Chapter 7 – Socialising

Unfortunately, things didn't pick up for quite a while. The team settled into a slow routine with lots of market and harbour patrols, getting paperwork done, sorting old files… It really wasn't very satisfying.

Camille spent quite some time flipping through fashion and fitness magazines, opening the enclosed perfume or make up samples and trying them on her skin, only to find out that they didn't suit her, and reading horoscopes and other things that Richard considered nonsense. That was after she had cleared out the depths of the her desk drawers and thrown away cartloads of dried out glue sticks, old elastic bands, pens that had seen better days, plus ugly green nail polish and a set of colourful, but broken barrettes that had somehow surfaced from the bottom of a drawer and that had originally belonged to Lily Thompson, the officer who had killed Richard's predecessor Charlie Hulme.

All these things distracted her from her worked-up mind that kept revolving around how she could make Richard react to her – preferably in a positive way. Although it helped a little, she kept coming back to the same thoughts and feelings, and it made her uneasy and edgy. Why, oh why was he as cool as a cucumber in her presence? Didn't he feel the tension? Didn't he notice the sparks? Was he immune to her charms? Wasn't she his type, maybe? Did he have a type at all, for that matter? And why, oh why did she care so much?

Camille's restlessness was hard to bear, and Richard – who struggled with this lull, too, not to mention his own confused feelings – found it difficult not to snap at her for her excessive rummaging around the station. After a particularly unpleasant Tuesday when she had literally turned everything upside down and driven them all batty with her attempts at reorganising things, he was beginning to wonder if maybe he'd try to give her a sedative some time… She could really be a pest when she was in a restless mood.

They all met up at La Kaz again that evening. Fidel brought along Juliet – her parents had come over to babysit Rosie, and the young couple took advantage of the opportunity to go out and spend some time away from home. They had just sat down when Joey and Andrew showed up. Within minutes, the three women were engrossed in a conversation about all sorts of things.

Richard heard Camille complaining about the slow times at work and how there was nothing exciting happening. Juliet said "Oh, you poor thing. Nothing worse than having a slack period at work. You know I worked as a secretary for a shipping company for a few years – that was before my last job… every once in a while we would go through those slow spells, and it was just awful. I always tried to keep myself busy, but it really was hard at times… It helped that Fidel and I just had started dating during my penultimate year there – I had lots of nice things to dream about then!" She laughed out loud, and Joey and Camille joined the laughter – which only got louder when they saw Fidel's embarrassed face.

In an attempt to distract them and steer the conversation into another direction, Fidel cleared his throat and said "Perhaps we should just organise something out of work so we'd have something to look forward to. We haven't had a decent party in a while, have we…"

Juliet grabbed his hand and exclaimed "Right – that's a fantastic idea, Fidel! Mind you, my mother just said today she wished she could have Rosie over at their place for a weekend – she'd love that… I could call her and ask if the next weekend would be okay with her and dad, and then we could have an open house on Saturday… you know, we'll start out with drinks, cake and sweets in the afternoon, by the beach, and then we'd have a barbecue later on and some dancing… mum and dad could come for lunch and stay for a while, and then they could take Rosie with them for the night and bring her back on Sunday afternoon… what do you think?" A pleading look appeared on her face, and she added "Come on, honey – say yes… please!"

Fidel looked a little taken aback for a moment – he hadn't expected Juliet to come up with a suggestion like that. There was no way he could say 'no' at this point – he had brought up the idea, and Juliet had taken up the thread and come up with a plan rightaway… a plan that sounded so good to the other two ladies that they chimed in. Camille exclaimed "Oh yes, please, Fidel! That would be so much fun!", and Joey nodded enthusiastically. Fidel knew that he didn't stand a chance, and so he said (albeit a little reluctantly) "Well, if your parents are okay with it… I don't mind…"

Camille jumped up, ran around the table and hugged the surprised Fidel, Joey shouted "Hooray!", and Juliet gave her husband a heartfelt smile before she pulled out her phone to call her mother. She got up and stepped outside the bar for a moment so she could talk without getting disturbed, and when she came back, she beamed. With satisfaction in her voice, she announced "It's a deal. Mum and I will discuss the details tomorrow, and she'll also help me with the shopping and all the preparations! Oh, thank you, Fidel – that should be so much fun!"

