10. Amy
CHAPTER 10
AMY
D espite the mega yacht feeling like a magical vessel from another world, it was still very much an actual boat, and sometimes boats needed to refuel. So the next morning they were berthed back along the coast of California while the boat was topped up with gas, the galley was ready to be topped up with fresh produce and seafood, and their group of intrepid voyagers put their feet on land for the first time in days to go and explore.
It was only mid-morning, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do around the upscale marina. It was decided that they would sit and have brunch at one of the seaside restaurants.
Amy had grown somewhat used to the luxury of the yacht, operating around her like its own little ecosystem. But walking into the seaside restaurant that boasted at least one Michelin star had her feeling like she was taking three steps backwards. First of all, she felt supremely underdressed in shorts and a tank top, her bag slung over her shoulder, considering there were already diners seated dressed in champagne-colored satin and heels at ten thirty in the morning, with men in full business suits and watches on their wrist so large that they could be used as a satellite dish.
Jess, unfazed as always, had her arm hooked through Amy’s, practically bouncing as they were led to a table by a waiter.
“What’s up?” Jess asked in a low voice. “Tell me.”
Amy’s instinct was to clam up and insist nothing was wrong, but… there was no real reason to do that, was there?
“I feel frumpy, honestly,” she said, cheeks burning as she admitted it.
Jess slapped her arm. “Frumpy? What are you talking about? You’ve got legs for days.”
“Everyone else is so formal.”
“Everyone else is trying to pretend that they have more money than they actually do. They’re overcompensating. Frumpy. Honestly.”
She tutted and shook her head as they all sat, and Amy grinned at how utterly indignant she was. It did make her feel better, though.
Sitting at the table with the perfectly white, crisp tablecloth and crystal glasses next to a window overlooking the ocean, it wasn’t long before food started arriving seemingly at random: oysters on ice with wedges of lemon, biscotti with fresh tomatoes and basil, smoked salmon with capers and more on the way.
“We didn’t order, though?” Amy said into Kai’s ear, making her confused question look like she was just whispering sweet nothings to her fiancé.
“Apparently, Jason and Jess stop by here a lot,” he whispered back. “Jason asked them to bring out whatever was the best on the menu.”
Amy said nothing, even though all of it was making her feel overwhelmed. What was she supposed to say, no, thank you ? She needed to stop being a baby and accept that this was a normal morning to them.
“Next time we eat out, it’ll be borderline inedible burgers, I promise,” Kai whispered into her ear, giving her a sly grin. Amy couldn’t help her own mirroring smile, but she tried to stamp it down because when she grinned like that, she could feel the blush heating up around her ears as Kai’s lips brushed close and his breath tickled her neck. This was all just playacting. A mask to put on in public, a temporary thing. So that little mirth bubble in her chest that liked to turn up unexpectedly whenever Kai got especially close… well, that had no business being there.
She turned to the food to distract herself. And God, it really was good. Everything was as fresh as it was possible to be; even the lemons seemed to have a particular bite to them. Jess took a couple of photos for her account and then put her phone away to enjoy the spread before them. It made Amy happy that, for all she shared on social media, Jess had managed to strike a balance and took the time to enjoy the moment as well.
At one point, after inelegantly slurping down an oyster and closing her eyes in satisfaction, Amy looked up to see all three of them watching her with smiles on their faces. She felt her face turning bright red within seconds.
“What?” she said, a little defensively. “In a lot of cultures slurping is a sign of respect. Maybe not our culture, but…”
“You just looked so happy that we had to stop and admire it,” Kai explained while the other two nodded.
“It was a really good oyster, okay?”
Jason laughed, loud and free. “They’re the best at what they do here. I let them know that Amy was a chef herself, and it looks like they’re trying to impress you.”
Amy made a face before she could stop herself, and Jason tilted his head, curious.
“What was that look for? You looked like you swallowed a lemon.”
“I’m not… I’m not, you know, a chef . Not like the chefs here. Not a proper one.”
“You run a catering business. That sounds like a chef to me,” Jason said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle.
“Amy,” said Jess, as serious as a heart attack. “We need to have a talk about your self-confidence when we get back on the boat, I think.”
Kai nearly choked on his drink, smothering a laugh. Amy kicked him under the table, mostly because he’d been saying the exact same thing to her for years, and he sobered up fast enough.
“I think that’s a great idea, Jess,” Kai said as revenge, the traitor.
“I don’t have self-esteem issues,” Amy said firmly. All three of them stared at her again, but this time it was in frank disagreement.
“You absolutely, one hundred percent do,” said Kai, but even he wasn’t in full teasing and taunting mode. In fact, he sounded quite serious. He sounded worried . Which was weird because why should Kai be worried about her? She was doing just fine.
