Chapter 3
3
The restaurant we go to that evening is on a terrace in the harbour – we can literally still see the Serendipity from here.
The sun is starting to set, the sky streaked with hot pink and peach.
Nico insists that we sit boy/girl/boy on the long table to get to know each other.
I end up with Adam on my left and Nico at the head of the table to my right.
Liam is at the other end, next to Kelsey.
Liz, the captain, didn’t join us – apparently she rarely goes out, preferring to stay in her cabin and watch Danish crime shows while FaceTiming her wife back in Canada.
The chef, a cute Italian man named Carlo, arrived just before we left, but said he was too tired from the journey to come out.
Nico orders jugs of margaritas for the table and then there’s a brief lull in the chatter and noise while we all study the menus.
‘How are you finding it so far?’ Nico asks me.
I’m trying to decide between a burger and salmon, but I glance up at him.
He’s still wearing his sunglasses, but he pushes them up onto his head to look at me.
His eyes are deep brown and twinkly, like he’s about to tell a joke.
I realise who he looks like – the footballer Neymar Jr. Alfie’s got a poster of him on his bedroom wall.
‘It seems great. Everyone is nice so far.’
He nods.
‘It’s a good crew, I think.
’ He raises his voice.
‘Apart from Louise!’
‘No one cares what you think,’ Louise calls back in a sing-song voice.
When I look down at her she’s smiling at her menu.
Nico is grinning. Interesting.
I decide on the salmon and fold my menu, reaching for one of the water bottles in the middle of the table.
Nico gently knocks my hand away and pours me a glass.
Is he flirting? I can’t tell if he’s flirting.
‘It’s super busy on charter,’ he tells me.
‘And knackering . But it’s fun.
’
‘How long have you been a yachtie?’ I ask him.
The word yachtie sounds silly coming out of my mouth, like I’m using slang I haven’t yet earned, but everyone else says it so I have to try it.
Nico screws up his face in thought.
‘Four years, I think? Maybe five now. Had to take time out for Covid, so it’s probably five actual years, four yachting years.
’
‘So what made you . . . ?’ I start to ask, but the waiter arrives to take our order and once he’s gone, Nico’s turned to talk to Ben on the opposite side of the table.
Adam is chatting to Louise and Liam has turned in his seat towards Kelsey, and he’s smiling at something she’s saying as she twirls one of her silver hoop earrings between her fingers.
The margaritas arrive and I grab the nearest jug before Nico can, and pour his, mine and Adam’s.
Adam catches my eye and flicks one eyebrow up, which makes me smile.
I can’t believe he booted me out earlier after getting me all worked up (I sorted myself out in the shower), but it’s sort of sexy too.
No one here knows we’re together.
There’s so many of us at home; I never get to have any secrets.
I kind of like it.
‘Do you know where we’re going after this?
’ I ask Nico, as I slide his drink towards him.
‘Not far,’ he says, gesturing vaguely.
‘Still in the marina.’ He does one of those chin-ups that boys do.
‘So what’s your deal?
Left some poor dude pining for you back in Liverpool?
’
‘No. Just many little siblings.’
‘No boyfriend?’
I shake my head.
‘No boyfriend back in Liverpool, no.’
Under the table, I feel Adam’s hand on my thigh and I roll my shoulders back, straightening in my seat.
‘How about you?’ I ask Nico.
‘No girlfriend?’
‘Nah,’ he says.
‘I’m a free spirit, me.
Can’t be tamed.’
I hear a snort from further along the table and I look up and see Louise scoffing.
‘It’s terrible, you know,’ Nico says pointedly in her direction.
‘Being judged. All I want to do is work hard, save money and keep myself to myself.’
Pretty much everyone laughs at that and even Nico can’t keep a straight face.
I gasp as Adam starts to bunch my dress in his hand, his fingers brushing up my inner thigh.
I pick up my wine to hide my face and focus on Nico’s story about his first job.
‘We were in the tender – me, the chef, the bosun – going to this beach,’ Nico’s saying.
‘The bosun was drinking, which I didn’t think was the best idea, but, like, I was new, I wasn’t going to argue.
’
Adam is talking to Louise.
I can’t hear what he’s saying, just the tone of his voice over the hubbub of the restaurant and other conversations.
His fingers are sliding higher, but painfully slowly.
Heat pools in my stomach and I want to reach down and hurry him up, but I make myself focus on Nico.
‘We went to this beach. Beautiful. He kept drinking.’
I hold my breath as Adam’s thumb hooks into my underwear.
‘On the way back, I can see we’re heading for this channel marker, right?
