A big hello and thanks from both me and Cat to everyone who is reading and enjoying this story. I know I am enjoying writing it, I made myself smile for days when I thought up 'Swim like a Fitch'.

Cat has had some good news this week, but progress is slow and she does get very bored being stuck in the hospital. So if any of you lovely lot feel like following her on Twitter and maybe even having a chat, her Twitter name is Cat_tastrophic (obviously you have to put an 'at' sign in front of that but this formatting won't let me do it here)

Enjoy

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6. Someone Who Cares

Emily

When I woke up I was in a bed that was gently swaying, and a slender arm was thrown around my waist from behind. As I stirred, I felt the body nuzzle closer into my back. A sleepy contented sigh issued from her throat, and I felt light kisses begin to adorn the back of my neck. Here we go again. I squirmed away from her, and turned round.

"Wake up, Effy. Wrong twin," I told her.

"Wha..?" she murmured sleepily. "Katie?"

"Nope, not Katie," I said firmly.

Effy's eyes shot open.

"Shit. Sorry. I was dreaming," said an alarmed Effy, scooting back to give us some distance.

"Yeah, I got that," I said, squeezing her hand to show I wasn't mad at her.

"Why is the room swaying?" she asked me.

"Cause we're on your fucking boat, you idiot?" I teased her.

"How did we get here?" she asked.

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We'd been outside the Lion in the car park. I was trying to call Asif. He wasn't legally a taxi, but being the only Muslim boy on the peninsula he took full advantage of the fact that he didn't drink, by driving the rest of us about the place for a nice little earner. Although I was technically over the limit, I was sure I would have been ok to ride my scooter if it had been just me, but there was no way I was going to be able to handle a flailing and out of control Effy on the back as well.

"Fuck," I hissed as Asif's phone went to voicemail.

"What's up Emily?" a female voice asked me.

It was Linda, whose parents owned one of the local campsites.

"Can't get hold of Asif," I shrugged.

"I think he's got family over from Cardiff," said Linda. "That's going to be everyone fucked for transport for the next few days. You'll have to watch yourself on that scooter of yours with all the extra drunks on the road."

"Tell me about it," I said, rolling my eyes. This was the country, and with no public transport people's attitudes to drink driving were a little more slapdash. And things always got worse when Asif had family over.

"Little bit early to be leaving," said Linda. "Surely things are just starting to kick off?"

"Yeah well…" I said, pointing over to where Effy was leaning against the wall, head lolling dangerously from side to side.

"Katie got herself a new boyfriend then, has she?" said Linda. "Or did Freddie finally wise up and see who really loved him?"

"She was just flirting with some new guy," I shrugged. We had all seen this more times than we cared to remember.

"Love's cruel," sighed Linda. "It's a shame she didn't fall for you eh? That would have been perfect."

People were always trying to pair me and Effy off. They liked things to be neat. I liked girls, Effy liked girls, it all made perfect sense in their heads. Except that Effy didn't like girls, she liked a girl. She loved her, but the girl didn't love her back. Linda was right. Love was cruel. Love was an utter shit. It didn't match things up nicely and have everyone pair off two by two to a happy ever after like a Hollywood movie, or some kind of fucking celestial dating agency. Love was a fucking mess, and it left people broken and lonely. It was only ever sheer fucking blinding luck if you ever got away with it.

But did that make the blindest bit off difference to the way I felt now? Did it fuck. Did it mean that I wasn't secretly hating my best friend, because I had to be out here looking after her, instead of being back in the pub putting subtle moves onto a gorgeous blonde? I don't think so.

"Do you want me to give you a ride back to the boat?" said Linda.

Thank god for friends, eh? In the end, they were what mattered. Love was a fucking lottery, but your mates would always be there for you.

"Cheers Linda, you're a lifesaver," I said.

For most of the ride back to Effy's, I stared out of the window whilst she slumped uselessly against me, and reflected on the evening's events with an ever-increasing smile playing over my lips. First big bonus of the night – Naomi had shown up. Secondly she had been fantastically fucking cute, all tongue-tied and nervous. Years of being mates with Effy had taught me how to observe and read the tiniest nuances of people's body language, and there was certainly enough going on in that delicious body to make me believe that day on the beach had not been a fluke. Ok, so I was working it, getting up close to her and throwing her little flirty smiles, not being too overt, but giving her plenty of time to react. And I had seen the little shivers running down her spine when I had used my sexy voice to whisper something in her ear. I had noticed how she hadn't moved away when I had sneaked over the boundaries of her personal space. How her eyes had fixed on me when I was talking, even about the most banal of shit. She hadn't done a runner after Cook's none too subtle outing of me, in fact she had come after me. I could almost hear the cogs in her brain grinding as she tried to work out if Effy was my lover.