“Leave the poor girl alone,” said Jason, coming to her rescue. “Right now we’re enjoying a lovely meal. We can save her intervention until we’re back out to sea and she can’t escape.”
“I’m going back to enjoying oysters,” Amy said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Half of her thought they were being ridiculous, and the other half felt… well it felt like a weird sort of gratitude that they all actually seemed to care about her. Not just Kai, whom she had known forever, but Jason and Jess, who didn’t owe her one thing.
Despite the conversation that had been verging onto an impromptu therapy session, it was one of the best meals Amy had ever eaten, and towards the end of it she was working up the courage to ask if she could peek inside the kitchens and maybe ask some questions. That wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility, right?
That was when all hell broke loose. There was a knock on the window, and a second later Jess squeaked, and they were all looking to see what had happened.
Some random guy with a scruffy beard and a receding hairline was at the window checking for damage on the lens of his ridiculously large camera, having presumably just knocked it against the glass and scared Jess half to death. It was hard to see with the reflections bouncing off the glass, but after a second Amy was able to see that it wasn’t just the one guy with a camera, it was a whole group of photographers standing just outside the restaurant. As soon as Amy and the others looked up from the table, the men had given up any pretense of being sneaky and started snapping away, the camera flashes only mildly filtered by the tint on the windows.
“Great.” Jess sighed, sinking like a deflated balloon. “At least they didn’t show up till the end of the meal, I guess.”
The atmosphere had completely changed, and Amy didn’t like it one bit. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up and she felt like her body was trying to actively decide between fight and flight. Kai had gone very still, and it was fairly obvious that he had chosen fight . He only ever went that still and quiet like that when he was properly furious, and even with his back towards the window because he refused to give the paparazzi any attention, Amy knew that the glare on his face was for them. Jason, who had disappeared before any of them could notice, was now back and pulling Jess’s chair out for her so she could rise gracefully from the table, his expression the same as Kai’s, a cold sort of rage.
“We can leave now,” he said, voice calm and collected. “Straight back to the boat?”
“Sounds good,” Kai said, doing the same for Amy and helping her stand.
“Can I wear your jacket?” Jess asked Jason, voice quiet.
“Of course, baby,” he said and slung it over her shoulders without hesitation. “Don’t worry. Just a short walk and we’re back on the yacht.”
As they started walking towards the entrance of the restaurant, the cameras moved with them and the shouting started, trying to get their attention, to get them to look at the cameras, to give these men the perfect photo.
Amy felt like she was wading through a dream, a weird, anxious nightmare that she couldn’t wake up from. Her whole body was tense, and as they moved as a tight little group back towards the marina, the paparazzi followed like a school of piranha.
Amy had never thought about how loud a group of paparazzi must be. But between the camera shutters, the men shouting, and their footsteps following them, it was a cacophony that set her teeth on edge like biting into aluminum foil. Kai and Jason were guarding them, keeping both Amy and Jess in between them like bodyguards, with hands on their shoulders and their heads on a swivel, making sure they knew where the photographers were at all times. Amy followed Jess’s lead and walked forward with a flat expression on her face, ignoring the shouting paparazzi as if they were nothing more than a few flies buzzing around. But Kai… she didn’t think she’d ever seen the look on his face before, barely suppressed rage that had solidified into a steel mask. Jason looked the same, and Amy was sure that was half the reason that the men with cameras were keeping at least some distance between them.
After what seemed like an eternity, they were back in the marina, the men with their cameras following them right up to the docks before a security guard showed up and was enough to scare them off from coming any further. Amy resisted running up the gangplank to get back onto the safety of the yacht, Jess looking as if she was going through the same struggle. But even as they made it back onto the boat, Amy could still hear the men shouting, their cameras clicking, lying in wait for one more photo opportunity. The only thing Amy wanted to do was take a shower. She felt like she needed to scrub herself clean.
The mood had been tense when they’d gotten back on the boat. Mostly because the paparazzi hadn’t disappeared once they were aboard. They kept hanging around on the docks, drawing a crowd of curious onlookers and trying for one last attempt at getting a good shot. It was only when the yacht had sailed off, finally refueled and even the captain on edge, that they’d all been able to start to breathe properly again. Amy had half expected the photographers to jump into dinghies or on jet skis and follow them around and was supremely relieved when nothing of the sort happened.
The whole thing had left her shaken more than she wanted to admit. If Kai hadn’t been there, she didn’t know what she would have done. But that was the thing, wasn’t it? Part of the reason those men bombarded them in the first place was because getting a photo of Kai out to breakfast with some new woman would be a great way to fill out an article or two. Amy had known about him being photographed in public. She’d seen the tabloids and the pictures. But she had always just rolled her eyes in disgust at the whole concept of it and then moved on with her day. This was what Kai had to deal with every time he just wanted to go out to a restaurant with somebody? It made her skin crawl just thinking about it. Actually, it made her feel sick with guilt that she’d never even considered how much of an impact it would have on his life. She wasn’t going to be getting the award for “best friend” any time soon… Why hadn’t he told her this was the sort of thing that happened? That it happened regularly enough for him to know exactly what to do in that situation as if it were old news?
