An Illicit Love

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The next morning, Catie and Kevin were awakened by Bryan, already in his cute bright pink and black striped speedo swimsuit, albeit back to front, and with his towel draped over his shoulder. “Lets go!!” he shouted excitedly. It looked suspiciously dark, so Catie looked at her watch for the time. Bad move. Besides it still being way too early to go to the beach, her thoughts immediately focused on Dave. She shook the sudden, sharp stab of melancholy off and catching Bryan off guard, started tickling him till he collapsed giggling on the floor. Kevin got up and despite revealing his unmistakable morning glory, strode to the curtains and pulled them open. The sun was just rising and it cast it’s rosy light into the room. Kevin went to have his ritual morning pee, sounding like a horse as usual. Bryan trailed after him and started nagging for him to get dressed so they could go and catch some fish. Kevin did not need any further prompting, and came back to the room, pulling off his clothes and starting to dress. This too was familiar. It had been an adjustment for Catie , who loved sunbathing and riding a boogie board through the waves. Vacations for Kevin were about fishing. Every day. Up as early as possible because don’t you know it, the fish can tell time and they bite very early. And at sunset. And the rest of the day. Every day.

Even when it rained, Kevin usually still stood patiently holding his fishing rod, while Bryan danced around in the rain for a while, but eventually joined Catie in the car, where she sat for hours, watching Kevin catching fish. Most days - trying more than actually catching any fish.

But this morning the weather was perfect. Kevin told Catie to get her butt out of bed and get dressed, they were going FISHING! Catie complied and packed some cold drinks, crisps and the left over pizza while Kevin and Bryan got their fishing tackle bag sorted, and within a half a hour, they were travelling to a spot where the anglers caught dozens of fish. Every day. Big ones. But even though this didn’t turn out to be true for Kevin and Bryan, it set the tone for the coming weeks, and was a peaceful, enjoyable start to their stay.

While Kevin and Bryan spoke to the other anglers and started setting up their gear, Catie began a slow meander down the beach. As always when at the ocean, she had a large, cloth shoulder bag over her shoulder, prefilled with plastic bags into which went any interesting shells, pebbles or anything that caught her eye. While walking she looked out over the ocean, grateful for the blessing of being there. It was beautiful and so different to the environment where they lived. After walking about an hour, Catie scooped out a hollow against a small sand dune and settled with her back to the dune into the hollow. There were quite a few other people on the beach. Some were jogging. Some older couples, obviously retired, walking past hand-in hand, looked so content, that she questioned herself and her quest to obtain that same feeling with someone other than her husband. But it wasn’t her fault, she reassured herself. She hadn’t been looking for anything??? It came to her. But you could have rejected it? Why? It was so right. Why and how could she reject something that brought her alive in a way she hadn’t every experienced in her thirty five years of life?

Catie jumped up and dusted the sand from her shorts. Her first day away and her resolve not to allow thoughts of Dave to intrude had already failed. She started back down the beach towards where Kevin and Bryan were standing fishing with a group of other men. When she was close enough for them to recognize, Bryan started waving frantically, threw down his fishing road and took off towards her. Catie knew Kevin would not be happy at the rod being thrown down, but that was a problem for when the subject was broached. They were on vacation and nothing was going to spoil it for them.

Towards midday, Kevin finally admitted that there were no fish biting. He reassured Catie and Bryan that it was everybody that had not caught any fish worth mentioning. They would try again later than afternoon. They went shopping then, and when Catie walked over to the rack holding the boogie boards, and asked Kevin which colour he wanted, he replied that there would be no time for boogie boarding. They were going fishing, and he wouldn't want to spend the money and then not use it. He reassured Catie that she could buy one if she really wanted to. Catie walked away without a boogie board, previous experience telling her it would not be used as she wouldn’t go into the ocean without Kevin nearby. Catie was very disappointed but told herself that she knew how their vacations evolved, it was not reasonable to expect a sudden change of heart fro Kevin. He lived for his fishing trips to the ocean.

After buying their groceries for the first few days, they drove further up the coastline, checking out fishing spots Kevin had heard of where big fish were caught regularly. When they drove past the local putt-putt range, Bryan asked Kevin if he could please stop so they could go in. He remembered it from the previous year. Catie was pleasantly surprised when Kevin agreed and so they spent a relaxed hour and hilarious hour playing putt-putt, both of them bending all the rules so that Bryan ‘won’ Mom and Dad. All three of them were getting into the holiday mood and although Dave never left Catie’s mind totally, she felt optimistic about getting through the holiday more easily than she had originally imagined. That was, if she didn’t think of the hours she lay awake at night, trying to fall asleep, but unable to, with thoughts and her want for Dave driving sleep far from within her reach.