Sweet Swell

Chapter 10

“I feel like we can talk about anything, anytime, anywhere,” I raved about Liam to Tamra over the phone. I’d just woken up from a much-needed nap after Tristan and I had driven home past endless fields of sugarcane fields all the way from Durban. 

“You know, I feel like he could easily be one of us, just hanging out, talking about nothing and everything. We’d be having a conversation and forget all about what we were talking about only to remember afterwards how nice and comfortable it felt being together.”

“You’re obsessed. Girl, get yourself together,” Tamra groaned irritatedly, “We need to talk about something other than your budding romance for a change here!”

“Oh…I’m sorry…I didn’t notice I was being such a fangirl,” I said, slightly taken aback by the realisation that I was acting like a besotted little schoolgirl about a guy I’d known only ever seen twice.

“Ja, we have a few subjects that need addressing, which was why I actually called, ditzy,” I could hear her smile over the line, “I talked to Laurie, and she was all for it!”

“Okay, fill me in, I’m listening,” I said.

“Snorkelling! We haven’t done that in ages and we all finally have the time to go. So are you in?”

“Of course!” I sat up straight with excitement. I’ve always had a tremendous respect for the ocean and all the creatures that inhabit it. I’ve read somewhere that more than 95% of the ocean remains unexplored, which scares me tremendously, but intrigues me equally as much. Snorkelling allowed me to see a small part of that 5% we do know something about. And I’m a sucker for coral reefs, they just have this way of transporting me to another world completely. 

“When are we going?” I inquired, standing up to scribble a date in on my calendar.

“How’s tomorrow?”

“Perfect, should we meet at Willard beach?”

“Yes, by the lifeguards lookout at 10AM…” she confirmed, “Now tell me about that party,” she added quickly.

“I thought you’d never ask!” I exclaimed, “It was magical, totally insane. These people have money like you can’t imagine, Tamra, I swear to you, it was like being in a Fitzgerald novel.”

“God…sounds like you had quite the cinderella moment. Next time, invite a sister along, will you?” she hinted with a laugh.

“Trust me, I would have brought you all if I’d had more notice, but my idiot of a stepbrother literally dragged me out of bed at the last minute to attend.

“I can’t believe you guys spent the night,” she murmured thoughtfully, “You guys didn’t…”

“No…no nothing happened between Liam and I. I’m surprised as well, to be honest. We were all pretty buzzed. But I woke up all alone in one of their guest bedrooms this morning,” I explained.

“Too bad…” Tamra murmured, “You guys are hot for each other, it’s obvious! There must be so much tension, imagine what it’ll be like when it actually happens,” she was most likely referring to sex. Tamra loved sex, that was no secret, and it was her full right to do so. I mean, who doesn’t like it? She just verbalised it quite more liberally than I was prepared to do. Virgin that I was, that probably wasn’t such a shocking revelation. I was sort of proud, honestly, to still have my v-card after surviving high school. There was just nobody really worth giving it to that came along, in my opinion. Call me old fashioned, but I wanted it to be with the right guy at the right time. Not to just to be something I wanted to get out of the way.