sunken shipwrecks ;

Nadia pressed her lips together, nodding her head at her words. “Yeah, it’s… a resume.” She said softly as she sat up a little. “I don’t know if I need a career change or… if I’m trying to get away from the thumb that’s been keeping me pinned to the ground the last five years,” she told her friend with honesty, knowing she was the one person who knew everything that had happened with Samuel. From their secret relationship when he was her boss down to the way his father told her if she knew what was good for her she’d take a promotion and a raise and go to Boston. “I just… I’m home now and the last thing I want to do is work for Sam again.”

She hadn’t exactly expected a more serious conversation to occur tonight. Not that she was opposed to it, but it just came to her as a surprise. Especially on something as serious as a career change—which, Nia knew all too well. “Well, if you ask me, saying that you feel pinned to the ground and have been feeling that way for five years, then I’d say...yeah, it definitely time for a change. No one should feel that way in their job.” Leaning in, Nia read over what was written on the piece of paper, before shifting views back up to her. “You’ve got a lot of solid stuff here too. I mean, five years at a company is something people love to see and the work you did, I can’t see anyone not hiring you.” Granted, Nia hadn’t really had a real job in such a long time so what did she really know? “Have you told Sam this? Or well, talked to anyone in the company? Is everything...like okay over there now or?”

Aly had never been more thankful for being pushed into lakes as a kid, fighting against the waves as she tried to make her way back to shore. She wasn’t the strongest of swimmers, but she could get a suitable distance provided there wasn’t a powerful current to pull her off course at any point. Her mind was on her phone which had made its way to the bottom of the water, too far for her to try and salvage, and too water damaged if she had managed to retrieve it to actually make it usable. She’d left her backpack in her car before taking her stroll, the thought of losing everything on it more than she could bear. “If you told me this morning I was going to wind up trying to swim to the shore fully clothed, I would have called you a liar.” She said, trying not to laugh as to not let too much salt water into her mouth. She shook her head, as much as she could as she gave a poor attempt at breast stroke back to the sand, “I lost my phone, but seriously don’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure it’s insured, so it’s just my Levi’s that have taken the brunt of the damage.” She didn’t want to put the other out of pocket for something that seemed to be a complete accident.

There was an immense amount of guilt that filled Nia’s entirety. Those who ended up getting caught in the crossfire of her incompetence, well, didn’t always end up in great situations much like this one. It wasn’t exactly out of the blue for something like this to happen, too. She had always been a clumsy, all over the place kind of person. As smart as she was, nothing could make up for her inability to walk, talk, and do everything correctly. It was amazing how there weren’t more scars on her body too, given how much of a clutz she was. At least right now, it wasn’t a completely huge deal. No broken body parts, but at the mention of her losing her phone, Nia couldn’t help but want to recover it, even if it was too damaged to use. Because of such, nodded at the woman and help up her index finger for a second before diving down. Now, most people wouldn’t have dared to open their eyes in the ocean, but there was enough scarring and damage from all the times she had done it before, that Nia simply didn’t care anymore. She was a diver and sometimes it came with the territory. So she took a quick dive down, held her breath, and began searching. It took a good minute or so to find the device, but luckily with the movement of the sand, she was able to see it shining on the shore’s floor. After grabbing it, she made her way back up to the surface and held it up for the other to see. “This it?” She let out before taking a long deep breath. “I don’t know if it’ll still work, but I promise to pay to at least get everything off it. I think techs can do that now. Hopefully.” She was truly bankin’ on it because god did she feel awful. “I also got your jeans covered. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to take ya down with me.”

With a nod Marianne looked down at the papers she had, combing through until she located a small yellow post-it. “These are the places I’d like you to hit before coming in tomorrow, if you just say you’re with me or the truck they’ll know what you need,” she explained with that same warm and happy smile. “Do you have a car? It would be easier if you did—trust me multiple trips on foot are not fun,” she laughed a little at that, for Mari didn’t drive. In fact most of the time her partner pitched in or she rode her bicycle. She looked to Nia then, unable to shake the thought that this was going to be a good thing. Marianne was truly looking forward to working with Nia. Not simply because she liked to help but because the other seemed beyond interesting. The life she lived—how bright she seemed–it was all so different yet familiar in a way. Mari looked forward to hearing her adventures, and most of all having someone who seemed to be just as happy as she was. “I doubt that,” she assured the other, easily trusting her to not only try but to get it right. “We have a smaller breakfast menu, so it can be a little slower when we open. Most of the time people are looking for coffee—I do the Turkish style, but I’ll show how to do that so don’t worry,” she explained, thinking for a moment. “Busiest during the week is probably lunch, I tend to take us downtown to catch the lunch crowd. Though the nights at the beach can get a little crazy on the weekend,“ she grinned. "It’s nothing to worry about really, if we get swamped then we’ll tackle it together. This is a team sport, so to speak." 

