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“You good, Mai-Tai?” Cove’s voice comes down the line, bringing me back to reality.
“Yeah. I’m good.”
“Sorry about that bit, I know it’s noisy.”
“No. It’s great. I love the sound of the sea. I’ve missed it so much.”
The honesty in my words makes me do a double take. I thought I hated the ocean?
“I can’t wait to take you to the beach again. It’s how I got you to agree to go out with me in the first place?”
Cove is straddling his board now, and the view shows me that we’re experiencing a lull before the next set of waves. Out here – I guess I should say out there, but it truly feels like I’m there with him – the water is calm and glassy, like a polished mirror.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I promised to show you the hidden surfing beaches that you can’t get to on foot.”
“And did you?”
“One or two, before.”
“Are there more?”
“So many more.”
“I’d like to see them with you sometime. For real.”
“I’d like that too. You ready? The set’s building and I think I’ve got a good one coming in.”
“What do I do?”
“Just hang on and enjoy the ride.”
Cove catches the wave, smoothly popping up onto his feet and adjusting the camera on his chest so that I have a forward-facing view of the ride, so I’m getting the exact same view as him, rather than the sideways on view I would get from the position of the chest harness. The beach races towards me at a rate of knots and the sensation of flying and freedom hits me just like it used to when I caught a real wave. Whoa. Where did that memory come from?
Eventually the ride slows and Cove effortlessly drops off into the shallows.
“How was that?”
“Amazing! Can we do it again?”
“As many times as you’d like, pretty girl.”
“You might regret saying that when I keep you out here until midnight.”
“Anything for you.”
I smile as he climbs back onto his board and repeats the paddling out process, and then we spend the next couple of hours surfing ‘together’. I get brave and pop up on my board when he does, hangin’ five to experience flight. Cove’s running commentary has me in stitches and between sets we talk about everything and nothing.
“Did you enjoy our date, Mai-Tai?” he asks me once he’s sitting on the beach and we’re watching the sunset together in a wash of vibrant warm tones.
“It was perfect. The only thing that could make the date better would be a goodnight kiss,” I tell Cove in a moment of bravery.
He smiles at me. “Our time will come, pretty girl.”
I believe him, I really do. I just want it to come a little sooner. When I tell him this he laughs and says it can be arranged, but then changes the topic to my returning to class.
“I guess it’s time,” I concede.
