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“Well, maybe the stick would get a little old in stop-and-go traffic,” Sam conceded, before starting up the car. “How long have you had this?” She noticed the relatively low miles on a car that had to be from the 1990s.
“Ten years or so,” Natalia replied as they neared the gate. “I wanted an older model, but this one was so expertly refurbished I couldn’t pass it up.” Instead of stopping there, she added, “As a kid, all I wanted was a badass Jeep and a pair of Doc Martens.”
“Get out.” Sam chuckled, skin warm from the sun and breeze starting to whip her hair around when she shifted into third gear and picked up speed. “You had a crush on a girl with one, didn’t you?”
Sam couldn’t see her eyes behind the dark lenses, but she felt Natalia’s gaze land on her. Stealing a glance, it was impossible to miss the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips.
“There may or may not have been a senior when I was a freshman,” she said noncommittally, voice louder to combat the noisy wind cutting through the open Jeep. “Her name was Stacy, and she was the coolest girl I had ever seen in my life.”
“Hey,” Sam feigned offense. “I’m sitting right here.”
Natalia shook her head and leaned it against the backrest, her energy buoyant and alight with threads of nostalgia. “She was absolutely gorgeous.”
“And your little gay heart had it so bad,” Sam guessed.
“So bad,” she agreed instead of denying it.
Exhilarated when Natalia turned up the radio playing an 80s freestyle classic, Sam sang along, feeling drunk on the new energy sparking between them. The drive over the bridge and into Key Biscayne was disappointedly short so early in the morning. Passing the line of trucks and trailers waiting their turn to launch into the water, Sam continued on to Crandon Park Marina.
“I was a full adult before I learned that not all beaches are coarse sand and broken shells,” Sam said while waiting her turn to get into the Marina. “We always went to El Farito.” She pointed behind her, where the only road on the island continued to the distant point where her family went on lucky Sunday beach days. It was all seaweed and artificial reefs and she’d loved every second of it as a kid.
“My father thought going to the beach was pointless,” Natalia divulged to Sam’s surprise.
“Pointless?” Sam tried to wrap her head around the hot take.
Natalia shrugged. “I’ve come to understand he was a small, angry person. He was probably jealous of the sun for shining and the fish for swimming.”
“Jeez.”
“And the Earth would stop its rotation if my mother disagreed with him, so I was seventeen the first time I took several buses to see the beach.” She said it was like she lived in a landlocked state rather than Miami.
“You never went with your friends? School trips?” Sam treaded lightly.
Natalia’s cold laugh was heart-wrenching. “I couldn’t go anywhere if he didn’t go, and he would never have taken off work for something as frivolous as a field trip.” She shifted her hat when they rolled into a shady patch under the Banyan covering the park entrance station. “I’m not sure if it’s ironic or just fucked up that he was the same person who had no qualms about throwing me out onto the street. Maybe I’ve inherited my all-or-nothing sensibilities from him.”
“That was really unfair of him and?—”
“I don’t want to sour this not entirely unpleasant morning,” Natalia said before turning up the volume on a Whitney Houston ballad.
Sam smiled and didn’t push it further. “Well, I’ll bring you to the beach every weekend.”
Natalia shot her the briefest smirk, the top of her eyebrow flashing over the top of her sunglasses. “Haven’t you been listening? I’ll take my damn self to the beach, Professor.”
Sam chuckled, her chest expanding with an unstoppable buzz. “Yeah, you will.”
When they were through, Sam found a parking spot in the lot that was already half full so early in the morning. People who were serious about fishing would have arrived hours ago, but Sam was in the group that wanted to get out on the water to have a little fun and come back before the sunset crowds jammed up the waterway.
Sam grabbed the cooler, extending the handle to tip it onto its wheels while Natalia grabbed the other bags. Together, they walked in the bright, almost-too-hot sun toward her slip. After gaining access with a key card, Sam led them down the long cement walkway toward her boat.
Natalia stopped when Sam did. “Sol Searcher?” She read the white letters scrawled on the back of the navy-blue boat. It was one of the smaller boats in the marina, but it was more than enough for Sam. She’d wanted something only as big as needed to hold a small cabin and a shower tall enough for her to fit in.
“I got her used and it’s bad luck to change a boat’s name,” she replied, trying and failing not to sound defensive.
“Superstitious?” Natalia held her hat when a gust a wind tried to snatch it.
Sam raised both brows and shook her head in disbelief. “Obviously.”
“What made you get a boat?” Natalia asked while Sam lowered herself onto the deck.
