Love Overboard

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sofia woke up bleary-eyed and, if not totally refreshed, then at least more clear-headed. She needed to talk to Petra; that was today’s goal. Petra, to her relief, was there at breakfast. It had to be said that she still wasn’t looking all that well. She had a dazed look on her face and Sofia had to stand right in front of her to catch her eye.

‘Glad to see you feeling better, Petra,’ Sofia said, spooning scrambled eggs onto her plate.

‘Mhmm, yep, thanks.’ She pulled on a half-hearted smile. It was an answer that signalled to Sofia that she should not ask any more questions, at least not here, and she turned away to watch the crew devouring their breakfast. Jack was sat at the end of table, quietly listening to Patricio, a faint smile tugging at his lips. It was hard to tell if he was hanging on Patricio’s every word or actively avoiding looking over at her, thought Sofia. Probably both.

Declan was turned to face Patricio, leaning on one hand and shovelling eggs into his mouth with the other.

‘So you were actually born in Capri?’ He seemed genuinely enthralled.

‘Yes, and it’s a funny story, because my mother had planned to go to the mainland to give birth but she went out orange picking one day and her waters broke. She was miles from anywhere, with no mobile phone of course, and so she gave birth to me right there in the middle of the trees.’ Patricio was animated as he told the story. ‘My middle name is actually Aranciano, you know like arancia!’ He was met with mostly blank looks.

‘It means orange,’ Jack pipped up.

‘Exacto! Mama’s little orange blossom – that’s what she called me.’ Patricio grinned.

‘That’s crazy, wow, and like you’ve lived there your whole life?’ Declan asked.

‘Yes, pretty much, actually my whole family, they never leave the island, mostly.’ Sofia noticed Patricio glancing over at Jack. ‘We have been Capreses for generations.’

‘Well not anymore – you’re going to travel the world now.’ Declan spoke through a mouthful of food. It seemed he had met his match. They couldn’t get through the conversation quickly enough. The back and forth was breathless.

‘Well not quite, up the coast to Anzio is hardly that far from home.’

‘For now sure, but that’s just this charter. Who knows what the future holds!’

‘If you keep up with the early morning laundry duty, I will personally see that no one ever lets you off this boat,’ Petra interjected dryly. Patricio giggled, giddy on the appreciation of new company.

After everyone was done eating, Sofia decided it was time to make her move. ‘Petra, could you help me clear?’

Petra nodded wearily and began collecting the plates. Back in the privacy of the kitchen, Sofia was running through the remit of conversation starters.

‘I know what you’re going to ask.’ Petra sounded a little accusatory, but mostly she sounded sort of sad. Petra let out a big sigh, and from the way her eyes glistened, Sofia braced herself for tears.

‘I’m guessing you heard about my chat with the captain.’ She looked defeated, picking at her fingernails anxiously. ‘I’m so embarrassed, Sofia, honestly. I thought I would combust from the shame, and I don’t even know how to defend myself. We barely even looked at each other; he just thanked me for the Moscow mule I made him, for God’s sake.’ Then the tears fell.

Sofia pulled her into a hug. They stood there for a moment, Petra sniffing softly into Sofia’s shoulder. When she pulled back her eyes were red.

‘I spoke to Milly yesterday and she seemed pretty upset. It is clearly a them problem, not a you problem. I think she’s just young and a bit insecure about their relationship,’ Sofia said cautiously. The sudden flare in Petra’s expression suggested she had ruffled feathers, rather than smoothed them over as she had intended.

‘Well to be honest I don’t really give a damn about her insecurities. She’s put my career on the line for what? Because she’s scared her boyfriend is going to run off with the staff?’ she scoffed. Her anger was palpable, having burnt off any residual self-pity.

‘She’s only young, Petra, what like twenty-one? She’s basically a teenager.’ Sofia wasn’t really sure why she suddenly felt so defensive of Milly – maybe she could sympathise with how small it could make you feel when you don’t know where you stand with someone. She could only imagine how that must be amplified when you brought fame into the mix.

Petra didn’t say anything and Sofia was worried that she’d just severed the last decent relationship she had on the boat. A range of feelings filtered across Petra’s face. When the anger passed, there was confusion, resignation, and then, finally – thankfully – empathy.

‘Twenty-one?’ She nodded thoughtfully. ‘You’re right. I didn’t even know my left and right when I was twenty-one.’ Petra laughed wryly, and Sofia smiled. ‘It doesn’t make Captain Mary telling me to keep it in my pants any less mortifying though.’ Sofia couldn’t help but giggle.

