18. Confined to Quarters
Chapter 18
Confined to Quarters
Haley
“ E aston?” Candy had a fit earlier and we moved him from the Golden Tire suite to Fortune.
“Yes, please, some help.”
I pick up the handle, lean, let it open a little, and then push down. I don’t know what it’s doing, but it works. The door pops open. And I stumble into Easton.
He catches me before I go tumbling into his room. “Are you okay?”
“Fine, thanks.”
He lets my arm go, and I swallow hard. Why is it when you’re not looking for a guy, they’re all around?
“Thanks for helping with the door. It’s like a child safety lock—easy to open from the outside, but a bitch from the inside.”
“I’ll get an engineer to come fix it.”
“No, don’t worry. It’s late. Tomorrow is fine.”
“Are you sure? I can call?—”
“I’m good.”
“Do you want anything? Something to drink or more to eat?”
“Nope. I was going to take a stroll around the deck, but I’m good now.”
“Okay, pleasant dreams.” I wave.
“You too.” He leaves his door open a crack, and I head down to my cabin.
M y alarm goes off. Six a.m. Shayla has already brought breakfast to the five passengers in their rooms. Which isn’t normal. Even Candy’s up, but then time-zone changes do weird things to guests. Kerri, the chief stew from last year, said that sometimes Candy would sleep all day and want drinks prepared for her all night. But today she’s up and dressed and reading a thick fashion magazine like a kid at Christmas time making a list. Every once in a while, she holds the magazine out for Emily to look. Emily rolls her eyes, but Brick responds, “How pretty,” every time. I watch from the corner of the butler’s pantry. Easton is in his cabin, but the four of them in the main salon look like they all need some serious therapy.
Shayla pops up from doing laundry.
“Do you want to do service or housekeeping?” I ask her.
“Do I want to hang out with the Addams family? Are you kidding? I’ll take scrubbing toilets any day over them.” Shayla’s whispering in my ear, but Emily looks up from her book, scrunches her forehead, and smiles at us. We both smile back.
I follow Shayla down the stairs. I can help her for a little bit and then pop back up and check on them. Plus, I should check on Easton too. Make sure he’s not stuck.
“Emily totally heard you,” I whisper to Shayla when we hit the landing.
“I don’t care. She’s the only normal one of the lot.”
We decide to do Emily’s room first. It isn’t too bad. I’m finishing up the bathroom when Shayla moves on to Candy’s cabin.
“Haley, Haley, Shayla. Can you come to the owner’s suite?” She doesn’t wait for me to respond. This won’t be good.
“Be right up.” I race up the stairs and into the room. “Holy...”
“It’s like a hurricane came through here.”
“We can do this.” I nod. I know my eyes are wide. But we can do this. I pick up clothes. Shayla is right there with me.
“But every day?” Shay is mad.
I don’t blame her; I am too.
“She did this on purpose. She didn’t like us defending Emily.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll talk to the captain later.”
“You do that. Because this is bullshit. I’m not cleaning up after a child. I pressed every damn one of these yesterday.” Shayla holds up a pile of clothes in her fist.
The rest of the day isn’t much better. The waves are enormous. We’re moving to some place where there’s a ledge or something that Rocky wants to fish on. Candy is getting worse, not better. She sends back three drinks. By the fourth one, she’s so out of it she doesn’t remember what she ordered.
Emily is sulking. Not that I know her at all, but you can just tell that some people are peppy and kind, and she just feels off. She hardly talks to her boyfriend, although she talks to her brother twice between breakfast and lunch.
It’s early afternoon when I set out a charcuterie board for them. I mean, who doesn’t love a board of meat and cheese? Most guests go nuts over my boards. It’s something I do as a stew, but never too close to dinner or the guests won’t eat and the chef will be all furious at me. But maybe not Dante. He’s the happiest chef I’ve ever met. Even if he keeps giving me weird side glances.
“Thank you.” Emily takes a small bite of cheese and goes back to her book. I feel horrible. I want to make this better for her... and then I remember. She loves cupcakes.
“Dante? Do you love me?” I cock my head sideways.
“I don’t know you well enough to love you, Sassy, but I think I could. What do you want?”
“Cupcakes. Not for me, for Emily. She’s so bummed out, I just want to give her a little joy, and the cheese didn’t work.”
“If cheese doesn’t work, there is no hope.” He laughs. “Actually, I’m personally meh about cheese. Don’t tell anyone—I’ll lose my chef’s card. But I have sad news for you, Sassy. I don’t bake. I mean, I can, but not today I have too much to rearrange.” He motions to the ten open kitchen cabinets. “What about crème br?lée or honey-glazed boozy pears?”
“I’m great at baking, and I’d love to make it up to Emily, since it was my idea she pick dinner yesterday. There isn’t much laundry yet. And Shayla is down for a nap. This will most definitely be the only time this season I can bake anything. There will be more laundry, so... And I love baking. Unless you’re one of those chefs who’s all ‘it’s my kitchen, and no one can use it.’ If you are, I can make it in the crew mess.”
“No, Haley. I share really well.” His voice is gruff, and I have to hold in a shudder. What the hell is going on on this boat?
“Great.” I pull myself out of my little Dante trance and gather the ingredients I’ll need. I’m careful to stay out of his way, using the smallest amount of counterspace I need.
“You really know what you’re doing.”
If you had told me I’d have time to bake, clean up, and have a half-hour break, I’d have told you you were crazy. But here I am, icing up the last of two dozen cupcakes.
Dinner comes and goes. The guests barely talk to each other when we step into the room. They’re eating in the inside dining area as it’s a little extra windy.
I’m out to top off their water glasses when Candy turns to Emily. “Why do you always dress like a hobo?”
“A what now?” Emily sits up in her chair.
