Page 41 of Pomegranates and Olive

Suddenly there is a huge splash beside me and something is pushed into my face. Treading water, I turn only to realise that it’s my spoon-buddy and master fisher-dog, Betty, beside me with a red life vest in his mouth. I grab hold of it in desperation and he slowly tugs me back towards the boat.

I'm coughing as I climb back on board and Deniz slaps me on the back a few times before I collapse on the bench. "You —" I cough and hack, "— saved me!"

"Technically it was Betty that saved you. I merely pointed him in the right direction."

“I could have drowned.”

He drags Betty back onboard and he shakes water all over both of us. "Are you okay?"

"Barra —" I nod as I take a few deep breaths and cough again, expelling the last of the water. "— cuda. Barracuda!"

"Shame we didn't catch a few of them for lunch." Deniz bends down to look at my face and if I wasn’t still recovering from my near death experience I would be blushing from him being so close to me. "I'm surprised you're such a bad swimmer. I thought all Australians can swim?"

"I happen to be an excellent swimmer, thank you very much.” I cough a few more times for good measure. “I just got a shock when I saw them and swallowed water, that’s all."

"I shouldn’t mention that someone spotted a shark earlier, should I?"

"Seriously?" He grins, flashing that sexy, panty-dropping smile and I roll my eyes at him. Of course he’s joking… or is he? "I’m not listening to you for a second longer, you’re just trying to scare me.”

“I’m sorry. Tell me more.”

“I’m going to.” I am as excited as a kid at Christmas and start jabbering away. “Anyway, the water is so clear and there were so many different types of fish and they all looked like rainbows. And I swam with a turtle and saw a hermit crab. It was amazing!"

He chuckles at my enthusiasm. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, despite nearly drowning."

"Stop teasing me! Do you think there’ll be another chance to snorkel again today?"

"It's only a small group, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of free time this afternoon but you’re going to have to wear the life vest… just in case."

I throw the vest that had just saved my life at Deniz and it hits him fairly in the back.

“Oof ya!” Deniz grunts and turns back to look at me with an evil glint in his eyes.

Uh oh!

I back off, nervous that I was about to become the butt of another one of his jokes. “You will pay for that, kitchen wench!”

I try to make a run for the galley but he’s too quick for me and grabs me around the waist. I squeal as he carries me like a bag of potatoes over his shoulder and ambles across the deck to the ladder. “I warned you, Russo.”

“I swear to God, Yilmaz!”

“Too late.”

He smacks me on the butt before unceremoniously tossing me overboard.

I come up yelling Italian curse words at him as I swim back over to the ladder. Climbing back on deck I’m ready for round two but Deniz hits the horn to warn our group to return to the boat. It also means I need to get changed and get back to work. "This isn’t over, Yilmaz."

“I’d be devastated if it was.”

I do a headcount as each person climbs on board and realise that we're one short. "Louise? Where's your boyfriend?"

Deniz hits the horn a second time while Louise and I check both the bow and stern.

Louise finally spots him near the shoreline. "There!"

Her boyfriend starts whooping as he lifts something up in his hand. "What on earth?"

"Octopus!" Deniz yells loudly, and the whole group cheers as he runs to the bow with a net. "He's caught an octopus! Looks like we're grillingkalamaras well, Russo."

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