Love Overboard

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

‘I thought that was you.’ Sofia opened her eyes. She figured she must have fallen asleep. All of a sudden she was deliciously aware of the breeze on her skin. A layer of the cloak had lifted. She looked up to see Jack standing over her.

‘Petra has been looking everywhere for you.’ Jack sat down in the sand next to her.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, I just needed a minute.’

Sofia sat up. They didn’t speak for a moment. Two pairs of knees staring out to sea.

‘I thought you didn’t drink,’ he said eventually.

‘At my old job, I drank a lot and it wasn’t very good for me. I got myself into situations where I never really knew how much I was in control.’ She was surprised by her own candidness.

‘That makes sense to me.’ Jack paused but something about being surrounded by night and sitting side by side compelled a confessional. ‘My brother is an alcoholic.’

Sofia was alarmed, she hated the ‘a’ word. She stiffened beside him.

‘I don’t think that you’re an alcoholic, Sofia,’ he continued. ‘I think that being able to recognise that in yourself and stop probably means you definitely aren’t.’ He took a deep breath.

‘I just meant that it makes sense to me that my brother never knows if he’s in control. It becomes so hard to differentiate the person from the drink, and it becomes so easy to blame all the behaviour on a “loss of control” but you’re right, the issue is not that you never have control, it’s that you can no longer tell when you do.’ Jack shrugged his shoulders and Sofia felt an urge to put her arm around him, but she didn’t.

‘Says the drunken man having a drunken 3a.m. chat with the drunken woman on the beach.’ It was easier to make a joke.

‘Oh yes I forgot, you Brits have no capacity for sincerity – and it’s only two.’ His words were snarky, but he was chuckling.

Suddenly Sofia remembered she had something to say. ‘I wanted to thank you for saving the day, and not just with the picnic, Petra told me about the other night.’

Now it was Jack who didn’t know what to say. ‘How’s that for sincerity?’ Sofia nudged him playfully.

‘You’re always keeping me on my toes, Chef Harlow.’ He looked away, eyes scanning the water. ‘But you’re welcome. I know we haven’t got off on the best foot, but I do know how hard your first charter is, and you’re definitely a natural, and a great cook of course, but everyone needs a helping hand when they start out.’ He turned his head to look at her. She couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze, so she stared at her hands instead.

‘Captain Mary taught me that, so you shouldn’t worry too much. You don’t need to be perfect – everyone makes mistakes – you just have to learn from them.’

She looked up at him, eyebrows raised. ‘Got it. Thank you, Mr Yachting Guru.’

‘This emotional whiplash is intense, Harlow.’ He groaned, and she felt him leaning back on his hands.

Sofia shrugged. ‘What can I say, it is the British way. We have to follow anything heartfelt with a joke or else we spontaneously combust.’

‘OK so I’ll do the heartfelt and you do the joke?’

Sofia laughed. ‘Deal,’ she said.

He stared out at the moon-soaked sea as he spoke. ‘OK, here we go, the thing about yachting is that everyone is running away from something. Petra always says it’s like the circus.’ As he continued, Sofia wondered how many drunken chats Jack and Petra must have had in the past. ‘I don’t know what you’re running away from, Harlow, but my only advice would be to do what you’re doing now: remember to take rest stops and smell the proverbial roses. It’s far too easy to miss them when you’re busy sprinting.’

‘That’s deep, man.’ She was trying to deflect. Jack shot her an amused look out the corner of his eye.

Sofia felt emboldened by the alcohol. ‘So what are you running from?’ she asked.

‘Oh I don’t know, a life where every day looks like the last? My father? The choking grip of Waspy-American ambition?’ His words were sarcastic, but there was a tinge of bitterness in his voice.

Sofia couldn’t think of a joke; instead she laid a tentative hand on his shoulder. ‘I know this is going to sound sarcastic coming from me, but I actually think that the crush of ambition is one of the hardest things to climb out from under.’

He turned his head and this time she let herself take a dip in the green. ‘Like I said, you just gotta learn to live a little.’ His eyes finally sparkled again and Sofia couldn’t help but giggle.

‘Oh, so you’re taking a turn at being the joker huh?’

‘I think it suits me actually.’ He pulled her into a rough embrace and Sofia felt her heart jump, but when he ruffled her hair, it resolutely fell back down with a thud. ‘We should be getting back.’ Jack was clearing the sand from his lap. ‘Petra will be worried... She’ll think I’m having my wicked way with you.’ He stood up and held out his hand for her to take. She rolled her eyes and got up without his help.

‘I got this, thanks, Prince Charming.’ He chuckled and they wandered back across the beach towards the bar.

‘There you two are!’ Petra ran towards Sofia with her arms open and pulled her into a drunken hug. ‘I just pashed Stuart,’ she stage-whispered into Sofia’s ear, before bursting into a fit of giggles. Sofia wasn’t familiar with Australian slang, but she could deduce what Petra was confessing to.

‘I knew it!’ she whispered back as Petra dragged her back to the dance floor. Jack disappeared into the crowd.

It was about 4a.m. when Sofia decided she needed to go to bed, and, after much convincing, Petra, Stuart and Declan were persuaded to head back to the boat. Nobody knew where Jack had gone.

‘He’s a big boy, he’ll be fine,’ Petra said as the four of them squeezed into the taxi. ‘He’s probably just found a local delicacy to savour.’ The edge of mischief in her voice had the boys laughing. Sofia joined in but she couldn’t quite ignore the strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. With a jolt she realised it was envy.

Back on the boat, Petra was determined to carry on the party, but Sofia could no longer ignore the pull of her bunk. Lulled by the drunken shrieking still coming from the mess down the hall, she fell into a deep and dizzying sleep.