesn’t know if she wants her to stop. Despite hating the name in the beginning, it has grown into something familiar when Riley says it. It tickles her insides in an not entirely unpleasant way.
“It’s just… You’ve been so sweet through this all. So patient, and respectful, and you’ve checked in with me every step of the way. But after I told you that I didn’t like it, you kept calling me Charlie.”
Riley blinks at her. “Yeah… but I didn’t think you’d mind,” she says, one side of her mouth ticking up. “I figured you actually secretly liked it.”
Charlotte can’t resist her when Riley gets soft like this, but if she doesn’t see this through, it will eat her up on the inside.
“Isn’t that the whole essence of what you’ve been trying to tell me?” she says carefully, swiping a few droplets from Riley’s cheek with her thumb. “Enthusiastic consentand all that? Only a verbal ‘yes’ is a yes?”
“Yes, but that’s different.” Riley laughs. “It’s not like…” She trails off and averts her eyes. A million thoughts seem to race through her mind before she clicks her tongue and murmurs at the ocean: “Hm. I take your point.”
Charlotte smiles at finding Riley on the same wavelength.
“Fuck. I’m sorry.” The crease between Riley’s brows deepens, and she visibly starts to beat herself up.
“Hey, whoa,” Charlotte interjects, tapping Riley’s temple with a finger. “It’s okay. I’m not mad. I was just… interested in your curious little brain.”
“No, you’re right. You told me not to do something, and I did it anyway.”
“I’m happy you did. It means you have flaws. I got scared you were perfect for a second.”
Riley snorts. “I was so close.” A silence between them stretches as Riley eyes dart over the horizon. She returnsher gaze, now filled with determination.“I promise I’ll go back to calling you Charlotte,” she eventually says.
