Free The Beat of Safiri Bay by Emmse Burger Page A

shirt. He wipes my tears with his thumb and I realise what I have done. My fear of spiders is just so great that it overpowers everything else for that moment. “I’m sorry,” I say through my tears, “I can’t really control the way I react when I see a spider. It is without a doubt one of my biggest fears.” He hugs me tighter. “Lane, there is nothing to be sorry about, I wouldn’t take your fear as a warming up sign towards me. My shirt is at your disposal for as long as you need it.”
    He has such a way with words; it makes me feel worse because that is exactly what I am doing, using him. When it suits me, I am able to let him hold me and for the first time in a very long time, I absolutely hate my condition.
    I have lived with it for so long and everyone has always acted as if it’s nothing and has gone out of their way to accommodate my special needs that I never really had a reason to try to change. But this man has something I need and I will have to make some sacrifices if I want to find out what it is that appeals to me so much. “Thank you,” I say and mean those two words more than he can imagine.
     
    I let go of his shirt and wipe my nose with the back of my hand like a child, how unladylike I think. We sit down on the dry sand and look over the water. It is a beautiful day, one for the books. “Alex,” I say his name and I love the feel of it on my lips. I think it is time to come clean with him, to tell him how I feel and what I have decided to do. “Lane, I am not exactly what you think I might be,” I frown at him then and let go of the thought of opening my heart and mouth to him. “I do not think anything of you because I don’t know you,” I say honestly.
    “What did you want to say before?” he ignores my comment.
    “Nothing important,”
    “Okay. Let’s sit a while so you can get your breath back.” I sit next to him and a little crab pops his head out of his hole. He hurries sideways over the sand and ducks into another hole. The salty air at the sea is something I have missed so much while at school. My school was three hundred and something kilometres inland and the air there is dry and cold. We sit and talk a bit about the local diving companies and how swimming with the aid of canned air doesn’t appeal to either of us. “Okay now?” he asks concerned.
    “Much better’” I smile.
     
    We get up and make our way back over the dune, it will be easier to get back along the road, the sand always takes more out of my legs and I don’t feel like making them work hard anymore. He walks in front of me and I skip the two steps that separate us, I need to stay close in case of any other unwanted leggy creatures. We reach the tar road. This is where we have to go our separate ways, but he doesn’t and he walks with me down the beach road. Just then, I see my dad’s Jeep coming down the road toward us, “Oh no,” I say and he looks at me, totally confused, “my dad,” I say and he straightens his back a little at that.
     
    The Jeep stops on the side of the road and my dad gets out. We walk over to him and he places a quick kiss on my head “morning Rosie,” he says and I smile up at him. My dad eyes Alex suspiciously and I feel obliged to make the introductions. “Dad this is Alex, Matthew’s cousin, Alex, my dad Peter Rose.” My dad takes his hand “How do you do Alex?” he says,
    “Good morning sir,” Alex greets my father. I feel the need to explain my walk with a man I have never mentioned to my father before, “Alex and I were just taking a break from our run. He is training with us at the gym,” My dad nods and then he speaks to me,
    “What time do you need to be there tonight?”
    “The party starts at six and we will do sound check at five,” I say.
    “Alright, I will be ready to take you at a quarter to five,” he says and nods his head at Alex, “Keep your phone on Lane,” he says as he climbs back into the Jeep. I frown at that. My dad has