Chapter 14
Six dives to go
Before I know it, we’re back on the boat, Miguel strapping in the air tanks to prepare for Aaron to rev up the engine. We’re headed to Wonder Reef next. We’ll dive there twice. Millie wrote in her notes that the last butterfly wrasse sighting there was in 2016, so I don’t have high hopes. Wonder Reef sits on the outer edge of the reef structures, and a major current brings in plankton and organic debris in from the ocean, making it the most biodiverse of all the reefs on our schedule.
Everyone’s content but tired, all of us wrapped in towels. We are huddled together in the captain’s room, all wanting to be outside, but also wanting some protection from the wind coming off the waves.
We’re moving to another entry point to drop anchor before going on our afternoon dive and eating lunch. Tonight is our night dive, which is scheduled for seven thirty, right when the sun goes down. Pippa wheedles Aaron until he promises he’ll point out some constellations tonight if it’s clear enough.
As soon as the boat picks up speed, fragments of music start to blare over the ship’s speakers. The volume picks up until it’s blasting and when the chorus blares through the speakers everyone starts to sing along to ‘Island in the Sun’. Vanessa pops her head out of the cabin and cheers.
‘Let’s dance!’ she cries, swaying her hips in time with the music. Pippa squeals and joins in immediately, tugging Andrew behind her. Before I know it, we’re all crowded on the ship’s deck, shouting the lyrics, limbs flailing wildly in the air. Even Natalie seems to be letting loose, she’s doing a hula move with her hands and rocking her hips back and forth.
‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song)’ comes on next, and everyone yells out the words. Vanessa puts on hit after hit, and every time the song switches Hugh’s face lights up in recognition. Between the sound of the waves and the wind, at some points we can hardly hear the music over our own off-key singing. I raise my face up to the sun during a chorus of ‘More Than a Feeling’ and sing it so loud my voice cracks.
Pippa attempts a viral TikTok dance and whacks Derek in the face accidentally, making me cackle with laughter. He takes the hit in his stride and playfully starts to dance alongside her. Vanessa teaches Miguel the steps to the start of a swing dance. Hugh is sillier when he dances than I imagined. He moves his feet like he’s doing an agility drill and punches the air with his fists. I’m having so much fun that I don’t want to stop, but singing at the top of my lungs in salty air is drying out my throat by the second. I’m about to sit down when Miguel grabs my hand and pulls me in close before spinning me out towards the railing. Laughing, I let him pull me back in, and when our torsos meet, he lowers mine into a dip. Pippa hoots.
When the next song comes on, I sit down on the bench, exhausted.
Hugh plops down next to me and runs a hand through his damp hair, causing it to stick out in all directions. When it’s wet it’s noticeably darker, and he looks more brooding than normal. But his eyes are playful when he turns to me and says, ‘That was fun.’
I nod. ‘I didn’t know how much I needed that.’
Both of us turn to look at the rest of the group: Vanessa, Miguel, Derek, Natalie, Andrew, and Pippa, who are all still rocking out to ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth.
‘We must have eaten a lotta beans last night, don’t you think?’
It takes me a minute to process what he’s saying. His eyes are glinting with mischief, and he nods his head ever so slightly in Andrew’s direction. He’s still dancing with Pippa, and we catch him in a moment where he’s wiggling his butt. Then I remember the stream of air escaping his stinger suit on our dive earlier. I burst out laughing, so hard that I snort and then immediately clap my hand over my mouth.
‘What’s so funny?’ Pippa asks, she and Andrew losing steam and collapsing down next to us. I blush harder.
Hugh claps his hand over my knee and gently squeezes, a warning for me to be quiet, which makes trying not to laugh even harder
‘Nothing,’ Hugh says, his face impassive. Tears are springing into my eyes from holding giggles back.
‘OK,’ says Pippa, but she gives me a questioning look. Her eyes dart to where Hugh’s large hand is resting on my thigh and suddenly it feels like my leg is aflame.
