Murfey's Law (11 page)

‘Now if you don't mind, I need to go and see if there is anyone left that you didn't scare away.’

As she pushed past him Lori thought how ironic it was that he smelt of salt and sand, mixed with a hint of surfboard wax. He was like the antithesis of Casper. He probably didn't even own a bottle of aftershave. It certainly didn't look like he'd been near a razor in days.

By Seven o'clock Lori was a bundle of nerves.

Dressing, and undressing three times she eventually resorted to a video chat with Sara just so that she could get a definitive decision about what to wear.

Sara had warned Lori to be careful, and had told her that just because she was desperate to sell the place it didn't make it alright to pimp herself out.

Lori had laughed so extravagantly that she had burst out of her pastel yellow chiffon dress with its teeny tiny spaghetti straps and had to make an emergency dash next door to Jenny's to borrow a sewing kit.

With only fifteen minutes to spare, she had repaired it as best she could. On detailed scrutiny Casper may see her sloppy workmanship but as she wasn't even sure he'd show up after Zeb's little display this morning Lori didn't let it worry her too much.

Returning the needle and thread to Jenny, dropping Bob off for his sleepover at the same time, Lori got back to the shop and went to check on her makeup one more time. Not particularly skilled in this department Lori had chosen just to go for smoky eyes and had followed an online video tutorial.

Although she hadn't achieved the exact same results as the teenager with thousands of subscribers Lori was happy that she hadn't made herself look like a panda. Even Sara and her brutal honesty had been impressed when she'd seen it.

There was a knock on the door. Lifting the ankle length layers of the dress so that she wouldn't trip over she skipped down the stairs.

‘Good evening Lori.’ Casper flashed his dazzling smile as she opened the door.

He looked incredible. Dressed in a slim-fitting navy suit and white shirt with no tie he held out his arm for her to take.

It only took them forty minutes to do the hour's drive to Fisherman's Bay.

Outside the waterfront restaurant Casper stopped the car and waited for the valet to open his door. Not sure how to even open her side, there didn't seem to be a handle anywhere, Lori waited for her host to swing the door open and help extricate her from the vice-like grip of the white leather seat.

Twinkly fairy lights lit the short boardwalk out onto the covered pier where they were seated in an intimate corner with the best view of the boats.

‘You hardly said a word the whole journey Casper, is everything alright?’ Lori asked.

‘Just business Lori, you wouldn't understand,’ he quickly rephrased his words, ‘I mean you wouldn't understand the complexities of the particular business situation I'm dealing with at the moment. I mean, I'm struggling with it myself.’

‘I see, well I don't see but, oh, you know what I mean,’ Lori laughed. Her nerves of earlier hadn't really subsided.

Casper laughed too. ‘How about we don't talk business. Let's just eat, and enjoy each other's company.’

Business was what Lori had thought they were here to discuss. Clearly she'd misread the invitation. Perhaps Sara was right? Perhaps she was so desperate she had inadvertently given him the wrong idea.

She really needed to relax.

Casper must have thought the same, as he beckoned the wine waiter over with a subtle nod of his head.

‘So tell me again, what was it you said you did in the UK?’ Casper asked as he poured Lori a huge glass of white wine.

‘Personal Assistant.’ Lori took a larger than necessary sip.

‘Ah yes, that's right. And how did you find that? Being at someone's beck and call all day.’

It seemed a strange question to ask. ‘Well, being a PA isn't about being at someone's beck and call per se, I saw myself more as an equal, someone that could be relied upon and trusted. To be supported by and bounce ideas off.’

‘An equal?’ he creased his brow, cloaking the intensity of his eyes.

Lori took another swig of her glass. ‘Yes, an equal. Don't you have an assistant?’

He laughed, ‘I do, of course. But Jacinthe is more for show, to impress clients and run errands, you know?’

No, she didn't know. Lori had taken enormous pride in being at the very top of her game. She worked as many hours as Max did and knew everything about the business that he did. The only difference between them was that Max made the very final decision on matters. That and their salaries were polar opposites.

