Free Wet: Part 1 by S. Jackson Rivera

fewer sinks . It’s been hard enough to know I can’t always wash my hands, but everyone else . . . Blech!” She stuck out her tongue. “I can’t even go there.”
    The next thought popped into his head before he could stop it.
    Why does she have to be so damned cute?
    oOo
    Paul went to work filling tanks while Rhees schlepped them to the boat. It’d become their routine. It wasn’t fair for him to make her do it, day after day—bathroom and tank duty were the worst jobs at the shop—but she never complained. She also never noticed how he’d stopped having Dobbs or Mitch show up early to help so he’d have the time alone with her.
    She picked up two tanks and carried them off. She’d never managed more than one before now. He actually grinned with admiration.
    Having her at the shop to help those extra few minutes left them with time to spare, and the two of them wound up awkwardly staring at each other. He certainly couldn’t let her have the satisfaction of besting him. He thought about what other dirty jobs he could have her do. The only thing that came to mind was his daily computer work. He hated what he called his Dailies.
    As office manager, the Dailies were originally part of Claire’s duties. She did them for about two months after he bought the shop. But one day, she declared she wouldn’t do them anymore; she flat-out refused. He threatened to fire her, but she called his bluff. Without her, he’d have to do all the office work, and that meant he’d never see the sun again.
    A thorn in his side, he told himself he only kept Claire around because she came with Dobbs. Dobbs was a good man, and with the exception of Mitch, he was the best friend he had on the island as well as the only person, together with his wife, he trusted to take care of things when he couldn’t be around. The Dobbsons had been at the shop, as acting managers, trying to save up the money to buy it from the aging owner, when Paul happened onto the island three years before.
    Paul had been wandering the world when his travels brought him to the island and the shop. He felt a burning need to stay the moment he stepped off the plane. He bought the shop out from under the Dobbsons, paying cash, one of the many reasons for Claire’s disdain toward him. Claire did her job very well, and as much as he threatened on occasion to fire her, he didn’t want to lose her help. He had no choice but to tolerate her bad attitude until they saved enough money to buy their own shop someday. He didn’t mind the fact that it would take a while for them to do so.
    “Come on. I have a new job for you,” he said to Rhees. He led her to the office. “And if you touch my board again, you’ll be sorry,” he said in a simple, matter-of-fact way.
    “Oh really?” she answered sarcastically. “What are you going to do? Put me on your crap list?”
    He looked at her from the corner of his eye and had to bite the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t laugh. He sat down at his personal computer and paused a minute, deciding whether he really wanted to do this. He finally gave her his password and started showing her how to do his least favorite job of all.
    oOo
    That afternoon, Rhees pulled Shelli aside to ask another question. She’d finished her lessons but until she successfully did her open water dives, Shelli was officially still her instructor. Since Paul purposely denied her the dives she needed to get certified, Shelli was stuck with her. Rhees always had a question or two, and Shelli did her job like a professional, but everyone knew Rhees wasn’t Shelli’s favorite person.
    Tracy and Regina believed Shelli to be jealous of Rhees, a sentiment shared by more than a few of the other students as well. Shelli was one of Paul’s favorite sex-mates. No one else, except some girl named Ginger, had been known to come close to being a girlfriend. Apparently, he made his position on relationships very clear: he wanted nothing more than sex, and being