Taken as a whole, all these little things were leading quite nicely to a point where Emily was going to get laid. But the thing I kept returning to, the thing that made me smile the most, was the way she had come to comfort me when Effy had gone to the loo. It wasn't a sneaky move when she had put her arm around me. At that point she still didn't know if Effy and I were together. It was an instinctive move on her part. Something you would do for a friend regardless of the circumstances. And it felt fucking good to have her there. Fucking good to have someone else who cared. I probably could have sat there quite happily all night with that arm around me, listening to the band and getting slowly more drunk, laughing with her and getting to know her. Because by the end of the taxi ride I had realised something.

I liked her. Yes, she was fit as fuck, and the force of her attraction to me was an attraction in itself, but it wasn't just that. I liked her. I liked that she was cute when she was stoned. That even though she was obviously very smart, she wasn't arrogant with it. I liked the way she didn't even seem to realise how goddamn fucking gorgeous she was. I liked the way her and Thomas worked together, and that what they were doing meant something. I liked the way that she cared about the marine environment and was trying to do something about it. I liked the way that she cared about Effy even though she could have been a rival. And I liked the way that she cared about me. She seemed like a very genuine person. She seemed good.

Linda's car pulled up at the harbour, and I managed to drag Effy out of the door.

"You going to be alright with her?" said Linda out of her window.

"Won't be the first time," I said resignedly. "Probably won't be the last."

I was expecting Linda to leave, eager to get back to the pub, but she hesitated.

"I don't suppose…" she said, looking slightly guilty.

"What do you want?" I sighed realising her motives were not entirely altruistic.

"Well, it's just that I was hoping to get a pill for tonight, and Jared said he's run out, see."

"Here," I said taking one from the bag that I'd confiscated from Effy earlier. "But be careful, it's a new batch and they're really fucking strong. You're best off taking a half."

"How strong?" asked Linda, pocketing her prize.

"They did that to her," I said, indicating Effy, who was stumbling towards the jetty.

"Christ," said Linda. "I think I'll just take a quarter."

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"Thanks Emily," said Effy, sipping on the cup of coffee I'd brought her in bed. "What would I do without you?"

"Well I know what I would have been doing without you last night, you wanker," I teased.

"Oh fuck," she said, remembering a little more of last night. "The blonde. I totally muff blocked you. I'm so sorry, Ems."

"It's ok," I grinned. "I got my revenge. I took some of your coke and drank some of your booze when we got back here."

"Emily, you know you don't even have to ask to share my shit. But how did it go? Are you going to see her again? Do we sense potential?"

"Oh we definitely sense potential," I said, jumping back on the bed with her.

I texted my assistant Jen to come and pick me up in the company van, and grabbed some fresh clothes. I stayed over at Effy's boat so often I had my own drawer there. It was no secret that Effy had money, but when she had abandoned her old lifestyle, she had left behind all the ostentation that went with it. Her boat was new, and clearly the most expensive one on the harbour, but it was moderately sized, and she chose to live quite simply on it. She didn't have a load of fancy gadgets. She had a small car. She got most of her clothes from the second hand shops and then adapted them to her own unique style. It was as if she didn't want to be associated with who she had been before. So we let her be. Nobody asked too many questions about her life before she came to us, and she slipped quietly into being just another part of the community. All the old boys down the harbour loved her. The women treated her like some poor orphaned waif that needed feeding up. And all their children bought her drugs.

"How's it looking?" I asked Jen, when I jumped into the van next to her.

"The sun is out and the waves are rolling," she smiled. "It's going to be a beautiful day."

She drove us back to Fitchwater HQ, to pick up the boards and the ladies, before heading on down to the beach.

"Morning ladies," grinned Cook, looking like the cat that got the cream as we piled out of the van in the car park.

"Morning Cook," they all replied with varying degrees of enthusiasm, except for posh girl whose face rose up with a hint of a blush.

"Cook, you dog," I whispered in his ear, as the girls got themselves together.

"All the posh birds like a bit of rough," he answered conspiratorially. "You'd do well to remember that, Emilio."

"Well, they don't come much rougher than you, mate," I said punching him in the arm.

"Is Eff alright?" he asked me, changing the subject suddenly. "Heard she pressed the self-destruct button when Katie was doing a number on that Thommo guy."

Despite his obnoxious front, Cook was a good friend too, even though he was one of the guys Effy had messed around when she first got here.

"She'll survive," I told him.

"Doesn't she always?" said Cook.

Survive, yes. But how do you live with a broken heart?

I led my little flock down to the waves, and I could feel Julie, the dreadlock chick's eyes burning holes in my back all the way down the path. I had the top of my wet suit down and tied around my waist, and I could tell she was scoping out my back, and trying to work up the courage to invite me for a night of 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' tattoo swopping. I let her look. Even though Naomi had effectively sideswiped me from any interest I might have had in her, it was still nice to feel wanted. But as she continued looking as I got suited up, and then kept sneaking glances whenever she could throughout the lesson, I realised that she was seeing me in a totally different way. That the gaze of sexual desire is as complex and intricate as snow. From a distance snow, is just snow. It blankets everything with white and is uniform. But examine it in detail and no two snowflakes are the same, each one an elaborate pattern that differs in a myriad of ways from it's nearest neighbour.

