Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
CASH
May
My yawn overtakes me as I step out of the house. Which means my eyes are closed as I shut the door. I nearly fall on my ass when I open them because Lie is standing in front of me with a big smile.
“Morning!” he says. “Happy first day of work!” Before I can respond, he thrusts a to-go cup into my hand.
“Now you’re an adult in the working world, which means it’s time to grow an unhealthy addiction to coffee.
You must get through six sips—real sips.
By then, you’re committed, and you’ll end up drinking the rest of it to determine if you actually hate it or love it.
By the end, you won’t have an answer and will need another cup to continue the evaluation. That’s how the addiction starts.”
He has far too much energy for me this morning. “Dick was good last night, huh?” I ask and then scowl at the coffee. I’ve tried coffee many times, but it has to have something in it. A lot of something. Basically drown out the coffee flavor entirely.
Lie flashes me a wide smile that’s filled with white teeth. “I mean, I haven’t ridden it yet, but yeah. It’s good.”
Even knowing I opened the conversation in this direction, my cheeks flush anyway. I hide it by taking a sip. Ew. There are not nearly enough other flavors in this thing to cover up the coffee taste.
Lie’s giving me an approving smile. “Come on. I brought the newsletter to take your mind off your nerves on the way to work.”
“I’m not nervous,” I say as we cross my driveway.
“Really?”
Another sip of disgusting coffee. Yep, still hate everything about this. I link my arm through Lie’s and think about it. “Okay, I’m a little nervous,” I admit.
“It’s okay,” Lie says and brings the newsletter up.
Clearing his throat dramatically, he begins to read it to me.
“So, Mr. Alvarez says that Miss Jenny keeps planting flowers in his front yard and the colors clash with his siding. Miss Jenny is playing ignorant and claims she has no idea how those flowers keep getting there. Mr. Alvarez has a video of her planting flowers during the night.”
“Why is he recording his front yard at night?” I ask and take another sip of coffee. My mouth tastes gross.
“Some people are dedicated to having a reason to gripe,” Lie says, eyes already scanning down the newsletter for the next story.
“Ohh, there’s a note here that three managers have now quit following Laiken’s refusal of the managerial job.
Bobbi Jorkins says that she’s exhausted from the three a.m. phone calls from Taylor.
” He pauses and then looks at me. “How long do you think it’ll be before all the positions are vacant? ”
Last week, Laiken was nominated for the bar management position at the town meeting. For the first time in all of Kala’s history, he refused. He said he wasn’t interested in working under Taylor’s incessant micromanaging.
That led to a crapshoot for the rest of the meeting, where people were resigning from their managerial positions left and right.
I guess I hadn’t realized that it was serious, but it’s in the newsletter.
Our weekly newsletters might largely be gossip, but they do spread the news.
All the news. Whether it’s the color of Mr. Winterbacher’s underwear that was found floating in Mr. Dennington’s pool or the managers quitting their jobs.
“I kind of feel bad for Taylor,” I say and take another sip of my coffee.
“I picture him at home, curled up on his bed, wrapped in a blanket and crying. Do you think Jackson is standing at the end of the bed with his hands on his hips or sitting beside him, running his fingers through Taylor’s hair, cooing to him that it’ll be okay? ”
“Ah! I bet they have some Daddy/little dynamics!” Lie says with exuberance.
We stop long enough to lock up our phones in the lockers and make it through security before our conversation continues. That’s too much time to allow Lie to build on this new idea.
“Can you see it? I bet Taylor is in a diaper and onesie with a pacifier in his mouth, big crocodile tears in his eyes like it’s not all his fault.”
I scowl because now I can’t get that vision out of my head. Ick.
Lie cackles. “You’re thinking about it. That’s gold.”
Shoving him, I demand, “Keep reading.”
He reads the contents of the newsletter to me right up until our feet touch the docks on Anapos, where the tour boats are docked. I’ve finished my coffee by then, and I understand exactly what Lie meant. By the last sip, I no longer hated it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was good, but… was it?
