Chapter2
David James Pierce was by all means considered a nerd. He had been a nerd since kindergarten, everyone knew this in that little borough in Orange County. The nerd had grown up into a man of six feet, with a love of water sports, and a hatred for Silicon Valley; even if he had made his fortune there.
He rarely ventured back to the mainland, even in Honolulu, for the plain and simple fact that he hated being surrounded by so many people. He had made it his home here, and it had been his home for the past two years, since that exodus.
At 27 years old, he still enjoyed video games and comic books. It also helped that he was still single, and he could do anything his heart desired. Except for this week. He had flown in his family for some much-needed R&R. They needed to escape the press that still hounded them. He was glad the press didn’t know about this house. He had another in Honolulu, a decoy house of sorts, where his parents sometimes stayed in, just for the sake of having people in that large estate.
The media thought he was there most often. He worked quietly, despite his current startup being quite aggressive. The reason was simple, a few people he had trusted betrayed him. David left the company he had founded. A hostile takeover was an understatement. He was the only person in the entire island with lightning fast internet speed, and he didn’t let anyone know, lest his thoroughly secretive background be exposed.
The people on the island didn’t see him at all, he kept mostly to himself. They just knew that he was some young “internet guy” who was too eccentric for his own good. David’s buddy, Mr. Ellison, had assured him of his safety, even selling him a sizeable plot of land to stay in, just so he could be away from civilization, but not too completely off the grid. He had a company to run, after all.
“David, dinner’s ready,” his mother called out while he lounged underneath a frangipani tree.
“Yeah,” he shot back, watching his mother lean against a pillar. “You don’t have to wait for me you know.”
He walked beside the infinity edge pool, enjoying the moonlight shining on the still waters. His mother held onto his arm as he walked in the house. “You know I’ll always wait to have dinner with my eldest child,” she told him.
David smiled a little, just a little. His father was watching television, while his siblings were squabbling over the dinner spread.
“Well, mom, you’ve outdone yourself,” David said, looking at the table, filled with his mother’s home cooking. They had the ingredients flown in, together with his family, aboard a private jet.
“We haven’t had a family dinner in so long,” she said blissfully, then she looked up to her husband, “Peter, stop watching TV, it’s time for dinner.”
The eldest sister, Daphne, picked up a grape from the salad. She popped it in her mouth with a grin. They all took their seats, with the second sister, Charlotte sitting beside him, and their youngest, Cody, sitting down as well. All his siblings had blonde hair and brown eyes, except him. His parents had the same features, too. It didn’t matter that they looked different from him, what mattered was that he had family.
His father, Warner, was a burly looking man, he had been an NFL quarterback, and was tough on the field, but a softie at home. His mother, Jane, was a retired doctor, she had been a premier cardiologist, a rare feat for a woman in her time. His two sisters were considered ‘celebutantes’, a title they abhorred, as Charlotte was studying law while modeling part time, and Daphne owned a successful, high-end bag line. Cody was still in high school, but veering towards the path that David had taken years ago. David hoped Cody wouldn’t drop out of college like he had done so years ago, just to set up a company.
His first company had been a wild dream that had paid off, only for it to be cruelly snatched away by greedy ‘friends’. That was why he didn’t have any friends as of late. All his college buddies (who were coincidentally once part of his company), had betrayed him. His family was his refuge in a sea of traitors, and no one else came close to this.
His former girlfriend, whom he had dated since high school, had begun dating a former colleague of his, and for David, that was the worst thing that had happened- far worse than a corporate takeover. He sighed and continued eating, listening to his family’s banter about work and life in general. His parents needn’t work anymore, thanks to his income, but they were self-sufficient, even if he forced them to take vacations sometimes. He owed it to them, Warner and Jane were the kindest human beings he had met, apart from his loud-mouthed siblings.
“Eat some more,” Jane prodded him, seeing his nearly empty plate. She dumped a ladle of mashed potatoes, along with some roast beef and gravy.
“You’re going to ruin my regimen,” David told her.
Jane smiled. “That’s why I’m here.”
*
It was past eleven in the evening, when David decided to take a walk along the shoreline beneath his house. His parents were deep into their wine glasses, reminiscing about their children as children, and his siblings were asleep, tired from the day’s excursions. They would be leaving tomorrow, and he didn’t want to dwell on the fact that he was going to be alone again, but it was probably for the best.