“Worst case scenario is if it rains, then we either get slammed or it’s completely dead. Those days are like a flip of a coin, and you sort of take things as you go. We have a few regulars that can be a bit of a handful, but just set the boundary and you should be okay.”

“Sure do. I mean, it’s rental, but it works.” It was also the first time she did have one. She and Rhett didn’t need one before as they usually stuck to the same, close places. Plus, when you owned a boat and lived on an island, it was easy to jump from port to port. “But right okay, so just pick up everything needed. That doesn’t sound too hard. I say no, but watch I mess something up.” She laughed before realizing she probably shouldn’t say something like that. “Not that I’m banking on messing up. I’m just sayin’ since...ya know. First first days and all.” She wasn’t exactly nervous about it though. How hard could it be, right? She was banking on it being fairly simple, but truthfully, what did she know? “Turkish style? That’s a thing when it comes to coffee?” As much of a history buff as she was, when it came to the food and drinks of different cultures she wasn’t that well versed. If anything, her history lessons mainly entailed the royals of different places and the high priced valuables that came with them. “Oh yeah, nights on the beach. Everyone’s looking for something easy to go and no wait time. I can imagine it’s a pretty good crowd though. At least, I hope.” She chuckled. “Well, that’s good to hear. Because if you throw me to the wolves right off the bat and all alone, I might end up drowning. Just a forewarning.” She could pick up on things quickly, but at the same time, this wasn’t her company here. She was working for someone else now and had to take that into consideration. “Wait what? Regulars that are a handful? How so?”

Having run around from one job to another in order to earn enough money to pay off the expense of fixing his truck for too much running around in the first place, Jack felt exhausted. Flitting between the gym to people’s homes/business in town was becoming tiring and the days were getting longer. This was the hardest he’d ever worked in his life but his mind wasn’t swaying more to returning to New York—he was working so hard to stay put. That was something that he’d figured out now and this was the place he would give things a real shot in. Feeling pretty dead on his feet, he sank into the empty corner over the elevator and heard a voice call out begging the woman in front of him to hold the elevator. Closing his eyes over for a minute, he could hear by the commotion that she’d made it inside and only opened his eyes again as he felt the shift beside him. The doors closed and that’s when he heard the familiar voice say his full name. Eyebrows knitting together, Jack turned to give the girl a real look and couldn’t have been more surprised by who he found. Was everyone just migrating from New York to Wilmington? “Nia…hey?” he replied, keeping his eyes fixed on hers. “What are you doing here?

There were few people Nia would be okay not seeing again and in a small way, Jack was one of them. Not because of him exactly, however. But considering their past and well, her current situation, coming across Jack of all people wasn’t going to help her state of mind. It also didn’t help that this was completely unexpected and of all places to see him again, it was going to be an elevator inside some random parking garage in Wilmington, North Carolina. Easily one of the most bizarre scenarios, but hey, fate had a great way of messing with people. “Jack, hi.” She then let out when it became obvious there was no running from this. “I’d say fancy seeing you here but honestly, this is really freakin’ weird.” In an attempt to not making it completely awkward, Nia let out a small laugh and offered him a sheepish grin. “I’m uh...sort of living here. Sorta. To be determined. I don’t know.” Taking a deep breath, the woman tried to hold her composure as best as she could. The time they spent together in New York was easily one of the most passionate connections she had had with someone. It was also one of the most wrong connections too and that’s why she was feeling so tense right now. She was in the middle of the divorce and the last thing she needed was her little adulterous past to come out now. “Are you? I mean uh... do you live here or something? Cause this is weird. Right? Like..what the hell?”

