Chapter Thirteen
CHARTER CONFESSIONAL
CLOSE QUARTERS
EMBER REED: CHIEF STEW
PRODUCER
So… how are we feeling this morning?
Ember glares at producer, winces a bit, drinks coffee.
Producer chuckles.
PRODUCER
A little hungover, I presume?
EMBER
I’m fine. Just need to eat and I’ll be good as new.
PRODUCER
Well, we’ll let you get to it. We just wanted to get some talking head footage about the crew night out. Did you have fun?
Ember sips coffee, forces smile.
EMBER
It was such a great night out. We all got to spend some quality time together as a crew and I think that was needed. We get a little time together during charter, but it’s the off nights where we get to know each other more. I think we all became more like a family last night.
PRODUCER
Do you see any friendships forming… or anything more?
Ember smiles.
EMBER
I mean… we all saw Leah and Cameron making out on the dance floor. I’d say they’re pretty friendly.
PRODUCER
Can you give us a little reaction to show with that footage? What were you thinking in the moment?
Ember’s jaw drops. She smiles, eyebrows raising. She pumps her hands in the air, does a little dance.
EMBER
Okay, Leah, yes. Go girl. Get you that fine Scottish man.
Producer laughs.
PRODUCER
And what about you and Finn?
Ember stops laughing, clears her throat.
EMBER
What about us?
I was dangerously close to falling over that delicate line that separated drunk and disaster, but I didn’t care.
I slammed back another shot, anyway.
Bernard picked me up by the waist and twirled me around as I winced, still trying to make sure the shot stayed down, and Eli was clapping, shaking his head at me like I was a marvel.
No sooner had Bernard planted my feet back on the ground than Leah was dragging me out onto the dance floor.
We’d found ourselves at a different club this time, one that was more of a bar with some cheap lights and a jukebox we’d completely taken over with our own song choices.
It was an older clientele in the bar for the most part, but they were a hoot, all of them clapping and laughing as they watched us dance.
In the last hour or so, a few other younger groups had rolled in — one that was a bachelor party from the States and one that we guessed was made up of study-abroad students taking a weekend holiday.
They joined in with us, our groups merging as they asked what the cameras were for and how they could get a little time on the show.
I was thankful for Leah’s love of dancing, because when I was on the floor, I could get away from Gisella hanging all over Finn. She was just as drunk as the rest of us, and she’d been practically trying to get Finn to fuck her at the bar since we left the restaurant.
I sighed internally at myself as Leah found us a good spot on the dance floor, throwing her hands up for us to dance. I joined in, smiling and laughing, though inside, my stomach churned.
Gisella was a sweet girl. A bit lazy and full of herself, maybe, but kind, nonetheless. And funny. In another world, I’d be ecstatic to have her as my roommate. We’d have inside jokes and talk shit to each other at night. We’d share clothes and makeup.
She didn’t deserve me being a bitch to her, even if I wasn’t voicing my bitchiness out loud.
She hadn’t done anything to me to deserve my distaste.
Other than be wonderful enough for my ex to fall in love with, anyway.
A stronger woman would have been fine. A better version of myself would have wiped her hands of the whole situation as soon as she found out Gisella and Finn were dating that very first day.
I wished with everything I was that I could watch them together and not feel anything, that I could be happy for Finn, that I could befriend Gisella and assure her that everything between me and Finn was so far in the past that I never thought of him anymore.
But I had never been a good liar.
The truth was seeing them together made me sick, and while I was fairly decent at pretending I was fine when I was sober and working, I lost all ability to do that once I had a few drinks in me.
The dance floor was sparse, which meant Leah and I had plenty of room to do our silly dance moves.
She did the cabbage patch before I hit her with the lawn mower, and then the battle continued, back and forth again and again until we were both wheezing from laughing so hard.
Eventually, the song changed, the beat heavy and melodic.
Leah started swaying her hips and I followed suit, both of us falling into a rhythm.
I turned, lining my back up with Leah’s front, her hands on my hips and mine winding into my hair. When I glanced over at the bar area where the rest of our crew was, I caught sight of Gisella straddling Finn, her mouth trailing kisses and bites along the column of his neck.
I tasted bile, bitter and burning.
And then I glanced up, and found Finn watching me.
His hands were on Gisella’s hips, his jaw angled down toward her, but his eyes were locked on me.
