Minnie didn't know why she had done it. Why she had jumped off the board and why she had moved closer to Nicholas. She didn't understand why she had let him move in closer. She didn't know why she had placed her hands on his chest, his heartbeat had been frantic under her touch. It made her glad to know that she wasn't the only one who felt as if their heart was going to leap out of their chest.
And lastly, she didn't know why she had done it. Why she had pressed her lips up to meet his, why she had kissed him and why he had kissed her back. Her mind was riddled with questions and hopes.
She wanted to kiss him, until she couldn't breathe. Until she didn't know where she was, and his hands had set her skin on fire. The surfboard was a something she had partly wished wouldn't exist so that she could feel his touch once again and shiver against it.
They swam back to shore, but the moment had been killed replaced with clumsy anxiety. She didn't know what to say to him and she could tell he didn't. He didn't avoid her eyes, but he seemed perplexed. She hoped that it hadn't complicated their relationship by kissing him. She hoped that she hadn't misread the signs.
"See you tomorrow?" He had asked, although the question wasn't needed. She knew that she would be right there. Hoping for another electric kiss.
"Same time?" She asked, in turn. He nodded, a small smile on his face. She grabbed her bag off the sand, placing her towel inside it. "Night." She managed breathless.
"Night." He said. They looked at each other for a beat longer before she turned and walked away. All that she could think of was the magical kiss in the middle of sea.
****
Minenhle woke up the next morning with renewed energy, she woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her door and she opened it to find the hotel girl. Still tired and almost lifeless.
Minnie let her, just like the day before, nap on the bed. She found herself painting. This time, not Nicholas but the waves, the sea lapping at the beach. Thirsty as she had lapped on Nicholas. She couldn't get him out of her head, she couldn't get the kiss out of her head. His soft lips, his soft skin and his soft hair. He smelt and tasted of the sea. His eyes gleamed and moved like the sea, uncertain and untrustworthy in nature. Mischievous. His muscular body hard against hers, his heartbeat under her palm.
Her paintbrush moved free with the blue hues, spreading it until the server sleeping on her bed woke up. Minnie didn't notice her until the girl was standing right in front of her admiring the work that she had done.
"Yho." The sound shook her out of the focus of her work. She looked up to find that girl was looking at her painting. She looked down at it to find it was in fact something to gasp it. It was something that she had done barely thinking but she was certain, some of her best work.
It all looked lifelike, the waves and the small beach and the tiny surfboard drifting away at sea. It was blue, all striking and different shades of blue that collided with white and the golden sand.
"It is so beautiful."
Minnie smiled down at her work. It truly was, and she was going to be late if she had done that much painting. It wasn't a quick process.
"Thank you." Minnie held out a fifty rand note to the girl. "Here."
"No, I can't take that." She shook her head. She eyed the money, as if taking it would make her inferior or a beggar.
"Why don't you sleep?" Minenhle asked, pocketing the money.
"I have another job and I'm studying." She explained, wiping her hands down the front of her uniform. It was as if there was permanent exhaustion in her face and she knew that sleep was something that she was rarely going to get often.
"I'm trying to help." Minnie frowned at the girl.
"Don't worry, Minnie. It's alright." She shook her head, it wasn't alright. How could she focus at school tired and exhausted?
"But it anything happens, and you need help." Minnie assured the girl. "You know my room number."
"Dankie." She smiled at her, pushing the cart out and away from the room.
****
Minnie rushed her shower and rushed to get down to the beach. This time she found his backpack there right next to his towel, laid out but he was nowhere to be seen. She looked around the beach to find him on the waves. On his surfboard, he rode the waves. His body was lean and sleek, he wore the same wetsuit as the day before.
She was transfixed with watching him as she laid her own towel and watched him. She didn't try to capture him in a drawing, she just watched.
Nicholas must have seen her sitting because he started to show off. He rode bigger waves, curled and glided in and out of them. He seemed to become better and more focused on what he was doing before he finally, came back to shore.