‘Shall we order?’ Lori decided to avoid his last question.

By the time they had finished their main course Lori had begun to feel distinctly tipsy. Drunk even. Half way through her pan seared Snapper with Mango and Chilli Salsa she had realised Casper wasn't drinking. After his first glass on their arrival he had switched to water. Lori had been so intent on acting gracious despite her growing disliking of him that she hadn't stopped him when he'd ordered her a second bottle. The more she drank, the easier it was to withstand his increasingly misogynist remarks.

Conversation over dessert had now moved solely onto him and his various business conquests. He droned on and on about overseas investments and something about money laundering. Money laundering? Excellent, the wine had now gone to her ears and somewhere between them and her brain, her head was altering the conversation to make it more interesting.

‘Ha ha ha!’ She had no idea what she was laughing at but as Casper appeared to be laughing at something he'd said, she thought she'd join in.

‘I said, I think it's time we left.’ He squeezed her hand and leant forward across the table, purring at her, ‘I want take you home.’

Lori laughed again.

The journey back seemed to go even quicker than the drive down. Warm and cocooned in Casper's car Lori closed her eyes and enjoyed the rocking as he took the winding road back to Murfey's Beach at break-neck speed. His left hand moved on and off, from gear-stick to Lori's knee and back again. The speed of the car pushed her deeper and deeper into the seat.

The full effect of two bottles of expensive wine, and a potent digestif was making Lori powerless to stop Casper's hand as it began pushing up the fabric of her dress. Somewhere deep inside her brain she was screaming stop, but she couldn't even form her words properly and her limbs felt disconnected from her body.

The car came to a stop.

Opening the passenger side door Casper unbuckled Lori's seatbelt and pulled her from her seat. He leant her against the door and grabbed her little purse from the foot well. Tucking it under one arm he manoeuvred Lori away from the door and closed it automatically with the key as they walked, Lori very unsteadily, down the grass and onto the beach.

‘Oooh schand!’ Lori could feel the soft cushion of it squeeze between her toes. Her dress tugged gently as it draped along the ground. ‘Where are my schooes?’

‘In the back of the car somewhere, you threw them behind you,’ Casper spoke in hushed tones.

‘I love the schea,’ Lori murmured. She could feel the salty breeze on her face and Casper's vice like grip around her waist, marching her somewhere. She couldn't tell where she was, but it looked familiar.

‘Mmm me too,’ he growled into her neck as they walked side by side, pressed hard against each other.

Once on the wet sand just above the water's edge Casper turned Lori left and walked her towards the rocks at the end of the beach. The water lapped at her dress pulling it downward even harder.

‘Ooops!’ She grabbed at the bust just as one of her hastily repaired straps pinged undone.

‘Don't worry about that.’ Casper snatched Lori's hand away from her chest and kissed it.

Lori tried to recoil but he pulled her arm harder, spinning her round to face him. With both hands gripping the tops of her arms so tightly it hurt Casper lunged forward and kissed her hard. His tongue forced her lips apart and explored her mouth crudely.

Unable to balance Lori toppled backwards, Casper fell with her, landing heavily on top. His mouth still pressed hard against hers, his arms pinning her to the wet sand.

‘Oww! Caschper, I'm flattered but thisch is all moving a little fasht for me,’ Lori just managed to form a full sentence as he came up for air.

‘Do you want to sell your little shit-hole or not?’ He snarled into her ear as one hand began jabbing around the fly of his trousers.

Lori tried to push him off with her free hand, she kicked and squirmed but as her brain woke a little from the fug of drunkenness her body simply wouldn't. Her arms and legs felt as heavy as lead weights. Writhing just made matters worse as her dress began to ride up her thighs.

‘No,’ Lori screamed into his face, persisting with wriggling her legs up and down as best she could, trying to push him off.

For someone his build he had incredible strength. His hand grabbed at her thigh and digging his fingers into it pushed it to the side pinning it with his knee.

