Chapter Four
POST-PRODUCTION CONFESSIONAL
CLOSE QUARTERS
GARY PARKS: CAPTAIN
PRODUCER
Let’s go back to that first day on board. When you had the team meeting, how were you feeling about the season ahead?
CAPTAIN GARY
Oh, I was absolutely buzzing. I mean, we had a great crew. I had full faith we were going to run that boat beautifully.
PRODUCER
You told the crew that you’d never worked with a crew member couple on board before.
CAPTAIN GARY
That’s right. It was a first for me.
PRODUCER
You weren’t worried?
Captain Gary runs a hand over his jaw, shrugs.
CAPTAIN GARY
Honestly? No. But I guess I should have been, aye?
PRODUCER
Care to tell us what you mean by that?
Captain Gary chuckles, shakes his head.
CAPTAIN GARY
I don’t know what you want me to say here. It wasn’t a problem until it was, and then it was quite the problem, indeed.
PRODUCER
You knew there was a risk, though. Young people in a relationship on a yacht with tight quarters, emotions running high after stressful days working…
CAPTAIN GARY
Sure. I knew it was a risk. But I’m not the only one who picked the crew, am I?
Captain Gary gives producer a pointed look.
CAPTAIN GARY
I was handed a stack of CVs for potential crew members. I just culled from there. Other than my recommendation for Ember, I was sort of along for the ride. And had I known her history with Finn…
PRODUCER
Are you saying you wouldn’t have hired Ember as chief stew, had you known she and Finn had a past?
CAPTAIN GARY
I’m saying this whole couple on board thing wasn’t just as simple as a chef and a deck stew dating. That I think we would have survived. But a chef and a chief stew, who used to be in love, back together for the first time in two years… and now she’s rooming with his new girlfriend?
Captain Gary arches a brow, takes a sip of water, shrugs.
CAPTAIN GARY
Come now, mate. What the hell did we expect?
It was just past seven that evening when Captain Gary called a preference sheet meeting.
We already knew the guests coming aboard in the morning, along with all their preferences.
We had to know in order to provision the boat correctly.
But this meeting was for the cameras. I knew from watching the show that this was how the viewers were introduced to the guests, how the showrunners foreshadowed any potential issues.
I was already exhausted as I made my way to the crew mess, the day having sped by in a flurry of vacuuming and polishing and organizing the boat.
I mumbled curse words to myself on the way down the stairs, fumbling with the mic attached to me and trying to figure out how to place it where the clip and cord would be comfortably out of my way.
Knowing Finn would be at this meeting didn’t help, and when I popped off the bottom stair and found he was the only one in the mess, I internally rolled my eyes as I slid into the booth on the opposite side of the table from him.
There were cameras everywhere.
An awkward pause stretched between us, me tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear with a tight smile as Finn watched me with a thousand questions in his eyes.
His expression still dripped with pity, and that made me narrow my gaze, my pathetic attempt at a civil smile dropping.
I hoped my glare told him to stop fucking looking at me like that because I couldn’t say it again with all these lenses pointed right at us.
I pulled out my phone, pretending to type something in my notes app when really I just wanted to avoid looking at him. It wasn’t fair, how utterly attractive he was even after a day of sweating in the galley. In fact, I was pretty sure the sweat added to the allure.
He cracked his neck after a moment, which made me look up at him again, and the way he was looking at me tied my stomach into tight knots.
“Ember, I—”
“Hey, hey!” Palmer announced himself as he skipped down the last few steps, and then he slid into the booth next to Finn, making Finn move more toward the center of the table.
Palmer rapped his knuckles on the table in a quick little beat, his grin wide.
“First preference sheet meeting. You guys excited?”
He was playing it up for the cameras — which was what I should have been doing, too. This was what we were paid to do. But I was too busy watching Finn and wondering what he was about to say before Palmer interrupted.
Before I could think too much on it, Captain Gary descended into the crew mess. I slipped my phone back into my pocket as he greeted all of us before plopping down next to me and giving me no choice but to scoot in on the bench.
Toward Finn.
I let out a frustrated exhale that I hoped I covered well with a smile as Captain Gary slid the packets to each of us. I crossed my legs as I picked up the stack of papers, and then promptly froze.
My ankle touched Finn’s calf under the table.
It was innocent, that small touch, but electricity zapped through me as if we’d started dry humping right there for everyone to watch. My stomach hurdled to the ground at breakneck speed, a flash of memory from two years ago striking like another lightning bolt had a movie playing in my head.
His knees spreading my thighs. His hands in my hair. His breath hot on my neck as he bites it and curses my name.
“Fuck, Ember. You’re so good. You’re everything. I need this. I need you.”
I ripped away from the touch like his skin had burned me, my cheeks heating furiously as I cleared my throat and focused on the guest photos staring back at me from the pages in my hand.
I thought I heard Finn chuckle.
I angled my chin, just enough to glance at him out of the corner of my eye.
The prick was smiling.
“Right,” Captain Gary said, tapping the papers in his hands on the table to level them.
“Let’s get this party started, aye? Our first primary guest is Alistair Sinclair.
A self-made tech mogul in his early 40s, Alistair made his fortune in cryptocurrency and AI start-ups.
He loves the finer things in life and is expecting nothing less than six-star service. ”
“No pressure,” I muttered under my breath.
“He’s traveling with his wife, Theodora, who is a model and influencer. She would like candid photos taken of her as much as possible.” Captain Gary paused, looking up at Palmer. “Think that’s something you and the deck crew could handle when we’re anchored or cruising?”