‘Honestly, I’m impressed you made it to breakfast. I think I would have thrown myself into the sea.’

‘I thought about it.’ Petra was giggling too now.

‘What did she say?’

‘Oh I don’t know, I’ve blocked it from my memory.’ Petra covered her face with her hands. ‘Something like: “We have a duty to our guests; it’s nice to be friendly but there is a line that cannot be crossed”.’

‘Oh, that is bad,’ Sofia teased.

‘The way she said “friendly” I felt like a common harlot.’ Petra dropped her hands, looking at Sofia with a grimace, and then they both burst out laughing.

When they had wheezed and wiped the tears from their eyes, Sofia didn’t want to ruin the moment by bringing up the ‘Jack issue’. Instead she got on with making the guests’ breakfast, whilst Petra leant against the counter analysing every detail of her conversation with the captain and subsequent evening of self-reflection.

‘I guess it just really brought home to me that I’m single, I’m thirty-two and I still don’t know how to pick a man, or rather I do, but they’re always the wrong man,’ she mused. ‘When I was sitting there and she was trying not to call me a slag it just hit me – I’m always looking for a fun time but I can’t seem to look past that, you know? Like after the shag, after the honeymoon period, I’m always left with something I didn’t really ask for. And when I say that I mean, I actually didn’t ask for it. I only asked for that hit of male validation, I never consider what comes after, you know what I mean?’

Petra had been throwing around a generous number of rhetorical questions, so it was never entirely obvious when Sofia needed to provide a response. The pause suggested that this was one such moment.

‘Mmhmm I know what you mean,’ she said absent-mindedly as she whisked the pancake batter.

‘I mean even when it comes to Jack, who I really rate, I never considered that it could be more than a fling. I just never seem to be in the headspace to make informed decisions when it comes to men.’

Sofia froze for a second and then, for fear of stemming the flow of information that Petra was willingly spewing, she continued cooking, feigning indifference.

‘You and Jack?’ Sofia didn’t look up as she asked the question she had been burning to ask for the last twenty-four hours.

‘Oh God, did I never tell you about that?’ Petra seemed genuinely surprised. ‘I guess it probably wasn’t my finest moment.’ She shrugged. ‘It was last charter and we were both wasted, and like I said I hadn’t realised about the captain’s rule. When she found out she was livid, well as livid as Captain Mary can be, and so we agreed to be mates.’ Petra paused contemplatively. ‘I think probably for the best. He’s a great guy but he is quite... moody, lots going on in that pretty head of his. He’s a bit too much of “a thinker” for me.’

Sofia was relieved. There was no dark ulterior motive to Petra’s teasing about her and Jack. Maybe Petra thought Sofia might be better equipped to deal with ‘a thinker’. To the contrary, Sofia had found the suggestion of Jack’s complex inner life affronting rather than intriguing.

‘From what I can remember though, he’s dynamite in bed.’ Sofia looked up at this comment, Petra winked and they both giggled.

‘Isn’t it awkward now, working with him?’ Sofia thought back to those painful encounters with Simon.

‘I mean, not really. When the captain had a word, he broke it off straight away but honestly we both just knew that the job was more important than whatever it was we had going on, so that was that.’

Sofia felt a stab of envy towards Petra for her tendency towards level-headed thinking. How nice it would be to have a brain that didn’t make life harder for you.

Petra checked her watch. ‘I’ve really been slacking this morning. I can’t tell you how nice it is to finally have a decent steward – Patricio is a godsend.’

‘Do you think he’s got a friend who could be my sous?’ Sofia asked wryly as she plated up the pancakes and poured the berry coulis into a small pot.

‘You don’t need a sous. Look at you, you’re the full package all on your own.’

Sofia scoffed at Petra’s cheerleading, and handed her the dishes. ‘It’s over to you, and try not to hump Brian as you serve him his breakfast, yeah?’ Petra laughed, in spite of herself.

‘Too soon! Damn it, Sofia, too soon.’ But she was shaking her head and chuckling as she walked out of the kitchen.

The rest of that day passed without incident. Jack and Declan took a newly recovered Brian out diving and Milly dedicated herself to the tricky task of tanning without burning, not an easy feat for a redhead. There were no tense conversations, no near-death experiences and no declarations of love, and Sofia was grateful for it. At the crew’s dinner, the mood was jovial. Declan even complimented the food. Sofia was hopeful that his heart was well on the way to being mended. His new-found fascination with Patricio certainly seemed to have helped him along.

When it came time to go to bed, Sofia could hardly get undressed quickly enough. She brushed her teeth in a frenzy, the siren call of her pillow buzzing in her ears.