Chapter 11 Did You Notice Something? #2
Matteo points at himself. “I’m being ridiculous?
No, no. You will not force me to lie anymore.
I’m sick of it. Captains, these two…” Sivan and I drop our heads; he’s gonna tell them everything.
Matteo smirks, obviously enjoying the reaction we just gave him.
“These two have been doing all kinds of things that they shouldn’t. ”
“Shut up, Matteo,” I say.
“Move, Vincent,” Sivan says. “I can’t take this anymore.”
“Enough,” my father warns. “Tomorrow is the inspection. The three of you will need to clear the air between you before that. I don’t care who did what.
Ray and I need to come up with a plan for Captain Slicer.
Didn’t realize when that messenger was spouting all that nonsense earlier, he implied that Captain Slicer plans to interrupt your captaincy ceremony. ”
“What messenger? What the hell is going on?” Matteo asks.
Right, he wouldn’t know, because he wasn’t there. Where the hell was he all day, anyway? He didn’t hear about any of the shit that happened in the port?
“Vincent, you need to take some time to explain to your first mate what happened. I told you earlier that you should have called him.”
“With all due respect, Captain, I told you I didn’t need to, because I had Sivan with me.”
Matteo’s mouth is wide open. “Oh, fuck this. First, he takes Harlow’s place and now mine? Open your fucking eyes, Vincent.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I ask. “There’s no difference between our fathers leaving their first mates behind when they’re doing things together. I don’t have to bring you everywhere.”
“Matteo,” my father says, stepping beside us.
“I’ve never seen you like this. Take a break, maybe go grab a drink.
I’ll send for you later and fill you in.
Your clothes are a mess, and you weren’t here until hours after I called for you.
I don’t know what’s going on but tomorrow is a big day.
I can’t have the three of you acting like this.
We have bigger problems than whatever this nonsense is. ”
He pats Matteo’s shoulder, then opens the door—quickly stepping back once it’s opened. The same small monkey from earlier is sitting in the doorway. It dashes inside past my father and climbs up Matteo’s side.
“What the hell? Is that Enzo?” Captain Crawford asks.
Matteo is making a confused face at the monkey but supporting it on his side.
“Captains, that monkey was in my room earlier. Where did it come from?” I ask.
My father walks closer to Matteo and looks closely at the monkey. Whack. The monkey just slapped my father in the face.
“It is Enzo! What are you doing on my ship?” my father asks the monkey.
Captain Crawford walks beside my father and leans in toward the monkey. The monkey screeches and smacks him in the face, too. “We have a big problem. He doesn’t go anywhere without this monkey.”
I don’t know what the hell is going on, or who Enzo belongs to.
“Captains, whose monkey is this?” Sivan asks. “Who are you talking about?”
The monkey screeches loudly looking at Sivan but tucks his face into Matteo’s side.
“This is Captain Slicer’s beloved pet, Enzo,” my father says.
Matteo pulls his face back from the monkey and places him on the floor. The monkey climbs right back up his side, while Matteo tries unsuccessfully to keep him down. “Get off. I don’t want a monkey climbing all over me.”
Sivan leans close to me and whispers, “Did you notice something?”
I didn’t notice anything other than the fact that the monkey is a menace, just smacking people left and right, but I don’t want to sound stupid. “Mmmhmm. But just to be sure, what did you notice?”
“You haven’t noticed anything?” Sivan asks me.
I shake my head at him. “No, honestly, I haven’t. But the monkey seems to hate everyone. I feel better knowing that.”
“Why is Enzo here?” Captain Crawford asks. “How did he get on the ship? Ten days… They saw his ship ten days ago, but we haven’t seen his ship anywhere near here. Where did he come from?”
Maybe he had a little monkey rowboat and made his way over because he wanted to warn our fathers of Captain Slicer’s plan. I laugh at myself; I really come up with the dumbest shit inside my head.
“No clue, but he wouldn’t be here without Captain Slicer,” my father says.
Matteo peels the monkey off his side and places him down. “I’m gonna get a drink like you suggested, Captain. Vincent, I’m sorry about earlier. The stuff with Harlow is getting to me, I’ll see you later.”
Once he leaves, Sivan nudges me. “We should go while we’re still allowed to.”
The two of us start walking toward the door. “Wait a minute, you two,” my father says, as the monkey chases after Matteo.
“Now did you notice it?” Sivan asks me.
I shake my head at him. “Just tell me later.”
My father pokes me in the chest. “You two don’t need to hang around right now.
Keep your phone on, and I’ll let you know when I need you back.
But whatever is going on between you and Matteo, fix it.
I do not want this spilling over into the inspection tomorrow.
He’s your brother; if he’s upset, you need to listen to him. ”
“Yes, Captain, even if my brother is being a dick.”
“Especially when your brother is being a dick,” my father says, patting me on the shoulder.
Sivan’s dad pulls him aside and whispers a few things that clearly aren’t meant for me to hear. He’s nodding along to whatever his father is saying.
We walk back toward my room in silence. I’m not sure what to do next.
Last night, no one suspected that we’d be sleeping in the same bed together, but after everything that just happened, our fathers may figure it out.
Not only that, but Matteo might tell them about us.
It’s probably strange, but I kind of want to talk to him to see what he was so mad about.
“Wait,” Sivan says. “Let’s go get something to eat, or we can go back to my ship. We can’t go in your room; she’ll just be watching us the entire time.”
“Ah, I hadn’t thought of that. Damn it, what am I supposed to do? Not sleep in my own room ever again? I can’t deal with this, Sivan.”
He turns my door handle, and we walk inside my room.