Aly had been stood near the edge of the pier, her eyes fixated on something on the horizon. She had thought it was a boat of some sort, but in all honesty she knew that it could have been anything being that far out. Regardless of what it was, it seemed to have sparked some sort of inspiration inside of the woman, something that she had been looking for the last few days. It wasn’t anything to do with where she was at with her novel currently, but an idea was still an idea, and that was what was important. Knowing that it was far better to get the idea down and never use it, than to forget about it completely, Aly pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened up her notes app, to a page that was full of inconsistent and unrelated bullet points, some of which didn’t make sense to the writer anymore. Regardless, she put her idea down, not wanting to let this spark slip away from her just yet. She was focussed on the task at hand, so much so that she hadn’t tuned in to the furore that had began behind her, something that she attributed to her time in New York. It took a large commotion to get her attention to stray from what she was doing, but the second her feet were off the ground she’d wished that she’d had the sense to turn around and take a look. Her phone slipped through her fingers as she hit the water, never more thankful for the summers that her father had spent throwing her in the lake on their farm to teach her how to swim. She broke the surface, letting out a couple of coughs to clear out her lungs from the unexpected water that she’d ingested. “I- Yeah I can swim.” She said her eyes lowering to look into the water below her to see if she could find her phone. “Jesus what happened? One minute I was on the pier and now I’m swimming?”

These sorts of situations weren’t exactly uncommon for someone like Nia. Her whole life was made up of clumsy moments and soap opera dramatics. It was just how her particular life went and while it was often a lot and also embarrassing, she sort of just accepted it. Though this one was certainly in the top of five of most ridiculous. Almost getting trampled by a bunch of bikes then falling into the water with another? A Lifetime movie moment for sure. However, despite how embarrassed she was, she was more concerned with the other who took the fall with her. Because of such, Nia was quick to swim up to her, wanting to make sure she was just fine and had she needed anyone to keep her afloat then she was there. “Yeah well, that would be my fault.” At her words, Nia tried to let out a laugh in an attempt to make it seem not so terrible of a situation. “Me and my two left feet. That, and I have this impeccable way trying to avoid one issue, then creating another one altogether. It’s quite the curse.” Heading closer to the shore, Nia swamp backward to keep her eye on the other. “Here, let me help you out and then I promise to pay for dry cleaning and repair anything I might’ve broken from the fall and well, the water.” 

“Ah, the one word I didn’t wanna hear,” Isaac huffed out, letting all the air leave his body for a moment before inhaling and picking himself back up. The girl was smiling and he was too, so it was safe to say they were on the same playful page. “See, I would do that but I’m so weak from all the travelling—I need sustenance before I can travel again, so…I mean, I guess I’m gonna have to force down the best cheesy jalapeno cheddar bites that will make me regret walking into this place because then all I’ll ever do is think about them for days on end.” Shrugging his shoulders innocently as he recited her own words back to her, Isaac gestured to her with a nod of his head. “And you can help me. Actually, you can take the first bite so I know you’re not talking shit.”

She couldn’t help but laugh softly at his response. Nia was usually the type to play around with people, even if they were strangers. Her chatty personality certainly propelled that out of her. “All the traveling, huh? Please tell me you’ve at least come from someplace cool then. Like Croatia or South Africa, hell, I’d even take something simple like Vancouver.” She had to admit her interest was peaked. As a traveler herself, it was always nice to hear the stories from others. “I mean, I at least warned ya, right? So I’d appreciate it if you don’t come knockin’ at my door at three in the morning, guns blazing as you yell at me because I introduced you to them. I already gotta deal with the struggle of loving them myself, even. Wearing that burden for you too might be a bit too much.” Of course, it was all smiles and jokes with her. Sure, she loved those jalapeno bites, but they weren’t some groundbreaking dish that left people doing what she mentioned. “What? No! No no, the first bite needs to be taken by you. You gotta really experience these cheddar bites. How’s this...I’ll order my own and we try them together? Because I don’t think I could live with myself if I robbed you of this experience right here.”

