Chapter 30
30
I sleep in Adam’s room.
But not in Adam’s bed.
Nico’s bunk is empty and so I sleep there.
Or at least that’s where I spend the night.
I don’t sleep much.
My eyes are hot and gritty and I can barely keep them open, but whenever I close them I see the hurt and shock on Berry’s face.
Does she think I’ve been with Adam this whole time?
Does she think I cheated on her tonight?
I can’t bear it. My chest aches and tears run from the corners of my eyes to soak the pillow behind my head.
I sleep eventually, my alarm waking me for work.
I get dressed in my clothes from last night and step out of the cabin when Adam’s in the shower.
I knock on our door.
Say Berry’s name. But she doesn’t reply.
The guests don’t come out of their rooms all morning.
I do my deck duties as usual – wash down and dry everything, polish all the chrome, scrub the deck, but it takes me so much longer, my physical and mental exhaustion making me slow and clumsy.
There’s no sun today: the sky is grey, the humidity is heavy and oppressive.
Ben radios to tell us a storm is predicted.
He thinks it will miss us, but we should make sure to keep everything locked up either way.
I’m on my break, making a coffee and mentally rehearsing what I’m even going to say to Berry, when Captain Liz comes in.
‘Tell me what happened with Marc last night.’
I drink my coffee as I tell her everything he said to me.
How he grabbed my leg.
And eventually pulled me into his lap.
How Adam told him to take his hands off me.
‘Did Adam touch him at any point?’ she asks.
I shake my head. ‘No. He grabbed me, my hands, and pulled me up off Marc’s lap. ’
‘Did he swear at him? Call him names?’
‘I don’t think so.
I can’t say a hundred per cent because it happened so fast and I was .
. .’
She nods. ‘You were shocked.’
‘I was. I mean, I knew he was a creep, but I didn’t expect him to grab me like that.
His wife was right there. ’
‘And what was she doing?’
‘She was dancing with Liam.’ I remember.
‘Or maybe with Adam? I’m not sure.
But just before Marc grabbed me, Adam and Liam came out on deck and Jenny and Babs were dancing with them.
I’m pretty sure it pissed Marc off. ’
‘I’m not surprised. ’
She scrapes her hand back through her hair.
‘I know men like Marc Summers. He’s going to try to put all this on us.
He won’t take responsibility for his behaviour, that’s for sure.
He probably won’t for his wife’s either.
He’ll blame you and Adam and Liam. ’
She shakes her head.
‘You’re confident neither you nor Adam did anything wrong? ’
‘I’m pretty sure we didn’t. ’
She nods. ‘Thank you. I appreciate that. Unfortunately we get some guests who think the staff are included in the price. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens.
I’m sorry he treated you that way – it’s totally unacceptable. ’
I nod, tears pricking my eyes.
‘Thank you.’
‘I’ll be telling them they won’t be welcome on one of my charters ever again. ’
She covers her hand with mine and squeezes.
‘It hasn’t put you off? ’
I shake my head.
‘No. I love this job.’
She smiles.
‘Good. Because you’re very good at it. ’
‘Thanks,’ I say again, grateful for her kindness.
I’m leaning off the side of the boat, scrubbing at the black marks on the white finish with a long brush, when Adam comes up behind me and grabs me around the waist.
‘Hey,’ I tell him, straightening up.
‘Don’t do that.’
He removes his hands instantly.
‘Sorry. Just don’t want you falling off the boat. ’
‘I won’t,’ I tell him.
‘Sorry to snap. There’s just a lot going on and my head’s all over the place. ’
I put the brush back in the bucket and pick up the hose to rinse off the soap.
‘I don’t like the look of that sky. ’
Adam gestures behind me and I turn to see heavy dark clouds on the horizon.
‘God,’ I say. ‘That’s all we need. ’
‘Still predicted to miss us, apparently,’ Adam says.
‘I don’t know though .
. .’
‘Ben’s the expert,’ I say.
‘I guess we’re sailing away from it.
And the sea’s calm, at least.’
It turns out that the expression ‘the calm before the storm’ is literal, because when the rain starts a little while later, it’s an instant deluge, as if we’ve been hit by a wave.
‘Shit,’ Adam says. ‘What do we do?’
I don’t even know.
Our radios are crackling, so we both move to get undercover.
I skid slightly on the teak, clutching the edge of the table as I go.
Adam grabs the salon door but now the wind has hit too and he can’t open it.
Ben tells us over the radio that the guests have been advised to stay in their cabins.
I hope they do.
I don’t know where Berry is and I need to find her.
She’s scared of storms. I can’t bear the thought of her alone and afraid.
I press my radio mic and say, ‘Berry, Berry, Hope. Where are you?’
