In the Same Boat

Chapter 24

SAMMIE

When my phone alarm goes off, I briefly forget where I am. Then reality sets in.

Mum and I came back to the cabin, after dropping the bomb that we were flying home later today.

I started packing my case, but I could tell that something was on Mum’s mind.

She said she needed to speak to Hank, so she left me to it.

I packed a bit but I was so tired I decided to rest my eyes – ensuring I set my phone alarm, so I didn’t oversleep and miss my flight.

Waking, I notice that my mum must have come back, got in bed and fallen asleep too.

‘Mum,’ I say, rocking her gently. ‘Mum…’

She’s sleeping so deeply – I think last night took it out of us all.

‘Mum?’

She stirs awake.

‘Morning, darling,’ she says – then reality sets in for her too. Her smile only falters for a second. ‘We’d better finish packing.’

‘Yeah,’ I say, stretching my back, trying to release some tension that probably isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable.

Mum stands up, brushes the creases from her outfit, then starts gathering up her things from her bedside table.

She doesn’t say much. It was like this before our nap too.

Moving. Folding. Packing. Picking up something else.

Doing the same again. Zipping. Unzipping.

Refolding something that didn’t need folding in the first place.

From a distance, it looks like efficiency, but I think we both know that it’s avoidance.

I didn’t give my mum a reason for leaving, not really. I tried to style it out as work, but she could see I was upset, that it was about more than that. I suspect she knows the general outline, even if she can’t see the whole picture.

‘I booked the taxi to the airport, before I fell asleep,’ Mum says, still not looking at me. ‘We need to leave by four.’

‘Okay, thanks,’ I reply.

We should talk – I should tell her, but it’s probably best saved for the plane. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway. Planes are excellent places for difficult conversations because nobody can storm off – plus, there is usually booze, which helps.

I sit up slowly and pull my knees to my chest. The cabin looks different now that we’re leaving.

Smaller, somehow. Less charming. The little porthole that seemed cute two days ago doesn’t look as bright and twinkly, it’s just blue – which is exactly how I feel.

Leaving is absolutely the right thing for me to do – I’m just not sure it’s right for Mum.

‘You really should stay,’ I say eventually.

Mum pauses with a pair of sandals in her hand.

‘No, you know what, I think it’s time for me to go home too, I think the holiday is officially over…’

‘It doesn’t have to be for you,’ I say casually. ‘You don’t have to leave because of me. I can handle my own drama. You deserve to have a good time, to stay with Hank.’

‘It’s fine,’ she says plainly.

‘Is it fine?’ I ask, because it doesn’t sound fine.

I pull myself to my feet, to walk around the bed and look her in the eye, but something catches my eye out of the cabin window. Or rather, nothing catches my eye out of the cabin window. I can’t see anything but the sea.

‘Mum…’

She looks up from her suitcase.

‘Yes?’

‘Are we…’

My voice trails off.

‘What’s wrong, darling?’ she asks, sensing something has changed.

I hurry over to the window, to look out, and, yep. We’re at sea.

No marina, no other yachts, no nothing.

Mum comes over to see what I’m looking at. When she realises, she gasps. Then she takes me by the hand, mum mode fully activated, and leads me out of the cabin, to see what’s going on.

As we pass the larger windows, I see the open water stretching out next to us, bright and endless under the afternoon sun, with no sign of land in sight.

‘What’s going on?’ I ask her.

‘Oh, no,’ she says – to herself, I think. ‘Oh, no, no, no…’

Mum bursts out onto the deck, my hand still in hers, and the wind hits us immediately, warm and salty and completely unexpected.

We’re moving, which is a relief – or is it?

I look around, taking in the emptiness. I can see Monaco, if I squint, a faint, glittering outline on the horizon.

And then there’s Hank, standing behind the controls. He hurries over to see us.

‘Hank!’ Mum shouts.

For one silly second he looks genuinely pleased to see us, as though we’ve wandered out on deck to admire his sailing or whatever.

‘Afternoon!’ he calls.

‘Why are we at sea?’ Mum asks, and her voice has gone very calm, which gives me flashbacks to when I was a kid, and I knew I was in big trouble for something.

Hank glances briefly at the water, as if he’s checking something.

‘Beautiful day for it,’ he replies.

‘You know we have a flight to catch,’ I point out.

He winces.

‘Yes. About that…’

Words and tone you never want to hear from a man steering the yacht you’re on away from civilisation.