He’s smirking at me as I throw the coffee cup away. Likely knowing that he’s right. I glower at him.
“Thanks for walking me to work and distracting me from my nervous energy.”
Lie kisses me and then wraps me in a bear hug. “I’m really excited for you, and I hope you love it. I’ll be on your first tour, so you have a friendly, pretty face to look at if you get nervous.”
I roll my eyes, but honestly, the anxiety in my gut releases at his words. “You’re the best. Thanks.”
“You were there the first day of my first, like, eight jobs,” he says, “And while I wasn’t excited about them, having you there really did allow me to feel how much I hated working them. I hope to give you the same clarity, but you know—of a different kind.”
Laughing, I shove him gently and turn for the office door. It’s propped open. Maybe for me? Or is it always open first thing in the morning as employees show up to work?
Onyx was right. They’d hire more people for the boat tours in late spring.
Navy called me on the last day of April for an interview, and I was offered the tour guide job two days later.
I spent the last week memorizing all the safety videos and layouts of the boats.
Our tours. All the facts on the tour route.
Honestly, most of it I already kind of knew. Some of it was common sense. There were very few things I hadn’t known, and those things I obsessed over until I was dreaming of them.
I don’t see Lie when Jared leads me from the building ten minutes later. I know he’s around. He said he’d be on my first tour, and I believe him.
Jared shows me around the boat and tells me to get familiar with it. By the time I think I could navigate it with my eyes closed, there’s a line of tour guests on the dock. Jared hands me the scanner.
“Ever used one of these before?” he asks, and I watch him tap on the boat’s name and then the tour time. A list of scheduled guests pops up. He taps the ‘receive’ button, and the camera turns on with a box guide.
“I haven’t,” I answer, “but it looks intuitive. I scan their bracelets in the box?”
Jared grins. “Yes. Ready to try it?”
“Yep.”
Jared leaves me at the open railing at the side of the boat and steps through to address the crowd gathered.
“Welcome to the Star of the Sea,” he yells loudly, and the crowd quiets.
I try to find Lie in the line, but I don’t see him.
“My name is Jared. This is Cash. We’re going to check you in.
You must be wearing your bracelet at all times.
” He lifts his hand with his striped bracelet.
“Once on board, find your seats. Do not stand on the seats. Do not stand on the railings. Do not push anyone. Do not trip anyone. Do not grab anyone’s asses as they walk by unless you have express permission to do so.
Do not hit on the staff unless they hit on you first. Do not jump off the side of the boat, and do not lie on the deck. Any questions?”
The line stares at him. Mostly amused. Some laughing. There are a few concerned faces.
Jared joins me again and waves the first person forward. They lift their wrist, and I scan it. His profile pops up with a picture of his face that I can match to the man in front of me. Beside his image is his preferred name in large print.
Below that is his full name in smaller print, his status on Kala, and the number of tickets he purchased.
“Welcome aboard, Rich,” Jared says. “Find a seat and enjoy the view while we get ready.”
I repeat this interaction three dozen times, noting all the different things that pop up on the screen as they come up.
For instance, Lie’s name in large print is Lie, and his full name—Elijah Cain—is below it.
There are symbols that some people have, but so I don’t put them on the spot, I try to remember them all.
When the boat begins pulling away from the dock, I remain by Jared as he gives the safety spiel, repeating what he’d already yelled and adding a long list of other things.
Some of them are ridiculous, but I imagine they made the list because someone at some point thought it was a good idea to try it.
Lie is the last one off the boat, and he gives me a big hug. We take half an hour between tours to clean the boat of any trash. Jared remains at my back as I check in the next tour. He doesn’t say anything at all. Just observes.
I don’t realize that I’m not really looking at faces until Onyx’s name pops up on my screen. My stomach jumps, and my attention snaps up to meet his beautiful blue eyes. For just a second, I can’t remember what I’m supposed to say.
