Chapter Six
Six
Heidi and I made it down to breakfast in record time.
Neither of us wanted to spend a second longer than necessary in the bunk-bedroom, and we were up, showered and dressed in twenty minutes.
I decided on my red trouser suit with the big sleeves, which I realised was a mistake almost the second we left the room.
Heidi had already relaxed into holiday mode in a flowery halter-neck and oversized shades while I stood out like a sore thumb, literally, as neither cruiser nor crew.
The dining room was mayhem, with an overflowing buffet full of every possible type of breakfast: fresh fruit, pancakes, waffles with bacon and syrup, cheeses and meats with an array of different crackers.
So much food and so many people. Waiters buzzed from table to table, serving, clearing, pouring coffee and delivering freshly whipped eggs.
I hoped we could at least enjoy our breakfast without bumping into the others, as I sidled over to the juice bar, but no such luck.
Leo was already up and at ’em, and three ahead of me in the queue.
Heidi’s phone started bleating and she tutted loudly at the screen, then put on a big smile to answer. ‘Darling! How are you?’ she cooed, walking off.
‘I’ll take a kiwi refresher,’ the man in front of me said, as I hung back.
‘Coming right up. And for you, miss?’ The juice man was small and wiry, with a sharp nose and an oversized apron.
‘Orange and pineapple crush, please,’ I mouthed.
‘Sorry, can you speak up?’ the man called, causing Leo to turn.
His face lit up when he saw me and I couldn’t help but reflect his good vibes. He was still annoyingly handsome; there was no getting away from it.
‘The tropical crush,’ I stammered, giving him a professional nod and standing up straight.
‘Good morning,’ he said with a shiny smile, gesturing for the people behind him to go ahead. ‘Day one and all’s well, eh? How did you sleep?’
I didn’t want to have to speak to him, but two weeks in this situation was going to be impossible otherwise. I’d just keep it short. ‘Terrible,’ I said, rolling my shoulders. ‘I feel like I’ve slept in a drawer. You seem bright and breezy, though.’
‘As breezy as a crisp packet blowing in the wind.’ Leo laughed, then yawned, looking like a dishevelled little boy.
‘Sorry. I’m shattered. The last time I bagsied top bunk was twenty years ago at cub camp, and I was only four foot tall.
I just about fit in the bloody thing. Zach gave up in the end and slept on the floor. ’
I relaxed a little at his honesty. Maybe he wasn’t trying to catch me out. ‘It was pretty bad, wasn’t it? The ceiling was an inch from my face. I was scared to go to sleep in case I sat up in the night and knocked myself out.’
‘There must be somewhere else we can sleep,’ Leo said. ‘I’ll try Brooke again later.’
‘We could all pile in with her,’ I said, sassily. ‘The presidential suite is plenty big enough for all five of us and being able to sleep would be far more conducive to thinking up pitch ideas.’
‘Your crush?’ the barman said, pointedly.
‘No?’ I looked at him confused, then at Leo, who cracked up, his eyes twinkling with mischief. He was obviously a morning person. ‘Oh, right. Thanks.’ I took my juice feeling like a right idiot.
‘Shall we sit together and exchange ideas?’ Leo teased.
‘Sorry, no can do. Heidi wants to catch up privately,’ I said, piling my plate with croissants and jam while Leo opted for fruit.
Ugh. A healthy morning person at that. He was too much.
We carried our trays to the coffee station and then over to the seating area, where I scanned every table for Heidi. Where the hell had she gone?
‘Good morning sir, madam, table for two, is it?’ The waiter ran on ahead before we could answer, then waved us over.
It seemed churlish not to follow when everywhere was so busy.
Heidi had disappeared and I couldn’t hog a table for two on my own.
‘Here we are. Last table by the window,’ he said, flapping out the napkins and laying them on our laps.
‘Wonderful, thank you,’ Leo said, palming him ten euros.
‘My pleasure, sir. Enjoy your breakfast.’
He was such a smooth operator. That would probably get him the best table every morning for the entire trip.
‘Alright, moneybags. Tipping already?’
‘Always,’ he said, turning serious. ‘I’ve got an American mindset when it comes to service, and I like to share the wealth.’
I nodded. ‘Very noble of you. Must be nice to have it in the first place.’
