Wanderlust

May 1: Chapter 5

And now, she was there. The official family reunion didn’t start for at least another week. Christopher and Calla didn’t know what a holiday was. So of course, there were dinners being held with Minenhle invited. There were many meetings happening all around and everywhere he turned he heard of how beautiful she was, how smart and talented she was.

He had always known that but the woman who stood in front of him was not her.

There was something to the way that she held her head up. She had always done that, her confidence never lacking but now it was a defence mechanism. Something graceful but yet still unnatural. She kept her face composed in neat faces, just as heiresses were expected to.

Not only had she become somebody else, she had become a princess. Not the sort that was graceful and magical but the sort that needed to make their mark. Before she had done it without intention but now she was the poster child.

But what he found odd was the lack of wedding ring on her finger. Last, he had heard, she had been married. To some rich prince.

But she walked around with no ring and she kept her head up.

So when he went out to surf and he found her there admiring the waves. He stopped to watch. She didn’t move to say anything. She didn’t seem to even notice him.

He watched the steady rise and fall of her chest in the small tight tank top she wore with her simple floor length flower pattern skirt. It was held up by a small thin brown belt on her small waist. He was sure beneath it she wore a pair of heels because she was taller than he had remembered her being.

The moment stretched on until she turned to look at him. She did her own study and he found that he still enjoyed the way that hers seemed to interrogate him. They were still blackholes, pulling you in but never kicking you back out.

What had had happened to her?

“I haven’t been surfing in a while.” She whispered.

“Five years?” Nic asked, he kept his voice soft between them.

“I never got the chance… after…” She trailed off and he knew what she meant. There was no need for further explanation on her part.

“I haven’t called anybody princess in while.” He confessed.

“Five years?” She asked.

He nodded, his heart was pounding in his chest and he was fighting for anything resembling a normal state or breathing.

He waited a breath before he asked. “What happened?”

“When?”

“After you left.”

“I went back home.” Minenhle kept her gaze over the sea, he let his eyes look at her. “I went to study art and I got married.”

“Where is your husband?” He asked, he had noticed that she wasn’t wearing a ring on her finger. That she hadn’t since the day that she had arrived.

“We got divorced.” She said it like one would say there is no butter in the fridge or water comes out of a tap. He blinked at her.

She didn’t say anything more.

“What happened to you?” She asked.

“I studied art and business.”

When he didn’t add anything more she turned to look at him for a brief moment before she looked back over the sea.

“I know this is awkward.” She met his gaze for a moment before looking back to the waves. “But I’m sorry for what I said all those years ago.”

“I’m sorry too.” He croaked. It felt as if his voice was failing him, it was so close to shattering. He was so close to her. For the first time in years and there it was all, all awkward and broken.

“And I can’t let this opportunity slip through my fingers.” Her voice dropped softer. For a moment, he saw the old her. The one right as they had broken up. The vulnerable state that she had left Cape Town in.

“I understand.” He nodded. “I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“I don’t think that will be a good idea.” Minnie shook her head at him.

“And us talking is?” He asked. He cringed at his own words and tone.

She drew in a breath before she turned to face him.

“There are things that we left unsaid.”

He had left a lot to say. She didn’t seem to have much left.

“But it’s all in the past.” He finished.

Looking out at the sea with her standing next to him, he could have believed for just a second that it was still five years ago and he couldn’t sleep after their kiss. Could he ever admit to her just how much that kiss had played through his head ever since they had gone their separate ways? How he remembered that last night spent in each other’s arms. The moments of sheer perfection before the world crumbled and fell all around them.

She nodded, biting into her bottom lip.

Before either one of them could say anything, a voice called out to both of them.

“Minnie, Nic!”

They both turned to find Elizabeth standing there, she wore a one-piece swimsuit that hugged her small thin frame.

“What are you doing out here?” Nicholas asked his sister. The moment that was being had was gone. All of it drifted and dissolved by the according to Nicholas, the least annoying out of the Thorpe siblings.

“I’m tanning.” She announced with a large smile.

Minnie raised a brow.

Nic groaned as he began to walk away from the two ladies. “I’ll see you later.”

“Have you seen Nic surf?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yeah.” She agreed. “He’s good.”

“Oh, he’s better than good.” Elizabeth said. His face heated up as he walked away.

But Nic was fading away from ear shot to hear the rest of the conversation. A part of him hoped that something would consume him so he wouldn’t have had to hear his little sister try to set him up with Minnie.

The sea was much more peaceful and calming than wherever that conversation was heading.

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