Some Like It Hot Ch. 02

Chapter Two -- Therapeutic

I sat in the lotus position in front of my Buddha shrine. I had David's shirt resting in my lap, folded neatly with the design face up. I closed my eyes and couldn't believe that it had already been weeks since our encounter. I missed him. It was strange, but I really missed him. I picked up his shirt and held it to my nose, sniffing the fading scent of his sweat and cologne. A sharp pain went through my chest. I always believed that things happened for a reason, but I didn't know where to go from here. I went to the Coffee Bean for a week after I bumped into David, but he never showed. I made friends with the girl that took our order when he bought me my iced coffee, and she kept an eye out for him for me. I had to fly back home to Vancouver soon after, and I had felt so dejected.

Immigrating to America seemed an impossible feet. It would take years for me to raise the money just to file for an application. I knew I had to find another option, and I knew what I had to do in order to make it happen. I got off my meditation pillow and set the shirt on the edge of my bed. I moved my finger over the cursor pad to bring my laptop back to life. I sent a video chat request to Elle, she answered a moment later. "Hello, darling!" she answered when everything had loaded.

"How do you feel about harboring an illegal immigrant?" I asked seriously. "I can't stop thinking about David. I believe things happen for a reason. If I'm going to see David again, then I need to do what it takes to move forward and make that happen."

Elle's eyes widened but she didn't miss a beat, "I believe that you'll find David again. It will happen when it's supposed to happen. You can't force something like that. I love you. You know I'd do anything for you. I have a spare mattress with your name on it. You get your ass over here. We'll live our lives like normal, and we'll embrace what happens. Do you understand me?"

"I certainly do. I'll see you next week!" I grinned.

I have been living with Elle in Huntington Beach for almost a month now. I haven't gone back to the Santa Monica pier yet, but every day I was tempted. I knew I wouldn't find him there. Though I didn't promise Elle that I would try to just live my life, I was trying really hard to do just that. I often hated myself for feeling something so intensely for him. It was getting in the way of thinking rationally, and I had always been a rational person. Sometimes I found myself doing things I thought might lead me to him again. I looked up auditions because I thought if I got back into that business then I might happen across him again. I knew it was stupid, so I stopped.

I actually didn't have a problem with getting a real job, despite my status as an illegal immigrant. I worked at my favorite restaurant where the people were really chill and it was just a hop, skip and a jump from the water's edge. I started to feel genuinely happy, especially when I gave Elle my first month of official rent. She thought it was hilarious that I was so happy about it. It was really cheap rent, but I was glad to be helping somehow.

Elle and I decided to wake up early this morning because it was supposed to be a great day for surfing. I recently became acquainted with the ocean water again, so surfing wasn't for me. I pulled on my swim suit and a pair of board shorts. Elle let me borrow her old surf board and we paddled out together. I stayed a good distance away from the true surfers, and I let myself adjust to being back on the board and in the ocean. Jeremy, a friend of Elle, sat next to me on his board. He was a very kind guy, and he was very attractive. He liked the quiet like I did, which was why our friendship was so perfect. We sat in silence and watched as Elle decided to catch this wave. There was a look for pure admiration on Jeremy's face as he watched her.

"You couldn't be any more obvious," I told him.

He looked at me with a small smile on his face. "I don't know what you're talking about." He deflected my turn of the conversation by pulling it in another direction. "Elle never told me why you're afraid of the ocean. I didn't ask because I felt like you should be the one to tell me. You're doing really well with adjusting to the water again. We were wading to our waist just last week, now you're sitting on the board above the depths of it. I'm proud of you, Irie." I stayed silent, but I could feel myself smiling a little. I was proud of myself, too.

"I won't make you get into the water today, but I want you to tell me the story behind this fear."

My body moved with the water, bobbing up and down gently. I looked at Jeremy but he wasn't looking at me. He watched the distance, but I knew he was watching Elle with Charlie.

"Did you know that I don't celebrate my birthday?" I asked.

"No, I don't celebrate mine either. I don't like the idea of getting older. I try to ignore it. I'm already approaching thirty. Scary," Jeremy winked at me. "Why don't you celebrate it?"

