The Education of Sebastian

  “Yeah, well… you were looking pretty good out there,” muttered Ches.

  “Why don’t you guys go have some fun; I’m ready for a rest. Sebastian, take my board.”

  I thrust it towards him, giving him very little choice in the matter. He gazed at me mulishly then snatched up the board and paddled out.

  Ches stared helplessly for a second, murmured something inaudible, and followed him. I watched for a while, hoping that they’d work it out somehow, then peeled off the wetsuit and stretched out on my beach towel. The sun was deliciously warm on my chilly skin and I was soon dozing peacefully, full of happy non-thoughts. Besides, I hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately.

  I was woken abruptly by something very cold dripping on me. I squinted into the sun to see Sebastian grinning down at me. My heart lurched suddenly: it was so much like the first day we’d met. So much had happened since then: I was barely the same person. Was he?

  At least Sebastian looked happier now.

  “Hey, baby, did I wake you up?”

  “Sort of: not really. Did you have fun?”

  He shrugged. “It was okay. Waves aren’t great today. Wind’s onshore, so it’s pretty mushy. It was more fun with you.”

  I shivered as he lay down next to me.

  “Ugh! You’re all cold and clammy!”

  “I could warm you up,” he said suggestively, running his hand across my stomach and leaning over me.

  I pushed him off.

  “Not here!”

  I glanced up to see an embarrassed Ches desperately trying to find something else to look at other than his best friend getting it on with a married woman.

  “Behave!” I said severely, frowning at Sebastian.

  He just grinned at me with the same irritating air of insouciance. God! He could be infuriating.

  I sat up and flicked his wrist away as he tried to lay a possessive hand on my thigh. I reached into my bag and pulled on my T-shirt. I thought Ches might feel slightly more comfortable if I was wearing a few more clothes, and there was that damn hickey, too. In truth, Ches’s level of comfort mostly depended on whether or not his friend would stop behaving like an ass.

  “Ches, would you like some sandwiches? I’ve made more than enough.”

  “Yeah, that would be great, Caroline,” he replied quietly.

  His eyes flickered nervously to Sebastian who was acting like a sulky teenager. Okay, maybe he wasn’t acting – he was a sulky teenager. I sighed. He was spoiling our lovely day: it wasn’t Ches’s fault that he’d turned up at the same beach as us. We should just be thankful it was Ches and not any other of his surfing buddies.

  Over lunch, relations began to thaw. Sebastian stopped trying to show off, and Ches began to relax. Food was proving to be a universal panacea for men’s ill tempers. I was relieved: the last thing I wanted to do was come between Sebastian and his best friend. And, if things went badly, he’d need all the friends he could get. I shivered at the thought.

  After our increasingly enjoyable picnic, Sebastian insisted on returning my board and shortie to the surf shack, and I insisted that he ride to the country club in the van with Ches.

  “I’ll see you there soon enough,” I pointed out, cutting off his protest. “Please, tesoro!”

  He kissed me hungrily and this time I knew it wasn’t an act. When we could bear to stop, he leaned his forehead against mine.

  “Bye, Caro,” he said softly.

  I kissed him quickly on the lips and watched him climb into Ches’s van.

  He was right about one thing: we were always saying goodbye.

  When I arrived at the country club, my grim mood turned into something much darker. A girl in a very skimpy bikini was lying on a sun lounger by the pool.

  Brenda fucking Wiseman.

  Chapter 15

  Brenda looked up and frowned as I settled myself at a table under a sun umbrella and fired up the laptop.

  It was clear from her confused expression that she recognized me, she just couldn’t remember from where. I didn’t have any plans on helping her out with that: the less she connected me with Sebastian, the happier I’d be. In fact, the smart thing to do would be to pack up and go home for that very reason.

  Even though I’d only just arrived, I should leave: maybe if I could just pretend that I’d forgotten something, I could go without drawing too much attention.

  Quietly, I closed the laptop’s lid and slipped it into my shoulder bag even though the poor machine was still grumbling through its start-up routine. I stood up to go but I was ten damn seconds too late. Sebastian was walking towards me in his country club uniform, a huge smile on his face. You would have thought he hadn’t seen me in days, not just a few minutes. I felt exactly the same.

