Page 27 of Beyond The Break

“You’re surfing like a beginner out there, Fin,” Gabriel hisses., “I can’t allow you to enter any competitions at this rate, it would ruin everything we’ve worked so hard to build.”

“That’s complete bullshit,” Griffin raises his voice.

Despite not agreeing with Gabriel, Griffin turns around andwalks back into the ocean, throwing his board down and hopping on. When he reaches the lineup, his eyes find mine and he glares at me as I feel a charge shoot through my whole body, head to toe.

“Ready?” Kairi asks beside me, pulling my attention away from his hypnotizing grey eyes.

“I thinkyou should get two wet suits. One full body for the extremely cold mornings and then one that’s short for when it’s not that bad,” Kairi says, shuffling through the racks of wet suits.

“Can’t I just wear a normal bathing suit for the mornings that aren’t too bad? I never knew how expensive wet suits are,” I say, holding up the price tag of the closest wetsuit.

Two wet suits would come out to just over five hundred dollars after taxes.

“No, the water is still cold. Trust me, you’ll want to wear this. Plus, you’ll thank me after Fin sees how nice your ass looks in it.” She giggles, tossing two wet suits in my size into my arms.

“Excuse me?” I choke. “Nothing is going on between me and Fin. He literally acts like he hates me for whatever reason. I can promise you, I don’t care what he thinks of my ass.”

“I’m not so sure he hates you,” she says, a small smile playing on her lips as she walks over to the surfboard racks, “I think he just hates how distracted you make him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He stares at you all the time, even during practice.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” I say, brushing off her suspicion.

“Eyes speak, Eliana. It means everything.”

She pulls down a beautiful white foam board with lavender and pink flowers painted all over it.

“I think you should get this, too,” she says, examining the board.

“Not happening. I have no idea how to surf.”

“It’s never too late to learn. I’m sure Fin wouldn’t mind teaching you, and it’s probably more to his benefit since it’ll help refresh all the beginner basics he seems to have forgotten,” she says, waving the cashier over.

A tall, lanky, teenager walks over to us. His brown hair is tied up into a bun atop his head, with curly strands pointing in every direction, and he exudes “hipster-esque” with his lensless, oversized glasses. I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling or giggling as he winks at Kairi, his shoulders pulled back in mock confidence.

“Hi, beautiful,” he says confidently, taking the board out of her hands.

“Hi, James.” She ruffles his hair, like he’s a little boy.

“It’s Charlie, sweetheart.”

He blatantly ignores her friend zone attempt and checks her out, biting his lip as his blue braces glisten in the overhead lights. She looks at me over her shoulder with an expression that screamsplease, God, help me.I turn around to stop myself from letting a laugh burst through my lips.

When he finally walks away, we casually look through the clothing racks and surf accessories. She studies some of the clip-on fins hanging on the walls while I pick up a waterproof camera case.

“This shopping trip is starting to look like it might be over Gabriel’s budget.”

“He doesn’t have a budget, he’s filthy rich,” Kairi checks the price tag on a fin.

“Surf coaches really make that much money?” I ask, contemplating why I’m in marketing instead of coaching.

“He used to be a pro world surfer, kept winning first place in almost every single competition so he was racking in all the money from the wins and from his sponsors.”

“Woah, I didn’t know that.”

“Search his name tonight if you want to know more, he is a very famous name in the surf world.”

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