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He was probably around thirty and relatively attractive. His blond hair gleamed in the misty morning light as he got into his own wetsuit. I just hoped he wasn’t the reckless kind. Being reckless underwater got people killed.
Everyone began loading up while Donna and I untied the mooring lines, then hopped into the boat. I gave Greg the ‘okay’ signal. You didn’t use a thumbs up in our line of work to signal that things were good. Underwater, thumbs up meant you need to surface. Putting your index finger to your thumb and making a circle with it meant ‘okay’, ‘good to go’, etc.
The boat pulled away from the dock and I took my seat enjoying the cool air in my face.
“You look happy,” Donna said as she sat next to me. There was a grin on her face. “Anything to do with a certain guy you’ve been seeing?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “That and being out on the water,” I told her. That was as much as I was going to say while the others sat around us.
Feeling eyes on me, I glanced over and found Eric staring at me. Again, chills raced over my body, causing my skin to pebble beneath my wetsuit. His stormy eyes were focused on my face. I looked away, uncomfortable that he was listening in.
Donna leaned closer to me. “He’s an odd one.”
I sent her a sharp look and she quickly shut up. We didn’t talk badly about our guests. Granted, most of the time the people who came with us were happy go lucky types who just wanted to have a fun trip. This guy looked like he was going to a funeral. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen someone scowl so hard before.
There wasn’t time to get to know him more or figure out why he seemed to be reacting this way. All I could hope was that today went well and then let Dave, the owner of the shop, know that he might want to blacklist this guy.
I sighed inwardly and prepared myself for whatever might come while diving with Eric. I was an accomplished diver and a professional. I could handle whatever he threw my way. Hopefully he’d just woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
CHAPTER11
Marina
Greg cut the engine and drifted the boat in close to the outcropping of rocks we’d be diving near. We rarely dropped down into the deep blue—where the ocean stretched for thousands of feet before reaching the bottom. There was no reason to. All the action was near rocks and reefs, and the different sea life was the reason we were all out here. So we dove near shelfs, shores, and rocks so we could see all the fish.
I watched over everyone as they began to hook their equipment to their tanks. After I was satisfied that they knew what they were doing I turned back toward my own kit. I attached my regulators to my tank. I could do it in my sleep, so I kept an eye on Eric while I did. Frowning, I watched as he fumbled to put everything together.
“Here,” I offered, “let me help.” It was possible he was out of practice and that’s what this dive was for. You got certified when you first started and after that it was up to you to maintain your abilities. If it’d been a long time since he dove it could account for being rusty.
Maybe that was why he was off?
I helped him put his BCD and tank on his back and made sure everything was snug. “Take a few puffs on both your reg and the octo,” I told him.
He’d be using his primary regulator, but everyone always had an octopus, which was a second regulator that was for your dive buddy. If something happened to your regulator, or you ran out of air, we were taught to go to the nearest person—dive buddy or not—and take their octopus. You’d then let them know that you need to surface. Whether you give the ‘out of air’ signal or not, you’re taught to take their second regulator.
Sometimes people tended to panic under the ocean, though, and they’d rip your reg out of your mouth because they’d just had to swim to you while holding their breath. In that case, your octo would become your primary regulator and you’d head to the surface.
I watched as he sucked in the air and nodded at me that everything was good.
“Great,” I said, patting him on the back. I checked my own gear then listened in as Donna explained to everyone how we’d be getting out of the boat.
“We’re going to be doing the giant stride off the back platform here,” she called out, pointing down to the extension attached to the back of the boat.
I was grateful for this boat. A lot of dive companies don’t have one with a platform, which meant you’d back roll off the boat into the sea. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, it was actually a lot of fun. But for beginners and people who hadn’t dove in a while that could be a scary way to start the dive. It was also a good way for people to lose their masks as they hit the water, ending a dive before it got started.
“I’ll go first and show you how it’s done,” Donna said, adjusting her mask over her face.
Everyone here had probably done this a million times, but we always went with the assumption that this was new for people. I watched as she stuck one leg straight out, bent the other while pushing—and falling—away from the platform. She landed in the ocean and dunked down before bobbing back up like a cork. She gave me the ‘okay’ signal and swam away so I could direct the next person.
Soon it was just me and Eric left. Greg would stay with the boat and pick us up as we surfaced. Eric stared down at the water, then looked over at me. There was a flicker of panic in his eyes.
“Hey, it’s alright.” I held my hand out and motioned for him to inhale. “Nice big breath. Good. Relax. Then just step off the platform.”
His eyes hardened and he looked away from me. He ended up doing a little jump off, not something we ever encourage, but it was too late.
I stepped off after him. My heart fluttered with excitement as the ocean closed over my head. The whoosh of the water around me felt and sounded like home. Next thing I knew, I was on the surface.
Donna was once again giving instructions. From here, we would deflate our BCDs—they were vests that you wore to control your buoyancy underwater and to keep you on the surface with no effort—and start the dive.
