Part 13:
She shrugged. Respect is earned, and he hadn’t earned it. Remind me never to piss you off. Smart man. They exited near Everett, following Vivien’s directions down increasingly rural roads until they pulled into a small marina. Boats bobbed in their slips and the smell of salt water mixed with diesel fuel. Ethan killed the engine and looked around.
We’re going on a boat. Kayaks, actually. Vivian pointed to a rental shack at the end of the dock. I called ahead. They’re expecting us. You want to go kayaking? I want to go kayaking. You said you wanted something without a dress code. This is definitely that. He followed her to the rental shack where a teenager with sunburned skin handed them life jackets and paddles.
20 minutes later they were on the water. Viven in the front of a tandem kayak and Ethan in the back trying to remember the last time he’d been in a boat. You’ve done this before, right? Vivien called over her shoulder. Not since I was like 15. Summer camp. Great. So we’re probably going to capsize. very motivating, but they found a rhythm quickly, their paddles cutting through the water in sink.
The marina gave way to open water, and Ever shoreline stretched out to their left while mountains rose in the distance. “This was a good idea,” Ethan admitted. “I have them occasionally.” Vivien paused her paddling, letting them drift. “I needed this, something that wasn’t a board meeting or a quarterly report or someone asking me to approve a budget.
How often do you do normal stuff like this? Define normal like kaying. Going to diners. Eating food that costs less than 50 bucks. She laughed, but it sounded sad. Almost never. My schedule is usually meetings at 7:00 a.m. Conference calls through lunch, dinner with investors or clients. By the time I get home, I’m too tired to do anything except review documents and go to bed.
That sounds awful. It’s effective. It’s lonely. Viven stopped paddling completely and turned to look at him. Yeah, it is. They floated in silence for a moment, the kayak rocking gently with the waves. A seagull cried overhead, and somewhere in the distance, a motorboat engine rumbled to life.
“Why’d you agree to the blind date?” Ethan asked. “If your schedule’s that insane, why bother?” Catherine wore me down. My assistant, she’s been on a mission to fix my personal life for months. Viven trailed her fingers in the water. And honestly, I was curious, wondering if there was anyone out there who’d look at me and see a person instead of a business opportunity.
“Did you find one?” She smiled. “Yeah, I did. He fixed my car in the rain and refused to take payment. Then he showed up to a fancy restaurant covered in mud because he was helping me and didn’t know it. That guy sounds like an idiot. He’s kind of perfect.” Ethan’s chest tightened. Vivien, I know it’s fast.
We barely know each other, but I can’t remember the last time I felt this normal, like I could just be myself without calculating every word. You can be yourself with me always. Even when myself is kind of a controlling workaholic who probably needs therapy, even then, as long as you can handle that I’m a broke mechanic who has panic attacks about bank statements.
Deal. They started paddling again, following the shoreline north. Viven told him about growing up as the daughter of a self-made millionaire. The pressure to be perfect. The moment she’d realized her father was dying and everything he’d built would fall on her shoulders. Ethan told her about finding his dad under that impala, about marrying Laura because it seemed like the next logical step, about the moment Sophie was born, and he’d understood that nothing else in his life would ever matter as much. They capsized once when
Vivien tried to take a selfie and leaned too far. “The water was cold enough to make them both yelp, and they swam the kayak back to shore, laughing like teenagers. “Your jacket’s ruined,” Ethan said, ringing water from his shirt. “It’s just a jacket.” Vivien shook her hair out, water droplets catching the sunlight. “I have 12 more.
” “Of course you do.” They returned the kayak and drove back to Seattle. As the sun started its descent toward the Olympics, Ethan’s hands were confident on the wheel now, the Jaguar responding to his touch like they’d been driving together for years. I’m starving, Vivien said. Please tell me you know somewhere good. Define good.
Food that won’t give me food poisoning and atmosphere that doesn’t involve white tablecloths. I know a place. He took her to a Thai restaurant in Ballard, the kind of spot where the menu was in both English and Thai. and the owner’s grandmother was usually yelling at someone in the kitchen. They sat at a wobbly table near the window and ordered too much food.
“This is perfect,” Vivian said around a mouthful of pad thai. “Why do rich people insist on making everything complicated? This is what food should be. You’re preaching to the choir. They ate until they couldn’t move.” Splitting a mango sticky rice for dessert that Vivien declared better than anything she’d had at Michelin starred restaurants.
The sun was setting by the time they left, painting Seattle’s streets in gold and orange. Ethan drove them back toward his neighborhood, feeling the day winding down and not wanting it to end. When he pulled up outside his building, Vivien made no move to switch seats. So, she said, “So, this was a good second date. Technically third. The diner was the second.
