Chapter 50.

She put her mask over her face, and snorkel in her mouth, and turned around and dived in the water.

Charlie did the same, and followed Joey out a bit deeper. Joey reached for Charlies hand, and pulled her along, aiming for a small reef she knew would be teaming with fish, for Charlie to look at.

Charlie was having a bit of a problem getting her legs to work properly with the fins. She pulled Joey back slightly, and they trod water for a bit, both taking the snorkel out of their mouths. "What's the matter babe?" asked Joey, concerned.

"I can't get used to these flippers hon. I keep trying to swim, like breast stroke with them on."

"Ok, just try and keep your legs straight, and move them up and down, like when you're doing the crawl. It'll soon come naturally babe. You're doing fine anyway babe. You OK to go on?"

"Yes, fine." They put their snorkels in, and set off, Joey again taking Charlie by the hand. As they approached the small reef, Joey stopped, lifting her head out of the water, taking her snorkel out. Charlie did the same.

"Right babe, we're here. I'll point out a few things on the reef, as we go along. There's quite a few fish around, I'll tell you what types they are later, when we get home. There's a moray eel or two about. I'll show you where they are, but don't get too close to them, or point at them, or they might bite you. There's trigger fish down there, they can be territorial, so be careful about them when I point them out, or they might bite you as well."

"You're making it sound very welcoming honey" Charlie said worriedly.

Joey laughed "It's fine babe. Just hold my hand, and I'll point things out to you. There are starfish, shells, sea horses if we're lucky, clams, and loads of fish, and don't forget the lovely colours of the coral. You'll love it. Ready?" Charlie nodded.

They put their snorkels back in, and Joey slowly guided Charlie up the reef, stopping to point to particular fish, clams or colourful or unusual bits of coral as she went. There were loads of colourful little fish swimming about, in and out of the coral, as the tide went in and out. Charlie was taking a few snaps here and there. Joey stopped as they got towards the moray eel. She pointed it out to Charlie. It was massive, its head sticking out of the rock, and it was gulping with its very wide mouth open all the time. They floated on the water, and watched it for a few minutes, eventually it came out further from the rocks, Charlie saw how big it really was, the girth around its body was unbelievable. She managed to get a great photo of it. When it went backwards into the rock, Joey pulled Charlie onwards.

Joey spotted a tiny seahorse, and quickly pulled Charlie towards her, eagerly pointing it out to her. It was very well disguised, and so tiny that Charlie couldn't see what Joey was pointing at, so Joey let go of her hand, and dived down under the water, kneeling on the sandy bottom, pointing it out to Charlie. Charlie gave her the thumbs up when she saw it, looking in wonder at the tiny beautiful little thing.

While she was down there Joey took a photo of it, and then a photo of Charlie above her – she smiled to herself, hoping that shot would come out OK. Then she resurfaced, blew the water out of her snorkel, and lay flat on the surface again, entwining her fingers with Charlies again.

They continued up the reef for the next hour, Charlie didn't really notice the time go, as she was enjoying herself so much. When they came to the end, Joey stopped, so she could talk to Charlie.

"We'll swim parallel with the beach for a bit, to see if we if we can see any bigger fish in the slightly deeper water." Joey had one more surprise for Charlie. She knew that half way along the reef, parallel to the shore, there was a small shipwreck. It was quite a way down, 20 to 25 metres, so you needed scuba gear to swim round it (she'd dived it before herself a few times), but the best thing about it was, that it was a place where reef sharks tended to gather. Usually there were a couple around, and Joey couldn't wait to show Charlie.

"OK honey."

"Are you OK to swim still, not too tired yet?"

"No, I'm not tired. I'm fine hon. I'm even getting used to these flippers now." She laughed. "But, ummm, Jo, are there any sharks out there?" she asked, looking very worried.

Joey toyed with not telling her, but then realised she may panic if she saw a shark underneath them. After all, Charlie wouldn't know if they were man-eaters or not would she.

"Well, to be honest babe, that's why I want to take you out there a bit." Pointing to the open ocean. "There's a wreck out there, and I want to show you a reef shark. They're completely harmless, so don't panic, but I'd really like to show you one. And, if I'm perfectly honest with you, there are other sharks about, that aren't so nice. But I've never seen any round here. So I don't think we'll have any problems. If you don't want to go, then we don't have to." Joey said.