“That’s all I need,” Marianne smiled as those words fell from her lips, meaning truthfully for she had never wanted American’s next top chef when she had put that Help Wanted sign in the front window of her truck. In fact she preferred it, that Nia had very little similar experience, for not only did it mean that she needed the job. That Marianne was helping. But that also it would be interesting. Fun. The brunette had hired multiple people over the years she had run her little business, most stayed until better offers—opportunities to grow came their way, and only one had needed to be fired. That person lost to Marianne now, though she still carried that guilt as she always tended to do. That was in the past though, she reminded herself as she placed a small notepad on the table, “Now, I’m going to need your help some mornings picking up things,” she started pointing to the stack of receipts—agreements, that sat paper clipped to her pad. Since beginning her venture, Marianne had worked to forge the relationships she had with her community. With the bakeries, grocery stores—and even other restaurants. This was done in order to help more than just herself, for their day olds—food that would have gone to waste—was gold to the elder woman. She had built a livelihood on it. “If we divide the list between us, we should be able get it all done and stored. Leaving you with some before we open to help with prep—to settle in,” she added the last looking up from those papers to smile at Nia. She was very grateful for the other, a fact she hoped showed in her features.

It had been a long, long time since Nia had done work that was outside of her normal area. A lot of the time, Nia had done seasonal work at an aquatic refuge or doing something related to diving. Which was really due to where she was located. Having spent a lot of time in the Caribbean, she was giving more opportunities around such, but this was completely different. Not that she was opposed to it, however. If anything, it was pretty exciting to explore something new. Learn a new trade and enjoy her time doing such. It also helped that the boss was pretty chill and didn’t make Nia regret the decision. “Oh yeah, no of course. Whatever you need. Just tell me when, where, and how high to jump.” She chuckled. “I might take a hot second to get things down, but I promise you can count on me.” Something she wanted to continue to assure her. “Sounds awesome. I’m one hundred percent on board with that idea.” Then again, who was she to argue anyway? The woman was taking a chance on someone like Nia and while she was loyal, she was also a bit of a mess. “What are the openings usually like? Or well, when would you say it’s busiest? Or what should I expect and when?”

Claire looked down at herself and shrugged her shoulders. “I honestly don’t know why I was stood up either.” She teased then, groaning slightly because above all — she’d chosen to slither her ass into some tight Spanx that were hurting in all the wrong places. “The company is fine with me. Maybe I get the first round and you can get the second one?” It felt like a fair enough deal to Claire, but she’d wait for the others agreement before she’d order the drink. “That’s only if you want, of course. No pressure at all.” A small smile crept upon her face then, only to let out a small gasp when she remembered she hadn’t even introduced herself. “Shit, sorry, I’m Claire. I always talk too much and by the end of it, you know everything about my life except my name.”

At the other’s words, Nia couldn’t help but offer up a small chuckle. The whole standing people up thing was pretty weird to her, to begin with. Why bother agreeing to something if you weren’t going to show? Seemed silly, but guess that was just how things worked. “Ha, you don’t have to apologize at all. Trust me, when it comes to talking too much, I’m up there too, so I get it.” She was quite the chatty Cathy, honestly. One of her many qualities that didn’t always work in her favor. “But that sounds great, we’ll tag team the drinks. And it’s a pleasure to meet ya, Claire. I’m Nia.” She then shot her a smile to follow. “So, in the spirit of finding out everything about your life, let’s start with the basics, hmm? You from around here?”

“Hold that—can you please hold the elevator!” The brunette called out with a single hand in the air as she rushed from her car over to the elevator. There was a woman walking on, friendly enough to lodge her foot in front of the sensors to keep it from shutting on her. She easily could’ve just taken the next one or the stairs, but Nia was stubborn and took the opportunity to just jump on now. So she scurried over to the metal box and hopped on board with the rest. All together there were four patrons. Three women, herself included, and a gentleman in the back. Given elevator etiquette,  Nia stepped all the way to the back left corner and kept to herself. All good and well until, of course, she looked up from her spot, followed the trail of shoes up to the face of the man beside her. And that’s when it hit like a damn freight train. Standing right next to her, in a random ass elevator in a new town, was Jack freaking Levy—a man from her past she quite literally didn’t think she’d ever see again. The sight of him caused her eyes to grow wide, and as much as she didn’t want to draw attention toward her, Nia ended up thinking out loud and let his name slip from her lips and fill the elevator. Instantly, the two women in front of her looked back for a split second and Nia was stuck there in the corner, praying he didn’t notice it was her—despite the fact that she literally just said his name out loud. “Crap.” 

