Love Overboard

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

The ‘Grotta Azzurra’, which Jack translated – quite unnecessarily, thought Sofia – as the ‘Blue Grotto’ was fairly unassuming from the outside, a craggy archway in a wall of cliff. Jack slowed the boat to a steady chug and manoeuvred through the opening. Suddenly everything was blue. The water seemed iridescent as the daylight lit up the sea from below, a bright bulb backlighting a brilliant azure.

Jack cut the engine and the boat floated into the centre of the cave. None of them said a word. Once Sofia had had a moment of awe she glanced over at Jack and found him watching her. Their eyes met for a moment and then he quickly looked away. Were those reddening cheeks she had spotted? It was hard to tell in the lagoon light.

‘This place is insane.’ Brian had finally recovered himself and was already fiddling with the setting on his iPhone camera. ‘Can I, like, get in?’ He peered over the side of the boat.

‘Um yeah you can. It’s a bit trickier to get back out though. I think we have a ladder somewhere, or we can try and use—’ Jack was interrupted by a loud splash. Brian had stripped down to his disturbingly leather-look speedos in a matter of moments.

‘Oh, man, it is fresh!’ he exclaimed fervently, limbs trying to splash away the cold. ‘Let me know where looks good, Milly?’

‘Yep, I’m on it, babe.’ Sofia leant over and delicately removed the phone from Milly’s loose grip, rotating it the right way up and handing it back to her. ‘You’re a lifesaver.’ Milly was still swaying from the champagne and for a terrible second Sofia thought she might topple into the water.

Milly snapped away from a variety of seemingly random angles, crouching down and then balancing on the tips of her toes.

‘What do you think?’ Milly was holding out the phone to Sofia.

‘Me?’

‘Yes, course you.’

Sofia peered at the pictures. They were not good. The basic components were there, the bright cyan against Brian’s jet of dark hair and those very small trunks, but it was blurry and the left side of Brian’s body was out of shot.

‘I’ll have a go,’ offered Sofia.

Milly nodded dopily and sat back down with a thud, giggling drunkenly as she went. Sofia positioned herself at the edge of the stern and soon realised that she was not much better. She couldn’t seem to capture Brian when he wasn’t blinking and the pictures were too dark.

‘How are they looking?’ he shouted up, floundering again to keep warm.

‘Umm...’ He wasn’t satisfied with that response and began clambering back onto the boat.

‘Let me have a look,’ he said, his wet hand swiping the phone from Sofia’s. ‘OK, I’ve reset the exposure. That should be better, and a higher angle please.’ It was clear that Brian was the budding photographer of the pair, which Sofia supposed made sense, if Milly was usually the subject.

Brian dove back into the water. Sofia took more photos. Jack nervously checked his watch. Milly lay back on the white leather seating and closed her eyes. Twenty minutes later, Brian had been in and out of the water several times, hauling himself over the side of the boat, art director, photographer and model all rolled into one. Sofia had to remind herself that his actual job was kicking a ball around. It seemed a waste of his talents. Finally she felt that she might have taken a good photo, just as the last of Jack’s patience was ebbing away.

‘Right, I think we have enough photos, don’t you, Brian?’ Jack was already fiddling with the control panel, checking the GPS on his phone and pointedly looking at the time again.

‘I’m going to try and get onto those rocks. One last pic and then you can come collect me. My arms are knackered anyway – don’t think I could get myself back up again.’

Jack tried, and failed, to conceal his irritation. Sofia recognised the edge of mocking to his Brit-ish ‘yep, all right, mate,’ as he steered the boat to the edge of the cave. Sofia herself wasn’t sure how much longer she could handle being a glorified selfie stick. They had already taken over one hundred photos.

‘I’m just going to climb up here, so if you could do a lower angle from...’ Brian trailed off and let out a grunt of concentration as he manoeuvred himself onto a rocky ledge.

All was quiet for a moment and then seemingly from every direction, a blood-curdling scream pierced the air. Milly sat up with a start, Jack cut the engine, Sofia dropped the phone in her hands. A splash, and Brian was back in the water. Sofia had barely managed to understand where the scream had come from, before Jack had stripped off his shirt and shoes and dived into the water, a surprisingly fast form frothing towards where Brian was gasping and spluttering for air.

