Chapter Six #2
“He fought a bear,” the bartender snarks, winking at me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Marcus shift uncomfortably on his stool, his eyes narrowing on the bartender.
I start typing out another message, hoping to relay to Gannett that I’m a quick learner and a hard worker, when suddenly Marcus stops me.
“Just say what you want to say, and I’ll interpret for you… ”
My brows knit.
“Oh come on, just accept a kind gesture,” he snips, rolling his eyes.
I sigh dramatically, then sign, “I don’t know anything about lobster fishing, but I am a quick learner and I don’t shy away from hard work. I do know quite a bit about mechanics, if that helps at all.”
Gannett nods after listening to Marcus. “I think I could work with that. Do you think you could handle the early mornings? Also, do you get seasick? I swear to Christ, I don’t do puke. Even listening to someone retch gives me sympathy-nausea.”
I begin to sign quickly, “I can do mornings easily. My son is old enough now that he can get himself up and ready for his day without me hovering. As for seasickness? No. No issues there.”
To his credit, Marcus repeats everything word for word, interpreting like a pro. The thought of that suddenly niggles at me because there were more than a few times during my date with Lauren that I wondered if perhaps her mystery husband was Mr. Deeply-Closeted himself.
What the hell would the odds of that be though?
Well, it’s looking a lot more plausible as the minutes pass, I’ll tell you what…
Gannett looks like he's pondering that over for a second when the older gentleman from down at the docks—Wagner, I guess—pipes up, “You’re seriously going to sit there and stew on that, son? How long have you been whining about having no help on your boat? Sitting around waiting for Evan to come back is pretty useless at this point, don’t you think? ”
“Christ's sakes, yes, Dad!” he grumbles. “Give me a goddamn minute, would ya?! I'm working out the human resources logistics of it in my head because I just hired this other guy too!” He flaps his hand, gesturing at Marcus.
And, I’m sorry—he what?
If Gannett hires me, I’d be working right alongside Marcus?! Fuck my life entirely. That asshat knew I was trying to ask Gannett for a job, and he went ahead and offered to interpret for me? What the actual fuck?!
I start signing furiously, thanking Gannett for his time, but that I can’t accept a job from him after all. Backing out of the whole deal entirely before it was well and truly offered. Gannett is wide-eyed, trying to figure out what I’m blathering on about, when finally, Marcus stops me again.
Speaking over me, he says, “Caleb, listen. Just stop, alright? I’m trying to make things up to you here, so don’t not take the job because of me. If anything, and Gannett only wants one of us, it should be you. I have a job right now… even though I don’t particularly care for it.”
“Wait, wait—” Gannett cuts Marcus off. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t it be a good thing if I hired you both?
I know I’m not a stellar model of intellectualism, but, like, wouldn’t communication be easier if I just friggin’ offered you two the job?
I do need more than one guy, I just wasn't planning on securing two new crewmen on the same day.”
I puff out a breath, searching the ceiling for the right answer to that question, as if it’ll magically appear there. Yes, Marcus can interpret for me. No, I do not like that option though. But one thing is for certain: I need reliable income.
Fuckin’ wonderful.
Furthermore, why is Marcus trying to make things up to me? I bump into him just once recently—which is sort of shocking, actually, since Ternbay is so friggin’ small—and all the pain of his rejection stung. Then, the friggin’ guy has the audacity to accuse me of keeping secrets from him!
That pissed me right the fuck off. How hypocritical can he possibly be?
! The whole basis for our breakup was because the idiot kept so many secrets from me!
His whole life was one big lie! He was running around with me while he had a baby and a family at home, for crying out loud.
On top of that, he was too petrified of anyone finding out he’s queer, so he broke things off with me instead.
Coward. It’s the cowardliness and the lies that fucking pissed me off. Still piss me off, I guess, even though our split worked out for the best. I met Aaron, and I found true love—even if that ended tragically, I still had it.
I wouldn’t give back a second of the too-short time my husband and I had together for anything.
Apparently, I must have been too up in my head and missed most of everything going on around me because suddenly, I’m startled back to my surroundings.
“Wee-Waters,” the bartender grunts at Gannett.
“Let the guy have a minute, would ya? He’s probably weighing out his options of whether or not he wants to pull up your slack for a living… ”
Gannett narrows his eyes at the grump behind the bar. “Masterbaterson, I’d like to see you go out on that boat with me for a day, and then try to come back and tell me how much I slack off.”
“No need,” he retorts. “You don’t shut up about it every night here afterwards. Besides, I would puke out on that boat.”
Gannett snorts. “Gordy, you’ve lived on the coast more than half your life, how the hell am I just now finding out you get seasick?”
“Because not everyone is an over-sharer like you.”
“I do not overshare.”
“The fuck you don’t!” Gordy taunts. “Gannett, you seem to forget that your ass is in that stool every goddamn day. I practically know what you dreamt about last night at this point.”
Gannett appears to ponder that for a second. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t tell you about how I managed to fall into a giant pit of rubber chickens. Dude, it was so realistic, I swear I even heard their chorus of vile kazooing when I woke up…”
Gordy pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head, exasperated.
Then, he gives me an apathetic look. “It’s okay if you want to turn down the job offer.
I can take down your number and shoot you a text or something if anything opens up here.
Give it a month or so, and something usually pops up. ”
Marcus interjects, “Caleb, no. Come on, seriously? Can I just have a minute to explain myself, and maybe you’ll change your mind.”
Marcus hops off the stool and heads over to a more private table, encouraging me to follow.
I throw up my index finger, hopefully indicating to Gannett to hold on a minute.
He nods, before turning back to Gordy to continue whatever bickering—well, maybe-bickering, I guess.
It actually kinda looked like they were engaging in some fucked up version of flirting to me, if I’m being honest.
I slump down in the chair across the table from Marcus, and he lifts his hands and begins signing to me.