“Just grab stuff for tonight, and if you want to come back later, you can, if not, then you can stay the night with me. I am going to respectfully ask that I stay the night with you, either way. I’m uncomfortable with her having access to you while you’re sleeping.
She can just watch you whenever she wants, or sneak in. The thought alone makes me crazy.”
“Yeah, well, now she most likely heard you say that, so I doubt she’s going to try anything. I don’t want to sleep apart from you anyway. Even if there wasn’t a camera, I still would have tried to find a way to sleep in the same bed.”
“Same,” Sivan says, perching his chin on my shoulder from behind.
I start throwing things into my overnight bag. While walking around my bed, I toss the meeting suit and underwear he let me borrow into my hamper. “I’ll get your clothes back to you after they’re cleaned.”
“I’m not worried about it,” he says.
“Well, thanks for letting me borrow everything. Don’t forget to grab your sword, too,” I remind him.
“You can always use anything of mine.” Sivan grabs the sword I borrowed earlier from my dresser and slots it into the holder on his belt. “But hurry up, because I owe you for this afternoon, and I don’t know how much longer I can control myself.” He squeezes my ass, then gives it a light smack.
· · ·
Walking aboard Captain Crawford’s ship with Sivan feels strange to me.
I can’t explain it, but part of me feels more comfortable here, despite this not being my ship.
Maybe it’s just because I know Harlow isn’t watching me.
There aren’t many crew members on deck, they’re probably all at the pub.
I take one last bite of my chicken wrap, finishing it off.
“I’m glad we stopped at Andy’s, aren’t the wraps delicious? ”
Sivan nods, crumbling the wrapper in his hand.
He holds his hand out for my wrapper, then tosses them both in a trash can on the deck.
“Yeah, I love a good wrap. Our cook never makes them.” He looks around as we walk downstairs.
“There’s no one here. We can hold hands now,” he says, taking my hand in his.
“I like holding your hand,” I say. “I want to do it all the time.” I shake my head at myself remembering my own stupidity in my dad’s office. “Can you believe I touched your face like that earlier in the room with everyone?”
He smiles at me. “Yeah, good thing Matteo came in and made a scene.”
We walk inside of his room, which looks completely different than we left it this morning.
Different in the sense that it’s completely clean now.
I wonder if he’s bringing Tilly onto his ship, or if she’s staying here.
For my ship, Sheena had a few people in mind for housekeepers, I’m not sure who, but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow at inspection.
I sit on the edge of his bed, and Sivan stands in between my legs. “I feel like I should get a reward for not punching your brother earlier.”
I pat the front of his pants near his zipper. “You had a reward on the dock. Did you forget?”
He raises his eyebrows at my question and sits next to me. “Getting blown on the dock by my sexy secret boyfriend? I won’t ever forget that.”
I feel my cheeks warm at the word boyfriend. “My knees won’t forget it either.”
Sivan’s phone is loudly vibrating in his pocket, but he’s ignoring it.
“You don’t have to ignore your phone because of me. You can deal with whatever you need to.”
“Nah, you’re here with me, and before we left, my dad said he wouldn’t bother us for the rest of the night. Oh, he also told me to be careful leaving you alone with Matteo. He must have been picking up on the same things that I was.”
“Why should you be afraid to leave me alone with Matteo?”
“It’s nothing,” he says, brushing his thumb across my lower lip. “I do have a feeling that our dads already suspect what’s going on between us, though.”
“Why would you think that? Did your dad say something about it?”
Sivan pulls his boots off, then stands, quickly taking mine off, too.
He rubs the bottom of my foot, smiling at me, making me laugh.
Even through my sock it tickles. “Well…he didn’t say anything other than what I told you, but it was the way he said that he would make sure we could be alone tonight.
But, Vincent—the lube was open on the nightstand, and your clothes were on the floor when they came in.
You also rubbed my face earlier in front of everyone.
I don’t think it would take more than an average IQ to figure out that we’re sleeping together. ”
“Well, what should we do? Do we just tell them? If you think they already know, then what’s the sense in hiding it, at least from them?”
“At this point, I have no problem telling everyone. I’ll call my dad now and tell him if you want.
” He pulls his phone out for emphasis and tilts his head at the screen.
“Hmm. It’s a text from my dad, he said that the inspection was moved to one o’clock tomorrow, and your dad just decided with Matteo that the two of you will go out to lunch beforehand.
My dad said I’m not invited.” He gives me an uncomfortable smile, lying back onto his pillow. “This is stupid.”
“I don’t want to do that. Don’t I have any say in this?”
“If your dad doesn’t give you the order directly, then you don’t have to do it.
It sounds like he just wants you two to talk without me around.
I don’t like it, but you do need to talk to him.
You have to either clear the air or tell him he isn’t going to be your first mate.
I don’t know how hard it would be for you to remove him once you promote him.
If you go forward with the promotion and he outright rejects us, and then you don’t want him, I’m not sure how much of a process that would be. ”
I lie back on his bed holding my forehead. “Well, if we take on Captain Slicer’s ways, I could just throw him overboard.”
“True. I doubt you could do that, though. You’ve known him your whole life, I can’t imagine you tossing him off the ship, even with permission.”
I scoot beside him and tuck under his arm. He squeezes me once then kisses the top of my head. “I could maybe do it,” I say. “Well, if he hurt you, I could definitely do it.”
“Don’t think about that,” he says. “But you will need to meet with him tomorrow at some point, so you should have some kind of a plan for what you want to do.”
“I’ll decide in the morning. Right now, I just want to lay here with you.”