within two strokes you acclimatise; or become so numb that you no longer feel anything, I’m not sure which.
The fish are amazing, I caught glimpses of them when I went kayaking, but they are even more vibrant when you are under the surface with them.
John shows us how we can hold our breath to swim deeper until we are surrounded by colourful fish, flitting around us seemingly unconcerned by our presence. We swim around for ages, exploring the coral reefs and finding ever more impressive aquatic specimens.
Blair is the first to go, “Guys, I’m freezing, I’m going to head back to shore”.
John votes for staying in and I join him, still not tired of swimming just yet; so as Blair swims off, John and I continue searching the sea bed for exotic treasures.
After ten minutes or so of ducking and diving down through the crystal waters, I come across a large Conch shell. The pearly pink shade that seeps out from the inside curve, glints, catching my eye.
I break the surface to take a deep enough breath to allow me to get down to it and plunge back in; my fingers just reaching it before I have to shoot back up to replenish the dissipating air in my lungs.
Clinging onto my prize I swim in to the shore to show it off to Blair, who by now is sunning herself on the sand; as I collapse down next to her I flick my fingers, spraying her with cold droplets. She squeals, jumping up and slapping my arm away.
“Look what I found” I say, offering up my shiny shell.
“Wow” she marvels, turning it over in her hands, then bringing it to her ear, “I can hear the sea”
I turn exaggeratingly towards the sea, just a couple of meters from us, then back at her, “No, you don’t say?” I reply sarcastically, both of us giggling moronically.
By the time John resurfaces I have completely dried out in the sun and hunger is playing on my mind. As John is still wet and Blair could go all day without remembering to eat I offer to go to the buffet and bring us all back a picnic lunch; John says he’ll go to the pool bar in the meantime and get us all some cocktails and just like that, it’s turning into a wonderful day.
The staff are as accommodating as always, providing me with a huge wicker basket on request and even running round filling it with an array of sandwiches they knock up and bowls of fresh fruit and cream cakes; really anything they can fit in. By the time they return it to me they look exhausted, so I refuse their offer to carry it out to where we are sitting and instead struggle out the doors lugging the now insanely heavy basket with me.
I wait till I’m out of view of the bar before dropping it to the floor, man its heavy, my arms are aching. I start to rub the muscles to ease the pain when Marcus appears.
“Howdy, do ya need some help?” he asks, charming as ever.
“No, I’m fine”
“Ah come on, how far do you have to go? It looks real heavy” he smiles, reminding me of Carlos, I can’t help blushing under his gaze.
“It’s not all that bad, and plus I don’t think Carlos would like it.” I hold firm.
“Don’t worry about that, me and Carlos are fine now, we sorted it all out, it’s all water under the bridge now” he assures me.
“You’ve had a fight lasting seven years and in what, like three hours it’s all fixed, no worries?” I don’t believe him for a second.
“Yeah” he replies cockily. “Look that’s families, right? We never spoke about it before, it dragged on for a while and when we did finally speak, it turned out it wasn’t as bad as we thought.”
He seems sincere and there isn’t really a reason why he would lie about it, maybe it is just that simple.
“So” he says picking up the hamper, pretending it’s a strain as he does, “where do you want me to put it?”
I can’t help but smile, maybe he’s not the baddie Carlos made him out to be, it was seven years ago after all, perhaps he grew up in that time?
“Just over on the beach” I motion towards the sea.
“Well lead the way Miss Mavers” his endearment makes my skin tingle, but I’m pretty sure it’s just because Carlos calls me that. We make idle chit