Chapter 37
There’s a tap at Oxana’s cabin door. She ties a towel around herself, opens the door a crack, and sees Inci in a pale-blue cotton dressing gown. The two of them stare at each other for a moment, then Inci quickly steps inside. She steps to the porthole, and peers through it at the night sky.
‘It’s late,’ Oxana says. ‘And I don’t think your hair needs my attention.’
‘No,’ Inci murmurs. ‘But I do.’
She walks back to Oxana and unknots her towel, so that it falls to the ground. Then she lays her hand on Oxana’s bare shoulder, runs it down her arm, takes Oxana’s hand in hers, and places it against her cheek.
‘Where does your boyfriend think you are?’ Oxana asks her.
‘In my cabin. I told him I needed to sleep alone.’
‘Do you often do that?’
‘Often enough to keep him interested.’
‘So if you want him to be interested, what are you doing in here with me?’
Inci runs her thumb along Oxana’s lips, and with her other hand loosens the sash of her own dressing gown, so that the front falls open. ‘Do you always ask this many questions?’
‘I’m curious.’ She takes Inci’s head in her hands and slides her fingers into her hair.
Inci begins a slow descent to her knees, running her mouth from Oxana’s chin to her throat, and from there to the precise mid-point between her breasts. ‘Who are you?’ she whispers.
‘Who do you want me to be?’
‘Ah.’ Inci sighs. With her fingertips, she traces the hard ridges of Oxana’s abdomen, then follows her fingers with her lips. ‘That’s the question, isn’t it?’
The phone in Inci’s dressing gown pocket rings. Once, twice, three times. She butts her forehead frustratedly against Oxana’s belly. The phone continues to ring. ‘Tahir, askim,’ Inci says, pulling it to her ear. ‘What is it? I’m just having a word with, uh… Yes, I’ll come. I’ll come.’
Oxana steps away from her, and watches expressionlessly, as with a despondent backwards glance, still speaking into her phone, Inci pulls her dressing gown around her and leaves.
After a few minutes of lip-biting, groaning and swearing into my pillow, I calm down.
Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t the worst thing in the world that could have happened.
If Johnny finds Eve, which he will, and if she agrees to come here (which she may not, but if she does), I don’t want to be carrying around an unexploded truth bomb in the form of Inci.
I wasn’t lying, I do need Eve. I long for her.
But truthfully, if Inci and I hadn’t been interrupted, would I have thrown caution to the wind and let things take their course?
Of course I would. In a flash. I’m me, aren’t I?