She greeted him with a warm smile that he returned. His eyes gleamed dangerous. The danger that she had supposed came from her new bikini and the new way she had done her hair. Or rather, in haste, hadn't done her hair.
"Are we going out on the waves?"
"Yes." With that response, she dropped her bag down on the sand. Laying out her beach towel and noting as he stood anxious. She pulled her top off her shoulders and her shorts down her legs. She ran past him, stopping to grip the surfboard before heading down to the beach.
He was quieter during their lesson. He didn't speak as much, he complimented her. Corrected her stance and guided her onto waves and the board. Demonstrating as best as he could. She could tell he was distracted but not on her body or her face. He was focused on anything but her.
****
Nicholas was losing it. Or rather that was what he had decided was happening to his head. His little sister had called him the night before, fangirling and gushing over 'Kylie lip kit' that she had bought and telling him to visit for Christmas. Then a call from his friend, Michael, reminding him of the party he was supposed to attend and his painting.
He had titled it the black Mona Lisa. She was as mysterious as that lady had been, beautiful and serene with dark eyes that followed you. It was bigger than the actual Mona Lisa and it wasn't her just sitting and posing for a portrait. She was sitting on his surfboard, her legs over the edge. She was looking down at him, right after she told him to be honest. The painting was honest in a way he couldn't be.
It could admit that he was thinking about the kiss. He was thinking of it and he didn't sleep because he had stayed up all night painting. He was avoiding her gaze as to not feel the temptation of wanting to kiss or touch her.
She was going to leave at the end of her holiday back to her life in Durban. She was going off to study and get married to some 'prince'. She didn't want to have a guy like him, a runaway who could barely live off his art. His father was right about him. He was a lazy boy with unrealistic dreams.
There was a sense of comfort when lunchtime came along, and they returned to the beach. They ate in silence. He caught her looking at him at times. Did she notice the shift in his tone and his exhaustion? His eyes were on the verge of shutting down.
"Are you okay?" She asked, looking at his side profile. He could feel the study in her eyes.
"Yeah." He nodded, "Why?"
"You don't seem yourself." She answered, posing her own question. "Rough night?"
"Something like that." He shrugged it off, there was nothing much to add besides that. Nothing to add that he would admit.
"If you want to go get some sleep, I can wait until tomorrow to finish this lesson." She told him. She was too nice to him and too thoughtful. Even when he was pushing her away, still nice.
"No." Nicholas replied. "I'm not tired, are you sure you're not tired princess?"
"I'm sure but you look like you could drop dead any second." His half-hearted attempt at a joke and a smirk didn't fool her. She was too smart.
"Is that your way of calling me handsome?" He kept the smirk up and tried to stifle the laugh that wanted to burst from behind it. A laugh at how pathetic he was. He had a beautiful girl in front of him and this was what he was doing, running from his feelings.
"No, it's my way of saying you need some sleep." He didn't argue. They both feel silent.
"I didn't sleep last night." He said after a while. She didn't say anything, turning her head to face him.
"I wanted to, but I couldn't. I just felt like painting, so I did. I painted until the sun came up and soon it was time for our..." He searched for the right word to describe what they were doing. "Lesson?" She shrugged, if that's what it was she couldn't deny it. "Have you ever felt as if your mind couldn't shut down and there were too many thoughts controlling it?"
"Yeah." She nodded, her eyes wrung with recognition.
"That's what it felt like." He explained. "But all the thoughts were on one thing and I just couldn't get it out. Even after I stayed up painting."
She didn't force him to explain further and he was grateful for that. They stayed silent watching the sea.
And it was like that until they went back on the waves. She didn't force him to sleep and he was grateful for that. That became their cycle for the next week. Him not sleeping and walking like a nearly dead zombie while she tried not to force herself to make him sleep. She didn't ask what he was painting, she didn't ask what was on his mind and she didn't kiss him again.
****
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