Page 69 of Analysing Her Assets

Gideon said they would give her a wetsuit, which would cover her whole body. She was the leading candidate for the chief analyst job, and skipping this activity would hurt her chances badly. Tamar slipped her arms into a long-sleeved loose caftan, her level of stress lessening. She belted it. A wide-brimmed hat, plus her sunglasses, and she was good to go.

“Yes.”

“Did you text Tally back?” Marina asked. She shook her head.

Yesterday she had talked it over with Marina, who was emphatic that if the seller wouldn’t wait, tough. Tamar shouldn’t let Tally sign anything until the chief analyst position was hers.

Marina snatched her phone and texted.

“There. You can’t do anything now!”

“No to the deal. That’s my final answer.”

“Marina!”

Her relationship with Tally had evolved for the better when her sister joined the T-team. With a single text, Marina destroyed all this progress. Tamar had spent all these years following and working towards her dream, but now she denied the same to her sister.

“Stop brooding already, Tamar. You’re not supposed to mortgage your life over every wish of your sister’s. Sometimes we need friends to help through tough decisions. It’s done, and it’s for the best. Let’s go.”

Marina slipped Tamar’s phone into her beach bag.

She half ran after her friend, struggling to keep up with Marina’s long strides. That was her decision to make, not Marina’s. She hated being a pushover. Yet a small part of her was glad at Marina’s action. And anyway, it was done.

The Dolphins Reef was a white sanded tree lined beach nestled in a small lagoon. There was a long floating pier strewn with sofas and recliners, filled with sunbathing Peaks employees. It stretched into the blue sea, towards the faraway copper and ochre Edom mountains.

The snorkeling would be done in small groups of three people each, and they got the timetable yesterday. Tamar was in a group with Marina and Amir. They arrived at the small shack where they were supposed to put on the wetsuit and get the briefing on how to dive and behave with the mammals. Gideon was waiting there.

“I asked Amir to trade places,” he said. Marina looked suspiciously from Tamar’s reddening face to Gideon’s calm one.

“Why?” Tamar asked.

“You’ve never snorkeled, and it could be stressful the first time. So, I want to help you through it,” Gideon explained.

“You’re a couple,” Marina stated flatly. “Tamar! I can’t believe you said nothing you sneaky little... thing!”

“We’re not a couple,” Tamar protested.

“Not a couple,” Marina said and raised her brows. Gideon crossed his arms on his chest and cocked his head.

“We’re just doing it,” Tamar amended because Marina couldn’t be fooled that easily.

“Just doing it.” Marina had half a question mark in her tone.

“Are you going to repeat everything I say?” Tamar asked.

Gideon stood motionless, hazel eyes golden with intensity. She couldn’t read his face.

“Once I’m chief analyst, then we can’t be together, because one of us will be the other’s boss,” she stated the obvious. “Understand? So, we’re just having harmless fun until we break it off.”

“One of you should quit Peaks, then you can continue to be together. Gideon, it should be you,” Marina suggested.

“Yes, whatever,” Tamar said. “Please don’t tell anybody,” she pleaded with Marina.

“I won’t. I’m not a total idiot.”

The instructor, Svetlana, a former soviet union swimming champion, joined them. Both she and the three dolphin females, Nana, Luna, and Nikita, had originated from the same place, the Black Sea in Russia, and she had been taking care of them for twelve years. The animals weren’t held off from the open sea. They came and went as they pleased, but they regarded the Reef as their home and came regularly to be fed. The male died last month, she’d told them, genuine sorrow in her voice and green eyes.

She’d explained the rules: swim slowly, don’t splash, don’t touch the mammals. She taught them all the hand signals they should use to communicate underwater.

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