"My dad woke me up really early on my seventeenth birthday with a surprise for me. My mom slept silently in their bedroom, the windows were open and the sounds of the ocean filtered into the house. The sky was still dark but lightening every minute. My dad told me to zip up my wet suit and come outside. Back then, I slept in my bathing suit so I had more time in the ocean but my birthday is in the fall so it's a lot colder then. I started to sleep in my wet suit, unzipped and folded down to my waist. I found him at the storage shed, the light was on. I went inside and saw something lying on the table he used to wax his boards. There, on that table, was a brand new surf board. It had a big red bow on it. I remember feeling so happy about it. We could never afford much growing up, so I always used hand-me-down boards. To finally have a board of my own, and to know they had been saving up for it, meant a lot to me. I never asked for much because I'd always been a relatively happy person growing up." I paused for a moment.

"Your parents seem like really cool people," Jeremy said.

I smiled down at my hands. "Dad and I paddled out and sat there as the sun began to rise over the horizon. It was a really beautiful morning. We talked while we floated there; neither of us liked surfing in the dark but my mom loved it. It was a surprisingly clear day for Vancouver when the sun rose into the sky. The air was crisp, despite the shining sun. I caught the first epic wave because it was my birthday, after all. We spent a couple hours surfing. I knew soon we would be getting hungry, and mom would have something cooking. Before we decided to turn in, I let my dad have the last wave. It was a big wave, too. The biggest we'd caught all morning. By then, other people had joined us. They were our friends so no one fought my dad for the wave. His form was perfect. I don't know what happened but he stumbled from his board, the wave crashing down on him. We all have had this happen to us before; we knew how to handle situations like this. There were no other huge waves following this one, and when the water cleared, his board was there... but he wasn't with it. My friends and I waited anxiously for him to surface but he never did."

Jeremy was silent when I stopped talking. I could taste my tears before I felt them. I wiped them away before Jeremy noticed and continued on, "A few days later, his body washed up on shore. The doctors said there was no need for an autopsy because it was obvious how he had died. I begged them for an autopsy but it was going to cost us. I mentioned that my father was prone to muscle spasms in his legs, this had to have happened while he was on the board because his form had been perfect! His spasms get really intense and they end up affecting more than just his leg. The doctor confirmed that was true, but he ultimately died from drowning."

"I really appreciate you telling me this, Irie." Jeremy said after several moments of silence. He wiped away a tear and nudged his board closer to mine and tried to give me a hug.

"I'm going back to shore." Without waiting for him to respond, I turned my board and began to paddle back to the safety of dry land. Once on dry land, I carried my board down the beach and up to the spot where our stuff sat. I grabbed a sandwich from the cooler and sat down on the blanket. I washed everyone catch really amazing waves and looked forward to the day I would surf again. I wanted to surf again. I turned to lie on my stomach and undid the clasp and tie strings of my bikini top. My dreads were pulled back with a hair tie and kept off my back. The sun felt great on my skin. I felt myself being pulling into a nap when someone called to me. "Hey, you!"

I lifted my head to the sound and saw a group of guys approaching. "Great," I mumbled. They had smiles on their face, so not to be rude I returned the smile half-heartedly. "How are you doing?" I was asked by the cutest of the group. He held a stack of blue papers in his hand. "I'm fantastic. What's that?" I motioned to the paper. I hooked the clasp of my top back and tied the neck string before standing. Their eyes were glue to my body. I heard one of the guys in the back mumble that I was 'so hot'. The guy holding the stack of papers gave me one. It was a flier; the headline read "PUPPIES FOR SALE". It gave a location and time specifications to see the puppies. "What kind of puppies?" I asked, genuinely curious. Maybe I could convince Elle to let me get a dog. "They're a boxer mix."

"Mixed with what?" I asked curiously.

"We don't know," another male spoke up. "Fiona got loose and hooked up with a neighborhood stud. They're fucking cute as shit, though."

"Thank you, Max," said the guy with the fliers, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help Geoff."

"We're heading back to the house; you should come check them out. It's just right down the beach," suggested Geoff.

"I'll keep this flier and check with my friend. I'm living with her so it's her call, hey. You'll see me soon if she's down with the idea."

"Okay, that's cool. Even if you can't get a pup, stop by anyway."

I nodded but said nothing. Geoff took that as his cue to leave. "Let's roll, boys."

It was another hour before Elle came in from the water. I had fallen asleep on the blanket, the flier tucked in my bag with a change of shorts and some shoes. I woke up from the sound of Elle digging the end of her board in the sand and standing over me, water pouring onto me from her hair. "You'll burn that pretty face of yours if you fall asleep in the sun."

