AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I told you to leave it alone,” Beverly chastised as she walked back up to the front of the café when I came back inside after my embarrassing denial moments ago.
“I know.” I shook my head. “Do you really know nothing about her? If she’s been coming here for six months—”
She pointed a finger at me. “Listen, hon, I’m sure you have good intentions, but that woman has not once tried to engage in any kind of conversation with anyone that I know of. She’s not ready. Let it be.”
I surrendered. “Thanks, Beverly.” I lifted my coffee cup and walked back out of the café.
“Dude, where have you been?” Drew walked through the parking lot, his hair still wet and disheveled from his morning surf. “You missed some sick waves.”
The way Drew spoke, one would think he was a young kid, but he was fifty. I felt bad for the guy. He was still coping with losing his whole life in the fire, but he still had his dog, which currently lived with his ex-wife while we were road-tripping, and he used the insurance money from the house to buy his Airstream. He told me he had no desire to rebuild right now. Drew took the fire as a sign that he needed to move on from his ex-wife and find his new purpose.
Drew was a pretty successful guy. He had built an empire around the health industry, which is how we originally connected. I was fascinated by the philosophies he taught in his books and wanted to find a way to connect them to my own journey of self-discovery. And he surfed. That was always a plus in my book.
“Sorry, man. I got distracted.”
“For two hours?” he jabbed.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I had been so enamored by that woman all morning that I had lost track of time. She didn’t do anything worth noting, but I still couldn’t take my eyes off her. I studied every shift of her hips when she was uncomfortable, every sip of coffee that lingered on her lips, and mostly the sighs and, occasionally, I could swear she wiped away a tear. Maybe there was a reason why our paths crossed right now.
“I’m starving,” Drew announced.
“I already ate. I’ll see you back at the site.”
“Alright, man.” He headed to the café, propping his surfboard against the wall.
I stared down at the path the woman had taken, debating if I should follow it and see if I could locate where she was camped. I didn’t want to come off as a creeper after our encounter this morning, but I was staying at the campground just the same, so it wouldn’t be abnormal for me to use this path, too. It wasn’t a large strip of beach, but I had never actually walked this way back before. I had always come from the road.
“What do I have to lose?” I said aloud to no one.
If nothing else, I just wanted to know her name. I made a mental note to ask Beverly tomorrow. She had to at least know that about her.
Thorny brush scratched my legs as I made my way down the narrow path. When it opened up to the beach, I glanced up toward the frontage road and spotted the woman’s bright aqua retro trailer. No wonder I had missed it the past several days. The trailer was conveniently hidden at the end of the strip in a nook between cliff rocks.
The perfect place to hide.
My heart leaped when I saw her sitting on the porch area in front of her trailer, her dark hair swept up into a haphazard bun with stray pieces falling out everywhere. She was talking on the phone and petting something small and black in her lap.
Unmoving and watching her in true stalker fashion, I picked at the lid of my coffee nervously, wondering what I should say to her. I could walk right by her and pretend I didn’t see her at first and then sayhi. Maybe even add in a double-take jerking motion with my head to sell it more or I could just wave as I passed by, and if she reciprocated with a smile or something, then stop and try to spark up a conversation. My head was spinning with dozens of different scenarios and it was stressing me out. She had already shot me down once and my ego was still healing from that one, and if I were being honest, I was attracted to her and really didn’t want her to shoot me down again, so maybe this whole thing was a bad idea.
I took in a deep breath to calm my nerves. Fumbling my words was new, but my nerves had gotten the best of me with this woman, and instead of introducing myself at the café like a normal person, I spat out a deeply personal question out of nowhere. I mean, it wasn’t out of nowhere. I had literally been wondering what her story was over the past few days, and so it just happened to be the first thing that came to mind and then it just came out of mouth, like we had been talking for hours. Man, I was a loser. I didn’t even tell her my name.
I chickened out and had decided to walk back to the café and take the long way to my campsite, but then she hung up the phone and spotted me. I panicked and all I could do was smile widely like a complete goofball. My plan to abort mission went up in smoke, so I casually strode up the beach and lifted my coffee in salute. She ignored my friendly gesture and looked away. Not even a smirk. It couldn’t be more awkward, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily, so I walked right up to her porch.
“You’re trespassing.” She glared down at my feet that had crossed the invisible line of her site to public access.
I took a step back and grinned at her idiotically. I had lost my ability to speak and my thoughts became a jumbled mess, so naturally the first thing I said as I locked eyes on the dog on her lap was, “You have a rat on your lap.” I wanted to smack myself upside the head.
“And you have bird poop on your shoulder,” she hit back quickly.
I glanced over and saw the white pile, wondering how long had it been there. I looked back to her and grinned awkwardly, again, my cheeks heating with humiliation.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend your dog,” I said shamefully.
“She’s not offended,” she replied shortly.
“Have we met before? I swear you look familiar.”
“I would remember if we had. Maybe you met my doppelgänger,” she said sarcastically.
