03 The Fate Of The Muse - Marina's Tales (30 page)

Abby got up and started bustling around
nervously, straightening the fruit basket on the countertop and
fussing unnecessarily with the flowers on the table.

The sound of the door opening made her jump,
and I followed along behind her to see an equally anxious looking
Cruz in the doorway, Brad standing behind him.

“Hi mom,” Cruz said, embracing Abby, “Wow!
You’re huge.”

“Cruz!” I scolded him. “Hi Brad,” I waved.
Abby just smiled and patted her stomach.

“Uhm… Mom, this is my friend, Brad.” Cruz
gestured behind him awkwardly.

Abby stepped around Cruz, “It’s nice to meet
you,” she shook his outstretched hand with both of hers, “Please
call me Abby. Can I get you some coffee… or tea… or anything?”

“We have to get going,” Cruz blurted out.

“I’d love a cup of coffee,” Brad smiled at
Abby, following her into the kitchen.

Cruz squeezed my arm in a death grip as we
trailed behind them. Brad asked Abby questions about how far along
she was, inquiring as to the baby’s due date, and asking if she’d
settled on any names. Abby chattered away happily while she fixed
him a cup.

“Cruz?” Abby held up the pot, “Can I get you
one?

“OK,” he sat down next to me, fiddling with
his piercings, unusually quiet.

Before we knew it, Brad and Abby were talking
and laughing like old friends, and Cruz watched them with a strange
combination of surprise and relief. He looked at me and shrugged,
and I couldn’t resist flashing him my best “I told you so”
grin.

“How do you know so much about pregnancy?”
Abby asked Brad.

“I just finished decorating a nursery for a
good friend of mine,” he replied, “She’s in her third trimester
with twins!” he added excitedly. He went on to discuss ultrasounds,
baby monitors and the relative merits of gliding versus traditional
rocking chairs in detail; before we knew it the two of them were
walking down the hallway to see the nursery Abby had set up in
Cruz’s old room.

Cruz pressed his forehead on the kitchen
table, “Unbelievable.”

I laughed at him, “What did you expect?
Everybody loves your mom… And your mom loves everybody.”

When they came back in the kitchen, Brad and
Abby were chatting about their common love of yoga, and comparing
notes about the different styles they practiced. She gave him some
tips on breathing exercises to pass on to his pregnant friend, and
launched into a description of the intricacies of her pre-natal
yoga class in detail.

“Please kill me now,” Cruz muttered under his
breath, and even I grew tired of watching him fidget
uncomfortably.

“So, where are we going surfing?” I
interjected.

Soon we were saying our goodbyes, Brad
embracing Abby with a kiss on each cheek at the porch, telling her
how he was looking forward to meeting Dutch sometime soon. I
grabbed my board from the side of the house and met the guys in the
driveway, eager as Cruz was to get moving.

He stood holding open the door of a classic
wood-sided station wagon, a fully restored antique that sparkled in
the morning light. It looked like something that belonged in an old
surfing poster.

“Hop in! We borrowed this cool surfer-mobile
from his dad’s house. Brad wanted to take us out in style.”

I climbed into the back seat with my tote
while Brad loaded my board into the back. We pulled out of the
driveway, the three of us waving goodbye to Abby.

“Your mom is so awesome!” Brad enthused, “I
wish I had a mom like that.”

“That’s what everyone says,” I ruffled Cruz’s
hair and leaned back in my seat smugly.

He turned around to give me a long suffering
look, straightening his long bangs with his fingers, “Where’s Ethan
today?”

“He’s out on the boat with with Dutch,” I
replied.

“All work and no play…” he said
mischievously. I don’t think he realized how close to home that one
hit, for it was the one and only thing about Ethan that I was
determined to change.

“So,” I looked around at the perfect leather
interior, “Does your dad collect old cars?”

“My father collects everything,” he said,
with a trace of sarcasm.

With the windows down and the wind in my
hair, it was easy to believe that the situation with Olivia would
sort itself out. Marissa’s strange warning seemed to have come a
long, long time ago– maybe she was simply being overly dramatic.
Maybe that’s what all the muses were like. After all, I’d spent my
whole life subjected to Evie’s histrionics.

