The wind blew all around us and I could hear the rustling of leaves from the trees close by. The sea wasn’t far off and I could smell the unique scent of the ocean. It was getting dark quite fast but I didn’t want to go back inside until we finished our conversation properly.
“You’re right. It’s my fault for leaving you here. Although you seemed to have enjoyed yourself immensely while I was gone, I’ll stick to my offer to buy you whatever that you want,” he said emotionlessly.
I was quite surprised that he was freely admitting that it was his fault for leaving me, although I did not miss that he hadn’t exactly offered me words of apology. Then again, I wasn’t dying to hear him say ‘sorry’. Instead, there was something that I wanted but it was something that his money couldn’t buy.
“There’s something that I want from you, and lucky for you, you don’t even have to pay to give it to me,” I said as I took a step towards him to close the distance between us.
“What is it that you want?” he asked softly.
“Before, you said that I couldn’t swim. I want you to tell me, who told you that?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes at him.
It was no longer true that I couldn’t swim but that was the case many years ago. When I was younger, I hated being in the water. The thought of being entirely submerged under water scared me for no good reason at all. It was like a phobia that I was born with and it took a long time to shake. Unlike my sister who excelled at swimming and then various watersports, all I could do was wade around in a pool where the water only came up to my waist or my chest.
Only a handful of people knew that I couldn’t swim. In the day and age where swimming lessons were common for children and most people could swim, my parents found it embarrassing that I couldn’t master such a basic skill. The fact that swimming came so naturally to my twin sister did not help my case either. While she was excelling, I was seeing great white sharks chasing me everytime that I closed my eyes underwater. Looking back on it almost made me laugh at my own ridiculousness.
“It’s true. For a long time, I couldn’t swim. I was scared and I convinced myself that it wasn’t a skill that I needed to learn as long as I stayed far away from the water...” I went on while noticing that Bradon had lapsed back into complete silence.
I wondered if he would give me an answer. It was so long ago that I no longer thought about it. Even when I went swimming whether it was in a pool or in the sea, I never thought about the time when I couldn’t swim anymore or any of the fears associated with being under water. This was one of my weaknesses for a long time and I despised it. I kept my eyes on Bradon’s face which had turned into a cold and detached mask void of any signs of emotions. By that time, I had already learnt that this was a sign that he didn’t want to talk.
“After a certain incident, I realized that I needed to get over this inconvenient fear of mine because I had to stop it from holding me back. It was painful and challenging at first, but ultimately, I learnt how to swim and the rest was pretty much just bad history,” I continued since he wouldn’t say anything.
Some men would have probed by now for me to tell them what happened during that ‘certain incident’, but Bradon wasn’t just ‘some men’. He showed no signs of interest in anything that I had said. I wasn’t sure if he had realized it or not, but the more unwilling he was to tell me things, the more I was dying to know.
Curiosity can be a bitch...
I heaved a sigh that was long and loud to make sure that he also heard it. Since it was evident that he wasn’t going to answer my question, I didn’t have a choice but to ask another of my own.
“It was Anthony, wasn’t it? The one who told you that I couldn’t swim was Anthony, right?” I asked as I dared him with my eyes for him to tell me that I was wrong.
There weren’t that many people who knew that I couldn’t swim. From that small group of people, only one person knew Bradon and was in contact with him to relay the fact. I couldn’t imagine my parents or my sister ever having a chance to talk to Bradon, and even if they did, randomly mentioning my inability to swim didn’t seem realistic. By the process of elimination, it must have been Anthony who told Bradon about it.
“I’m not wrong, am I?” I asked before my lips curved into a knowing smile.
Bradon remained silent as he looked back at me with blank emotionless eyes. I hated it when his eyes appeared so lifeless and his attitude became so detached. Once again, he made me feel like I was talking to a lifeless concrete wall.
“It’s too bad that whatever data you have on me seems to be outdated. I learnt how to swim a couple of years ago. Quite late, I get it, but much better than never...” I said before shrugging my shoulders carelessly.
Why isn’t he saying anything?
“Are we done here?” Bradon asked softly after a pause.
“Excuse me?” I whispered in disbelief.
Was that all that he had to say?
“It’s windy and cold out here. You also don’t have much on right now. We should head back inside,” he said simply.
“I’m not going inside until you explain why you did something so crazy back there,” I said through clenched teeth.
I gasped when he suddenly reached for my hand. The warmth of his hand enveloped mine and I realized just how cold my hands had gotten.
–To be continued...