‘I schaid NO!’ Lori screamed again.

With one more push Casper flew up into the air and was thrown onto his back and into the sand a few feet to her side.

It wasn't Lori that had done it.

Standing over Casper, his feet either side of him was Zeb. Jonah stepped forward and knelt down beside Lori.

‘You ok?’ Jonah took her gently by the arm.

Lori was dazed and felt a wave of nausea rush over her as he sat her carefully up. Her hand flew to her mouth, not to be sick, but because she tasted blood.

To her side Casper shrieked and lashed out at Zeb as he pulled him up by his jacket to a standing position, his arms swinging uncoordinatedly in the direction of Zeb's face. He obviously wasn't a natural fighter.

Gripping one hand onto Casper's shirt collar, keeping him at arm's length Zeb spoke strictly, ‘Sir, I advise you to calm down.’

He didn't listen. The shrieking continued and his arms kept swinging.

Letting go of the collar with his left hand, Zeb pushed Casper back a few steps and turned to glance at Lori. His eyes locked on to the blood dripping from her lip for a split second before turning back to Casper and punching him cleanly on the jaw with one almighty THUMP!

Lori didn't recall much after the punch. She was vaguely aware of someone taking her home and tenderly cleaning up her cut lip. How she got undressed and into bed with her hair tied back and a 'just in case' bucket on the floor beside her, was anyone's guess.

Just after sunrise Jenny opened the front door to the shop letting Bob back inside. He'd had an unusually restless night, pacing back and forth, his claws clicking on the kitchen tiles. Several times she'd had to get up and soothe him, encouraging him away from the door where he'd lay whining. He had spent plenty of nights at Jenny's in the past, particularly when Jack had been unwell, but he had never fussed. Looking at him now though, he seemed fine, and so she put it down to just a little too many cupcake crumbs at yesterday’s open home.

The little sparkly silver purse Jenny had helped Lori pick out last night lay discarded on the desk under the kitchen window. Not wanting to disturb the sleeping beauty, she gave Bob his breakfast and left again, latching the door behind her. She'd come back in a couple of hours for a cup of tea and the gossip.

Something about Casper had bothered Jenny, but it wasn't her place to say anything. Lori was old enough to make her own, potentially wrong, decisions about men and, she supposed, the shop too, even if the right decisions were staring her in the face.

As the door clicked shut Bob left what remained in his bowl and crept up the stairs.

Warm doggy breath tickled Lori's face.

Despite being wide awake for the last hour she kept her eyes firmly shut. A single tear escaped from under her lashes and rolled across the bridge of her nose, down her cheek and soaked into the pillow where her head lay heavy and aching.

Bob leapt deftly onto the bed and curled up in the crook of Lori's arm. Pushing his cold nose into her hand he heaved a great sigh.

‘I really messed up Bob,’ Lori croaked, pressing her face into his coat.

Her lip stung, a painful reminder to herself, and if the Twitchers Club got a hold of it, the entire village, of what a complete idiot she'd been. Although her memory of the evening was patchy, the little bits she could recall caused her insides to roil and her face to burn with shame. Another tear escaped and followed the little wet pathway that had been left by its predecessor.

She needed to get up and take something for her head which, like her stomach, was pounding out its own punishment and so she slowly opened her eyes.

Morning light filled the room with a warm glow and as Lori unfurled her arms from around Bob and sat upright her gaze fell immediately upon the now ruined lemon dress. It was hanging neatly over the back of the chair in the corner of the room. She was still wearing the white lacy g-string and strapless bra that she’d had on last night, but had absolutely no idea though, how she’d changed from the dress, ripped and covered in sand, into one of her favourite vests.

‘Oh shit.’ Lori’s hands gripped the bed covers as the room rocked and swirled.

Swinging her legs around and off the edge of the bed she took several long deep calming breaths. Like a badge of accomplishment she found a tiny scrap of pleasure in seeing the bucket beside her feet remained clean. It was the only piece of her dignity still intact.

