Page 47 of The Surfer

I was wrong about her on that first day when I stepped into the living room naked. Oh, I was so completely and utterly wrong.

Ripley, despite not being my type at all, is exactly the girl for me.

I’ve been so entrenched in my views that no one will ever like me, especially not since the accident, I’ve never actually given time to the thought that maybe someone actually would like me, that maybe someone will find something to like within me. I never thought that to be a possibility.

But Ripley does.

Ripley likes me.

I can tell.

Every day since the day I punched James in the face and took her out for her first surfing lesson, Ripley has seemingly wanted to get closer and closer to me. I can see she actually likes me for who I am, not just the billionaire playboy that everyone thinks I am, but me. She prefers the real me, the real me that still struggles with getting over that fucking accident. Unlike everyone else in town she doesn’t care about my money or my status, she just wants to get to know me as a real person. I never thought I’d find someone like that.

She laughs at my jokes, and I see her staring at me in the moments she thinks I’m not looking. She trusts me when I teach her to surf in the ocean. I know she’s terrified of the ocean, yet she’s put that aside and has trusted me to look after her. I can’t believe it.

She actually trusts me. She likes me.

Plus, she does look cute on the surfboard in that wetsuit. I’ve noticed she has a pair of great tits under that wetsuit that she’s kept hidden from the world.

And she has a world-class ass.

Trust me, as a connoisseur of good tits and asses I would know, I’ve had a few myself. And she has an absolutely banging body. If only she were more confident in revealing it, but that’s what I like about her.

She isn’t just some preppy American girl or one of the fake chicks pursuing me in Tide, she’s a beauty, inside and out. I can’t believe it’s taken me showing her how to surf for me to realize that.

I’m such an idiot.

And things didn’t seem different at the beginning of today, the day when Ripley first stood on the surfboard. But everything soon changed.

This morning she knocked on my door at exactly seven on-the-dot, the same time she always has done for the last two weeks. We got in the car as normal and I drove her to the secret beach, chatting about the most stupid topics together as we always have done. God, she makes me laugh so much sometimes with her silly jokes and funny observations, she’s a real queen of comedy.

We drove up to the secret beach and I guided her down the bush to the sand as I always have done. And then we went out surfing. I pulled the board out through the water with her on it. We waited for the perfect wave and, when it eventually came, I pushed the board on it. She shot down the wave towards the shore with me watching on from the ocean, just as we’ve always have done.

I saw her placing her hands in position under her chest. I saw her lifting her body. I saw her pushing her legs up so that she’s standing on the board.

And, for the first time, she’s up on the board.

My heart leaps in my chest.

“I’m standing, Cove!” She yells back at me as she surfs the wave. “I’m standing!”

I immediately start swimming back towards the shore, back towards her.

She’s only been standing on the boarding for only a few seconds before she falls off, but, still, she’s actually done it. Finally. She’s surfing.

I reach her. Ripley’s wiping back her wet hair, smiling and laughing. So am I.

I can’t believe it, I’ve taught her to surf.

She squeals in joy and wraps her arms around me, excited at what’s happened.

Her face buries in my chest. We hug.

She disentangles her face from my body and looks up at me. Our lips are only an inch apart.

She’s so fucking beautiful.

And then we kiss.