‘Hank…’ Mum says.

‘I thought, before you left, you might like to nip out to sea, properly, to see the sights,’ he explains. ‘But I appear to have lost the key.’

‘You’ve lost the key?’ Mum repeats back to him.

‘Unfortunately, yes,’ he replies, shrugging like it’s just one of those things.

‘How do you lose the key?’ I ask.

He just shrugs again.

‘It was there the last time I looked…’

‘You don’t have a spare?’ I check.

‘Usually, yeah… but I can’t seem to find it.’

‘You’ve lost both keys?’ Mum shrieks.

Yep, that’s when you know you’re really, really in trouble.

Before Hank can answer, the door slides open behind us and Nico appears on deck, pulling a T-shirt properly over his head, hair tousled like he’s been asleep.

He looks at me first, then Mum, then his dad, then the open water all around us.

His expression changes as he realises what’s going on.

‘Dad,’ he says slowly. ‘What are you doing?’

Hank exhales, long and slow, as though he’s trying to compose himself. But then he just starts ranting instead.

‘Everybody was leaving,’ Hank blurts. ‘Just like that, both of them, going home, and I knew I needed to do something to stop them, so… I drove us out here… just to talk… and I’m not sure where I put the key…’

I cock my head curiously.

‘I’m not sure a hostage situation is the way to win anyone over,’ I point out, angry and sarcastic.

‘I had to stop you running away,’ Hank replies. ‘Both of you. And you, Nico, you need to speak up, say how you feel…’

‘Dad, I’m with them. Taking us hostage isn’t the way to figure things out,’ he replies.

‘But no one is being honest,’ he says.

I notice Mum snort next to me.

‘Turn this boat around,’ she tells him calmly.

‘I can’t.’

‘Hank…’

‘I told you, I hid the key, and I can’t find it,’ he insists.

‘Dad…’

‘I just wanted everyone to stop and talk,’ Hank says. ‘That’s all.’

You can tell from the look on his face that he’s now realised this was a terrible plan. But he’s started it now, so he’s got to commit.

‘You two clearly really care about each other,’ he says, pointing at me and Nico.

‘Anyone can see it. You’re just scared, and I understand that, but sometimes when people are right for each other they have to go for it.

Take the risk. Stop waiting for everything to feel safe.

Come on, Chrissy, you agree with me, right?

These two are just scared. They need to seize the day. ’

Mum tuts out another little laugh.

‘Carpe diem?’ she says.

‘What?’ he replies.

‘I said: do you mean carpe diem?’ she repeats herself.

‘I… don’t know what that means,’ he confesses.

‘Why not, it’s the name of your yacht,’ Mum informs him. ‘Oh, no, sorry, it’s not your yacht, is it?’

Hank hangs his head guiltily.

‘What?’ I blurt.

‘He told me, when I went to see him, that he’s only been pretending this is his yacht,’ she informs me.

‘I just wanted to impress you both,’ he insists. ‘But I came clean to your mum, because I want us all to be honest, no more lies, that’s our only way through this.’

‘Hank, just stop. It isn’t working,’ she tells him.

‘Chrissy…’

‘No,’ she says gently, but firmly enough that even the wind seems to stop and listen. ‘We tried… but the plan failed.’

‘The plan?’ Nico checks.

I look at my mum. I don’t know what she’s talking about either.

There’s a look on her face, one that doesn’t make me think my afternoon is about to get better.

‘Time to be honest,’ she says, taking a deep breath. ‘Hank and I aren’t together.’

I just stare at her.

‘Sorry,’ Nico blurts. ‘What?’

‘We were pretending,’ she confesses.

‘Why on earth would you do that?’ I ask her.

‘To get you and Nico together,’ she admits.

I feel unsteady on my feet, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the sea.

‘What?’ I say.

Hank clears his throat.

‘When we met, at the singles night, the main thing we realised was how much the two of you had in common, how much you both needed your lives steering in the right direction, so we thought it might be nice to get the two of you together,’ he says.

‘You seemed like you had a real spark between you,’ Mum adds. ‘We knew it would work, but that you would both need a little… push.’

‘So, the idea started at the singles night,’ Hank continues. ‘But we talked properly, when I came round to yours, Sammie, and we thought if we spent time together, you two might have to do the same. You’re both too guarded. Too ready to assume things won’t work.’

‘And you both worry far too much about us,’ Mum says. ‘You need to think about yourselves.’