It was a pleasant drive up the coast, and I
looked out the window, noticing the other driver’s heads turning to
check out our classic ride. We pulled off the freeway, rolling onto
an unpaved road that stopped at the edge of a sheer cliff. I
clambered out to look over the bank of the crumbling bluff that
dropped precipitously off, tumbling down to a rocky beach below.
There was no clear way to get to the water.

“This is your secret spot?” Cruz asked Brad,
peering over the side nervously.

“How do we get down?” I asked
impatiently.

“This way,” said Brad, setting off on a
narrow path that wound its way through the dense underbrush and
waving stands of pampas grass that crowded the bluff. I tucked my
board under my arm and followed, listening to the unmistakable
sound of surf pounding on rocks. A delicious little shiver trickled
down my backbone.

All at once we broke out of the brush into a
small clearing. Brad pointed out a dangerously steep and narrow
switchback trail that dropped down to a rocky cove. There were some
beautiful waves forming off a small point that jutted out into the
sea. It was a breathtaking and remote spot– exactly the sort of
place Lorelei liked to bring me in the dead of the night. I could
already feel the motion of the surf and taste the salt on my
tongue. I was raring to go, determined to get down there if I had
to sprout wings and fly.

Cruz burst out, “You can’t be serious! I’m
not a mountain goat!”

Brad reached under a shrub and pulled out a
knotted nylon rope that was tied to a sturdy cypress trunk. “You
can do it,” he told Cruz.

I just grinned. This was going to be a piece
of cake. There was nothing in the world that was going to get
between me and those waves.

Brad ignored Cruz as he tested the strength
of the rope and tugged on the tree. Satisfied, he turned to me,
“I’ll go first and you can lower the boards and bags to me,
alright? Then you can use the rope to steady yourself on the way
down.”

Cruz stood rooted to the spot while I sprang
into action, tying the rope around my board and slowly lowering it
down the cliff to the rocky beach below. Brad climbed down agilely
and reached up for my board. I followed suit with his, finally
lowering our bags.

Nervously pacing the whole time, Cruz looked
paler than usual, and completely out of place in his skinny jeans
and black leather jacket.

“I don’t suppose I ever mentioned my fear of
heights to you?” he whined.

I rolled my eyes at him, “I don’t recall any
fear of heights the day you made me go on that rollercoaster!”

“Marina… I can’t!” he wailed, panic stricken.
I thought about how I felt about getting on the horse and
softened.

“We’ll go together,” I said, taking his hand
and leading him to the edge. I grabbed hold of the rope firmly and
went first, coaxing him along behind me. Cruz and I made our way
down the steep pathway slowly, his knuckles white on the rope. I
stepped down lightly onto a boulder at the bottom and looked up to
see Cruz stumble along behind me, losing his balance and tumbling
towards me with outstretched arms and a terrified face.

I braced for the impact, but Brad stepped in
and caught him, holding him up and embracing him warmly, “See?” he
said, “I knew you could do it.”

I turned my focus towards the crashing waves,
leaving them to their moment. By the time I got my wetsuit on, I
looked back to see Cruz settling in on a blanket with his sketch
pad, fastidiously brushing the sand and pebbles off the edges. I
don’t think I’d ever seen him sit down at the beach, and I smiled
at the incongruous sight. Brad was good for him.

“We lucked out,” Brad said, once he was
suited up, “It looks great today!”

“Yeah, lucky,” I said, even though I’d known
it the minute I woke up.

Brad took a moment to explain the break to
me, advising me on the best way to enter and the various dangers
that lurked beneath the roiling waves. I nodded politely, already
having judged the potential from shore, itching to slip into the
whispering water. I smiled and followed suit when Brad dove through
the crashing surf to get out to the sweet spot where we sat up and
faced out to sea, waiting for the ocean to send us some perfectly
surfable waves.

“I can’t believe I haven’t been out here for
so long!” Brad smiled at me.

I nodded my agreement, “It
can
be kind
of addictive.”

It felt like we had the whole sea to
ourselves, and we surfed set after set; the natural rhythms of the
water pacing us perfectly. Brad turned out to be a fairly good
surfer, improving as the day wore on. We shared the waves with an
easy camaraderie, taking our turns and shouting out encouragement
to each other. I held back a little, unwilling to give in to it,
afraid to lose myself in front of Brad. The hours slipped away
quickly, and when we both began to tire we paddled ashore to join
Cruz on the blanket.