I tense up and Hugh takes his hand off my knee and stretches it across the top of the seats. I can feel the heat coming off his skin, but we aren’t touching. I wonder what it would feel like if he relaxed his arm over my shoulders and pulled me in close, but he doesn’t. He remains stretched and comfortable. My thoughts flit to my dream world, just Hugh and I in our miniscule room, doing whatever it is we want to do.
We jostle over a big wave and his arms falls. I place a hand on his thigh to steady myself. I feel as if I’ve been electrocuted in the best way. I glance at him through the tumble of movement and he’s staring at me, eyes blazing. For a moment, it feels like we’re the only two people in the world. As the boat rights itself, we stop touching each other. I fold my hands in my lap and Hugh does the same. We scoot a centimetre apart. I feel like neither of us are breathing. Hugh clears his throat.
‘About twenty minutes until we drop anchor for the afternoon dive,’ Aaron announces, startling me so badly that I jump an inch off my seat, Hugh stifling a chuckle from the seat next to me.
I drag myself downstairs to review Millie’s notes one more time. I try to think of ways to change up my strategy, maybe I need to spend longer monitoring under the coral instead of hovering over it, or maybe I need to expand where I’m searching to more than just staghorn . . . I reread her notes for the third time. She’s meticulous and clear, but I can hardly concentrate. I’m not sure what game Hugh is playing anymore, whether he’s purposefully trying to distract me from the reason I’m here, but whatever he’s doing, it’s working.
I am in the middle of strategising how to stop Hugh from getting in my head, or at least how to get him out of my head while we’re diving, when Miguel steps directly into my line of sight to ask if I want to do the night dive. I had been staring at Natalie and Hugh, who are talking at the far end of the boat. Natalie has on such a skimpy bikini that I wonder how she manages to keep it covering the right bits when she pulls her stinger suit on. She’s laughing at Hugh and places a hand gently on his bicep. Something stirs in my belly. I can’t tell if it’s anxiety or jealousy, but whatever it is, I don’t like it.
‘Millie?’ Miguel asks again, following my gaze towards Hugh. Both of us watch Natalie toss her head back and laugh. ‘Night dive?’ he prompts, mercifully not addressing the conversation we are both watching. ‘You really should go, you won’t want to miss it.’ He’s holding a clipboard with our names on it, marking who is signing up for the dive so he can enter it into the dive logs.
I hesitate.
‘I’ll protect you!’ Miguel says, flashing the papers at me one more time.
I nod. ‘I guess,’ I answer reluctantly. I can’t not go, not while I’m on an all-expenses paid Great Barrier Reef trip. That would be criminal. But night diving is terrifying, and I’ve only done it once before, with Millie, who made me go. I was scared the entire time. The ocean is so dark . You can’t see anything around you. I felt like I was inches away from a shark or an eel (they have surprisingly strong and dangerous jaws) at every moment.
I want to ask if Hugh is going. Miguel will most likely be assigned to Derek again. I don’t want to dive if he isn’t. He’s knowledgeable and good at diving, and he did manage to come between me and a shark. Plus, I’m worried that the other girls won’t want to go, and I don’t want to be partners with Andrew, who can’t control his buoyancy, or Derek, who gets so easily distracted. I watch as Miguel approaches Hugh and Natalie. When Hugh nods excitedly, my shoulders relax with relief.
Pippa walks over to me, her eyes flitting to Hugh and back again. ‘Gosh, you have all the fun!’ she laments dramatically.
‘What are you talking about now?’ I look pointedly towards the ocean, hoping to direct her attention away from Hugh.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work. ‘Miguel and Hugh! Hotties! I knew there would be a hot American on this boat and turns out there’s a hot Colombian and Australian too! It’s like an international Love Island .’
‘Natalie is hot,’ I agree glumly.
‘No dummy,’ Pippa swats at my arm playfully. ‘You!’
I stare at her blankly.
‘Don’t play that game with me. Your hair is brilliant. Those curls are to die for. And your cheekbones! It’s no wonder Miguel and Hugh are falling all over you.’
‘They are not.’
She ignores me. ‘Which one are you gonna pick? When I came over here you were watching Hugh like a shark!’