I place my hands over my cheeks.

‘So when you two were upstairs at my house, you were…’

‘Scheming,’ Mum says.

Oh my gosh, is that better or worse than if they were having sex? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think it might be worse…

‘I understand why you’re furious, but we could see something between you – and, look, we were right…’

I laugh – it’s more of a cackle, in fact.

‘Well,’ I say, and I can hear my voice getting brighter in the way it does when I am two seconds away from losing it, ‘since everyone’s being honest… Nico and I were pretending to be together too.’

Mum’s face falls.

‘W-w-what?’ Hank babbles in disbelief.

‘Yep. To get you two together,’ I continue, delighted to be able to prove them wrong, because how dare they manipulate us like this?

‘And then, once it became clear you were a thing, we started trying to get ourselves kicked off the holiday – because neither of us wanted to be here. Especially not with each other.’

Hank stares at Nico.

‘I cannot believe you.’

Nico lets out an incredulous laugh.

‘You can’t believe me?’

‘That you would lie to me like that…’

‘You lied to all of us,’ Nico reminds him. ‘And kidnapped us, so you can’t say anything.’

I think it’s safe to say that everyone is mad at everyone. There are no allies on this yacht, we’re all at war. I can only think of one thing to do – abandon ship.

I look around for life jackets, a dinghy, anything to get us off here – and that’s when I spot another yacht, not too far away. Close enough to make out people on deck – but not close enough for them to be able to tell we’ve – let’s say – broken down.

I know exactly what I need to do, the correct procedure for emergencies, so I cast my mind back to Hank’s safety briefing, run inside to grab the flare gun, then come back out and fire it.

The flare screams up into the blue sky, bright and red and dramatic – everything else aside, I enjoy it more than I should admit right now – and finally everyone stops bickering. We all look up, admiring it like a firework.

I hear shouting from the other yacht – they must have seen us. There’s no way they won’t come over and check on us.

‘Mum, we’re getting off this boat,’ I tell her. ‘Let’s go get our things.’

‘Okay,’ she says, as motivated to leave as I am.

Mum and I grab our things in silence, head back out to the deck with them and wait. The other yacht is coming, I just wish it were faster.

No one talks. No one says a word – I don’t think anyone knows what to say, to be honest. My priority is getting home, nothing else.

When the yacht pulls close enough, I see immediately that it is full of men – and absurdly buff ones at that, like superheroes here to save the day.

‘You all right?’ one calls across.

‘We’re broken down,’ I shout back, which is technically a lie about the yacht but it’s accurate in other ways. ‘And we have a flight to catch.’

‘Hop aboard,’ he says. ‘We’re heading back.’

‘Thank you, you’re lifesavers,’ I reply. ‘It’s just my mum and me – they’re staying here.’

‘Yeah, we’ll wait for help,’ Hank says. ‘Never abandon ship. Haha.’

He’s trying to be cool, to style it out, but it’s so awkward.

Nico helps bring Mum’s case to the edge before I can stop him. Our hands almost touch on the handle, and I pull mine back quickly, terrified to make contact with him.

We do exchange a look though. A quick glance that passes so much data between us – hurt, anger, confusion, maybe even a hint of something close to love.

‘Careful there, love,’ one of the men says, snapping me from my thoughts.

It sounds like they’re all English, northern, and if they’re not all from the same sports team or something, then I need to know what they’re pumping into the water in Yorkshire.

I climb across first, helped by two of the men, who lift me like I’m weightless. Mum follows next. Then Nico passes us our cases – well, he passes them to someone much stronger than us.

Back on the Carpe Diem – aka not Hank’s boat – Hank leans on the railings looking devastated. Nico stands beside him, his eyes on me.

I make a point to look away first. I don’t look back.

As the yacht pulls away I look at my watch. Still plenty of time before our flight; no reason for us to miss it now. Crisis averted. Well, mini-crisis averted. The bigger crisis is still raging.

Mum and I sit side by side on a cushioned bench as we pick up speed.

It turns out we’re crashing a stag do, and everyone on here is from a rugby team, based in Leeds.

Honestly, can you think of more of a dream come true?

Except I can’t enjoy it, because of the mess I’m in.

Still, I happily take the drink that they give me, and toast the groom-to-be with them.

Mum joins in too but the vibes are definitely in shambles.

We don’t speak for the whole journey. We just sit there, shoulder to shoulder, heading back towards land.

And back towards home.