Eyes fixed firmly on the floor, Lori padded slowly into the bathroom, stopping in front of the basin to grip its cool ceramic edge for support.

‘Ready?’ She asked herself.

Three more long deep breaths and Lori lifted her chin to stare straight at her reflection in the old tarnished mirror.

‘Argh!’ She immediately lowered her head again and grabbed a towel from the rail. With a little blind fumbling she managed to tuck one side of the fluffy pink fabric over the top of the mirror’s frame.

On top of the laundry basket, in her flowery pink wash-bag, Lori located the pain-killers.

A glass of water in one hand, two little white tablets in the other, she sloped back to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed beside Bob who was swaddled in the covers fast asleep, his little feet twitching, probably dreaming of seaweed.

Lori knocked back the pills with the water, and leant forward setting the glass down onto the window ledge. As she stood up to re-tie her loose and lopsided hair, she looked out over the glassy flat sea.

Directly ahead, about two-hundred metres straight out into the bay from the rocks at the bottom of the garden, a dark figure appeared to be sat on the surface of the water. Inside her chest Lori could feel her heart hammering almost painfully on her ribs, her pulse quickened and her ears filled with the whooshing sound of blood coursing through her veins.

‘Wait!’ Lori’s voice cracked and she slapped her palms on the window despite knowing it was futile.

She needed to hurry.

Multi-tasking, Lori tore off her vest and underwear, flinging them onto the bed at the same time as wrenching the little cabinet drawer, where she kept her bikinis, off its runners, sending it crashing to the floor.

Bob jumped up from his cocoon letting out an instinctive Woof! His sleepy head turned sideways in query.

On her hands and knees scrabbling for a matching set Lori blinked hard as the tears filling her eyes made it almost impossible to see what she was doing. Her heart, pounding faster and harder, felt as though it had worked its way up into her throat.

Ah hah! Lori grabbed at a black halter neck top and bottoms and took off down the stairs two steps at a time. Bob followed closely at her heels.

In the room behind the shop she clambered into the stretchy fabric and wrestled with the locks on the back door.

It took merely seconds to race through the garden and down onto the rock platform but when Lori tried calling out, her voice, hoarse from the hangover, hardly made a whisper.

He’d never hear her. He was too far away.

Woof!

Woof!

Woof! Woof! By her side, Bob barked so loudly that his front paws lifted off the ground with each effort.

Way out on the eerily calm water, the figure turned around.

Despite the distance, and the glare of the cloudless sky, Lori could make out Zeb’s face. He was looking straight at her. Sat on his surf board, he held up the earthenware jar and gestured his head toward a second, empty board beside him.

With her heart now in her mouth Lori briefly nodded back before diving cleanly into the virtually motionless water below.

As the sea enveloped her in its cool embrace Lori felt the emotions of this morning, of the last fortnight and even the last eighteen years explode inside her. Under the surface, where no one could hear, she let out a piercing scream. Every muscle in her body contracted then released as she thrashed wildly in silent detonation. When she finally came up for air, great heaving sobs wracked her entire body.

As she swam, each stroke of her arms drew out another emotion, dragged from somewhere deep within. With every breath her lungs stung and, not that you could see them, tears flooded her face. By the time she had almost reached Zeb she was so physically and emotionally drained she could barely keep her head above water.

Seeing the despair in her face Zeb rested the jar carefully on the second board and slid gently off his own, gliding across to where Lori was treading water. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him, tight against his body, his right hand held firmly onto the nape of her neck whilst the other waved gently back and forth, keeping them afloat.

Lori clung to him as though her life depended on it and pressed her fingers into his strong muscular back, sinking her face into his shoulder.

Locked together like this, silent but for Lori’s weeping, they drifted gently, hanging there motionless in each other's arms until eventually she spoke.

‘I’m s..s..sorry,’ Lori stuttered, her breath not yet returned to normal.

Zeb’s fingers slid up her neck and into her hair, gently pulling her face away from him so he could look her in the eyes. He shook his head. ‘Lorikeet, don’t. You are not to blame for last night.’