“Hey momma,” rolled softly off the woman’s tongue as she stood in the doorway of the room. Normally, the pair were a rather energetic, life-loving duo that were all smiles all day. However, the things that were going on with Tessa and how much of a battle she was facing, made it difficult for Nia to give her all into a smile. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t going to be here complete self and love up on the woman. But she was worried and concerned and unsure of how Tessa was feeling right about now, so she sure as hell wasn’t going to come in guns blazing. “I brought you some stuff. Not sure what you can and can’t have so I just sort of went a little wild.” At her words, she lifted up her oversized bag a bit and offered her up a subtle smile. “How are you feeling? You up for a visitor?” 

To say she needed to really familiarize herself with Wilmington would’ve been an understatement. In the short time she had been here, Nia hadn’t been too keen on exploring that much. While she still went out and made friends, it was a bit of an issue of whether or not she wanted to stick around, and if she didn’t, she didn’t want to keep people around if she was just going to leave them later on. However, she had been here a decent amount of time now that not going out, just seemed stupid. So here she was, trying to make the best of the day. Though, in true Nia fashion, it wasn’t a good day without something going wrong. And as she moved through the small eatery on the pier, Nia clearly wasn’t paying attention when she ended up colliding into the side of one of the waiters, causing the drinks to fly up into the air and spill directly onto someone’s table. Embarrassed and guilty, Nia was quick to try and remedy what had happened, while the waiter had let out a frustrated groan and ran off to grab more towels. “Crap, I’m so, so sorry. I promise I will totally, like, pay for dry cleaning or something. Or buy you another drink, or two or something. I’m so sorry. I clearly need to pay better attention to where I’m headed.” 

This wasn’t completely abnormal for Nia. All throughout her life she knew that if she wanted to get by and do what she loved, she needed to do a few odd jobs here and there. By that, she meant, jobs that were just going to be temporary—that had nothing to do with the whole treasure hunting bullshit, and was gonna actually make her some money to pay the few bills that she had. Luckily, she had a trust fund that had a few bucks left over, after her crazy ex-husband almost drained it, but it wasn’t enough for her to start up a whole new life here in Wilmington. So, she took a job at a food truck and figured why not? It had good customers, a good boss and hell, she loved food. It worked for her and she was gonna stick to it so long as Mari allowed her to considering Nia was hardly the best fit. But what was good about her, was that she tried her hardest and she wasn’t about to complain or mess up just because this wasn’t her area of expertise. “Now, I promise, I’m going to do my best and I will totally master everything in the kitchen. I know I’m rusty right now, but it’ll all work out.” She offered up a sheepish smile before sitting down at one of the outside tables. “Just please, please don’t fire me just yet. I may not be the next Top Chef, but I’ll do my best to be...the next good, faithful employee if that works?” 

It was just supposed to be a relaxing, touring around her new home kind of day. She made no plans and had no intentions of working up stress or anything of the sort. Nia had been through enough stress by now that she truly just needed a moment to relax. Which then led her down to Johnnie Mercer’s Pier. A beautiful site of the ocean, everything she loved about towns like this. Truthfully, it was perfect for someone like Nia. A great place to settle down and plant some roots. Which, she of course, thought long and hard about. Albeit a bit too long and hard considering she had completely zoned out while walking along the pier. It was hardly her intention to cause such a scene, but considering she clearly wasn’t paying attention, Nia ended up coming face to face with a swarm of bikers passing through at the entrance of the pier. They come from one side, trying to pass over to get to the other—with no intentions of even setting foot on the pier itself. However, given her inability to focus, Nia found herself being the cause of a complete bike and pedestrian traffic jam. As an attempt to safe her own self from the collision, Nia quickly jolted backward but in doing so, crashed into another. Before she knew it, the pair were losing balance and falling off the side of the uncovered pier, causing them to fall into the shallow parts of the ocean. Normally, this would’ve been fine, but seeing the other person fall with her caused her go into complete momma mode to try and make sure they were okay. So as soon as she rose to the surface of the water, spit out the bit that vacated her mouth, she reached straight out for the other. “Oh my god!” Her raspy voice cried out. “Are you okay?! Shit, tell me you’re okay. Can you swim? Are you hurt?”