"Uuummm…I'm not sure"

"It's just a little way out, there's a small reef further out to sea, which is what the ship must have hit before it sank, and that's probably why the man-eaters don't come closer to the shore. Look babe, I've been surfing for 18 years, and I've seen sharks around here, but I've never had any problems with them. We'll be fine. I really want to show you this wreck and reef shark." Joey said pleadingly.

"Ummm, OK then. I guess you only live once. Lets hope this isn't the last thing we do." She said uneasily. Joey swam forward slightly, and kissed her.

"We'll be fine babe." She said tenderly.

They put their snorkels back in and Joey pulled Charlie towards the wreck. As they came near it, Joey stopped kicking her legs, and they floated on the water over it, Joey looking about eagerly for any sea life. Charlie was already taking some photos of the wreck. It looked somehow quite beautiful, with corals and fish around it.

Suddenly, Joey pulled at Charlies hand, pointing towards the wreck. Charlie followed the line of her finger, and saw a shark swimming around the wreck. She uttered a small shriek through her snorkel, in shock at seeing a shark swimming underneath her, and squeezed Joeys hand so tight she nearly broke it. They lifted their heads out of the water.

"You OK babe? Isn't it amazing?"

"Yeah, but scary" said Charlie struggling to breathe properly after the shock.

"Deep breaths babe. We'll watch it for a bit longer, get some photos of it, then we'll go back to shore OK."

"OK."

They put the snorkels back in, and lay on the surface watching out for the shark. Joey saw it again, pointing it out to Charlie. She was now taking loads of photos of it, as she began to relax a bit. Joey pulled her over the wreck slightly further, and now there were 2 sharks circling it. Charlie had to admit, it was an amazing sight. She was now out of film, so Joey gave her her camera to use. She took a few more shots, and then Joey began to pull her towards the beach.

As they approached the beach, and got into water that they could stand up in, Joey stopped. She took her fins off, and removed her snorkel. She looked at Charlie grinning broadly. She held her arm, steadying her, while she took her fins off, and removed her snorkel.

"Well, did you enjoy that?"

"Oh yes, it was great." Charlie said as they walked out of the water, back to the picnic blanket, hand in hand.

"You did well babe. We were out for a good nearly 2 hours. You must be fit!! Well, I mean I know you're FIT, but you must be fairly physically fit as well." She said laughing.

"2 hours. God, I didn't realise. It seemed to go so quickly. It was great Jo. Even seeing the sharks. Wow, I've never actually seen one before."

They reached the blanket and put their fins, snorkels and masks at the bottom of the blanket to dry out. Joey passed Charlie a towel and they dried themselves off a bit.

"Lets put your used camera away before we lose it then babe." Putting Charlies camera in one of her rucksack pockets, and zipping it up. "Right, I'm starving. Fancy some food and a drink?"

"Yes please Jo."

Joey went to get the picnic hamper and cool box, and brought them back to the blanket. She handed Charlie a cold beer "Umm, lovely hon, just what I need." Said Charlie, taking a large swig.

Joey laid the food out, taking the lids off the various tubs, and handed Charlie a plate and fork. "Tuck into my sea food buffet babe." She said smiling at Charlie. She sat crossed legged on the blanket, while Charlie sat with both her legs to one side.

"Did you make all these dishes yourself?"

"Yep." Said Joey. "I made them last night while you were at work. As I'd got nothing better to do." She laughed.

Charlie was impressed, again. Last week when they'd gone on their 'get to know you' picnic, she'd bought everything from the diner. Joeys personal touch was thoughtful, and made the day even more special. She made a mental note to do more things like that for Joey. The card and rose Joey had given her yesterday morning was so romantic as well. Joey seemed to make such an extra effort to add the personal touch to everything they did together. She was just so …..just so..…lovely. It seemed such an inadequate word to describe Joey, but Charlie knew what she meant.

"Wow, you've done quite a selection. It looks delicious. Thank you." Charlie said as she took a few samples from each tub to try.

Joey had gone to town, making small tasters of different types of salads, pastas and rice, along with selections of prawns, tuna, octopus and monkfish in different marinades.