‘But no one made me drink. That was my stupid decision.’

‘Fucking hell Lori, that does NOT give a man the right to try and...’

‘No! Please don’t say it,’ Lori interrupted, dropping her eyes and fixing her stare on the water below his chin. Her chest heaved against his and tears began to resurface.

‘Ok, ok, shh.’ Zeb cradled her against him again until she stopped shaking.

‘Zeb?’ Lori breathed into his neck when she could speak again.

‘Yes?’

‘Did you... umm...was it you who...’ Lori scrunched her eyes tight in embarrassment. The way he held her right now, felt so intimate. Last night he’d seen her at her most vulnerable and he’d tended to her needs, made her safe. Yet he despised her, and she certainly didn’t like him. How was it then, where she was in this precise moment, that it felt so right?

‘All part of the service,’ he chuckled, pulling her face back round so he could see her again.

His smile, for the first time since she’d met him, actually appeared to be genuine, and not one of mockery. Lori peeled her finger tips off of his back and brought her hand up to ever so gently touch his face. The cut on his cheek looked well on the way to fading and the bruising around his eye had changed colour, in its last stage.

Zeb mirrored Lori’s movements and cupped her chin with his hand, delicately placing his thumb under her cut and swollen lip.

‘Better?’ He asked.

‘Better.’ Lori nodded, her heart had returned to her chest and the tears had stopped flowing.

Zeb grinned and leant in to Lori’s ear, whispering, ‘Good, because there’s a shark behind you.’

Noise and movement attracted sharks. This was something Lori had learnt from the in-flight entertainment barely two weeks ago. Nevertheless she still let out an ear shattering scream as she dragged herself up and out of Zeb’s grasp climbing on to his back and clamping her legs around his waist like a vice.

‘Ha Ha Ha!’ Zeb shook with mirth and pulled on Lori’s arms bringing her back to the front, her legs remained knotted around him. ‘I’m joking! I’m joking!’

‘Bastard, you shouldn’t joke about that.’ Lori pressed down on his shoulders using the full weight of her body to try and push him under.

But he was too strong. Kicking his legs underneath him he grabbed Lori around her waist and picked her cleanly up out of the water, throwing her backwards.

‘Wait, look.’ Before she could launch a return attack Zeb pointed to something breaking the surface just beyond where the boards bobbed up and down.

Dolphins!

Helping Lori onto the first board Zeb carefully guided the other over to her so she could grab the earthenware jar. Although he assured her it was water tight she didn’t fancy having to free dive ten metres or more searching for it and so she clung it to her chest as he hauled himself up on to the second board.

‘They’re amazing.’ Lori watched on in wonder.

‘They’re something else aren’t they?’ Zeb pulled Lori’s board over to him.

‘How many are there?’

‘Well, right now I’d say forty, but they’re part of a resident pod here in the bay. At the last count, which the guys on the tour boats from Fisherman’s Bay do, there were eighty in total. There have been dolphins here as long as I can remember.’ Little creases appeared in Zeb’s forehead as he frowned

‘What’s up?’ Lori queried.

‘Oh, it’s nothing,’ he half smiled.

‘Doesn’t look like nothing, I think after my spectacular airing of emotions you could try opening up. You never know, you might like it.’ She splashed a little water playfully at his face.

Zeb wiped it away with his hands and gripped the back of his neck as though something pained him.

‘It’s nothing, really Lori. Just remembering how my dad used to take Jonah and I out here in the boat when we were kids that’s all. Like I said, it’s nothing.’

‘Your parents are both gone right?’ Lori pressed on, unable to help herself.

The expression on his face told her she’d pushed a little too far. Zeb’s voice was stern, ‘Please. Drop it. Today is about you… and Jack.’

Lori looked down at the jar between her knees. ‘You’re right…I guess.’

He laughed, ‘I know I’m right. What I don’t understand though is why you hold your father in such contempt.’

‘See now, that IS funny,’ Lori sneered.