The moon shone brightly above, and the waves were gentler this time. He enjoyed nights like these, it gave him time to think of better thoughts, and it gave him ideas. Long walks at night made him feel better, it allayed his anxiety issues, and boosted his ego. He felt the sand underneath his feet, soft and cold; relaxing him. His company was better off as a private entity, going public at the moment spelled disaster. It was what his former colleagues had done. They were going to regret it in a few years, he knew that.
Maybe I should get a dog, he thought, looking out into the ocean. He heard the shuffling of feet on the sand, noises that weren’t his. Then he looked up and saw her.
*
Caryn couldn’t sleep, as usual. Her dinner had been a disaster, but she finished her meal anyway, knowing that she couldn’t afford to waste food. She had only begun to flesh out her personal novella, when the breeze from outside compelled her to stop. She needed to take a walk, her usual long, and quiet lonesome walk. Staring at her laptop for too long proved disappointing. It was only hurting her creativity. Despite years of writing, writer’s block was still evident. She blamed it on her anxiety issues, blamed it on her ugly childhood.
She was already grown up. Hang-ups weren’t needed, she told herself. But it still weighed on her, in those quiet moments of unrest. She walked barefoot down the steps, feeling the roughness of sandstone underneath her feet. There was a full moon shining across her, illuminating the sea with a soft glow, and her heart almost skipped. She hadn’t seen a moon like this in so long, and it calmed her a little.
Caryn took her time, enjoying the feel of the sand underneath her feet. She suddenly wanted to take a dip in the water, knowing no one would see her even if she skinny dipped. She would stay close to shore, just to make sure…
Smiling to herself, she stripped off of her day dress, placing this on a rock. She walked towards the water, and the water felt lukewarm as it splashed up to her ankles. This was definitely better than seeing a shrink…
All of a sudden, she heard a noise, like someone breathing and treading quietly on the sand, and her eyes snapped open and she gasped.
Staring at her was David James Pierce.
*
“What in the hell-?” she began, stumbling to grab her dress. She felt her cheeks heat up, and her heart hammer. This was beyond embarrassing, it violated her most private moment, and she should have known better- “Look away, asshole!” she cried out, quickly pulling her dress over her head, and then pulling it down.
“Jesus,” the man breathed out, quickly stumbling back, almost falling on his butt. “Why in the hell would you stand there naked ?!”
“Step back, step back, or I’ll scream,” she breathed out.
“Scream what?” he snapped at her, seemingly regaining his senses. “Scream assault? You’d have given me a heart attack, standing there--”
“Naked!” she interrupted him.
“Well then, why the hell are you naked? This isn’t a private beach!” the young man said.
She was breathing in and out heavily, ready to fight back if need be. “I thought I was alone--” her voice trailed off.
“Public beach, ergo, anyone can come here.”
“I thought this was a private beach. I had my own set of stairs, and you probably have one too.”
He almost laughed, she could see it in his mouth. “You thought? You must be new here,” he said shaking his head. “I saw you earlier- that was you, right?” he asked her, changing the tone of their conversation.
Caryn found it difficult to nod. Yes, that was her, staring at him like she had never seen that kind of specimen up close. “When did you move here? You moved into the old Kahele place?”
She nodded. There was something about him that made her not want to lie. “Just yesterday.”
“Why move here?”
He sounded suspicious, like he didn’t want to welcome in neighbors, even if her new place wasn’t exactly as close to his. She took in a breath. “I needed a quiet place to write.”
He nodded, albeit grudgingly. “Yeah, this place is quiet. How long will you be here for?”
“Just a month or so, until I get something written.”
“About what?”
“I’m working on something personal.”
“You’re an author?” he pressed on. Then he took a breath. “Sorry, I’m not very good with introductions. I’m David,” he said, extending out his hand.
“Caryn,” she said, taking a few steps forward to shake his hand. It was a warm handshake, and Caryn felt a bit of shock run down her spine the moment their hands touched. “Yeah, working on a novel.” It was a white lie of sorts, wasn’t it? A write-up was still a novel, after all…”
“David was it? David what-?”
“Just David,” he told her.
She nodded. “Alright, call me Caryn.”
“Caryn what?”
“You won’t tell me your full name,” she said with a grin, trying to make light of the situation.
“I just met you,” he said.
She could see he was annoyed by her quip, but she didn’t care. “Where you from?” she asked him.