Richard had observed the whole scenario with some apprehension. He knew he'd get invited – and while he was pleased that his team included him in activities, he wasn't so sure about an afternoon on the beach, a barbecue and – worst of all! – music and possibly dancing later on…

It sounded like a long day, and knowing Camille, she would nag at him if he didn't come to the beach… and she'd also nag at him if he tried to leave early. And Juliet and Fidel would be disappointed if he came late or left early, too, so he was trapped. He didn't want to offend anyone – during his first year, he had offended his team and everyone else quite a bit – simply because he hadn't believed anybody would want to spend time with him, and he had been so used to saying 'no' that he hadn't realised how frustrating his behaviour had been. It had taken him some time to understand that they hadn't asked him only out of politeness, but mostly because they had wanted to give him a chance to adjust better to island life.

A disheartening thought suddenly crossed his mind… hopefully nobody would expect him to dance – he was useless with that sort of thing. Well, the truth was – he wasn't entirely hopeless when it came to dancing… it was more that he was hopeless with social events in general. He never knew what to say, and often times, he felt he'd be happier if he could just sit somewhere with a book and read. Books were easy. Books were safe. You could open and close them the way you wanted, and you didn't have to worry that they'd do surprising things to unsettle you or force you to react… You could always go back and re-read a certain passage if you weren't quite sure what it was supposed to mean. And when you weren't sure about a character in a book, it didn't have any consequences… it was certainly easier than in real life…

When he had reached that point in his musings, Juliet turned to him and said "You're coming, too, sir, aren't you? We'll have chairs on the porch near the beach, and you can go swimming, if you like…"

Before he could come up with anything in response, he heard Camille laugh and say "Oh, forget it, Juliet. He won't set foot near the sea… he'll sit around on the porch all the time and complain about the sand, the sun and the water!"

He was about to retort when he got support from a completely unexpected side… Joey interjected "Well, that makes already two of us then… I don't really swim, either!"

She passed him an encouraging glance and said "What fun we'll have – you and I sitting there with our tea, poking fun at the others making fools of themselves in the waves!"

Dwayne exclaimed "What!? You don't swim? I'll teach you! You've got to learn it, Joey – I'm sure you look fantastic in a bikini!"

Joey turned around to him – there was an enigmatic look in her eyes when she responded "Oh, never mind, Dwayne – I didn't say I can't swim. I rather said I don't swim – which is an entirely different thing! But thanks for offering your help! That's very kind of you!"

Her voice sounded entirely normal and friendly… still, Richard felt for a moment that there was a strange undertone in it… but then she laughed, and the feeling dissipated.

Dwayne gave a funny response, and the conversation started to revolve around the joys of swimming in the open sea, the problems that seagrass brought to the beaches, and Andrew mentioned how some of the big resorts employed locals to rake the sand…

Later that evening when Richard was at home, brewing himself a mug of tea, he tried to pinpoint what exactly had been in Joey's voice. He hadn't been able to put his finger on it earlier on… but there had been something.

He sat there brooding over his tea when it suddenly dawned upon him that it had been coldness and hostility. Yes, a latent hostility – and maybe even a hint of fear. Hmm. That was interesting. He wondered if this was maybe part of the secret that Joey was hiding…

Well, perhaps he'd find out some time. His curiosity was piqued, but there was no reason for him to investigate, and it was none of his business, anyway.