And so it is with lust. On the face of it, it's universal. We have all felt it. We have all experienced it in the gaze of another. But just like the snowflakes, each look was unique. It didn't just carry the message of sex, it also carried that person's history. It carried their joy and their pain, and their hopes and their dreams. It carried their personality and their ambition. It didn't just tell you that they wanted to fuck you, it also spoke of the way they wanted to fuck you, and what they wanted it to mean. When Cook looked at a girl, it was all about getting his dick damp, that explosive moment of shooting his load and nothing else. Even though I was his friend, when I caught him looking at me like that I knew it was nothing more than animal instinct. When Katie looked at a random guy, I could tell she was always searching. Searching for that elusive cocktail of someone that she wanted as much as she wanted Freddie, but who could love her as much as Effy did. When Freddie looked at Effy, he wanted her to love him, but he was so desperate to be inside her, he would have let her fuck him even if she didn't give a damn.

I felt Julie's eyes on me again. There was a girl called Meryl in the group. She was as sweet as pie, but she didn't have the greatest of physical co-ordination, and she was struggling the most out of the whole group. I could see she was getting frustrated, and close to giving up. So I took the biggest board we had, and helped her to swim out back with it. I let us just sit out there for a bit, looking out into the ocean until I sensed she had begun to calm down.

"It's not all about being the best," I told her. "It's about having fun, and about your own personal relationship with the sea. Any ride you enjoy is a good ride. And this one's all for you."

I turned my attention back out to sea, and waited for our wave. When I spotted it I told Meryl to start paddling whilst I helped her from the back. When I felt the surge take us, I slid onto the back of the board. I got quickly to my knees and then encouraged Meryl to do the same. I could see her excitement mountain as she realised she was actually going to be able to stand up for the first time, albeit assisted by me. She tottered nervously, fucking with our balance, but I managed to compensate, keeping us upright on the water until we reached the shallows. When she finally fell off the board, Meryl was laughing with pure delight.

"Emily, you're amazing," she said, dancing through the water to give me a hug.

And that's when I caught Julie eyefucking me again. For that's what it was. Julie clearly wanted me, but it was all about possession. I was the cool thing, the shiny new toy that she wanted to play with. I got the definite impression she could show me a good time, that she would be a dirty, sexy fuck, and until two days ago that would have been enough.

Until her. Until Naomi. Until that beautiful gaze that had left such a deep and lasting impression. Naomi had looked at me with a desire every bit as fierce as any I had known, if not fiercer. Her eyes had roamed over every inch of me with no doubt in my mind as to what she was envisioning doing to me, but she wasn't just taking a two dimensional snapshot. It wasn't just that she was looking at me, it was like she was looking for me. She had seen the whole of me. She has looked at me in context, she had seen who I was and she had seen my relationship with the sea. She had admired my muscles and my form, but it was like she had understood why I was that way and admired that too. It was a gaze filled with wonder, and such humility. She had no intentions of owning me, just a genuine hope that she and I could find a way of sharing, and an amazement at the possibilities that lay open to us if we were ever fortunate enough to meet. Despite the unequivocal filthiness of its intention, her gaze was innocent, and spoke to me of the purest form of connection. I was waist deep in cold water, but still I could feel my pussy clench and tingle at the thought of what it would be like to have sex with such a creature. To be naked and vulnerable and open under that gaze. For a moment I lost myself in her, in how much I wanted her. How I wanted her to take me, and fuck me and fill me up with that beautiful, caring, unpretentious soul.

The gaze that I could most easily relate to hers was the way that Effy looked at Katie. Effy's gaze was so magnificent because deeply entwined with her desire, was a powerful, unconditional love. It was ridiculous to assume that Naomi could love me without even knowing me, so why did it fucking feel that she did? The one thing that differentiated them, was that Effy's gaze was laced with pain as the object of her desire continually and consistently rebuffed her. I thought of seeing that pain in Naomi's perfect blue eyes, and I couldn't fucking bear it. I was going to find her. And I was going to ask her out. And if she wanted me the way she seemed to, I was damn well going to let her have me.

I was smashed out of my reveries, when an unexpectedly large wave hit me in the side of the head and sent me flying. I rolled with it underwater, found my feet and pushed skywards out of the water. I cleared my eyes just in time to see the crazy blonde girl catch a wave and jump to standing for the first time with a cry of "Blimey, this is flippin' whizzer!"

"That's great, Panda," I shouted encouragingly. "Drop your centre of gravity. That's great, now lean your body to the right. No, your other right, Panda. Shit, no Panda, no!"

I was too late. I watched helplessly as Pandora veered straight into the swimmer, and fell off the board, sending it into the air. Even above the roar of the waves you could hear the crack, as the board fell again and connected with the swimmers head, and she disappeared under the water.