Love Overboard

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

When she walked into the crew mess with their dinner plates in hand, there was a commotion. Nobody was sitting and Captain Mary was standing with her hands on her hips.

‘So how many rooms are infected then?’ Petra was asking, her voice slightly strained with annoyance. Sofia set the plates on the table and joined the huddle. It was a tight squeeze with the seven of them in the room.

‘Well, so far it’s only in the main guest room and in the cabin next door,’ Stuart replied, his voice soothingly calm.

Sofia chimed in, ‘What are we talking about?’

‘Mould,’ said Declan, Petra, and Patricio in unison.

‘That doesn’t sound good.’ Sofia grimaced.

‘It’s not.’ Petra was getting more agitated. ‘We’re going to have to do some juggling. I’ve already moved Milly and Brian to the secondary suite. Honestly the way Milly was acting you’d think I’d crept in in the middle of the night and hidden a cobra in her bed or something.’ Everyone ignored the dig and Petra continued, ‘But the crew set-up is going to be more complicated. We’re a bed short.’

Nobody said anything for a moment and Petra put her head in her hands and groaned. ‘Honestly, just when you think everything is going smoothly...’

‘I’ll bed down in the captain’s quarters.’ It was Stuart again. ‘I don’t mind. We have a camp bed somewhere and I wake up early anyway so the light won’t bother me.’

When Petra looked up, it seemed she might cry with gratitude. ‘Are you sure, Stuart? It’ll only be until we dock in a few days; then we can get someone on board to sort it out.’

‘No problem.’

‘You’re a lifesaver.’ When she lunged to pull him into a hug, everyone was a bit startled, including Stuart.

‘It’s really no bother,’ he said, awkwardly rubbing her back and flushing his characteristic shade of crimson.

Petra composed herself, also a little embarrassed by her sudden outpouring of affection. ‘Right well that means, there’s only Jack left to bed.’ Again she blushed, realising too late her questionable choice of words. ‘I mean, to um, find you a bed.’

‘Well, he can just stay with Sofia, right? She’s got a spare bunk in her cabin, no?’ It was Patricio, and Sofia glared at him. The last thing she needed was to have to share a room with Jack.

When Patricio raised his eyebrows cheekily, it occurred to her that he probably thought he was wing-manning her, and she kicked herself for her throwaway joke in the kitchen earlier.

She looked over at Jack. He wouldn’t meet her gaze and shifted from foot to foot. Obviously he wasn’t enthused by the idea either, but after Stuart’s heroics how could she protest? Petra was finally beginning to look like herself again, the aura of panic melting away.

‘If that’s easiest I guess...’ she began as Jack spoke over her.

‘If there’s no other...’ They both stopped, exchanging a nervous chuckle, a tension settling in the space between them.

‘I’ll take that enthusiastic response as a “yes” shall I?’ Petra seemed to find the whole thing amusing.

‘Yes,’ said Jack and Sofia in unison.

‘So, Declan and Patricio, you two are good to share then?’ At this point the question was only a formality. Petra’s tone suggested she had little patience for any more negotiation.

From the look that shot between Declan and Patricio, Sofia suspected that Patricio’s eagerness to have Jack stay in her cabin was less of a selfless act of matchmaking than she had first thought.

‘OK well Jack and Stuart if you could clear your rooms ASAP, then we can all eat.’ The matter was closed. There were clear winners and losers, and when Sofia saw the dread she was feeling reflected back at her in Jack’s face she knew they were both the latter.

Dinner was cheery. Despite the upheaval, Petra was happy to report that the guests seemed to prefer their new room. Sofia said very little. She was imagining the walk back to her cabin. It was once a haven for her to unwind and escape the stresses of the day. Now it was to become the most stressful part of her day.

How would they navigate such a small space? It was barely big enough to accommodate two bodies let alone house the bizarre tension that seemed to follow them around like a bad smell. Now that she knew the extent of his ambivalence towards her, she wasn’t sure how well she could keep up with her friendly and civil strategy.

‘I’m going to go to bed,’ she said quietly once she had finished eating. She had barely touched the apricot tart she had laboured over. All of a sudden the rosemary glaze tasted overly medicinal and she couldn’t stop thinking that the arsenic tang of the stones had seeped into the fruit’s flesh.

‘Night, Sofia, thanks for being a champ about the room swap.’ Petra gave her a grateful smile.

‘No problemo,’ she said chirpily, cringing at herself as she grabbed her plate.

‘Try not to be startled by the strange man coming into your bedroom after dark.’ It was Jack and she assumed he was trying to engage in some ‘roommate banter’. It fell flat and the polite titters died into silence.

‘As long as you’re not startled by my night terrors, we should be fine.’ Sofia was pleased that her retort got a better reception. Jack laughed along half-heartedly and Sofia slipped out of the room.

In her cabin she got undressed and into her pyjamas quickly, anticipating an imminent intrusion. She decided to move to the top bunk. Something about Jack clambering up the narrow ladder over her made the whole situation seem even more undignified.

She lay staring at the ceiling, replaying the day, as she had made a habit of doing. Only three nights, and then they would dock at Gaeta and Jack would move back to his old room. She reasoned that it wasn’t so bad; she’d had the flu for longer than that.