Well, she knew why he hadn’t told her, and if she confronted him about it, she would bet all the money she had that he would say “to protect her.” As if he wasn’t the one getting stalked on a regular basis.
The whole thing had left her feeling… grimy, even after her shower. And considering nobody was in much of a talking mood, Amy spent the rest of the afternoon floating around in the pool reading her book, waiting for time to tick by and put distance between her and the events of that morning.
Once the sun had dipped below the horizon, leaving the sky and sea an inky, matching black dotted with stars and waves, a casual dinner was served on the deck of the yacht, arranged on platters in front of the sofa that looked out over it all.
It was the first time since arriving back on the yacht that morning that all four of them had been gathered together. Jess was still quiet, more quiet than Amy had seen her yet, as she sat and picked at the food that had been laid out for them.
“Are you all right?” Amy asked, sitting down beside her on the deck lounge, the sea stretching out around them in all its glory.
Jess nodded, but she did it with a sad sort of smile. “Might surprise you,” she said. “But I don’t really like suddenly being surrounded by a group of men I don’t know, shouting at me.”
“That’s not surprising at all,” Amy said, wanting to scoop poor Jess up and give her a hug.
“Really?” she said, as sarcastically as she could, which wasn’t very much. “Because most of the time if I complain about that sort of stuff, I get told ‘Well, you signed up for it.’”
Amy kept her mouth shut. How many times in the past had she said the same thing about actresses and models, that it was all just part of the job, that they were lucky to have so much, what did a photo matter? Experiencing it was different, though…
“You signed up to show people on your socials the parts of your life that you’re comfortable showing,” Amy said, trying to string her thoughts together as she went. “You signed up for a specific sort of public. You didn’t sign up for whatever the heck that was.”
Jess smiled at her, a little bit of warmth returning to her face. “Thanks, Amy. You’re really nice.”
Amy blinked in surprise. “You think I’m nice ?”
“You don’t think you’re nice?”
“Well, not particularly…” she said awkwardly, but it was the truth. “I’m a little too, you know, abrupt for most people’s tastes. A little too prickly. I don’t think I’ve been called nice before.”
“Well, I think you’re nice,” Jess said firmly, and Amy felt tears prick at the sentiment. She didn’t really know what to say after that, and Jess still seemed so down, not her usual bubbly self, so Amy pulled her in for a hug. With the way they were sitting side by side it was awkward, and it was doubly awkward because Amy wasn’t used to all of this affection with people she barely knew. But when Jess hugged her back, she was glad she did it.
“Are we interrupting a moment?”
Kai and Jason had finally appeared, each of them holding two beers and looking like they were about to back away at any moment, all they needed was the appropriate signal.
“One of those better be for me,” Jess said to Jason, and he dutifully handed the bottle over to her. Kai sat down opposite them, next to Jason, and handed Amy a beer as well.
“Welcome to the joys of the paparazzi,” Kai said to her with a tired sort of cheerfulness and a sarcastic toast of his drink.
“Thanks,” Amy said just as sarcastically. “I hate it. Please unwelcome me.”
It made Jess laugh at least, and the sound of her tinkling laugh was enough to lighten the atmosphere on the deck, enough at least that Amy felt like she could relax back in her seat.
“Does that seriously happen all the time?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“Pretty much.” Jess sighed, seeming less downhearted now at least. “Usually, it’s only one or two though, not a whole flock of them.”
“Ravenous seagulls,” growled Jason with a shake of his head, taking a swig of his beer.
“It’s probably because we’re not in our usual habitat,” said Kai. “They’ll take any sort of fodder they can and then spin the most ridiculous story out of it.”
Like how there was one photo of me and Kai at a high school reunion and suddenly we’re pretending to be engaged… But Amy kept her mouth firmly shut and didn’t say that out loud. But yes, she could see how wildly out of context the simplest things could be taken.
“The headline will probably be something wild,” Jess said with a roll of her eyes. “I’ll be infertile, and Amy has agreed to be my surrogate.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time you being supposedly infertile was a headline,” muttered Jason.
“Oh my God, really?” Amy asked, disgusted.
“Jess gets it far worse than either of us do,” Kai said.
“The joys of being a woman,” she said with a raise of her drink. “Getting rumors printed about whether I’m pregnant or not because I stepped outside the house in flat shoes instead of heels. But I’m sure Amy can sympathize, can’t you?”