Shaking myself out of it, I quickly say, “Welcome aboard, Onyx. Find a seat and enjoy the view while we get ready to set sail.”
“I already have the best view,” he responds as he steps on board.
My cheeks flush as my gaze gets trapped in his. I feel dumb and sway a little by the time I turn back around. It takes me a heartbeat to break myself out of it and finish the line.
The last person we let on has a little symbol, and I show it to Jared. “What does this mean?”
He nods and taps it. A new screen pops up, and I find a misdemeanor.
“It means he has a restriction, but it doesn’t affect his presence here.
If it did, he wouldn’t have been able to schedule a tour, but sometimes it’s good to see what their restriction is in case it’s something we should be aware of.
Drunken harassment of staff. Since this isn’t a tour with a bar on board, it’s not something that we need to be too cautious about. ”
He taps out of the screen and hits another arrow, so we’re looking at our list of guests.
“It’s a good thing to see if everyone who scheduled a tour is here, and it looks like they all made it, but from this screen, you can also see if there are any alerts or restrictions attached to them. See this one?”
I poke the little black dot, and the man’s profile opens.
I click the dot inside his profile, and the alert comes up.
“This is the reverse of what the last was. He reported a complaint against another guest. That number is attached to the other guest. My understanding is that if that other guest was scheduled for this tour, the tour wouldn’t become available for this person.
The system avoids allowing them to do the same activities when it can.
It works in reverse as well. If they were already scheduled for this tour and the person also wanted to be on the tour, this time slot wouldn’t show up as available for that person. ”
“That’s cool. I didn’t realize we did that.”
Jared shrugs one shoulder. “There are a lot of thoughtful and relatively non-invasive safety procedures in place that no one truly thinks about, and in most cases, they don’t even know about, unless and until a situation where it comes up is presented.
There are a lot of fail-safes like this, though. It’s pretty cool, as you said.”
Jared tugs my arm, and I follow him in closing up the railing and getting everyone situated. I try very hard not to stare at Onyx the entire trip.
For my first day, I worked for six hours and did four tours.
I’m not sure I even saw the tours or noted where we were going.
Not because watching our guests was truly challenging, but there was just so much to learn and do.
It wasn’t difficult, and having memorized all the material beforehand helped, but it was still overwhelming.
Not to mention, it’s the first time in my entire life I’ve spent the bulk of the day on my feet.
By the time I get home, I’m ready to collapse.
I force myself to go through the shower to get the sweat, sunscreen, and saltwater spray off me before heading to my room, eyelids heavy and trying to close.
I stop in my tracks when I open my door and find Onyx sitting on my floor in front of my bed.
Just as it had when his profile popped up on my screen at the boat, my heart stops, and my breath catches.
Then I remember that my door is wide open and quickly step inside to close it, locking it behind me.
“What are you doing in here?” I hiss, glancing quickly at the window. The curtain is drawn so my brother can’t look into my room and find him.
He grins. “Waiting for you.”
That shouldn’t make my stomach dance, but god, it does! I toss the towel I’d been using to dry my hair onto the back of my desk chair and practically collapse at his side. Onyx wraps his arms around me, and I let him have my entire weight.
“I’m exhausted,” I warn.
Onyx kisses the top of my head. He tugs me sideways, and we end up lying on the floor. “How was your day?”
I yawn again. “It was… a lot. Good, but a lot.”
“Was it everything you thought it would be?”
“Ask me again in a week. I think I need to get more comfortable in my position before I can truly answer that question, but I’m excited to go to work again tomorrow. Even if I feel like I haven’t slept in a month. How do people work all day, every day?”
He laughs. “Just imagine what forty-hour workweeks are like.”
I wince. “I think I’m happy to start with twenty-four hours.”
Onyx hums. I’m almost asleep when I realize he’s humming a tune. It might as well be a lullaby because it puts me to sleep.