Wet: Part 1 Read Online Free Page A

everything away.
    Rhees began to worry about when she would be expected to join in, and if anyone would show her what to do first. She hated how insecure she always felt. She reminded herself that was why she was here.
    Once the dives and the work associated with it were done, things seemed pretty laid-back at the shop. Except for the way everyone tried to stay out of Paul and Claire’s way, the shop had no real structure in the afternoon. Even the lessons were casual. Students sat in the rectangular gazebo on the deck and listened to their instructors or ran through verbal tests with each other. Others read their own assignments, watched instruction videos in the media room, or just sat around talking.
    The favorite activity at the shop seemed to be logging dives and going through the shop’s ocean wildlife books. People sat at the tables under the gazebo for hours, discussing their dives or trying to identify the creatures they saw while diving that morning.
    There were several mats rolled up and stowed in the eaves of the gazebo that students would pull out and sleep on, right on the deck. Throughout the day, it seemed, almost everyone took a long nap at some point. As the day wore on, the deck began to look like a slumber party, everyone choosing to sleep there where the breeze was best, instead of going home to their stuffy apartments.
    The two hammocks hanging between posts on the side of the shop near the office, right on the edge of the dock, stayed occupied most of the afternoon as well. Rhees didn’t see herself ever trying one out. She’d never been a competent hammock sleeper, and she pictured herself falling out of it, into the water below. 
    She couldn’t picture herself using any of the mats either—not with all the perspiration stains on them from years of one after another stranger’s use. She couldn’t allow herself to even think about it without wanting a shower.
    Almost everyone at the shop made it a point to welcome her. Some were friendlier than others. Several more girls told her that Paul would want her, as if she should be flattered. She followed Regina’s advice by not giving away her sexual status again, but she didn’t know what she was supposed to say. She opted to play it modestly.
    “A man that good-looking . . .” she said using their words, “would never be interested in someone as plain as me.”
    She began to be able to distinguish between the girls he had been with, and the ones he hadn’t. The ones she guessed he’d slept with seemed to want to believe her, while the girls who fit into the not-his-type category enthusiastically insisted she was wrong. “You’ll see!” they told her.
    Tracy, always nearby, made sure Rhees knew the life story of each and every person she talked to. Most importantly—to Tracy anyway—which girls Paul had been with and which ones he would never be with, including Regina and herself. Rhees had guessed right almost every time, but she would have preferred it if her roommate would stop throwing out so much information.
    She didn’t know Tracy well enough yet to dare to ask her to stop. It was her first day; she’d be living with the girl for three weeks and Rhees hated confrontations and hurting people’s feelings, something she only did if she was very upset, which she almost never was, and she always regretted it afterward. 
    “ So , have you still not noticed how good-looking Paul is?” Tracy asked with a smirk.
    “Okay, I admit it. He’s cute,” Rhees smiled. “But I prefer a more clean-cut, businessman look. Paul’s a bit scruffy for me, so you and all the other female students can take me off the list of competition.”
    Tracy groaned, refusing to believe her. Rhees almost felt bad about her attempt to use Tracy’s lack of gab filters to help her cause, but she didn’t doubt word would get around quickly and all the girls would stop talking about Paul getting it on with her. She shuddered at the thought.
    “See that pole