Mangled Kinship (Wave and erikaG123)

[WaveVelour]

Compliments, and compliments. Every self-aware woman liked them. And they cracked many doors open for those who didn't fear to push them wide open. She made sure to offer a smile, and occasionally giggle whenever a new one was paid to her. Being subtle but inviting: it was a relatively new skill she had to master after burning the contents of her once handsome bank accounts. Thanks to her rakishness and bad calls, most of the wealth she inherited from her stepmother had been gone. Replaced by troubling debts, owed to troubling people.

While the bright sun heated her golden head, the Waves that lapped at the endless shores of Lanzorote carried a gentle breeze that brushed her form. Her bare knees dug into the sand as she sat on her heels. She allowed the camera to capture more of her acted coyness as her so-called new friend kept displaying his admiration for her. The presumably costly DSLR he pointed at her kept making those distinct little shutter sounds. The young man was decently good-looking. Sported a well-kept body as well. None of those really mattered, however. For her, she wasn't posing for a handsome gentleman, but a rich puppet with easy-to-pull strings.

"Don't know which Carmen is more dashing." The puppet quipped, seeming to enjoy his time at the inviting beaches of Puerto Del Carmen. Feeling quite lucky about happening upon this attractive blonde, who had apparently taken a liking to him.

"Oh, I'm sure you can tell which." Carmen responded, confident and cunning. The black bikini set she wore covered little, but teased a lot. And she intended to encourage him to loosen the strings of his purse if he wished to see how she looked without it.

"I really like my job sometimes." To flash his eyebrows at her, the young man lowered his camera for a moment. Thus, it failed to capture the moment Carmen's forced smile began to fade away. Something was wrong.

"What job?" Wearing a puzzled expression, she questioned.

"Photography?" He answered, a proud grin present across his lips. When she had set her eyes on him the other day, Carmen had thought he was a close friend of the host of the sumptuous party she had attended. At the moment, however, the bitter notion that this young man might not necessarily be a rich friend invited to the party began to dawn on her. Lifting her straw hat off the sand, she put it on. The spontaneous anger and disappointment that was ignited within her wasn't that clear from outside. It was surely there, however.

A slender index finger pointed at a yacht that wasn't quite far from the shore. "Why don't you take some photos of that pretty yacht?" Carmen suggested. Getting to her feet, she strode towards the guy whom she had mistaken for an affluent sponsor. And walked past him. "While I go grab my shades?"

"I think that's a sailboat…" Her unknowing victim squinted, indeed preparing to take some photos of the boat in question.

"Yeah…" In the meantime, Carmen had no intention to return there. Leaving faint footprints behind her, the young blonde aimlessly walked on the beach, until she chose a random sun lounger to rest her hips. "Silly girl." She patted herself on the head. "Silly!" On either side of the lounger, her bare feet remained on the sand as she leaned back. "What a waste of time." While she kept grumbling to herself, a figure towering in front of her cast an appealing shadow over her. "Hey! Can you-" Carmen lifted her head, shifting her gaze from her half-naked form to the one that stood before her. A familiar one, in fact. "Oh…" Her brows rose, but she didn't take long to knit them.

 

[erikaG123]

The large, white, double sails were drawn and wrapped. The anchor was lowered into the water, resting soundly on the seabed below. The engine was powered down and the only sound that remained was that of waves gently lapping at the sides of the 45 ft. sailboat. The Remembrance was set in place with plenty of clearance from other ships in the harbor. Isabela went through her checklist in her mind, categorically crossing everything off that needed to be done to make sure that her boat would be alright in the little bay off Lanzarote. She didn't bother looking around. Not at first. Not until all of her work was done. Tools and implements were stowed. The canopy was lowered. The doors were shut. The cabinets were latched...

The Isabela checked everything again...

The boat was large for just a single person. Any larger and she'd need a crew. When she purchased the ship, the seller had even then urged her to bring people along on her voyage. But she was a capable sailor. She'd gotten her license a long time ago. She'd ton plenty of one-woman sails just to prove she not only had the knowledge but the strength as well. There was a lot of work. But everything about the boat, the journey, the destination and the future made owning the ship worthwhile. Maybe she would get a crew one day and cross the Atlantic. For the moment, Bela was not just content to go it alone, she yearned for the challenge, the adventure, the solitude.

And going it alone meant double checking and triple checking. There was no way in hell she would set off again and have forgotten to stow a compass or her charts or not have her electronics properly charged or some other such inane thing. No, everything needed to be neat and orderly and stay that way. Not just for her peace of mind but to make sure her journey would continue on unhindered.

Winter break was well underway and the bay was full of other ships on similar voyages for some sort of winter vacation. Dinghies dotted the waters back and forth and swimmers, paddleboarders, and surfers were sprinkled all about. Isabela lowered her own dinghy into the water, threw in a carefully curated pack, checked the gas level and, once satisfied with everything, shot off towards the sandy beach not far away. Her long, dark hair blew behind her in the slight breeze. The day was warm and she hadn't bothered to put more on then a white, floral bikini for the boat ride, though she had a mostly sheer waist wrap and some sandals in her pack. She pulled the engine up when she got close to shore and hopped out, landing at knee height in the water. There weren't too many other little boats but she had the key to the engine and there were no paddles. This wasn't the first time she'd left a dinghy unattended but she always got a little nervous. She'd shrug the feeling off once she started walking about.

Her stomach growled and her mind drifted to other concerns. She grabbed the key and her pack and turned around. There were lounge chairs set up nearby and she starting walking past. She'd come on this journey alone and she hadn't anticipated being all that social so it didn't even come to mind to look at anyone who might be sunbathing... Yet the contour of the person there caught her eye. Toned, attractive, blonde. Isabela didn't mean to stare but... Well, she did. And then...

"Are you kidding me right now?" she said, more under her breath than out loud. The brunette stopped as she came to the end of the chair. There lay her mostly estranged sister, sort of. 'Complicated' was a great description for their relationship. And Carmen was the last person that Isabela wanted to accidentally bump into on her trip. She was half-inclined to turn around and walk away, get back on her boat, go to another island or back to the mainland entirely...

The thoughts played out in her mind for a few moments before, instead, she sighed. Bela tried to relax her shoulders which had involuntarily tightened. "Hi, sis. What a... surprise."