“I sure needed that!” Brad told Cruz.

“Yeah, me too” I smiled, already planning a
trip to this spot with Ethan.

I leaned back to soak up the sun, sighing
with contentment. We ate some sandwiches that Brad and Cruz had
packed, rested, and went back to the waves to surf the rest of the
day away. This time I let loose, laughing with the sheer joy of
being able to completely master the crashing surf, all of my
worries rinsed away. We surfed until we were utterly spent,
staggering out of the water to flop down on the blanket with
Cruz.

“Your cousin is an awesome surfer!” Brad
enthused. Cruz’s eyes flashed onto mine and darted away. I wondered
if he’d managed to keep my unusual heritage a secret. The way he
looked at Brad I doubted he’d have the ability for long.

“Her boyfriend taught her,” said Cruz with a
wink at me.

“Boyfriend?” said Brad playfully, looking
down at my ring and back up at me with olive green eyes.

I blushed, admiring the diamond and
aquamarines flashing in the sun, “Fiancé, I guess.”

“Get out!” Cruz grabbed my wrist, pulling the
ring closer for inspection, “I knew you two were serious… But are
you
serious
?”

I nodded, smiling, “Yeah.”

“Don’t you think you guys are a little too
young? What will your dad say?” Cruz asked.

“Cruz,” said Brad meaningfully, “Don’t you
think congratulations are in order?”

He proposed a toast to my engagement, and we
drank to my future with Ethan, clinking our soda cans together. I
was starting to like Brad more and more.

“How did you find this place?” I asked,
looking up at the bluffs.

“It’s just up the coast from our beach house.
When I needed to get away from the old man I’d walk along the
cliffs… and imagine throwing myself off them.” Cruz and I looked at
him in shock. “But I built this trail down instead,” he added with
a grin.

“That’s not funny!” Cruz exclaimed.

Brad shrugged nonchalantly, “I was a
messed-up kid. After my parents divorced, they sent me away to one
boarding school after another, but I kept managing to get kicked
out.”

“Why?” I asked, finding it hard to
imagine.

“Let’s just say, I always got into a lot of
trouble. I suppose I was acting up… But it was
inconvenient
for mother’s
social life
so father got stuck with me in the
summers.”

He spoke bitterly, making little quotation
marks with his fingers. Cruz took his hand, his warm brown eyes
full of sympathy, “At least
your
dad wanted you around.”

Brad just gave him a look full of amused
cynicism. It was clear he thought Cruz was being naive, “Yeah… uh
huh. I’m a real chip off the old block.”

Cruz brightened, turning to address me, “Evie
gets in today! I hope you and Ethan are coming to dinner
tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure,” I said, but I was already
planning to skip her little soiree. I was hoping that Olivia would
just go home so I could sit Evie down and tell her what I
suspected.

“Well, I wouldn’t miss it for the world!
Evie’s flying a famous sushi chef in from Japan, just to cater
it!”

I shrugged noncommittally, “Can I see your
sketchbook?” I asked Cruz, reaching for it. I flipped through the
pages, truly surprised by his continued growth as an artist. He’d
designed and illustrated an entire year’s worth of collections.
There were detailed drawings of sophisticated winter coats
juxtaposed with flowing summery resort wear. Outfits both casual
and businesslike were sketched out in the most intricate detail; he
had a unique take on everything from skimpy swimsuits to lush,
romantic ballgowns.

“Wow!” I exclaimed, “You’ve been busy!”

Brad jumped in to proudly tell me how Cruz
had been turning out a prodigious amount of samples from his new
workshop. He gushed about Cruz’s talent, telling me he thought it
was time for him to start lining up financial backers to debut his
own line.

“I’m just getting started at school,” Cruz
said hesitantly, “I wouldn’t want to jump the gun and blow it.”

“Listen to your intuition,” I smiled
reassuringly, “You’ll know when the time is right.” I looked up at
the massive bank of fog that was rolling in towards us. You could
feel a chill descend as the swirling edges drew near.

“We better get going,” said Cruz, following
my eyes.