Night Watch, Part 9

(This episode is continued from Part 8. We are several years in the past. David and Angela are still only dating, and David has just met Angela's cousin, Olivia. I recommend reading 8 first if you haven't already. Thanks. BB)


After greeting Olivia, Angela came over to David and kissed him. "Welcome to our beach," she said.

"It's wonderful. And what an awesome day," said David.

"Just wait, it'll rain the rest of the week," said Olivia.

"There you go being negative again," said Angela. She folded her arms. "I hereby declare this to be a negative-free vacation zone."

"I'll drink to that," said David.

"That's my Angela. She keeps me sane, you know," said Olivia.

Angela turned to go. "Sorry I can't stay. Mama needs help in the kitchen. You two go frolic in the surf or something."

"Do you need help?" said David.

"Thanks, but I'd rather you play lifeguard. I don't like 'Livie being out here alone."

So, thought David, he was to protect Olivia. But who was to protect him?

When Angela was gone, David stuck his beer in the sand and draped his t-shirt over it to shade the bottle from the sun. Then he and Olivia walked to the water's edge.

The waves broke and crashed with a roar at regular intervals, sending sprays of salt water into the air. A group of seagulls fought over the remains of a large crab. The water felt cool on David's feet, but he ran into it, followed by Olivia, who shrieked as the chilly water splashed her stomach.

"You didn't tell me it was this cold," shouted David.

"I told you it was perfect."

A big wave broke over them, drenching their bodies from head to foot. Olivia ran forward and dove into the next one. David let it break over him, then dove and swam to deeper water. He found that spot where he could stand and wait for the bigger waves. One came, a dark cliff of green water rising higher and higher, until white foam appeared at the crest. David paddled furiously, caught it, and body surfed all the way in, feeling the wave's energy hurl him forward until he landed on sand in the shallow water. He looked back, laughing, to see what Olivia was doing. She caught a wave perfectly and rode it in. About halfway to the beach she disappeared for a moment beneath the water and then washed ashore on the last bit of force in the wave. She came to rest on the sand a few feet from him, laughing and spitting salt water from her mouth.

"It threw me to the bottom like I was nothing," she said. She looked down at herself. "Yuck. I feel like a sand crab."

They charged back in and surfed a few more times, then went beyond the point where the big waves broke and stood in that valley of water between waves, where they could float gently up and down, their feet lifted off the sea bottom and then lowered again. Here it was quieter and they were mostly hidden from view of the house and the beach by the waves rolling past them and then breaking.

Olivia lowered herself until the water covered her chest and then shook out her bathing suit top. "I'm carrying a pound of sand around with me," she said. "You know you can swim nude out here, past the waves. I did a little while ago."

He forced a little chuckle. "I'll keep that in mind."

Then she surprised him by draping the top around her neck instead of putting it back on. David felt very uncomfortable. Under most circumstances he would have been delighted to have a woman remove her top while swimming in the ocean with him. But, in fact, he couldn't recall a single time when that had actually happened, to him at least. And yet, now that it was happening, he had to admit it was odd behavior for a first meeting, and very bizarre when he considered that she was the cousin of his girlfriend. He was certain that Olivia had deliberately flashed him, earlier, on the beach. Could it be that he was just too square? After all, as a boy he had received a spanking from his mother when he and his friend Ted were caught for swimming in the local creek without clothes. Clothing was never optional in his family. Maybe Angela's was a little looser.

Then Olivia's hands came out of the water, holding the bottom half of her suit. She rinsed the sand out of it and then draped the garment around her neck. "It feels wonderful. Oh, this is heaven. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

She treaded water closer to him and stood, bobbing up and down, less than a foot from him. Her skin was well-tanned. He wondered if she visited a tanning booth, or sunbathed nude. She took his hands and put them on her bare hips. He pulled them away. "You're supposed to keep me from drowning," she said.

"You know, Angela and I are dating seriously," said David.

"Dating seriously, are you? How romantic. Is that supposed to mean you don't play around?"

"That's usually what it means," he said.

She laughed, with a mocking tone in her voice. "Exactly what does it mean in your case? Do you play around, or not?"

"I don't," he said.

"You mean you haven't yet."

"I mean, I haven't and I don't intend to. I'm happy with Angela."

"You know what they say about good intentions, don't you?"

Now she was close enough so that her body touched his. He backed away. "Why are you doing this?" he asked. "Don't you care about Angela?"

"Angela is just about my only friend in the world."

"Then, what's going on here?"

"I'm going to prove to her that you are just like all the others. Angela has one great fault. She's too trusting. She loves everyone, and she gets hurt. You see, I'm a little more streetwise. I know there's one kind of person you can't trust, and that's a male person."

"That's a pretty large group of people not to trust."

She shrugged. "That's the way it is." Then she reached for the waistband of his suit. He swam away from her. "David, why are you resisting me? It's not your nature. You're a man, after all."

"Maybe we should go back in."

"I'm not ready."

"Well, I'm going."

"And leave me here alone? Angela will be very upset with you."

She was right, David realized. He was stuck. What was she up to? He didn't believe the crap about proving something to Angela.

"You're thinking about it, aren't you?" With a couple of strokes she came to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. The closeness of her body aroused him. She had goose bumps on the tops of her breasts. Her eyes were very clear. Now she spoke softly. "It would be over so quickly, David. Right here. I know you want me. All men want me. Until they're tired of me."

"This is a dangerous game you're playing. How will it sound when people find out you were flirting with me?"

"Who's going to tell them?" she asked. "Are you really going to announce that you were swimming naked with Olivia?"

"I'm not naked."

"But I am."

She's right again, he realized. "Then I guess we'll just hang out here and watch the waves."

She laughed, and pushed away from him. Then he thought he saw in her a different kind of look. Something like anger, or resentment. "Do you always do this to men who are interested in Angela?" he asked. "This is a bit much, isn't it?"

"You're a special case; she likes you a lot. So I'm suspicious. And jealous, I don't mind admitting."

David was happy to hear that Angela liked him. "Suppose you seduce some man in order to test him, as you say, but then you learn that he's really okay and Angela likes him, only now you've slept with him or something and she's mad at you. What then?"

Olivia put her suit back on. "I'm tired of swimming."

"It happened, didn't it? Just as I described."

"Don't push your luck," she said. "You passed this test, but there will be others."

She swam away from him and caught a wave back to shore.

***

Eight years later, David had Olivia on the phone while Angela lay on the bed in labor. He thought, as he always did when he spoke to Olivia, that he was happy nothing happened between them. In the week at the beach she had made a few clumsy attempts to kiss him, but mostly what he saw in her actions was unhappiness. She loved Angela and wanted to protect her, but also didn't want to lose her. Angela laughed when David told her later about Olivia's antics in the ocean. It took years for David to understand their strange bond. Angela had been the one with perfect grades; Olivia struggled in school. Angela was warm and loving but shy; Olivia was the brassy socialite who was eventually treated badly by boys as a teenager and became bitter. Angela defended Olivia when family members criticized her for her bad grades and short skirts and sullen boyfriends. In the seven years that David and Angela had been married, Olivia had had two husbands and a miscarriage. The miscarriage damaged her uterus and ruined any future chances of giving birth.

David knew that this birth was as important to Olivia as it was to Angela. They were going to experience it together.

She agreed to come over right away, without being seen by Natalie. Then he walked to the bedroom to tell Angela that Olivia was coming. He knew she would be thrilled.