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Two clients from the hotel had signed up for a beginner’s course that encompassed five qualifying dives over a week. She’d arrived an hour before the scheduled time to check the equipment and watch the water. She didn’t need tide charts to know the sea conditions. It was like an inborn compass, integral to her being. Sometimes she swore it was water that flowed through her veins instead of blood.
She double-checked the oxygen levels of the tanks and the functionality of the buoyancy compensators and regulators. She was just about to carry her equipment to the inflatable raft when two young men appeared in the open door. One had limp, brown hair tied into a ponytail, and the other was a redhead with a fair skin covered in freckles. From the booking forms, she knew they were Jake and Elvin, respectively twenty and twenty-two years old.
“Good morning, guys. I’m Maya, your divemaster.”
The young men exchanged a look Maya knew well. She gave an indulgent smile as the redhead’s mouth fell open and his friend’s eyes locked on her breasts.
Freckles found his voice first. “Uh, I’m Jake,” he pointed at his buddy, “and this is Elvin.”
She stretched and flicked the strap of her red bikini. “Ready?”
Jake’s eyes raked down her body before he looked at Elvin again. “Hell, yeah.”
“Right. Let’s fit you out.”
They went outside onto the deck where fins, masks, snorkels, BCs, and weight belts in different sizes were laid out. As Maya visually measured the two men and started handing out fins for them to try on, the noise of an engine sounded from the direction of the lodge. She glanced up just as a beach buggy pulled up in front of the cabin.
Maya squinted into the sun and then smiled. “Looks like we have another diver.”
“That’s just unlucky, man,” Elvin said to Jake. “Competition.”
Maya dragged her gaze over Tim as he jumped from the vehicle and approached them. He wore a pair of blue and green Bermuda swimming shorts with a towel thrown over his shoulder. The muscles flexed in his veined upper arm where he gripped the fabric, and his chiseled body glistened with perspiration. Blond curls fell over his forehead.
He stopped in front of her. “Maya.”
The word wasn’t a greeting, it was a caress. The way he said it made her insides warm. Fuzzy insides weren’t good.
Jake and Elvin looked between her and Tim.
“Joining us?” she asked, mentally kicking herself for having swallowed her tongue for a second.
“Got nothing better to do.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “On a Monday? Shouldn’t you be wearing an expensive suit and impressing investors and their wives?”
He smiled. “Maybe tomorrow.”
“Better sign the indemnity form then. Come inside.” Maya entered the cabin. “You guys too,” she called to Jake and Elvin from over her shoulder.
The plan was to do a shallow dive on a sandy spot between two reefs not far from the shore, at a depth of four meters for thirty minutes, or until the first diver’s pressure gauge reached a hundred bars. The purpose was to familiarize the students with the equipment, to practice lifting and clearing their masks, and to free-dive and don their gear on the ocean bed.
After explaining the dive plan, Maya said, “Elvin and Jake, you guys are dive buddies. Tim, you’re with me. Whatever you do, don’t lose sight of your buddy. Let’s go.”
“I wish she was my buddy,” Jake said under his breath to Elvin. “Definitely wouldn’t lose sight of her.”
Tim narrowed his eyes at Jake, who quickly looked away, a blush spreading over his cheeks.
Maya chuckled. “Come on, boys. Better get a move on. We’ve got a couple of hours before the tide turns.”
They carried their equipment to the raft. Maya had picked the rented vessel up at the port that morning and had to steer it around the bay and launch it onto the sand.
Elvin glanced around. “Where’s the skipper?”
“You’re looking at her,” Maya said, lifting her tank over the side.
He gave a goofy laugh and then whistled. “Amazonian.”
After they’d pushed the boat into the water, Maya hopped inside. When she started the engine, the men followed.
They anchored six miles from the shore. As the dive wasn’t deep and the water eighty degrees Fahrenheit, they didn’t need dive suits. Anyway, Maya preferred feeling the water on her bare skin. It was like a lover’s caress.
Elvin was clumsy, battling to clear his mask, which seemed to fog up constantly, while skinny Jake was too buoyant. He struggled to keep from floating up until Maya loaded weights in his BC pockets. Tim concerned her the most. He was as out of his depth in the water as she was at home. His breathing was shallow, causing him to consume his oxygen too fast, and his eyes mirrored his discomfort.
Keeping her hand on Tim’s arm, Maya steered the small group to a sandbank between two reefs. The coral formations sheltered the sandy stretch from the currents. Once they were settled on their knees, Maya pointed two fingers at her eyes, the sign for calling their attention. She took off her BC and took one last drag of air through the regulator before swimming to the surface. After breaking through the swell at the top, she filled her lungs, dove down, and inhaled through her regulator before putting her gear back on. Then she pointed at Tim to indicate he was next.