“A hobo. You know, one of those people who followed the trains.” Candy is wearing a black evening gown with a plunging neckline. It’s Gucci. I know because I hung it back up this afternoon. But it looks like a potato sack on her. Emily, however, is wearing a white and gold sundress and looks like a Grecian goddess.
Easton stands. “You need to apologize to Emily. And now. Dad, this is insane.” Easton slams his hand on the table. “I know I told you I’d give you two weeks, that I’d stay with you. I’d be on the boat; we’d be together as a family. But I can’t do this. Not with Candy’s big mouth. Not with her here. I have things I need to talk to you about. I’ve been asking you to come to my cabin so we can discuss them. This is it, Dad. We have to talk.”
Rocky looks up at Candy and then back to his son. “I’ll talk to you about these things tomorrow.”
Easton shakes his head. “I’m done. I’m just done.” He stares over at me. “Haley, please give my compliments to the chef. Everything was delicious. Just like it was last night.” He growls out the words. He puts his chair back under the table and walks out of the room.
I’m paralyzed. I’ve seen guests fight but not like this. Usually, it’s drunken nonsense they don’t remember in the morning. I turn and see Shayla ask Easton a question. I’m sure she’s asking him if he wants his dessert brought to his cabin. He shakes his head no.
Emily’s looking back and forth between her father and Candy. Her lips are firm. “I can’t with any of you.” She pushes her chair back, drops her napkin on her chair, and leaves the room.
The interesting thing is her boyfriend doesn’t move. He sits there awkwardly with his girlfriend’s parents. Then he looks up at me. “Can I have another drink?”
“Sure.” I clear the half-eaten meals and take them to the kitchen. I drop them off next to the sink.
Dante’s hands are in the air. “They’re done already? Didn’t they like it? Something wrong with the food? There’s nothing wrong with my food,” he answers himself.
“No, it’s not your food, Dante. Your food is perfect.” And it really is perfect. He’s a master.
“They’re just—they’re fucking weird is what they are. All of them. All five of them. They’re fucking weird, weird, rich people, filthy rich people. They’re just fucked in the brain.”
We both turn to see Easton standing there.
“He didn’t mean it,” I blurt.
Dante is locked in a staring contest with Easton.
“Oh, he means it, and he’s not wrong.” Easton cocks his head. “I was just wondering if you could make up another bedroom. Emily caught me in the hall, and she said she doesn’t want to sleep in the same room as Brick anymore.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. That’s not a problem. It’s already made up, since last night when she asked. I can freshen it up for her.”
“Oh, not for her. She’s kicking him out.” Easton smiles. “Are these cupcakes for anyone?”
“Yeah, I made them for Emily. She seemed depressed earlier.”
Easton’s grin widens. “Thanks. That’s the nicest thing that anyone’s done for my sister in a long time. She loves cupcakes. My mom used to make them when she was a little girl. You don’t happen to have pink sprinkles, do you?”
“Afraid not, love.” Dante tosses his towel over his shoulder.
“I’ll make sure she gets them,” I say. “I’ll bring them down in a little bit.”
“Thanks.” Easton touches my shoulder and nods to Dante. “Thanks again for the food. It’s great.” And he thumps down the back stairs.
“Oh fuck, there goes our tip,” Dante says. “Unless you can keep flirting with him, Haley. He seems to really like you. You’ve got the whole boat wrapped around your finger.”
We have to finish the service before I can take Emily a cupcake. I grab Brick his drink and head back out. But they’re all gone.
I grab two cupcakes. Emily is a kind soul. I can see it. She didn’t deserve what Candy said. Well, no one deserves anything Candy says. I rap on the door of her suite.
“Go away.”
“Emily, it’s Haley. I’m just checking on you.” She opens the door. “I bring a gift.”
“You had chef make me cupcakes?”
“No, I made them. Chef isn’t a baker.”
“You’re kidding! Oh my. Thank you so much.” She throws her arms around me and hugs me. “You are the kindest person ever.”
“Oh, you’re welcome.” I balance the plate as she tackles me. “Well, I’m glad to help in some small way. Is there anything I can get you before I go to bed?”
“No. Thanks for making up a room for Brick.” Emily smiles.
“Not a problem. If you need to talk, let me know.”
“I will. Things will be a lot better after we take Dad fishing.”
I smile and nod because Dante is right: rich people say the oddest things. From what I’ve seen, there will be no talking any sense into Rocky.
I head back to the butler’s pantry where Shayla is washing glasses. “Shayla, I’ve got the rest. Head to bed.”
“You’re sure, boss? It’s early.”
“This is easy peasy.” I motion my hand around the dining room table. “Thanks for doing the turndown service for Brick so quickly.”
“Easy peasy, boss.” She dries three more glasses and closes the cabinet door. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, you beautiful goddess of a second stew.”
I’m collecting the rest of the decorative blue and white sea glass pieces from Shayla’s amazing table when the ship stabilizer clicks off and we lunge starboard and then back to an even keel. The wind picked up sometime between cocktails and our own episode of Housewives of Fort Lauderdale. The boat lists starboard. Shit, I’ve been on boats that have lost their stabilizers before, and it’s not a fun ride. But this? This feels different. We whip the other way.
Anders clicks on the radio. “All crew, we lost stabilizers, but we’re good now.”
I run down to both floors to see if any of the passengers have gotten up to see what’s the matter. But Rocky and Candy aren’t in the hall and their lights are off. The same thing with the next floor down.
Rich people.
I head off to bed. I change into my leggings and a huge shirt. I always sleep in a sports bra, so I put a clean one on. My eyes flutter shut. I’ve got Calvin’s stuffed animal against my chest, and I drift off.
Then the system-wide intercom clicks on. “Attention all on board. Abandon ship. Abandon ship.”