Soon he had reached the ledge and was swimming back towards the boat with Brian in tow. Between strokes he shouted, ‘Get the ladder.’ Neither Milly nor Sofia moved. ‘Sofia, Goddammit, ladder. Now!’

Sofia snapped into action. The ladder was located under the seats at the front of the boat, as Jack had showed her that morning. How long ago that felt now. She clipped it to the stern and dropped it into the water. Milly, who seemed to have sobered up instantaneously, had begun to wail. ‘Is he OK?’ She was shaking Sofia’s shoulders.

‘Milly, I’m going to need your help getting Brian onto the boat. Can you do that?’ It was Sofia’s turn to lay her hands firmly on Milly’s shoulders. She nodded gravely and together they grabbed his arms and legs whilst Jack pushed him from below, and managed to roll him onto the deck of the boat.

Sofia was relieved that she could not see any blood, but was slightly concerned that she still found the time to admire the sight in front of her. Jack was on his knees, bent over Brian, inspecting for damage. The water had teased out loose curls and soaked his hair a glistening ebony. Rivulets ran down his arms, shoulders and back, finding tracks between the outline of muscle and sinew. She was wondering if she had ever noticed how dark and thick his eyelashes were, when she was dragged back into the present moment by the flash of green that suddenly appeared between them, looking back at her. ‘Sofia, can you help me turn him over.’

Brian was wailing now as well, joining Milly in a duet of distress. Jack was impressively calm. The two of them turned Brian onto his side and Jack scanned his body for a sign of injury. When he met Sofia’s eyes again he looked more bemused than concerned.

‘Brian, can you tell me where it hurts?’

‘My foot, man, my foot kills!’ Milly was kneeling now as well, grasping Brian’s hand.

‘It’s going to be OK, baby. We’re going to take you to hospital; you’re going to be fine.’ She sounded like she was reassuring herself as much as him.

Jack inspected Brian’s foot and then tried to conceal a smirk. ‘I think, Brian, that you’ve stepped on a sea urchin.’ Sofia leant in, and when she squinted she could just make out a smattering of deep purple spots. One seemed to have a thin spike sticking out of it.

Brian was panting from the pain. ‘Are you sure, man? I swear it feels like I stepped on a needle or something.’

‘That’ll be the spines,’ Jack said coolly, as he reached under a seat for the first-aid box. ‘Can you keep her calm please,’ he said more quietly. This was directed at Sofia. ‘I need some space.’

Sofia put her arms around Milly and led her to the seat, rubbing her back as she let out sporadic sobs. Jack’s composure was infectious though, Brian lay back quietly as Jack took tweezers out of the box, and Sofia was sure he was feeling the same thing as her: a sense that everything was under control. She watched Jack work, delicately extracting three spines from the sole of Brian’s foot. She felt a pang of something unfamiliar, something akin to pride.

‘We need to soak it in hot water, which we don’t have, so it’s going to be warm water for now and I’ll get us back to the Lady Shelly as quickly as I can,’ Jack said decisively. Sofia had to admit that the ‘Jack to the rescue’ look was a good one for him.

‘He’s in good hands with Jack, don’t worry,’ she found herself saying to Milly. He shot her a bemused look over Milly’s shoulder and she felt herself blush. ‘Um, I mean Officer Carter,’ she fumbled. ‘He’s trained in first aid, as you can see.’ Milly wasn’t listening to her anyway.

Jack filled up a wine cooler with fresh water and instructed Brian to soak his foot. ‘Now lie back and think of England. We’ll have you back on the boat with a drink in hand before you know it.’

Brian managed an unconvincing chuckle and lay back on the deck. Milly rushed over and put a folded towel under his head. ‘I think we should go to the hospital,’ she said, not looking up, and stroking Brian’s wet hair off his forehead.

‘I’m not sure that’s necessary...’ Jack started.

‘We’re going to the hospital.’ Milly looked up then, and her expression was uncharacteristically steely, her voice steady and cold. Jack and Sofia were momentarily stunned into silence.

‘OK, it’ll take a little longer, but I’ll go as fast as I can,’ Jack stuttered. Milly gave him a sharp nod and then turned her attention back to Brian.