  I flicked my eyes towards Brenda then stared at the floor, but he didn’t seem to be able to read my mind, which, at that precise moment, was extremely inconvenient of him.

  “Hi!” he said, happily. Then he frowned. “Are you going somewhere?”

  I was like a deer caught in headlights from the juggernaut that was Brenda Wiseman – and I was about to get squashed flat. Her eyes swiveled towards us and, from the look on her face, I was pretty darned certain that she had super-powers, probably X-ray vision, the way she was ogling his body.

  “Hey, Seb!” she said brightly. “Oh, I love your uniform! It’s, like, so cute!”

  Her hysterical cheerleader whine made me want to hold her head in the pool’s deep end and watch until her pedicured feet kicked out a tarantella.

  Sebastian’s expression morphed from happy to irritated and then to slightly worried. He was right to be concerned: his acting abilities were even worse than mine. The two of us being in the proximity of the preternaturally observant Brenda, was a sure recipe for disaster. Possibly hers, as I might be forced to rip her tongue out of her head and feed it to the nearest tiger shark as bait.

  I still thought that my best plan was to exit stage left at a convenient moment, although that meant leaving Sebastian in the clutches of the harpy. Unobtrusively, I sank back down in my seat and retrieved the confused laptop from my bag.

  “Um, no,” I said softly, trying not to look too befuddled, “I was just going to get… a coffee.”

  For a second Brenda glared at me then her gaze became rather condescending.

  “Oh, I thought I recognized you: you were at the picnic on Sunday, Mrs.…?”

  “Caroline Wilson,” I supplied politely. “And you are…?”

  “Brenda Wiseman,” she said, raising her eyebrows, clearly believing she was unforgettable. How right she was.

  Sebastian’s haunted eyes pedaled between us.

  “Nice to see you again, Brenda,” I said, matching her for insincerity.

  She adjusted her bikini top, her tried and tested method for attracting Sebastian’s attention. This time it failed spectacularly; he was still staring intently at me. God, I hoped somebody tried to drown themselves soon – maybe that would snap him out of it – although it was doubtful.

  Brenda’s eyes narrowed: she sensed competition, so now she was going in for the kill. While Sebastian’s gaze was still fixed on me, I saw her fiddle with one of her earrings and slip it into her purse. What was she up to?

  I was about to find out.

  “Seb?” she whined. “I lost an earring; I think it came off in the deep end. Would you, like, dive down and find it for me?”

  Wow, she really was shameless! She’d deployed the poor, helpless female act to get her own way and she was about to make him take his shirt off – all in one short sentence. I would never have thought of that: I had a lot to learn.

  Sebastian frowned at her.

  “Are you sure you lost it in the deep end?” He stared at her accusingly. “Your hair is dry.”

  She flushed. “I’ve been here a while… I was swimming when I noticed it had gone. Please, take a look?”

  “Okay,” he said, staring down into the pool.

  I saw a look of trium
ph in her expression which soon changed to lust as Sebastian pulled off his T-shirt and stepped out of his flip-flops.

  It was really hard to imagine that they’d dated for ten whole months. Even harder to imagine that she hadn’t ripped off his clothes and stolen his virginity at some point during that period. Had she only become so obviously desperate once he’d broken up with her or had she always been like this? I reminded myself of the reason why they’d broken up in the first place: she’d slept with someone else. Perhaps Sebastian had had a good grasp on his self-control when he was with her – just not with me, I concluded smugly.

  Across the pool, I saw two women of Shirley’s age nudge each other and adjust their sunglasses for a better look.

  Big tips from horny, older women.

  Jealousy was such a new and unaccustomed emotion, that I had to remind myself my homicidal thoughts were something of an over-reaction. Except, perhaps, where Brenda was concerned.

  I was relieved that the nail marks I’d inflicted on him last night – or very early this morning – had, mostly, faded. Sebastian wasn’t the only one who had to be careful not to get carried away.

