Lost At Sea

Chapter 9

Four o'clock came fast. Four hours can go by in a flash when shopping. Claire had two bags full of clothes that would last her for as long as she needed. She picked out a few summer dresses, shorts, t-shirts, a jacket, underwear, bras, long sleeves, bathing suits etc. Pretty much everything she needed. She made it back to the boat in time, tying the tops of both bags and throwing them over the boat with as much strength as she could muster. Claire proceeded to climb the ladder that Roman left out for her.

She made it to the top, and if she had the bags in her hands she would have dropped them. Sitting on the boat was a large easel, with a canvas resting on it. There was a huge set of acrylic paints next to it, and a cup chock full of different sized paintbrushes. There were at least 12 different sized canvas' sitting behind the easel.

Claire put both hands to her mouth, and tears welled up in her eyes. She took a seat on the ground, her legs felt wobbly.

"Claire!" She heard Roman run up the stairs, his eyes widening in shock at her face. "Shit, you don't like it. I'm sorry I just thought, you just said painting made you forget everything and I––" he started rambling, coming over to sit next to me.

She stopped him mid sentence. "No, I love it. Thank you so much, how did you even get all this stuff?" She wiped at the tears on her cheeks.

"Well, I looked up an art store and found one, and I just told the guy in the store you liked acrylics and he got me everything he said you would need."

"This is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me." She turned without thinking and wrapped her arms around his neck. She instantly started to let go, but he held her closer to him.

"I hope it makes you feel better about your dad," he said. She felt his breath hot against her neck.

They finally let go, both a little red in the face, and she got up to go inspect the paints. It was exactly what she needed, and she almost dropped everything to start painting right then and there, but she realized she needed to unpack her new clothes.

"So, get anything nice for yourself? More than one pair of pants?" She looked at Roman expectantly.

"Yes actually, I got a lot of stuff," he replied. She grabbed both her bags, and went down the steps. She groaned at what she saw before her.

His clothes were all over the place. Luckily, he did get enough clothes to last this time, but they were everywhere. He also didn't unpack any of the food.

"Roman, I would ask you what you've been doing the past few hours besides making a complete mess, but since you did get me a really sweet gift, I'll clean all this up and unpack for you."

He beamed at her. "Thank youuuu."

And with that, she began putting everything away.