Page 89 of Girl in the Water

Chapter Sixteen

Daniela

Pierre took Daniela to lunch after the shops, so they didn’t return to See-Love-Aid until midafternoon. The time hadn’t been wasted either. Pierre seemed to know everything about everyone and wasn’t afraid of sharing.

He was twenty-two, her age, fun, entertaining, handsome. And still, for most of the time they spent together, Daniela had been thinking about Ian. She was glad when they were finally returning to See-Love-Aid.

Pierre looped his arm around her shoulders as they walked inside, and she let him, as an experiment. But neither Pierre’s nearness nor his touch made her feel like Ian did. Her heart didn’t race; her skin didn’t tingle.

She was about to move away from him when she spotted Ian in the rec room, talking intently with Carol, the pregnant staffer, on the sofa in the corner.

“We’re back,” Pierre said. “Did we miss any fun?”

Carol and Ian turned toward them at the same time.

A quick look of annoyance flashed across Carol’s face.

What’s that about? Does she like Pierre?

Her husband had died seven months ago. Maybe Carol was lonely. If she was ready to move on, Daniela wasn’t going to blame her.

But while Carol was annoyed at Pierre’s hand on Daniela's shoulder, Ian’s gaze was completely emotionless and flat.

Nudged by some little devil, Daniela stepped closer to Pierre.

Ian’s expression grew tighter.

And even though Daniela knew she was being juvenile, she couldn’t resist whispering to Pierre, “Hey, let’s go tell the girls how much money they just made.”

Pierre winked at her and steered her out of the room.

She didn’t look back at Ian, but she hoped he was having a stroke. He deserved it. If he refused to admit that he wanted her, why shouldn’t she have fun with someone else?

But as they found the girls out back and delivered the good news, Daniela soon became tired of Pierre’s joking and messing around. He did a French mime imitation, then demonstrated some break-dancing moves to the girls’ great amusement.

He was like a kid. He was immeasurably immature compared to Ian. Honestly, Pierre was even immature compared to Daniela.

She used the opportunity to chat with some of the teenagers she hadn’t talked to before.

“Do people who don’t work at See-Love-Aid ever come here?” she asked a sweetly dispositioned sibling pair, Gabriela and Fernanda, who took the initiative to show her the vegetable garden.

“Of course,” Gabriela, the older sister, said. “We have foreign visitors, donors. Some of the shop owners come to negotiate with Mrs. Frieseke. Lots of people come here. Some girls have relatives who visit.”

“Does anyone ever go upstairs?”

The girls shook their heads simultaneously, ear-length brown hair swinging around their tanned cheeks. “Visitors aren’t allowed to go upstairs.”

But then the younger girl, Fernanda, giggled.

The older sister, Gabriela, flashed her a warning look.

Daniela got an idea. “Has a boy ever snuck up?”

The girls took great interest in their matching red rubber sandals.

“It must be hard that there’re only girls here,” Daniela said, although it seemed pretty good to her.

Fernanda bit her lip, then asked, “Did you go to school with boys in America?”