Page 18 of Swept Up In You

“I thought maybe now I’d just give us both a bit of space and time to let it all sink in, then work it all out. I hate hurting him like this.”

“It sounds like you’ve been helping him for a very long time, especially when you mentioned about your mum. So makingthese choices—your choices—and stating them loud and clear? That’s hard. Really hard,” Taylor said seriously.

“Yeah,” she said, feeling her eyes starting to water as the emotion of it all caught up to her. She sniffed, forgetting who she was on the phone with.

“Shit, you okay?” Taylor asked, sounding concerned. “Do you need me to come around or something?”

“No, no.” She pinched her eyes shut and looked up at the ceiling, trying to will the tears away. “I’m fine, I gotta get to work anyway. I just wanted to let you know, say thanks for yesterday, and, um, yeah, anyway, have a great day at work!”

The fake cheerfulness wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Sam—” She hung up on Taylor before she could protest anymore, feeling foolish for asking this almost-stranger-maybe-friend around for… What? Emotional support at eight on a Thursday morning? She was a big girl; today would be fine.

Today was not fine.

She’d texted back and forth with Taylor while she got ready for work, excusing the abrupt end to their call as her not realising the time. They continued to chat about random things all the way up until she walked into the shop. Then things went downhill.

Her dad was definitely avoiding her and all of their mostdelightfulcustomers had decided to grace her with their presence today. She’d had one particularly painful guy who came in and had literally asked her what size split pin he needed to fit onto his prop… How in the hell did she know? She was all about good service, but some people expected her to be a walking encyclopaediaanda psychic.

She blew some stray hairs out of her face, tightened her ponytail and got to work putting some stock away, anything to give her a little space away from everyone for five minutes. Halfway down one aisle, the box she was carrying let go, dumping out small tins of anti-foul everywhere.

Farrrrrrk.

She took a big breath and looked down at the mess. Thank god. All the tins were intact, no spills.Thatcould’ve been bad. She almost growled at the crappy day she was having, willing the time to go faster as she bent down and started putting the tins in their rightful place.

The intercom sounded over by the counter, and she heard a customer requesting a fuel up.

“I’ll get it!” she yelled out to her dad. Maybe fresh air would turn this day around. She quickly finished with the tins and made her way down to the fuel berth.

“Hey Sam,” George called as he hopped off his boat and tied it up to the wharf.

“Oh hey George, didn’t realise it was you.” George was another regular who did maintenance work for the same marina where her dad’s boat was moored.

“Fill her right up,” he said, jumping back in the boat and fiddling with something down the end.

“You got it.” She grabbed the diesel pump and set it up, leaning against his boat to wait. Face towards the sun, her skin tingled from the warmth. Yep, this was just what she needed.

Coughing and spluttering shook her from her reverie. She whipped her head around to see George spitting out water and wiping his mouth.

“George? Are you okay?” she said, alarmed as she moved to him.

He waved an arm at her, his coughing dying down enough so he could gulp in a lungful of air.

“Ack.I think I just swallowed a jellyfish,” he stated matter-of-factly, though still sounding a little strangled as he rubbed at his throat.

“Wait, what! How? Can I get you anything? Water?”

He nodded quickly and pointed to a bottle by the steering wheel. She quickly hopped into the boat and fetched it as fast as she could. He took a few big gulps, then shook his head.

“Blech, that was nasty,” he said with a look of disgust, holding up a hose in his other hand. “Clogged sea inlet. I was trying to get a syphon going and, well, I found the blockage!”

“You sure did. I’m just glad you didn’t choke.”

She’d heard of sea inlets clogging with all matter of sea muck, but it was usually just sand or seaweed, not seacreatures.

“Me too, at least he was a slippery little sucker.” He cracked up as Sam joined in.

“I mean I know people say they like their seafood fresh, but that’s something else,” she said.

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