“Why would I tell you?”
“We could be neighbors,” she said.
“I have no neighbors. That’s why I picked this place.”
“Well, technically, I’m your neighbor. My house is just over there,” she said, pointing towards a small cliff. “And I’m assuming that that’s your house right there,” she said, looking at the contemporary house, where the cantilevers jutted off a cliff.
“When you say assume, it makes an ass out of u and me,” he said, “I should be getting back to my place. Tonight’s not a good night for swimming,” he added as an afterthought, “the current gets real bad here during this season.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Good night,” he nodded at her, turning around to leave.
Her heart didn’t stop beating fast, even long after he had left.
*
It unnerved him, truly it did. He couldn’t stop thinking about it, the thought of seeing someone naked, smack dab in the middle of the beach, in the middle of the night, when he was just supposed to have a leisurely walk. That leisurely walk ended with him gawking at someone naked, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen a naked woman before. He and Sharon had been living together for two years before she dumped him for Bill Waterson…
He shook his head and decided to sit down on a rattan chair, staring out into the ocean. The moon shone brighter than ever, and the air grew colder, but he didn’t mind. He sighed and relaxed, propping his feet up a table, contemplating about what he had just seen.
Why couldn’t he stop thinking about it? He didn’t need another relationship to mess him up, but seeing a stranger, a completely naked stranger in front of him, made him think of those urges that had laid dormant for so long.
He hadn’t given her much thought, when he had seen her stand on the beach at noon. He was just having fun in the water, and decided to move closer to shore. She wasn’t bad to look at, but that might have been because of the glare from the sun. Her features were a far cry from the few women he had dated, but he found her overall attractive, to say the least. She just had to be damned naked with the moon shining in front of her, casting that weird, immoral glow on her body. Damn it, he thought, knowing his thoughts were far from work now. In a few weeks, he had to fly back to mainland, specifically in California, so he could finish the case against his former colleagues. It had taken two years and millions of dollars, but he didn’t care, as long as he won.
Now, a naked woman on the beach was an excellent distraction, but that wasn’t enough to completely distract him from more pressing matters. She was just a neighbor, a neighbor he had recently met, a neighbor he didn’t want around. Anytime someone was close to his property, his suspicions became heightened. Of course, he couldn’t be blamed for it, traitors were everywhere, and one had even slept in the same bed as he had.
He hadn’t dated anyone since that breakup, and had regained the callousness he had prior to dating her. Charlotte had once told him many would have wanted to date him, he was prime commodity, good-looking, rich and most of all, smart. He didn’t care. He had given her his all, and it wasn’t enough. He didn’t generalize women, though, but he avoided women who wanted to get to know him better. He could smell that off Caryn, Caryn whatever her family name was. It was obvious she wanted to know him better.
He saw the look on her face when he came close to shore on his Jet Ski. Her mouth was half-open, and he couldn’t help but laugh afterwards as he drove away. He didn’t want to generalize women, but the women he had met in the course of his lifetime, they all had issues he didn’t want to accommodate. He had had enough of that already, anyway.
He walked towards the veranda that hung above a cliff, and he saw the little hut that Caryn rented. All the lights were on, and he saw her make her way onto the little wooden porch she had, with a mug in her hand. She sat on a chair, with a rustic looking lamp hanging above her, carefully placing the mug down, and then a notebook and a pen beside it after.
She wrote. Wrote what? Young adult fantasy novels? Erotica? She started to write, pausing once in a while. So, she wasn’t that dependent on technology, was she? His interest in her piqued as he quietly looked at her. She was content in being alone, like he was. They could have been friends, had they met a couple of years ago.
Why are you alone? Why are you here? At the back of his mind, an idea played on. Nah, can’t be, he thought. He was being too suspicious. No one knew he was here, save for his family, and his attorneys, and his trusted informants. Majority of those who knew him thought he was in Honolulu, or in California, holing up in his parents’ house. He had hired private detectives to keep tabs on those who had hired private detectives.
David disliked the intrusion to his privacy. He didn’t commit a crime, but the others did, thus his heightened suspicions. Everyone had a motive against him, everyone wanted to use him. He wanted no more of that.
He shook his head and walked away from the edge of the veranda. He didn’t want to become some sort of stalker. She was her own entity, and he had no intention of bothering her, but the image of her body in all its naked glory was stuck in his mind, even long after he fell asleep.