Chapter 22
22
I’m setting the table for dinner when the captain calls me up to the bridge.
She’s leaning against the command deck, her phone and a notebook next to her.
‘So –’ she gives me a tight smile – ‘I haven’t been able to find a deckhand who can come in on such short notice.
Nico really screwed us over.
I understand why . .
.’ She shakes her head.
‘But it’s not ideal.
I’ve just spoken to Kelsey.
She can come back as second stew.
’
I try to keep my face blank but apparently I don’t manage it.
‘I know,’ she says. ‘But beggars can’t be choosers.
So I was wondering how you would feel about trying out the deck?
I’ve spoken to Berry and she doesn’t want to lose you, but she says you’ll do a good job.
Ben says the same.’
‘Of course,’ I tell her.
‘Thank you for the opportunity.’
It means working alongside Adam, and I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I don’t want to let the captain down either.
She grimaces. ‘Born of desperation, but I appreciate your enthusiasm. Have you got five minutes to have a chat with Ben?’
‘It’s going to be challenging physically,’ Ben tells me when I get up on deck.
‘But I think you’re up to it.
’ He smiles.
‘I hope so,’ I tell him.
‘I’m excited to learn.
’
‘If I’m not around, you answer to Liam,’ he tells me.
‘Because obviously Adam’s still learning too.
’
I nod. That shouldn’t be a problem.
And I guess if I’m around Adam a bit more, I can see if I can find out what’s going on with him.
Because something definitely is.
I can’t start on deck until Kelsey arrives – hopefully tomorrow morning – so I get back to setting the dinner table with candles and flowers, pink and orange to match the branding of Bec’s skincare range.
The women exclaim when they see the table, laughing when they realise Bec is wearing a pink halter dress and Morgan is in a white T-shirt and orange shorts.
Captain Liz is joining them for dinner tonight and the three of them talk as if they’ve known each other for years.
Morgan is equally as obsessed with Nordic crime, but Bec can’t stand it.
‘I don’t understand people who like being scared,’ Bec says.
‘Like, being scared is my worst thing. I hate it. I hate thinking of people I love being scared. I just do not understand why anyone would do that to themselves deliberately.’
‘For me it’s because it’s in a safe setting,’ Morgan tells the captain, and it’s clear that she and Bec have had this conversation many times before.
‘Obviously, I don’t like being scared in real life.
But on TV? Or a horror film?
It’s not real. It’s safe.
’
‘And I kid myself I’m learning from them,’ the captain says.
‘Like I know the signs and it makes me safer.’
‘That’s like me thinking I could perform a tracheotomy because I’ve watched so much Grey’s Anatomy ,’ Bec says.
‘And let me tell you, that is not true.’
As the sun starts to set, I head inside, turn the lights on low and do the turn-down service in Bec and Morgan’s room, closing the blinds, preparing the bed, checking the fridge and bathroom are fully stocked.
Berry radios for me to collect dessert from Carlo, so I come back via the galley and take up a tray of lemon and rosemary sorbet, served in half a scooped out lemon.
Once they’ve eaten dessert, Captain Liz leaves and Bec and Morgan move out to the bunny pad.
I bring them Martinis and bowls of olives and they praise everything: the yacht, the captain, the food, the drinks, Berry and me.
Bec asks us how we got our jobs, where we’re from, what we did before.
They both suggest we get drinks and join them, which obviously we can’t, but we can talk and we can listen.
Berry asks them how they got together and Bec says she was married to a man for almost twenty years.
‘He cheated on me, repeatedly,’ she says.
‘But I kept thinking that if I could just be better, nicer, smaller, quieter then he would stop, you know?’
I nod.
Even though I don’t know.
Not that.
‘And then we moved to a new area for his job. I was terrified because I didn’t know anyone and just imagined that I’d be stuck at home with the kids and he’d have this amazing new life.
Anyway, I was walking our dog one morning and there was this cute little terrier outside a plant shop.
Just sitting there, beaming away.
My dog went straight over, of course, and I was checking the terrier’s collar – I didn’t know if it was lost, abandoned or what.
And then the door of the shop opened and out walks Morgan.
’
‘It was my dog,’ Morgan says, glancing up at me.
‘Rufus.’
‘And I’m there, like, on the ground,’ Bec says, ‘and I look up at this woman and . . . boom. I just knew. Like my life changed instantly.’
‘You knew . . .’ I start before I can think of how to end the question.
‘I knew she was my person. I know how that sounds. It’s ridiculous.
Totally. But I knew.
And I thought, “There she is!” As if I’d been expecting her.
And I cannot tell you how much I had not been expecting her.
’
Morgan snorts.
‘I thought I was straight,’ Bec says.
‘Like, I’d never questioned it.
I mean, looking back now I should have done.
There were signs, you know?
’ She laughs. ‘But at that point, no. It was literally – boom, there she is.’
‘So what did you do?’ Berry asks.
‘Well, it took me a while to tell my husband,’ Bec says, popping a prosciutto-wrapped olive in her mouth.
‘I didn’t know how any of it was going to work.
Our kids were teenagers and I thought they’d lose their shit.
’
‘They were great,’ Morgan interjects.
‘They were. Husband, not so much, but once he got over himself, it was fine. He’s remarried now.
She’s half his age. Why am I telling you this?
I can’t remember.’
‘No one knows, baby,’ Morgan says, and Bec laughs, nudging her with her shoulder.
‘I think I just wanted to say you never know who you will fall for.’
I can’t resist looking over at Berry.
She’s looking back at me and the expression on her gorgeous face makes my stomach flip.