The Light of the Blue Pearl (10 page)

She barely knew the guy, he had only been
hired for the position a little over a year ago and up until this
point their conversations had been brief and strictly work
related.

He was attractive, with dark hair and dark
eyes, tall and obviously fit, early 30’s she guessed, and obviously
doing well to work up in the ranks. But she was never looking for
someone, so she really hadn’t ever noticed him. He had a kind and
welcoming face, with bright eyes and a strong jaw. She imagined it
would look even more attractive with a little stubble, but he was
clean shaven which fit with his career goals; he was one to be
respected.

She didn’t know if it was her intentional
emotional guard that she put up that kept her from seeing him
before, but the trip to Belize had obviously done something to
weaken her resolve for distance, because now she saw him.

That resolve had been lowered considerably
by Ian, someone who had managed to make it through to a place she
never let anyone go. Her heart was something she protected like a
king would his castle. Not only had it been severely scarred in the
past, but the scars had taught her that protecting others was just
as vital.

She wondered if she should tell Scott about
Ian. Seeing how the trip was bought and paid for by Scott…for the
purpose of a date, that hardly seemed appropriate.

Nothing had really happened to tell anyway,
so perhaps she would omit that part, keep it just for herself. No
sense in causing jealousy where none was warranted, although the
thought that anyone would be jealous over her was too foreign to
even consider.

Scott returned with two cups of coffee and
something for them to snack on while she recounted her adventure to
the master who had pulled the strings. She still wondered how and
why he would have gone to such trouble for her.

“Here you go…one latte.” He sat down with an
obvious excitement to hear all about the trip that he had
orchestrated. “So tell me all about it,” he said, resting his elbow
on the table and taking a sip of his coffee.

She did the same before delving into the
details and recalling all of the magic that was found in San Pedro
and the Blue Hole.

She didn’t however tell him about Ian, or
the blue pearl. She didn’t know why she omitted finding it, but she
was still quite heartbroken that it was gone.

“So what made you choose snorkeling over
scuba diving?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been scuba diving
before, I guess I was too scared to try it,” she lied. That was
definitely not something she was ready to discuss. One date with
the guy was hardly any reason to dig deeply into her life.

“Oh, that’s a shame, you would have loved
it,” he said. “Did you enjoy the snorkeling though?”

“Yes I did, it was beautiful. I’ve never
done that before either,” she said. She could tell he was a little
disappointed that she hadn’t chosen the more adventurous
option.

“Was there a reason you wanted me to go
scuba diving?” she asked. She was beginning to wonder what kind of
note would have been hiding in the deep blue water had she taken
the plunge.

“Oh, only because I love scuba diving,” he
said. “I had hoped it was something you would enjoy too. Do you
think it’s something you would ever want to try?”

“No, I don’t think so,” she said.

“Oh,” he replied. “Well, that’s okay, at
least you liked the snorkeling bit.” He smiled and took another sip
of coffee.

She had thought he would have been more
disappointed or inquisitive of her reasons, but he wasn’t.

“Have you been to the Blue Hole then?” she
asked.

“I have,” he said. “It was remarkable. I
didn’t expect that you would have done that full dive this trip as
it’s a pretty serious depth, one you need more training for. But
either way I’m glad you got to see it.”

“It was truly a magical place,” she said. “I
suppose I should thank you now for sending me on such a strange
scavenger hunt.”

He laughed. “Well, you don’t have to thank
me; you just have to go out with me now. It would be rude not to,”
he said.

She smiled at him. “I guess I have no choice
then, I wouldn’t want to be rude,” she said.

It was nice that they seemed to have gotten
rid of the uncomfortable nervousness…for now. Although he was her
boss, he seemed warm and kind. And frankly, any guy who would go to
such lengths was at least worth one date.

Having spent most of her life side stepping
any such interactions, until Ian anyway, this was very strange for
her. Not only was she at home now, but this was her boss; this
could seriously complicate things. She was suddenly wondering if
she had made a mistake accepting, but she really didn’t feel like
he had given her much choice. It would have been rude to not accept
after what he had done for her. If she had, the next time at work
would have been awkward anyway.

She took a deep breath and continued to
drink her coffee, doing her best to keep her brain from being
louder than he was.

He laughed. “I was just joking; seriously,
don’t feel indebted to me for a date. If you want to go, great,
either way it’s fine,” he said.

She thought about it for a second, he had
just given her an out. She maybe should have taken it, but
something told her to do otherwise.

“No, I’d love to go out with you, Scott,”
she said.

“Great!” he said. “How about Australia? Ever
been there?”

She nearly spit her coffee across the table.
“What?!” she asked.

He laughed so hard at her reaction he nearly
spilled his all over the table. “I was just kidding!” he said.
“No…sky diving around here will do.”

She looked at him and shook her head
smiling. “You are a very strange person, Scott.”

“How about a movie?” he asked.

“As long as the movie is not aboard a plane,
then yes, a movie will be perfect,” she said.

“Good,” he said, hiding his smile behind his
coffee cup as he took his last sip.

“Well, we better get going, you have work
tonight,” he said. “And no fair calling in sick, your boss knows
for a fact that you aren’t,” he chuckled as he pulled her chair out
for her.

“Ha ha, very funny,” she said.

“Why did you choose this coffee shop
anyway?” she asked.

“Oh, I live around here. They have great
coffee,” he said.

“Oh,” she said, feeling rather stupid and
uncomfortable at the thought that she knew very little about him,
when he obviously knew quite a bit about her. But he didn’t know
everything, and pretty soon she would have to decide if he ever
would.