  With a grace that took my breath away, he dived into the deep end and stayed under for half a minute, searching for the earring that Evil Brenda pretended she’d lost. He came up for air then dove down again. Twice more he swept the bottom of the pool but, of course, found nothing.

  Eventually he gave up and pulled himself out of the pool, right next to where Brenda was sitting, the vixen trying to look all helpless and grateful. His swim-trunks clung to his body as the water poured off him, and his skin sparkled in the sun, droplets reflecting light off his chest and arms.

  Brenda looked like she’d died and gone to heaven. Although… a thought occurred to me, hadn’t she seen it all before? Hadn’t he ever taken her surfing with him? I’d have to remember to ask him. Then I slapped the idea down: I’d promised myself to quit plaguing him with questions that were only going to piss off both of us.

  The two women across the pool were grinning at each other and I swear they gave each other a high five. I could see Sebastian was going to have a long afternoon of being asked to retrieve lost jewelry from the pool. Or maybe, if those cocktails the women drank were alcoholic, he’d end up having to save them both when they threw themselves in the deep end, hoping that he’d give them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

  “I’m sorry, Brenda,” he said, “I couldn’t find it. It probably got sucked into the filter system. I’ll report it to the manager and he can ask the pool guy to look out for it. But it won’t be until tomorrow morning now.”

  She shrugged.

  “Whatever. So, did you decide which school you’re going to go to yet? UCSD, right? What classes are you taking?”

  “I’m working, Bren,” he said, not very subtly.

  She pouted. “It’s not that busy.”

  He frowned. “I’m not supposed to chat to members.”

  “I won’t tell if you won’t,” she said, smiling up at him.

  I felt desperately sorry for Sebastian; he was utterly hopeless at trying to blow her off. He really didn’t have a clue. He was far too nice for his own good.

  I wondered if he’d appreciate my help: maybe if I attacked her with a pool chair and beat her into putty, she’d be distracted enough to leave him alone. On the other hand, that would definitely draw unwanted attention.

  Instead, I tried to focus on the small screen in front of me, but I couldn’t help noticing that Sebastian’s eyes kept flicking nervously in my direction.

  Brenda was getting irritated that her wiles weren’t working; and she was bound to notice that he kept looking at me, not her.

  At that moment Ches walked over to Sebastian and spoke to him quietly. Whatever he said, Sebastian was hugely and obviously relieved. He picked up his uniform polo-shirt and pulled it over his still-wet body, slipped on his flip-flops and walked off, glancing just once at me and smiling.

  But it was enough: Brenda had seen the look.

  Her eyes narrowed dangerously and I couldn’t help a nervous swallow. Then I straightened my back and decided that I wasn’t going to roll over and let her walk all over me.

  “Where’s he gone?” Brenda snapped at Ches.

  “We’ve been told to swap duties,” he lied casually.

  I knew for a fact that Sebastian was supposed to be poolside his whole shift.

  “They want him in the gym,” continued Ches, sounding utterly convincing. I was glad he was on our side – on Sebastian’s side.

  Then he looked at me and grinned, “Hey, there, Mrs. Wilson! How are you?”

  “I’m just fine, thank you, Ches,” I said, smiling at him gratefully. “How’s your mom and dad?”

  We slipped into our double act as if we’d been practicing it all our lives.

  “Good, thanks. Are you writing another article?”

  “I thought the staff weren’t supposed to chat to members,” Brenda muttered in a sulky tone.

  Ches pretended not to hear her and spoke to me for several minutes before taking up his place in the lifeguard’s chair.

  I was totally unprepared for Brenda’s next line of attack.

  “So, you’re, like, a writer?” she said, coming and standing next to me, one hand on her hip.

  I glanced up and saw Ches’s fleeting look of sympathy.

  “Trying to be,” I said politely.

  “Aren’t you, like, kind of old to be starting out?”

  I was astonished by her rudeness.

  “I don’t think it’s ever too late to try something new.”

  She sniffed and started reading my notes over my shoulder. I’d had enough.