His smile faltered for a millisecond and then the mask returned as he chopped a slice of watermelon into chunks.
‘Listen, Kat, I’m glad we’ve got a few minutes to ourselves, as I thought maybe we should talk sooner rather than later.’
‘About what?’ I said, feigning ignorance.
‘You know what. There’s no way we can avoid each other the whole time we’re on this ship so let’s get the Engelman chat out of the way.’
‘Let’s not,’ I said, immediately clamping up.
He frowned. ‘Really? Why?’
‘It’s in the past, let’s just forget about it.’
‘Can’t we please at least have a conversation? Please? I didn’t ever get chance to explain or apologise… or anything, and I really want to. I need to.’
‘What’s to explain? We both know what happened. You presented our ideas to David Engelman as if they were your own and you got the job. You waited for your chance and the second I was off sick, you took it. Have I missed anything?’
‘Yes. Just about everything. It wasn’t like that at all.’
‘Well, you would say that. It’s my fault really, I was na?ve and stupid, hoping they might find us both a job at the end, and you were just looking out for yourself.’
He looked miserable, but I didn’t care. Even talking about it after all these years upset me. ‘Am I allowed to tell you my side or are you wedded to the version you’ve made up?’
‘It’s a little late for your side now, don’t you think? About ten years too late.’
‘No, I don’t think. It’ll never be too late as far as I’m concerned.’ He was staring at me in disbelief and frustration. ‘I tried to explain at the time, for weeks… months, but you wouldn’t hear it.’
‘What was the point? The decision had already been made.’
He sighed. ‘Come on, Kat, we need to clear the air, otherwise every day of this cruise will be a misery – for both of us.’
‘We’re not here together, Leo, we’re on opposite teams, remember? We don’t even need to talk to each other.’
‘You know what I mean. We’ve both seen the schedule.’
I took a sip of my juice and stared through the kaleidoscope of salt smatterings on the window. Miles of ocean in every direction. What if we sank? I flicked my elastic band and closed my eyes. I am safe, I am safe, I am safe.
‘Are you OK?’ Leo asked, interrupting my inner spiral and bringing me back to the table.
‘Yes, fine,’ I said, quickly, pulling apart a croissant and dolloping it with jam. Maybe having ‘the conversation’ would be a good distraction from the worry of being eaten by a shark. I set my knife down and sat back. ‘Go on then. Say what you have to say.’
‘Right. Thank you, I will.’ He took a mouthful of coffee then paused. His anxious eyes were back. ‘Firstly, I want to say I’m truly sorry for what happened. It was honestly outside my control.’
I was already raging and he’d barely started.
‘We’d worked for weeks on that presentation, and it was truly terrible luck that you happened to get sick on the day we had to show the bosses.’ He looked at me with big, sorrowful eyes. ‘I did ask if we could push it off a day or two, but you know how it is.’
‘Lucky old Leo. In the right place at the right time.’ I’d meant it to sound sarcastic, but it came out caustic and bitter.
‘Please don’t. You’re acting like I deliberately sabotaged you, but it was no one’s fault – we both worked hard for that job and the stars aligned for me on the day.
It could just have easily been the other way around.
’ He looked genuinely devastated about the whole situation.
And it was true, what could he have done, really?
It wasn’t his fault I was off sick, or that PR is a man’s world and men like to hire men.
‘Honestly, it wasn’t easy for me either, you know.
I didn’t want to present without you, but I had to. I made it clear it was both our work.’
‘But out of sight, out of mind, eh?’
‘I get it. You were disappointed, just like I would have been if you’d got the job. Which is genuinely what I thought was going to happen – you were much more talented than me. You probably still are.’
I snapped the elastic band again, this time out of habit. ‘Yeah, but you looked the part, with your big quiff and expensive suits – which is half the battle in PR.’
‘It was luck of the draw; I honestly believe that. We were both qualified and more than capable – either one of us could have got that job. It just so happened it was me.’
What else was there to say beyond that? He was so measured and mature – but then, maybe I’d be more confident and reassured, if I’d got the job.
‘There you are!’ Heidi rushed over interrupting us in a frazzle, dismissing Leo with a nod.
‘Morning,’ he said, biting into an apple.
