Page 30 of F*ck You

As we reached the supply closet, I tugged on the locked door with a grunt. “Damn, I must have bumped the lock when I came back up. It won’t budge.”

“You really have a knack for locking yourself out,” he commented with a chuckle. “No worries.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out some keys.

“Are you going to pick the lock?”

“If that’s what you want to call it.” He stuck a key into the lock and turned, and my eyes widened when I heard the click.

“Uh, Larsen, how do you have a key to the door?” I questioned.

“When Dad gave me one, I didn’t throw it out.”

“Dad?”

“Yeah.” He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “You did know the guy you’re working for is my dad, right?”

“No, I did not know that, how would I know that?” It was only my second day on the job, not to mention we never talked more in depth about himself, we were too busy discussing my own fucked up life.

“Oh, right. Well…hey, my last name is Rhodes.” He lifted his arms out to the side with an awkward grin, and I shook my head.

“Alright, Larsen Rhodes, let’s get me in the water. Then maybe a drink after because what a day.” I walked past him and up the stairs, collecting my belongings to head out.

He rushed to keep up with me. “Do I get to know your last name too?”

“It’s Anders. Nothing quite as exciting. My family doesn’t own a boat tour company or anything like that. Speaking of which, why am I the only one working on it?”

“Dad likes to keep his business small. He pays out of pocket until he can trust you to make the paperwork worth it. He doesn’t like to trust too many people. There are some others you’ll see on occasion, but they mostly work the night parties. He hasn’t been able to retain many people when it comes to doing this job yet, everyone always wants more or to move up the ladder. He can’t trust them to do that, though, without first being willing to do the hard work at the bottom.”

“Cool. That’s not a problem, just means more money for me.” I stopped in my tracks and he bumped into my back. “Does this mean I’ll need to split my money with you since you helped?”

He laughed. “No, no, that’s all yours. I only helped you clean up someone else’s mess, sounded like you had it all finished before that happened.”

“Works for me.”

As we stepped off the boat, Mr. Rhodes appeared. He didn’t bat an eye at seeing his son there. Instead, he took a quick look around and handed me my payment for the day before his phone rang. With a swish of his hand, he waved goodbye as he took the call down the steps.

“Is he always that reserved?”

Larsen shook his head. “He’s a busy man. I live on my own now and only see him on occasion, but it’s still about as often as I’d see him before.”

Not pressing the issue further, I pulled him along to hurry out of there.

We reached his condo, and he directed me to the room he used to store his supplies. After picking out a wet suit for me as well as snorkeling gear and a couple underwater headlamps, we headed to the coast.

The sun was going down, and we would soon be out of light. He instructed me on how to use everything, and helped me into my skintight suit and flippers.

“Ready?” he asked, as I adjusted my face gear. I nodded, and he moved his face pieces into position. Signaling, he led the way into the water, and before I knew it, I was swimming with my face beneath the surface.

We had to get away from the shore to be able to see anything, since the hard waves were constantly churning up sand and turning the water murky. We swam until I could clearly make out the shapes of different kinds of shells. I saw various schools of different kinds of fish, crabs making their way along the ocean floor, and starfish if I looked close enough.

The world beneath the waves was magical, and I was so in awe, I forgot to pay attention to where Larsen was. I must have drifted away, because I felt a tug on my arm and looked over to see him motion for me to follow.

We swam along, looking at various things as more continued to appear—different corals, and even more fish. I had no idea such a world like this existed. The pictures in textbooks didn’t even compare.

Eventually, we came to a large rock formation, and once we got closer, I realized it was an underwater cave. Larsen motioned for me to hold my breath as we were about to go fully underwater.

My head broke the surface as we emerged, and I looked around. We were in an underwater cave. It wasn’t too big, so I could see everything from where I was, but it wasn’t too small. We hopped up on the ledge, with Larsen helping me up since I failed to do it successfully without getting my flippers in the way and falling back into the water.

Once we were situated, we set our gear off to the side and relaxed. I unzipped the top part of my wet suit and let out a sigh of relief that I could comfortably breathe again. Not that this wasn’t breathable, because it was. I just wanted to get more comfortable, let everything hang out.

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