Page 81 of Bastian

This is not happening.

Sebastian looks at me with that same smug look that tells me he is enjoying this. He wants to push my buttons, and he knows exactly how to do it.

Rising from the beach chair, I push my glasses up my hair and stare down at him with a smug look of my own before I drop the entire contents of my glass on his lap. “Hold onto your pathetic fantasies, Sebastian, because only there you’ll get anything from me.” I spit at him, ignoring the way he is still staring at me with heated eyes and that obnoxiously perfect grin of his.

His grin widens revealing perfect white straight teeth. “If you say so, Arianna.” I am going to kill him.

Curling my lip, I give him a dirty look, annoyed with the way he looks so damn smug, as if he’s won something. He has won nothing. “I really do hate your stupid face, Sebastian.” Childish? Yes. Do I care? No. The petty remarks always make me feel better.

There is a long pause before I hear the second most beautiful thing in the world. Sebastian’s joyful laugh. Looking down at him, I watch as he throws his head back, puts his big, strong hand on his abdomen, and roars with laughter. It was a thing of beauty. It always was, and he knows it too.

Now, I really need to get away from him.

Taking off my plain see-through, open-front kimono, I let it fall to the sand, leaving me only in my matching white cut-out, one-shoulder, and one-piece swimsuit. It doesn’t go unnoticed how Sebastian’s eyes become hooded as he takes me in, but before I give his reaction one more thought, I snatch my glasses off my head and drop them down on the beach chair. Then I turn and walk toward the water and leave him there smiling from ear to ear.

I hadn’t realized how much I missed the ocean until today. The ocean didn’t bring back happy memories, so I went without it, just like everything that reminded me of him.

I missed how the warm breeze felt like a lover’s caress on my skin. The water, the sand, and the breeze. It all gave me serenity. Just like him.

So, I walk towards it. Towards that feeling that I missed so much and away from him, but with every step I take, I feel his burning eyes on my skin, hotter than the sun shining down on me, and it reminds me that he’s here. That I can’t escape him. Even if I try. He’s not going anywhere. That much is true.

It also doesn’t go unnoticed how easy it is to breathe when he’s far away from me.

It’s like every time I’m around him, he takes my breath and keeps it for himself.

It is irritating as much as it makes me feel vulnerable.

I keep going, though.

The wind blows my hair in all directions as I walk to the water until it is up to my waist, and only then do I go under, letting the warm water wash away his scent from my skin.

There’s nothing like seawater caressing my skin.

When my sister, Kadra, and I were kids, we used to imagine we were mermaids while we were in the bathtub. Playing and dreaming that we were mythical creatures who lived under the sea with fish friends and a father who ruled all merpeople with kindness and grace.

Silly, I know, but it was better than our reality.

Anything was better than our reality.

Even fictional worlds.

Holding my breath, I swim. I swim underwater, going as deep as I’m able to and until I can’t hold my breath any longer, and only then do I go up to the surface, taking a big breath as I do. Once I wipe the salty water from my eyes, I look at where I left Sebastian, but he’s no longer there. Maybe he got tired of my shit, finally got the hint, and left.

Maybe…

But then I spotted him.

A vision in white with the sun shining down on his skin tanning it more than usual, and his usual perfectly combed hair messy because of the soft breeze. With his phone in hand pointed my way and a gentle smile on his face.

“What the hell are you doing, you crazy, stupid man?” I wonder aloud.

Then it dawns on me.

The tyrant is standing on the white sand, taking photos of me.

Thud.

Thud.

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