They ate a small portion of each dish each, and when they'd had enough, Joey packed the food back into the hamper and cool box, and took them back into the shade under the cliff. She'd got a couple more beers each out, and when she got back, she said "we'd better put some sun tan lotion on babe." So they rubbed lotion all over each other, before laying down on the blanket together. Joey lay on her back, her head on a life jacket. Charlie lay down next to her, also leaning on a life jacket.

"You know, that was lovely Jo. I've been snorkelling before, but only in the shallows. But the sights along the reef, and the sharks, oohh, well, now that was scary, but it was all so beautiful. Thank you for showing it to me honey." She said softly. She lent over and kissed Joey on the cheek.

"My pleasure babe. I'm glad you enjoyed it."

They drank their beers, and then lay on their sides facing each other. They put a hand on each others hip, and rested their foreheads against each other. They kissed gently and briefly. Joey rolled onto her back, and pulled Charlie into her. Charlie rested her head on Joeys shoulder, and draped her hand over her stomach.

"I know I'm being really stupid here, but can I ask you something Jo?"

"Yep, sure, anything." Said Joey, still laying flat on her back with her eyes closed.

"I know I'm gonna sound like a stupid schoolgirl, but have you ever bought anyone else out here?" Charlie asked, knowing how silly she was sounding, but the knot in her stomach was clenching through jealousy, that deep down she knew was not warranted.

Joey rolled over onto her side, took her sunglasses off, putting them above her on the blanket, then she took Charlies off, so they could look into each others eyes.

Joey said softly, "Charlie, after my mad bikini moment this morning, now who's being all possessive and jealous?"

"I know. I know. I'm sorry, forget I said anything, sometimes I just can't help myself, I just think of something and the question pops out my mouth before I can stop it. I'm stupid I know. What's in the past is the past, we're building a future….I mean….ermm….we're in the present day aren't we, what's been has been." Charlie said, feeling like a fool. 'Why can't I stop myself from doing this to myself, and to Joey. Why can't I leave things be, and enjoy what we have together now?'

Joey smiled at her "Charlie, I have brought other people here" Charlies face fell "for diving trips. And to put your mind totally at rest, I've never bought anyone out here on a date. OK."

Charlies face lit up "Yes, OK. Thanks. I'm sorry. I really should stop..…"

"Sshhh" said Joey. "Babe, I brought you here, because I wanted to spend the day with you, so we could be ourselves, and we can't do that at home yet. It's OK" she said holding her finger to Charlies lips as she was going to say something about that. "But I wanted to show you the reef, the sharks, to make love to you on the beach and in the sea, and we couldn't do that at home anyway could we." She said smiling.

Charlie blushed at the last comments.

Then Joey said seriously "You know Charlie, there will be places I take you, where I've taken someone else, or things that we do together on a date, that I've done with someone else. But I'm with you now, and even though it's only been a week, you know that I love you, and I've never loved or been in love with anyone else before, so my past relationships mean nothing to me compared to what I have now with you. I won't forget what I've done in the past, but I'd rather have done those things with you, and the fact that I'm doing things with you now, and will be going forward, is good enough for me. And I hope it's good enough for you too. We're spending time together, we're making new memories all the time. Good, no great memories, so that what ever happens in the future, I hope we'll both cherish them."

"I know I'm being silly. I can't help it. I just…I just....I need to stop being jealous, and realise what I've got now, before I mess that up. I'm being stupid I know that. Everyone's got a past, we even spoke about our ex's last week, so I don't know why I being like this." Charlie replied barely audibly, hiding her face in her hands.

"It's OK babe. Let's just not go an about it too much eh. I mean, I started it today by going on about your bikini, so I'm not exactly blameless myself." Joey said thoughtfully, pulling Charlie towards her.

"We seriously need to stop doing this. Not this" thinking of the embrace, and squeezing Jo tight "I mean we need to stop being jealous and stuff. Or we'll mess this up. And I really don't want to mess this up Jo."

"I know babe, neither do I."

They stayed embraced for several minutes, enjoying the feel of each others body against themselves.

"I could do with a little nap babe, what about you?"

"Yeah, OK, just a quick one then. Lets let the lunch go down, and go out swimming again after that shall we?"

"Yeah." Joey lay on her back, and pulled Charlie into her. Charlie lay her head on Joeys shoulder, resting her arm over Joeys stomach.