I grinned at her and pulled her down onto the blanket. My face did feel hot and her skin was dripping wet. I rested my face on her body to cool it down. "Mommy, can we get a puppy?" I asked in a sweet voice. I pulled out the flier from my bag and handed it to Elle. She scanned it over and handed it back to me. "I don't see why we can't go look. That place is just right down the beach."

I informed Elle that I wanted to bring Jeremy and Charlie as back up because the boys seemed a little strange. I told her how they offered to accompany me back to their place. It seemed weird to me, and I was a cautious person. "Good idea," Elle said. She called to the boys and made them come in. We left our blanket and cooler on the beach because we still had friends out in the water who wanted to use it, but we all took our boards in case those got stolen while we were away. I had a cheesy grin on my face as I walked ahead of the group, my bag slung over my body, my dreads pulled back from my face, my board carried under my right arm.

Elle caught up with me and hooked her arm in with my left one. "Jeremy said you told him. I'm glad."

"He had a right to know. He's the one helping me get over this fear."

"He's a great person to come to. I vent to him all the time."

"What do you have to vent to him about?" I asked curiously.

"Charlie has been acting weird lately," she admitted under her breath. Charlie and Jeremy were a few paces behind us. I looked over my shoulder and smiled when Jeremy caught my eye.

"I don't think you should do that, Elle."

"Why?" she asked.

I shrugged and stayed silent. "Come on, what are you not telling me?"

I held up the flier and checked the address, stopped and turned to Elle. "If you think hard about it, you'll figure it out. You're not stupid." I kissed her forehead and pulled Jeremy through the gate with me. I caught his smile to Elle, who still stood there with a strange expression wrinkling her forehead.

The group of guys I met earlier seemed happy to see me but I could tell some of them were bummed out when they saw the others with me, especially since I was glued to Jeremy. Elle had filled him and Charlie in on the situation about these guys seeming a bit strange. However, there really were puppies for sale and there really was a boxer named Fiona. She was a beautiful brindle boxer, very friendly and playful just like her puppies. All four of us went into the pen to meet the puppies. There was only one brindle out of the bunch, and I went over to say hello. This one was a shy guy and as we sat alone in the back corner of the pen he started to open up to me. I let him sniff me out and let him make all the moves. I knew this little guy owned my heart. I picked up and let him lick my face. His snout was dark brown, almost black. It looked like he had gotten into something, but that was just the coloring. I looked at Elle and held him close to me, knowing I had chosen without meeting the others.

"Love at first sight," Elle said. She came over and took this little guy in her arms. He barked his cute squeaky barks and licked her face. He had just won her over, too.

"It looks like we have a winner," Max called. All of the guys looked over to see me carrying the shy brindle puppy toward them. "Yeah, he is the sweetest one of the bunch."

I sat down at the patio table with Geoff and Max, who turned out to be brothers and the owner of Fiona. "All of the puppies have had their shots and I have all of their papers," said Geoff as he dug through a small stack of papers to find my puppy's paper.

"The dogs are $150.00. That includes the shots." I remember my friend selling her Chihuahua puppies for $500 but I didn't say anything about it for fear they might jack the price up on me. I handed over the money and Max said, "Sold! Oh, do we have another taker?" I looked behind me to see Jeremy walking toward us with one of the more rowdy female dogs. He looked so adorable holding her, my heart swelled. "Good for you, Jeremy! Our dogs can have play dates!" I said. I couldn't stop grinning.

After we bought our puppies, we started to walk back to our stuff. Charlie and Elle offered to carry out boards so we could focus on our puppies. We brought them to the edge of the shore where the sand was easier to walk in for them. "Did you know that animals are very therapeutic?" I asked.

"Yes, I did. That's part of the reason why I got Mishka."

"Is that what you're naming her?" I asked. I loved it because my favorite singer went by the same name.

"Yes, what are you naming him?" Jeremy asked.

"I think I'm going to go with Shambala." I nodded in approval as I said it aloud and looked at my new dog.

"That is very suitable to the both of you."

"Shambala and Mishka, those sound nice together," I said.

"Yeah, so does David and Irie."

I stopped in my tracks and looked at Jeremy, my jaw dropped to the sand. He turned around and chuckled a little. "Elle has such a big mouth."