A Distant Memory

Chapter 24 - Swimming (and other stuff)

"Oli?"

"Anderson?"

"What are you doing here?" I asked. Just then I started to take in his muscular self. Once I let myself stare at his abs, there was no way back. "You know that you can't wet your boot, right?" he chuckled, snapping me out of the trance I was in and changing the topic of conversation. He ran a hand over his dry hair.

"I took it off" I shrugged, forcing my eyes off of him. "You limped to the water?" he asked with a light chuckle. "Mhm, besides it's almost healed right now, so I didn't limp that much" I swallowed.

"If you waited a little longer I would've helped you" he started to get closer to the water. "Aren't you supposed to be with Eve?"

"She went to a friends house" the water made noise as he put one foot in, the small waves clashed against him. "What are you trying to do, Anderson?" I snapped at him, a little irritated.

He thought that just because he was hot as fuck I would sleep with him. What for, an easy way to fame? No way.

"I want to refresh myself, today's hot. What's wrong about that?"

"It's inappropriate for a CEO and her intern to be in a secret beach together" I expressed as ethically as I could, he just laughed, he was getting closer and closer to me. "It's not, this water is not private property, just think of it as if we were in the ocean. What about that is inappropriate?" he teased, god I wanted to end him.

"The fact that we are alone"

"We've been alone before" he smirked, "It's different now" I muttered.

"Why? 'cause we're in our swimsuits?" he chuckled, and I almost asked him to do it again. Almost.

"Exactly" I had a smug look plastered on my face, thank god that now I couldn't see his body anymore. However, that meant that he was close to me. Really. Fucking. Close to me.

"Too bad" he shrugged with a fake-sorry look, I groaned. "Fine". I moved to the other side of the narrow beach, we were at least four meters apart. He chuckled and went under the water to damp his hair. When he came back to the surface I nearly lost it. I side-eyed his body while he rested on the shore, his body shone with the sun. I never saw a man this way after Rowan. I didn't let myself, now I'm letting myself feel, if I feel an attraction towards him, I won't try to deny it. That doesn't mean that I can act on it, though.

"Sunsets are beautiful here" he broke the silence, I snapped my head towards him, he took that as a sign to continue. "I always come here to clear my head. When the co-parting gets too hard or... a bunch of stuff just... pile up, this place helps me clear my head"

I nodded and turned my head back to the sky, a few minutes went by and this time I was the one to break the silence; "It's just the air, the sound of the little waves and... the sand..." I confessed, I'm not sure if it made much sense.

"Why the sand?" He asked, his beautiful, curious and - unlike most of the time -  soft  grey orbs analyzing my light green ones.

"You said it, no one knows about this place, it's pure. As if all the bad, nasty stuff that just happens stops when the sand starts" I didn't expect him to understand, this was a me thing.

"I get it" those three words surprised me, I turned my head to him in disbelief. "You do?" I could not believe that someone understood how purifying and healing this place was to me, I never expected anyone to, except Rowan of course.

"Yeah, all my problems stop where the sand starts." he shrugged honestly, "I'm free here, Eve is one of the only people with who I feel this way with"

I felt bold, "Who are the others?" I asked, he took a inhaled and responded, taking his time. "You, for some reason"