‘Sorry, Kat, I’m not going to make it to aqua aerobics.’ Heidi waved her phone at me, as if no further explanation was needed.
‘Why? What’s happened?’
‘The cat’s been rushed to the vet and Sam is a wreck.’
‘Righttt,’ I said, not clear how that gave her a free pass.
‘I need to be on FaceTime for the appointment,’ she said, as if it were obvious. ‘Penfold needs his mummy, Kat. Have some humanity!’
I caught Leo’s eye as he smirked into his apple then instantly regretted it as I tried not to laugh.
She was losing it. Or lying. But fair play.
I didn’t much fancy jumping around in a pool with lots of strangers either.
‘Of course he does. Say no more.’ I’d sit out the next activity and let her take one for the team. Two could play that game.
***
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been to an aerobics class, or in a swimming pool for that matter, and I was not looking forward to a combination of the two.
Aqua aerobics was for old ladies and toddlers, not for thirty-something Londoners.
But if I was worried about my street cred, it was nothing compared to how the boys must have been feeling.
I spotted them limbering up on the other side of the pool, and without Heidi to hang out with, headed over for moral support.
‘Ready for it?’ I asked, as I put my beach bag down and whipped off my sarong. I’d picked up the wrong sized swimming costume in my pre-cruise panic-shop but apart from a few wrinkles in the middle, you’d never know.
‘I was born ready,’ Leo said, lowering his froggy goggles. ‘Bring it on.’
‘Can’t wait,’ Zach scowled. ‘Heidi’s binned it off, then? Course she has. She’s far too important to be swimming with the plebs.’
‘No shade please, her cat’s not well, so I’m representing us both.’
The music was already pumping, and Dahlia stood in front of the pool clapping in time to the beat.
‘Aqua aerobics is starting in FIVE MINUTES,’ she hollered, holding her hand in the air, then dropping into a lunge.
The pool shimmered turquoise as people catapulted in from all sides.
Diving, bombing and slithering in to get involved in the session.
It was a huge relief as I’d been worried it might just be the three of us, while everyone watched us, cringing.
Zach and Leo did a running jump, while I lowered myself into the icy water with a shudder.
I’d been sitting in the sun too long and had overheated.
Several lines had already formed in front of the ‘teacher’, so we had to join at the back and tread water in the deep end.
‘Good morning!’ Dahlia shouted, whooping as the music got louder. ‘Shall we do this?’
She didn’t wait for an answer before starting the routine, stamping her feet and waving her arms to ‘Wake me Up’ by Avicii while everyone copied the moves. Except me. My legs were too short to stamp, and I needed my arms underwater to stay afloat.
My swimming costume was now ballooning around my boobs, and I sneaked a glance at Leo and Zach who were enthusiastically following the actions, switching from the wave to draw a loop above their heads as they turned.
Fifty pairs of eyes were suddenly on me as the class did a slow one-eighty, while I thrashed about like a cat in a bath and nearly lost a tit.
‘You alright there, Kat?’ Leo called, as I tucked myself back in and bobbed through the bouncing bodies to the shallow end.
It was impossible to answer him without getting a gob-full of water, so I kept moving, relieved when I could finally feel the floor beneath my feet.
I stood next to a woman who was taking it very seriously and did a half version of her movements for the rest of the class, grooving to the rhythm in my own little world.
There was something surreal about exercising in a pool, on a boat, in the middle of the ocean and I wondered if there was anything pitch-able in it.
It was the epitome of dance as if no one is watching.
We were all doing something we could never have imagined, with people we’d never met before and were unlikely to see again.
Although – wasn’t that the same as every holiday anyone ever went on?
We launched into star jumps and I could see Leo at the back diligently aerobic-ing while Zach sat on the edge of the pool taking photos, his muscles flexing as he tied his hair back and grabbed his vape.
The pair of them seemed so cool and focused, while Heidi FaceTimed her cat and I nearly drowned in the pool.
We needed a much tighter game plan if we were going to storm this pitch.
Amplify were not behaving like the underdog in any sense of the word and we couldn’t afford to let them get in our heads – or more importantly, Brooke’s ear.
This account should be ours to lose, but it didn’t feel like that anymore.
We had a fight on our hands, and if that meant playing dirty to win, then that was precisely what we’d have to do.