He sighed as he put away his mug and got ready for bed. Joey's remark that she didn't swim had come out of the blue, and it had surprised him – she was athletic, and she clearly liked to exercise, so why had she said she didn't 'really' swim? What did 'really' mean in that context? Either, you did swim, or you didn't swim – there was nothing in between…

Well, admittedly, that wasn't quite true… in theory, he swam – he had learnt it back in the stone ages – at school, actually - , and he had gone to the pool once a fortnight while he had lived in Croydon – to work off frustrations and negative feelings. He had also gone running at least once a week, usually more often than that when he could make the time – for the same reason. But over here, due to the climate and the extreme weather conditions, he didn't exercise at all, and that included swimming – so, maybe that was what Joey meant… that she could swim, but hadn't done it in a while? Oh, whatever…

In any event, he wasn't so sure it was a good idea of her to take his side. He had seen Camille's irritated look – something that he had identified as jealousy had flared up in her eyes for a moment. He knew that Joey's friendship was important to her, and he also knew that she was very touchy when she had the feeling that someone wasn't giving her the attention that she thought she deserved – at least when that person was important to her.

He was afraid that she would feel let down by Joey. He didn't want to be the reason for a rift between Camille and her new friend...

It didn't occur to him that Camille might have an entirely different reason for being jealous and feeling a bit let down – it was not because he was taking away Joey's attention from her. It was rather because she felt that Joey had apparently taken up the cudgels for Richard… and that annoyed her a bit.

It was not so much that she didn't want Joey to get along with Richard… it was more that she feared Richard would fall for Joey.

Joey with her great sense of humour, Joey with her love for tea, Joey with her dislike of germs, Joey with her Englishness… and Joey with her rosy skin, her beautiful blonde hair, her big friendly eyes, her contagious laughter – and (last but not least) her big chest.

Not that she thought Richard was superficial enough to fall for outer appearance, but the constant question about what his 'type' was kept hovering in her head. Given the fact that he had claimed he hadn't figured it out himself, either, there was a certain chance that he had no particular type and was less set in his ways here than in other aspects of his life. That meant he could fall for anyone.

That left all sorts of possibilities open for whoever… and that was all good and well, but if she was honest with herself, she didn't want him to fall for Joey. She wanted him to fall for herself. Still, she couldn't quite bring herself to seeing Joey as a rival… she liked her too much.

And admittedly, Joey didn't do anything to make Richard look at her – she didn't show off her body or flirt with him. She wasn't like some of the other English women that they had got to know through work – Megan Talbot, for example, who had clearly played the 'damsel in distress' and tried to manipulate Richard, or Liz Curtis, the insurance employee who had tried to lead them on and confused poor Fidel by parading in front of him and making him all jittery – Fidel had later on admitted that he had felt very guilty for staring at her so openly. Camille had had to convince him that he wouldn't have to confess this to Juliet – nobody would gain anything from a confession like that… After some serious thinking, Fidel had agreed – but it had taken him a while to get over what he had called 'his lapse', and he had bought Juliet a particularly pretty necklace for their wedding anniversary – to make it up to her that he had almost lost his mind for a moment.

No, Joey wasn't like anybody else she had ever encountered. The truth was that Camille had conflicting feelings about Joey. From their first encounter, she had been torn between affection and suspicion… there was something about Joey that she couldn't quite pinpoint, and her evasive manner made her suspicious. By the same token, Joey was so disarmingly spunky and mettlesome, she had a wonderful sense of humour, and it was fun to be around her. Going to the gym with her was a lot more enjoyable than going alone, and they shared so much laughter – she hadn't had so much fun in a long time.

She hadn't felt that way about anyone in a while. After Aimee's death, she hadn't really wanted close friendships any more – at least not in a while. She had lost too many friends already – through her moves, through her erratic work schedules, through her professional ambitions, through all sorts of circumstances… and through death, as in Aimee's case. She had thought she'd lose Richard, too, when he went to the UK to escort a suspect towards the end of his second year – he didn't know, but she considered him a friend – albeit a reluctant, difficult, challenging one! - and the truth was that she knew for sure that her feelings for him ran deeper than that.

However, it seemed pointless to try and get closer to him – his behaviour towards her was consistently the same, and she just couldn't see that she was making progress with him… What an utterly annoying man he was! But still, he was her friend… and Joey was her friend, too. Why couldn't she just be happy about the two of them becoming friends, too?

This was all very confusing.