D
uring her drive
home she ran the conversation over and over in her head. All in all
it had gone pretty smoothly, which surprised her a bit. Being
social and especially social like that was not something she was
used to.

She wondered how she would act around him
now at work. Luckily they didn’t actually see much of each other,
only during important meetings or the occasional passing in the
halls, obviously.

Except for the day he ran into her she
wondered how often they actually did pass each other - never really
paying attention. She really needed to start paying more attention,
for everyone’s safety really. She laughed a little thinking about
that day and how sheepish he had looked after their collision. It
had been his fault, she wasn’t the only one guilty of not paying
attention, but even so, he had obviously felt horrible.

She wondered if he had felt horrible enough
to do all of this. But that thought was silly, no one would ever
feel that bad to spend that much money over a simple mistake. But
she also didn’t buy that he had just done it so that he could ask
her out, there had to be more to the story than that. It appeared
she wasn’t the only mysterious one.

There was something unique and interesting
about Scott. Not everyone would have done what he did. Similar to
Ian, he had a quality about him that somehow managed to break down
the wall she typically kept up.

The wall wasn’t down however, and she really
had no intention of ever lowering it completely; possibly not even
far enough for this to go anywhere beyond the first date. After
Belize though, she figured she needed to see where things would go,
stop fighting every little thing because frankly…she was
lonely.

She had been lonely a long time. She had
gotten used to it, or so she thought, but Ian had made her realize
how lonely she really was. It was nice having coffee with Scott,
but at the same time it made her think of Ian and how much she
really missed him. She still couldn’t believe that she could miss
someone she had just met as much as she did. It had to just be
because she was lonely, but for some reason it felt like more than
that.

One thing was for sure, the life she had
known a week ago was gone. No matter what happened with Scott, or
Ian for that matter, she doubted she was going to be able to
contentedly go back to her empty house day in and day out, only
making her way outside for necessities and work instead of an
actual purpose.

The only problem was she wasn’t sure she
could change her ways. There was a reason she was the way she was,
just because two people had shown her the true state of her life
didn’t change that fact. It was going to take a lot more than these
brief interactions for her wall to come down; a wall that probably
should never come down, in her opinion anyway.

When she pulled into her driveway she saw
something taped to her door.

As she got closer she could see it was
another envelope. She rolled her eyes.

The envelope was addressed to “The girl with
the beautiful smile.”

She new it was stupid, but this actually
made her smile. Once inside her house she opened the envelope and
found a simple invitation to a movie that Thursday night.

Having your boss as your date was pretty
convenient since he set the schedule. Although once again, the
thought that she would be dating her boss made her a bit uneasy
wondering how this could possibly end well.

“Oh well,” she thought. It was too late now
to change things, and honestly, she didn’t really want to.

She got ready for work with some butterflies
in her stomach; the butterflies had been a new addition ever since
meeting Ian, and obviously they liked their new accommodations;
they didn’t seem to be going anywhere. It was actually kind of nice
having them there, she felt…somehow more alive than she had in…well
ever.

Even so, she did wish they’d settle down a
bit – they made it hard to concentrate and it was time for work.
Work was something she hadn’t thought about since last week, and it
had felt like a lot more than a week had gone by.

Honestly, the idea of dealing with paperwork
now was the last thing she wanted to do; this thought made her once
again think of Ian.

Before, dealing with computers and paperwork
instead of people had just been easier. But after snorkeling and
being encapsulated in the Blue Hole, now it just seemed…really
dull.

This feeling had to be normal for anyone
after a vacation she figured, so she climbed into her car and
decided to make the best of it, like everyone else does.

She didn’t run into Scott in the hallways
this time, had only caught a quick glimpse of him when she was on
her way to her office. He had looked up and smiled at her, she had
smiled back.

Working was not nearly as much fun as having
coffee, she decided. But she had the movie date to look forward to,
and at least work had gone quickly. With so much to catch up on
from the two days she had missed she was plenty busy.

Before long it was time to go home. A bit
disappointed that he hadn’t come to say hello, she picked up her
purse and headed for her car.

Scott was leaning against it with a gigantic
grin on his face as she walked up to him.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” she said back.

“How was your day?” he asked.

“Good. Busy,” she replied. “What are you
doing out here?”

“Waiting for you,” he said. “I was just
wondering if you received the invitation. I don’t have any minions
working for me anymore.”

She laughed. “Oh, well that must be rather
difficult then, having to do everything for yourself.”

“Oh it is, back breaking work really,” he
said, standing upright and allowing her to unlock her car door. “So
then…will that day and time work for you?”

“Yes, it works just fine,” she said.

“Great,” he said. “Well, have a nice night,
Ethne. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He turned to walk back to the
building.

“Goodnight, Scott,” she said. “Thank
you.”

“For?” he asked, turning to face her
again.

“For the trip…for the coffee…for the date,”
she said.

“Ohhh, that,” he said, sounding as if all of
the above had really been no big deal. “My pleasure,” he said,
smiling before turning to leave again.

She smiled back before climbing in her car
and heading home; it had been a very interesting and long day.

Even though the day really should have been
over since it was incredibly late and she was tired, she couldn’t
keep her mind still.

Her thoughts were full of Ian and Scott and
everything that had happened in the last few days. They were also
on the things that were about to happen; she was incredibly nervous
about Thursday.

She had never been on a date, not really.
Her time with Ian and the coffee with Scott were the closest she
had come, and she hadn’t had much time to anticipate those.

Now she had three days to do nothing but
think about it. This was a very bad thing. So bad in fact that
because she had been given too much time to think she would
probably end up canceling.