  I closed the laptop and looked her in the eye. “Is there something I can help you with, Barbara?”

  “It’s Brenda!”

  “Oh, is it?”

  “You knew Seb when he was a kid, right?” she said, not the least bit perturbed by my overt hostility.

  “Slightly,” I acknowledged.

  “So, you’ve known him, like, forever?”

  If she said ‘like’ again, I might have to beat her over the head with a book of English grammar. Or I might just do it anyway: the idea was undeniably attractive.

  I smiled coolly at her and she looked a little confused. “Oh, sorry, Barb… Brenda. Was that a question?”

  She nodded briskly.

  “No, not really,” I replied shortly. I wasn’t going to give her any information I didn’t need to.

  “You know his parents, right?”

  “Slightly,” I repeated, knowing that would aggravate her more than anything.

  “Seb and I have been dating since tenth grade,” she lied blandly.

  “How nice,” I said, grinding my teeth. “Dear me! Shirley must have been mistaken when she told me you two had broken up.”

  She flicked her honey blonde hair over her shoulder. “We were on a break, but he wants to get back with me.”

  She spoke with such an air of conviction that I was rather in awe of her. How did she lie so easily and with such confidence? I should take lessons from her – especially as I had another three months of living with David to get through.

  The reminder was a sharp one, and I’d had enough of her games.

  “How nice for you. Well, it’s been lovely chatting, but if you’ll excuse me, I have deadlines.”

  Now she looked mad. It turned out that I was much better at blowing her off than Sebastian was. What’s more, it had been fun.

  She huffed angrily, grabbed her towel and headed indoors. I suspected she would be stalking Sebastian in the gym. I looked up at Ches. He shrugged and shook his head helplessly. Nope, he didn’t know what to do about Barbara… er… Brenda either.

  I decided to wander in to get that mythical coffee after all. I left my laptop on the table and Ches cheerfully acknowledged that he’d keep an eye on it. Pulling on my T-shirt and shorts I headed for the bar area but before I got there I could hea
r a woman’s angry voice.

  “It’s not appropriate for you to be chatting to your girlfriend while you’re working, Mr. Hunter.”

  “She’s not my…”

  A middle-aged Hispanic woman in a neat pant-suit was chewing a piece out of Sebastian. My immediate reaction was to rush in and defend him. Instead, I watched silently from the sidelines. Story of my life.

  “We have rules here for very good reasons. We don’t want our members injuring themselves when they’re in the gym: that’s why we have staff on hand to instruct them in the correct use of the equipment. If you’re chatting to your girlfriend, Mr. Hunter, that’s when accidents will happen. I take a very dim view of that… a very dim view indeed.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend, ma’am, she’s a member and…”

  “Well… I’ve made my views clear, Mr. Hunter. And should any other of your friends decide to come and chat, I’m sure you’ll dissuade them from that. Am I making myself clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And may I ask why you are working the gym right now and not Mr. Peters?”

  Sebastian flushed and dropped his gaze to stare directly over his manager’s shoulder.

  “I… I asked to swap, ma’am.”

  “I arrange the rosters, Mr. Hunter, not you. Kindly go back to your lifeguarding duties and send Mr. Peters to see me, please.”

  “But Ches…”

  “Now, Mr. Hunter.”

  “Yes, Miss Perez.”

  Sebastian turned on his heel and strode back out to the pool area.

  Luckily he was unaware that I’d overheard the humiliating little scene. I could cheerfully have smacked Brenda into the middle of next week for causing so much trouble.

  I lingered to order a coffee and the young barista offered to carry it out to the pool for me when it was ready. Now Sebastian was back outside, it was the only place I wanted to be.

  Happily Brenda seemed to have disappeared. Which was lucky for her, the way I was feeling.

  Sebastian was slumped in the lifeguard’s chair when I emerged into the sunshine from the gloom of the clubhouse, but beamed at me as I resumed my seat under the sun umbrella. I really was going to have to talk to him about playing it cool. I gave him a quick smile and went back to my laptop. Now Brenda had gone, I had a reasonable chance of actually managing to put some words on the page.