“Not to that extreme…” Amy said. “God, that’s so terrible.”
All three of them, Kai, Jess, and Jason, shrugged in unison.
“What can you do, man?” Jason asked, not sounding like his usual spritely self. “It just comes with the rest of it, you know? Nothing in this life comes for free, and with this sort of scrutiny, I guess that it’s the price we have to pay for our success.”
“Still,” Amy said, unsettled by the whole thing. “It’s gross.”
“You’ve always made fun of me for constantly saying ‘I’m having a meeting with my lawyer,’” said Kai with a grin. “But this is why. There’s always a cease-and-desist letter to send out to someone, somewhere.”
“Don’t get me started on the blackmail threats,” said Jason, and Jess laughed.
“They’re not even good threats. Like, come on .”
“You’ve been threatened with blackmail?” Amy asked, growing more horrified by the second. Mostly she was horrified about how blasé they were all being about such serious offenses.
“Yeah.” Jason sighed. This was all old news to him, after all. “Some guy sent a bunch of emails saying that I needed to pay him an outrageous amount of money or he would leak photos of me and my mistress.”
“I’m going to go ahead and assume there was never a mistress,” Amy said dryly, and Jason shook his head.
“I was having lunch at a restaurant, getting handed a menu by a waitress. That was this idiot’s idea of a gotcha moment. He gave up pretty quick when I threatened to sue him. No idea what happened to him, though.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s in jail now,” Kai said. “If it was the same guy who threatened to publish my social security number on his website?”
“That’s the guy,” Jess said as if they were simply talking about an old acquaintance. “With the weird hair?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
Good God. Why were they all being so casual about this? Amy felt like she’d been dropped into the middle of a bizarre psychological thriller.
“Why am I just learning this now?” she asked Kai.
“Learning what?”
“That someone threatened to leak your social security number.”
“He never actually had it,” he said with a shrug. “He had my phone number, which he used to call me.”
Jess snorted. “What a melon.”
“Besides,” Kai said. “You would have freaked out.”
“Well, yeah,” she sputtered. “But I could have helped.”
Kai smiled at her gently. “No, Amy, you couldn’t have. But it’s all fine now, I promise. Like I said, that’s why I have so many meetings with my lawyers.”
That really didn’t make her feel any better, like at all. But then Jess elbowed Amy to get her attention.
“Don’t stress,” she said. “You’re one of us now. We’ll teach you the ropes. It’s not that bad, honestly.”
Amy didn’t know what to say to that, so she just smiled gratefully. Because the truth was, she wasn’t really one of them. This was all temporary, all pretend. At the end of this trip, she would go back to her normal life without the fear of men with cameras popping up wherever she went, without the fear of defamation hanging over her head. There was a whole lot of fear that she wouldn’t have to carry that was a part of the others’ lives. And that thought was terrifying in a whole different sort of way.
Despite the mental exhaustion of the day, or maybe because of it, Amy laid wide awake in bed that night, miles away from any semblance of sleep. Kai, however, had passed out pretty much the second his head hit the pillow, sleeping on the sofa without a care in the world.
Amy watched him sleeping there, his chest rising and falling slowly, the few scattered lines that had started appearing on his face smoothed out and worry free. He looked so peaceful that she hadn’t been able to look away.
Something he had said earlier kept bugging her, and it wasn’t the part about paparazzi not only taking his photograph but also wanting to commit literal, federal crimes against him. It was when he had said that he hadn’t told her because there was nothing she could have done to help. Amy could have helped, though… She might not have been able to do anything about the legal side of things, and she certainly couldn’t have stopped any of the threats or the blackmail. But she could have been there for him. She could have reassured Kai, told him that it was all going to be okay. She could have given him a hug and made him dinner and distracted him for a bit. The man was obsessed with offering her help she didn’t want, but he was just as stubborn. Throwing money at a problem wasn’t the only way to help a situation.
Mostly she just hated how he’d gone through all of it entirely alone. Jason and Jess had each other, at least. They were two peas in a pod, a partner to lean on who understood the ins and outs of it all. Meanwhile, Kai was all alone.
All the glitz and glamor that surrounded this life of luxury suddenly seemed tarnished and dull, and it all left a bad taste in Amy’s mouth. Because people were weird and creepy, someone as sweet as Jess couldn’t go out of her house without having wild accusations thrown at her.
God, it was all making her brain turn circles on itself, her skull starting to thump with it all. She turned over in the bed, tearing her gaze away from Kai, who was still sleeping in blissful oblivion, in favor of staring at the closed door of the cabin. She closed her eyes, desperately wanting the thoughts to slow down just enough for her to drift off to sleep. It seemed unlikely that it was going to happen anytime soon, but in the meantime, Amy swore to herself that she wasn’t going to let Kai go through something like that all on his own. Never again.