Nora~~
The ocean breeze pushes my hair in my face, and I grasp for the strands as I walk beside Radia along Somnia's only beach. We keep enough of a distance between us and the water that we don't risk getting our feet wet. Out where the waves start to break is a group of five surfers.
The sun is low on the horizon, though the sky has yet to change from its light blue.
I sip on my ice coffee as we find a seat on two large boulders dusted in sand. While I hold her tea, Radia brushes them off. When she found out I was getting out of work a little early today, she asked if we could check out the beach. The coffee and tea were my idea—and my treat; though, Radia was reluctant about the drinks, not wanting me to buy her food she didn't actually need.
Once she sits down, I pass her the tea. From the boulders, we have an uninterrupted view of the surfers. They're too far out to make out their faces, and maybe that means they won't be able to realize our eyes are on them. A few times they're wiped out by the waves, but for the most part, they seem rather good. Not that I know what the bar for good surfing is. I just know I'd be with the ones wiping out—just more often and less graceful.
"What do you think's out there?" The sunglasses covering Radia's eyes shield what she might be feeling. The "welcoming committee" felt the need to give me five pairs of sunglasses. I gave most of them to Radia.
Even with my own pair on, I still squint at the horizon, trying to spot any black shapes that may be out there—land with mountains or buildings or even large ships. But the only ships are a few sailboats that float not far from shore.
"It's hard to imagine nothing, but Somnia is all there is."
"Do you believe that?" She draws up her knees to her chest. "That would make me feel so big and the world feel so small."
"And you don't want that?"
"No. That's too much responsibility. Don't you think?"
I shrug, stirring the straw around my drink, watching as the ice shifts, the coffee sloshing over them. Little icebergs. That's what they are. The thought makes me glance up, eyes straining even more to see past the edge of our world. Icebergs. Where are icebergs? "You'd hate to be a superhero."
Radia laughs, and it's such a soft, perfect laugh as if she must have had the opportunity to mold it just how she wanted. "If I had the powers, I'd be happy to be a hero."
"See, that responsibility scares me."
"Just imagine yourself in a cape and mask."
"Oh gosh." Keeping my eyes on the water, but now on the surfers and not the horizon, I take a sip of my coffee. "I don't know if I believe Somnia is all there is. How could it be? I had to come from somewhere."
"You mean, life didn't start in that chair?" She smirks behind the lid of her tea.
"I think that's what we're supposed to go with." I don't know why I laugh—maybe because the past few days have been absurd, maybe because I'm nervous that my life really did begin that day I met Radia, or maybe because I fear what it means if it didn't.
The surfers make their way through the water toward shore, and as they come into focus, I nearly choke on my drink.
"Tye?"
Radia grimaces. "I hope you don't mind."
"You knew the whole time he was out there?"
She hides her face behind her cup. "Yes?"
I push my hair out of my face as the surfers clap each other's backs, Tye grinning from ear to ear at his friends. I never expected to see my co-worker in a wetsuit. I'm not angry with her—just caught off guard.
"He told me that he was going surfing after work and asked if I wanted to meet him afterword."
I raise my eyebrows. "Like a date?"
"No!" She scrambles off the rock. "I told him you were coming."
"It's okay." Standing, I wipe the sand off the back of my thighs. "I don't mind."
She looks relieved. "You're the best."
I tilt my head toward her while drinking down my coffee.
When he spots us, Tye lifts his hand in greeting and says goodbye to his friends, before walking up the shore toward us. "Hey."
"I didn't know you surfed." And not only can he, but he's actually really good. Though I suppose I really only have his friends to base that claim on.
"I started playing soccer back when I first started out in Somnia. A few of my friends from the team suggested I try surfing. It didn't immediately click with me." Chuckling, he swears. "I was embarrassing, but I felt something when surfing, and it kept me going through all the wipeouts. You two could always come out next time. We love it whenever someone wants to learn."
Radia scratches at the lid of her cup. "I'm not athletic."
"And you know that how?"
She fixes him with a pointed look. "I just know."
Scratching at the back of his neck, he looks at me. "And what about you?"
Behind him the waves crash, and I picture myself getting caught up in that rolling water. "I don't think . . ." Have I really never done anything in the way of sports? I can picture soccer so clearly, I can see the players kicking the ball down a bright green field, headed for a white goal. But the movements . . . I glance down at my legs, frowning. Something tells me my body doesn't have any experience actually moving that way, that I wouldn't know which part of my foot to use to kick the ball and how to control it. "I'd be happy to come out and watch more. Maybe eventually I'll feel brave enough to get on a board."
He pushes back his wet hair, grinning. "Is that tea?" He motions to Radia's cup?
She tells him the flavor and holds it out. "Want some?"
He gladly accepts it. I have yet to see Tye use the coffee machine Charlie has beside my new desk. I came into work my second day, and there was a marble desk that matched Charlie's and Tye's with my laptop on it. It looks unbearably heavy, and I have no idea how Charlie got it installed so quickly.
Radia's phone rings, and her eyes widen as she sees whatever is on her screen. Excusing herself, she steps off to the side to answer it.
"How are you liking the job? Charlie isn't too hard on you?"
Besides for his vague warnings, he's pretty laidback as far as work goes. As a person, Charlie doesn't strike me as someone who has ever relaxed a day in his life. In the few days that I've known him, there always seems to be something worrying him.
"I have no complaints," is what I tell him even if it isn't the entire truth. He doesn't need to know that I suspect Charlie of hiding at least half a dozen dark, probably dangerous secrets.
"Tell me how you feel after a few weeks of just addressing envelopes." He winks and drinks more of Radia's tea.
"What about you? Do you like being the messenger?"
Shrugging, he loosens a zipper in the front on his wetsuit. "I like getting to see the different parts of Somnia, whether its the neighborhoods or its buildings. Obviously, I don't want to do it forever, but we'll see."
Radia walks back over, her phone clutched in her hand. She's biting her lip as if she's trying to keep something from spilling out.
Tye quirks a brow.
"I got the job." Her face seems to glow, and she looks relieved—as if she can finally breathe. "The news one."
Tye and I congratulate her before he holds up Radia's mug with a roguish smile. "So dessert?"
*****
When I see Tye at work three days later, I know Radia's kept her undesired promise and talked to him about me and Charlie, if the glances he keeps throwing between me and Charlie are any indication. I have to bite my tongue to keep from telling him to cut it out. The last thing I want is Charlie picking up on the glances and firing me when he finds out what they're for. So I shake my head at him and merely mouth, Stop, turning back to writing an address on a light gray envelope.
He grabs his messenger bag from its hook on the wall and grabs the finished letters on Charlie's desk. Flipping through them and reading the addresses, he walks over to me.
"Radia met this guy at a coffee shop near her work."
I hand a finished envelope to him to take over to Charlie to check.
"She wants you to meet him."
I put the cap on my pen. "Why?"
"She may be trying to set you up," he says. I take it this means she doesn't approve of Charlie as a potential suitor. "She wants to treat the four of us to dinner."
I massage my forehead. "Or maybe she's trying to set herself up with him, and they'll abandon us at the restaurant."
Tye's eyes widen a fraction, but before he can say anything Charlie stands up from his desk.
"I have to go to a meeting."
Tye holds out my finished envelop to Charlie who scans it over before nodding.
"You can go home, Nora. I'll see you both tomorrow."
After Charlie is gone, Tye says, "You'll meet him, right?"
I seal the envelope Charlie approved and hand it back. "Radia won't give me much of a choice."
Coffee or tea? What's your favorite flavor?