‘That’s why I’m not that keen on the bigger vessels,’ he told her. ‘They’re more for private parties than for the sea, but this is more personal. I feel at one with the ocean a lot more.’
‘I think I understand now, why this can become so addictive – and why you love spending so much time out here.’
‘This is my favorite place,’ he admitted.
‘I think I thought it was something to do with….’
‘With what?’ he asked, seeing that she was unsure of the summation she was about to make of him.
‘Well, with having a big toy to yourself, I guess,’ she said, ‘but I can see now it’s a lot more than that.’
‘Ha! I guess that does come into it,’ he admitted, ‘but everyone who spends time on the water has to take pride in what they’re doing. Negligence leads to accidents, but our parents’ business would sink pretty quickly if anything like that started to happen.’
‘I see now why they have such faith in you,’ she reflected, taking another sip of her cocktail.
‘Oh, but I don’t tell them everything,’ he admitted. ‘They might raise a few eyebrows if they knew you were here for example.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Darlene agreed, looking a little abashed. It was his first subtle move towards taking their date to another level and he liked the fact that she was blushing, even though nothing particularly forward had yet occurred.
‘Darlene, there’s something I’m curious about,’ he then said, before backtracking, ‘but actually I don’t want to ruin a good sunset.’
‘It is beautiful, isn’t it,’ she agreed. ‘But go on, I’m not that secretive – at least I don’t think so.’
‘It was just something we talked about at yours place the other night, but I thought you might not want to go into it with our families there.’
‘You’ve gone to such an effort with all this, ask me what you like,’ she insisted.
‘Oh, this is no effort at all, I’m just delighted to have your company,’ he said, with a shrug.
‘If you say so,’ she replied, showing her first sign of being shrewd enough to compete with whatever wit he offered. He paused a moment, considering her college degree and wondering whether, although she was inexperienced, Darlene might be twice as clever as him. But it was only a temporary detour.
‘I was just wondering if there was more to it?’ he went on. ‘I mean between you and that guy? – but I know it’s none of my business.’
‘Oh, that! If you mean am I heartbroken or something, then don’t worry.’
‘No, actually I was worried you might be scarred by something,’ he replied. ‘That was why I was a little unsure about asking you out, in case there was something you didn’t want to go through again.’
He was not being entirely sincere on both counts, choosing his words as tactfully as he could in the hope of prying. As it turned out, however, his guess proved fairly close to the mark.
‘You get that impression, huh?’ she said, thoughtfully. ‘And there’s us doing our best to show that everything is normal.’
‘Don’t worry if you don’t want to talk about it,’ he urged, while thinking completely the opposite.
‘No, not at all,’ said Darlene. ‘If I don’t feel secure enough to talk about it out on the open water then where?’
‘Secure?’
‘Yeah! What happened was, the guy turned into a bit of a stalker,’ she revealed.
‘A stalker? Jeez, I thought it was the mother you said was weird.’
‘That’s right, she was. I think that’s why I didn’t clue on that he was a little bit unhinged also, because I was focusing on her too much,’ Darlene explained. ‘The truth is she wasn’t even half the trouble.’
‘Was he aggressive?’
‘You wouldn’t think it to look at him. It all came when I decided we weren’t head over heels for each other, like our parents wanted us to be, and then his nature changed completely.’
‘He didn’t like you having a mind of your own?’