“Take photos of a hot babe in her swimsuit? Jeez, you’re really asking a lot of me here, Cap.”
Captain Gary grinned but chose not to comment. “Alistair also has his best friend, Benedict, and wife, Brielle, with him, as well as his older brother, Max.”
“Since the guests are like gods in the crypto sector,” I read off the page, arching a brow at that sentence as my fellow crewmates snickered. “They would like a ‘Roman Empire Bacchanal’ on night two, complete with gold togas, laurel crowns, and lots of high-end wine.”
“Looks like Theodora will only eat organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, and high vibrational food,’” Finn read.
“She also prefers no leafy greens, no red meat, is not a fan of poultry or soy, and despises raw fish.” He scrubbed a hand over his short beard, tilting his head to the side as he re-read that last part.
“Delightful. Love an easy first charter.”
Captain Gary chuckled. “I have full faith you can pull it off, Cheffy.”
Palmer took over then, reading off more of the guests’ demands while on board.
Although I’d already seen all of the requests, it wasn’t hard to play up my anxiety for the cameras trained on us now.
These weren’t just regular charter guests.
They weren’t going to nap on the sundeck and go to bed after dinner.
These guests were specifically chosen to bring us drama in one way or another, and with a primary who thought of himself as a god and a girlfriend who apparently only wanted to eat witchy berries — they were not taking it easy on us with this first charter.
Captain wrapped up the preference sheet meeting with me still in a daze, fingers absentmindedly playing with my piercings as I stared at all the requests and ran through a mental list to make sure I had everything I needed to pull off what they wanted.
I’d asked the provisioner not just for the party supplies to get the theme right for the Roman Empire Bacchanal, but I’d also hired a local sommelier to come aboard with an expensive and exclusive selection of wine.
I knew Alistair’s type before even setting eyes on him. He loved the power that came with being rich. He wanted to feel like he got to experience things in life that no one else did. It was my job to make him feel like this yacht charter was worth bragging about.
This was it. My first time at bat as chief stew.
I bit back a smile as that realization hit me.
I’d worked so hard for this opportunity, years of literal sweat and tears under my belt to get me here.
I didn’t care if the charter guests asked for specific colored M&Ms or gold-painted pony rides on the beach — whatever they wanted, I was going to make it happen.
I was going to prove myself worthy of this title — and of my father’s respect.
“What the hell am I going to cook for this girl?”
I blinked, realizing that Captain Gary and Palmer had already left the crew mess and it was just Finn and me left at the table. He was staring at the preference sheets just like I was, shaking his head as he looked through what Theodora couldn’t eat.
“Macaroni and cheese?” I suggested.
“Cute, but she said no dairy, remember? Or gluten.”
“Gluten-free macaroni,” I said, snapping my fingers. “And vegan butter.”
Finn rolled his lips together against a smile, and my stomach lurched at how familiar that grin was even after going two years of my life without seeing it. I’d blocked him on social media after realizing I couldn’t survive a night drinking without making a fool of myself in his DMs.
I’d had to quit him cold turkey, and even now, I didn’t feel clean sitting this close to my former addiction.
“Could you imagine? I just slather some gluten-free pasta with a heap of organic butter and call it a day?”
I smirked. “Garnished with a sprig of parsley for aesthetic.”
“Sounds like a Michelin-Star meal.”
I tapped the preference sheet. “What about a salad?”
“No leafy greens,” he reminded me.
“Fine. A nice, juicy steak?”
“No red meat.”
“Tofu scramble?”
Finn leveled me with a stare. “She doesn’t eat soy.”
I threw my hands up. “Air?”
That finally pulled a full-bodied laugh from him, his head tipping back as his shoulders shook. I tried not to let the sound of it affect me, but it was impossible — it had been my favorite sound once.
“Perfect. I’ll serve her a nice plate of oxygen, seasoned with despair.”
“If you’re still as good as you were in Greece, it’ll be the best plate of oxygen she’s ever had,” I said, and without thinking, my hand found his wrist and squeezed as an encouraging smile found my lips.
Of course, that smile slid off my face like butter on a hot skillet when that touch resonated, when Finn stopped laughing and stared at the point of contact.
I swore I felt the heat of it crackle between us, like a live wire sparking, something dangerous and familiar in the way his gaze lifted — slow, hesitant, burning.
For one breath, neither of us moved.
For one breath, I considered what would happen if I let my touch wander up, if I leaned into him and pressed my lips to his just to see if it felt the same.
But on the next breath, I remembered his girlfriend was on this very boat with us.
I cleared my throat, yanking my hand away. My fingers clenched reflexively before I busied them in my ponytail. “Well, I think we both need a good night’s rest to face these guests tomorrow. See you in the morning.”
It wasn’t just the stark realization that he was dating Gisella that had me scurrying off that bench.
It was me remembering who I was now, who I had been after he’d left me broken and how long it’d taken me to recover.
It was memories of late nights and whispered confessions, of hope curdling into heartbreak, of the years I spent trying to forget him — only to find him in front of me now, close enough to touch and yet so untouchable, unfamiliar and yet so familiar it hurt.
Finn didn’t try to stop me as I left. He stayed silent and still until I ducked into my cabin, pressing the door shut behind me and leaning my head against it as a pained breath left my chest. My face burned, heart pounding like it wanted to rewind time to that moment before I touched him, before I let myself forget.
I knew the cameras had caught all of that, and it only had my stomach sinking more.
I had to get it together. I had to find a way to not let that man affect me.
And fast.