’ Nico says. He pauses to take a drink and I do the same.
‘I thought he must’ve seen it – it was red and they’re not small.
By the time I realised he hadn’t seen it, god knows how, I yelled out, but it was too late.
We hit it. We all went flying.
’
‘Oh my god,’ I say.
Adam’s fingers are brushing over me, curling and probing.
‘Right?’ Nico says. ‘He’s fuckin’ laughing.
I was . . . like, I was new, right?
I didn’t know if this was like an initiation type of thing, you know?
So I didn’t think I could throw my weight around or anything.
And he’s my boss, right?
’
I nod. I can’t speak.
Adam’s thumb is circling, the pressure perfect, his fingers curling exactly where I need them.
I squeeze my thighs together and try to regulate my breathing.
I can’t believe he’s just casually talking to Louise, not even looking, so he’s not going to know when I’m almost there and there’s no way I can do a When Harry Met Sally here in front of everyone, but I’m not going to stop him either.
‘The chef lost his shit,’ Nico says.
‘Literally had me sitting on the bosun on the way back. He was almost passed out, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but, you know, I’m still the new guy, sitting on the boss.
’
I widen my eyes, say ‘No. Wow. That’s a lot.
’
I’m leaning forward, my thighs trembling, feeling the pressure build almost to the point of no return when the food arrives, the waiter leaning between Adam and me to put our plates down on the table.
Adam pulls his hand away, pushes his chair back and says he’s just going to the bathroom.
I wonder if he wants me to follow, to finish what he started, but I don’t think my legs would even hold me up.
The club is only a few minutes’ from the restaurant, around the harbour.
I walk with Louise and Nico.
Adam is behind us with Kelsey and Liam.
Ben’s gone back to the boat to jeers from Nico that he accepts good-naturedly, warning everyone not to get too messy because we’ve got a big day ahead tomorrow.
‘Surprised you didn’t head back,’ Nico says, dodging around a bollard to catch up with Louise.
‘I’m not staying long,’ Louise says.
‘Too tired. But I can’t let you lot out on your own with greenies.
’
‘Are we the greenies?’ I ask, gesturing vaguely in Adam’s direction.
I can hear him laughing with Liam.
I feel a bit loose-limbed and spacey – I don’t know if it’s from the cocktails or the almost orgasm – but I know I need to move on to soft drinks in the club.
We’ve got to be up early tomorrow and the last thing I want is a hangover.
Plus I want to make a good first impression.
‘You’re the greenies,’ Louise confirms with a small smile.
‘So we’re babysitting you,’ Nico agrees.
I smile. ‘Probably for the best.’
‘Not our first rodeo,’ Nico says.
And then leapfrogs a bollard as Louise turns to me and rolls her eyes.
The club is far from busy since it’s still relatively early, but it’s buzzing even so, an LED wall flashing with light effects in time to thumping dance music.
I get a lime and soda and follow Louise and Nico to a circle of seating in a darker corner.
Adam, Kelsey and Liam stay at the bar and I watch the coloured lights play over Adam’s face as he throws his head back with laughter and leans in to shout into Liam’s ear.
‘Your boyfriend’s having a good time,’ Nico says, his mouth right up against my ear.
‘Not my boyfriend,’ I say.
‘But yeah.’
‘You’re not jealous?
’
‘He’s not my boyfriend, so no reason to be jealous,’ I lie.
Kelsey’s hand is on Adam’s forearm and I wonder what happens if someone is interested in either of us.
We probably should have discussed it and come up with a plan.
But then Kelsey downs her drink, shouts something at the boys and moves down to the other end of the bar.
I can just about see a barman with a huge beard and long hair leaning over the bar to kiss her on the mouth.
‘She’s got a bloke in every port that one,’ Nico tells me.
When I look back at Adam, he’s looking around the club, searching for, I hope, me.
When he spots me, his face splits into a wide grin and the tension in my shoulders melts away.
He and Liam cross the dance floor towards us and I can’t take my eyes off Adam.
He’s changed so much over the last few years it’s hard to believe.
I look basically the same as I did when we met, when we were sixteen.
I’m a little taller and curvier, my hair is better and I now only get spots once a month instead of all the time, but Adam .
. .
He’s tall – just over six foot – and broad.
Strong from the gym.
He used to be cute with a cheeky smile, a unibrow and a buzzcut.
And I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but now he’s a man.
With a strong jaw, hair that always looks perfectly dishevelled and neatly trimmed brows.
He’s hot. And he’s mine.
My secret boyfriend.