‘Ugh.’ I shudder. ‘Too soon.’
‘OK fine, a lioness. Now fill me in.’
‘There is nothing to fill you in on,’ I say definitively, making it as clear as possible that whatever she is putting on the table should come off it.
‘You had a cheeky moment over there before.’ Pippa raises one eyebrow at me.
‘Pippa, be serious. I’m here for work,’ I say, although my voice lacks conviction.
‘You know what they say,’ she reminds me. ‘All work and no play . . .’
‘Hugh thinks he knows everything , and he’s stubborn. Plus, he’s trying to sabotage me.’
Pippa raises an eyebrow again.
‘I’m serious!’ I say. ‘The only reason he is paying me any attention is because I’m trying to find this fish, and he’s trying to prove it’s extinct. He’s trying to get in my head on purpose.’
‘For starters, you can’t say you don’t like someone just because they don’t agree with you. And give yourself more credit. Hugh could be into you just because you’re hot and brilliant, and not because of some dumb fish.’
‘Mhm,’ I grunt.
‘He’s not that bad, you know. Andrew quite likes him. And he’s cute.’
‘We’ve known him for, like, one day. And he’s not that cute.’
Pippa smirks. ‘Millie, you have the same eyes as the rest of us.’
What is with these Commonwealth people and their smirking?
‘Incoming,’ Pippa says under her breath. Hugh is walking towards us, leaving Natalie standing by the railing, talking to Miguel.
‘Ladies,’ Hugh says, looking right at me.
‘I’m gonna grab my water,’ Pippa says, with a glint in her eye.
I try to glare at her as she walks away – I know she’s trying to play matchmaker – but she avoids my gaze.
‘Just me and you then,’ Hugh says, sitting down next to me.
‘Yep.’ Absent-mindedly, I twirl an escaped curl around my finger.
‘You having a good holiday? You know, apart from your sister . . .’
A seagull’s caw pierces the air just as a breeze ruffles across the deck. ‘How could I not be?’ I ask him. ‘We’re in paradise.’
Hugh nods. ‘It’ll end too quickly.’
‘You’re telling me. At least you live here.’
‘Well, I don’t live here, I live in Sydney. It’s not as close as you’d think.’
‘I know but . . .’ I trail off, looking wistfully at the horizon.
‘It’s a lot closer than Columbus,’ Hugh agrees.
‘Something everyone seems dying to point out to me lately.’
Hugh laughs. ‘The commenters on our articles can be a real pain in the arse.’
‘I know,’ I agree.
‘So . . .’ He trails off and gestures at the ocean. ‘What’s your favourite colour?’
‘My favourite colour?’ I burst out laughing.
‘Never mind.’ He blushes, leaning away from me slightly.
My breath hitches in my chest.
‘No, no, I liked it,’ I say quickly. Hugh shoots me a look, narrowing his brilliant blue eyes. ‘My favourite colour is blue, but you could have gone with a more normal get-to-know-you question . . . like . . . tell me about your family?’
Hugh grunts. ‘I don’t see the difference, but I guess we could talk about that.’
‘OK,’ I prompt. ‘You start.’
‘I have a brother named Shaggy, we’re really close.’
‘Shaggy?’ I ask, howling with laughter.
‘You are impossible to talk to,’ Hugh says, but I can tell he’s trying not to smile. ‘That’s not his real name, it’s just a nickname that stuck.’
‘So does your mom call you Scooby?’ I tease, ignoring the last bit of what he said. ‘And by your mom, I mean Daphne. Or is she more of a Velma?’
‘She doesn’t call me Scooby, thank you very much. And her name is Gracie.’
‘OK, OK,’ I say, my giggles subsiding. ‘Well, as you know I have one sister, and we are also really close. We live near my parents too, so we see them quite a bit.’
Our next dive approaches too quickly. Hugh’s only just started to explain how much of his childhood he spent looking after his little brother. Both of us seem to put our siblings first, even at the expense of our own best interests. When I met him, I thought we would never be able to agree on anything, that I would never be able to tolerate being around him. But I’m starting to feel like I may have been completely wrong.