Heat flooded my face, and I tore my gaze away, throwing my arms up and letting myself get lost in the music. The song shifted, and then I felt Leah’s absence. I stopped dancing, assuming she was ready to go get another drink, but when I turned, I found her dancing with Cameron.
For all of two seconds — and then, they were kissing.
Bernard screamed from where he was across the dance floor talking to Palmer, who let out a wolf whistle when he saw what Bernard did. I laughed and clapped as Leah flipped us off before grabbing Cameron’s shirt and pulling him closer, kissing him more earnestly.
I was on my own then.
I looked around, wondering if Eli was close and I could wrangle him into dancing with me. But he was nowhere to be seen, and I assumed he was outside smoking or off flirting with someone. Doing my best not to feel awkward, I threw my arms up again, dancing by myself.
I closed my eyes, letting the music fill me as I matched the sway of my hips to the thump of the bass. Lights flashed behind my lids, the last shot I took catching up to me and making everything feel slow and heavy.
Before the song ended, I felt a pair of hands on me — tentative, a soft touch before the grip fastened. I smiled, assuming it was Eli, but when I looked over my shoulder, it was a man I didn’t recognize.
But damn, was he handsome.
He was tall, lean, and tan with jet black hair and a thick beard.
I wondered if he was Italian. I wondered how old he was.
I wondered if he was a tourist or someone who frequented this bar often.
But I only wondered those things for a split second before I decided I didn’t care, and I leaned into his touch, letting him guide me as the song changed.
I thought I heard some guys holler encouragements, and I smiled, wondering if this was one of the men with the bachelor party.
I ground against him, dropping my ass low as he strained to follow before I planted my hands on the floor and straightened my legs, shimmying against him as I rolled back up.
More whistles rang out, and I laughed when I heard Bernard yell, “Be gentle, Em!”
I let my eyes flutter open, enjoying the pleasant buzz flowing through me along with the music. Bernard shook his head at me, mouthing naughty girl with a wag of his finger that made me laugh again.
I flushed when I glanced at Palmer next, who crossed his arms and arched a brow with his lips curling. Eli came up behind him, clutching Palmer’s shoulder at the sight of me. His hand thumped against his chest like I’d sent an arrow through it, and he stumbled back, making a whole show of it.
I shook my head, still keeping rhythm with the guy behind me as I chuckled.
But then my eyes crashed into Finn’s.
And that laugh died in my chest.
His gaze was stone cold, his jaw set, hands curling into fists at his sides. I had no idea where Gisella had run off to, but when I realized Cameron was with the guys at the bar, I wondered if she and Leah had gone to the bathroom.
Of course, I couldn’t think straight about anything with Finn’s eyes on me like that.
Like he was pissed.
Like he wanted to murder the man touching me.
Like he wanted his hands on me, instead.
Oh, my God, Ember.
Get a fucking grip.
I blew out a breath, breaking eye contact with him as I laughed at myself, my chest still tight even as I willed my hips to stay loose. I closed my eyes, letting my head fall back against the guy behind me and trying to get lost in the music again.
But I didn’t get the chance.
Because less than ten seconds later, a hand slid into the crook of my elbow, and before I knew what was happening, I was being hauled off the dance floor and out the door of the bar.
“Hey!” I blinked, feet stumbling to keep up as I looked behind me at the confused guy who had just had his hands on me and then whipped my head back around to the person gripping me now.
My throat tightened at the sight of unruly brown hair and broad shoulders.
I let my gaze trail down his arms, the muscles in them strained before I found a familiar hand still holding me tight at the elbow.
Part of me melted at that touch.
But the louder part of me bucked like a wild mustang.
“Finn, what the hell?” I tried to rip out of his grasp, but he held tight until we poured out of the noise and into the quiet night.
My ears rang as he kept tugging me until we were down the cobblestone street and away from the patrons smoking near the bar entrance.
“What are you doing?!”
Only when we were around the corner did he release me. “Rescuing you from that gobshite,” he said. “You’re welcome.”
My mouth popped open. “Are you fucking kidding—”
“You’re locked.”
Locked — in other words, drunk as fuck.
“No shit, Sherlock. It’s crew night out, or did you forget?”
“So crew night out means you throw yourself at whatever random prick decides to grind on you?”