Someone’s keyed their mic.
I can’t get through.
The boat is pitching and rolling and, along with the water hammering down, waves have started crashing up over the deck.
There’s a sheet of water pouring down from the awning too, sloshing over the deck, picking up cushions and a jacket someone left on the back of a chair.
A glass slides off the bar and smashes.
I move around the table, holding on, until I get close to the bar and launch myself across.
I’m expecting Adam to come too, but instead he lurches across the deck to throw up over the side.
The wind is making an eerie whistling sound now and with the creaking of the boat and the flapping of the awning the Serendipity almost sounds alive, like it’s roaring back against the storm.
A crash of thunder makes me jump and then I see a fork of lightning over the sea.
‘Adam!’ I shout. ‘We need to get inside!’
I pile the glasses into the cupboard and lock it.
I’ve got most of the bottles into the fridge when the wind catches the door and knocks a bottle out of my hand, it hits the deck and rolls, rattling across the deck before falling off the edge.
I lock the fridge too and then make my way, holding on to anything I can find, to Adam who has done the same in the opposite direction.
Between us, we manage to open the salon door and throw ourselves inside.
Adam pulls the door closed behind us and for a second the silence is almost a sound in itself.
But then I can hear shouting downstairs, something banging, something creaking.
‘Have you keyed your mic?’ I ask him.
He shakes his head, pointing to the radio on his belt.
‘You okay?’
‘I need to find Berry,’ I tell him.
‘I’m going downstairs. ’
I try the radio again, but there’s nothing and then Carlo shouts from the galley and I go in there instead, to help him secure everything that wasn’t already locked down.
Waves crash against the galley window, the boat lurches and I stagger sideways, my stomach tilting along with it as I smash my hip into the counter.
I need to get to Berry, but I can’t leave Carlo until everything is secure.
Kelsey appears in the doorway, holding out her left hand, her right hand wrapped around her wrist. Blood is dripping from her fingers.
‘I’m okay,’ she says immediately, although all the colour has drained out of her face.
‘I just need a plaster.’
Carlo takes her arm and guides her to sit on the floor, opening the cupboard for the first-aid box.
The cupboard door swings wide and bangs back against the counter, making us all jump.
‘Have you seen Berry?’ I ask Kelsey.
She’s propped her hand on her knees now, still holding her wrist. She shakes her head.
‘Are you okay here?’ I ask Carlo.
He nods. ‘Andare. Go. Go.’
In the crew mess, boxes have fallen off the shelves and there’s cereal all over the floor.
The cupboard and fridge doors are open and banging and there’s broken glass from somewhere, along with coffee spilled across the table, but I ignore it and go straight to my cabin.
Mine and Berry’s cabin.
The door is unlocked and Berry is sitting on the floor, her back pressed against the wall.
She’s pulled the duvet off my bed and wrapped it around herself.
Her bare toes are peeking out from under the hem.
Her eyes are wide and her face is streaked with tears.
I drop down to my knees and crawl over next to her.
‘I’m being pathetic,’ she says immediately.
I slide one arm around behind her – she moves forward to let me – and pull her towards me with the other.
She goes easily, almost falling into me.
‘You’re not.’ I curl my hand around the back of her neck and hold her still.
‘Don’t say that.’
‘Is everyone okay?’ Her voice is so small.
She doesn’t sound like herself.
‘Everyone’s fine. You’re fine. ’
The boat rolls and Berry sobs.
I hold her tighter. I can’t bear to think that she was here alone and afraid.
‘I can’t stay,’ she says.
‘I can’t do this.’
My eyes are hot and my breath catches in my throat.
‘That’s okay. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. ’
‘I shouldn’t have come back,’ she says.
‘I should’ve known.’
‘It’s okay,’ I tell her.
‘You’re safe. Everyone’s safe. ’
The boat rolls again and I want to distract her.
I want to make her feel safe, not just tell her.
I say, ‘Tell me about the superbloom.’
‘What?’
‘Tell me about the flowers. What flowers did you see?’
She’s quiet for a second and then she says, ‘Poppies.’
‘Oh yeah? I love poppies. What else? Which flowers are you going to have tattooed?’
‘Marigolds.’
Her breathing seems to be slowing.
‘You mentioned purple,’ I prompt.
‘What are the purple flowers?’
She sucks in a breath.
‘Bluebells.’
‘Your tattoo is going to be so beautiful.’
I picture it: the rainbow of flowers curling around her arm.
‘There’s some called popcorn flowers,’ she says.
‘I always remembered cos I thought it was funny.’
‘Yeah? I’ve never heard of them. ’
‘I don’t know the real name,’ she says.
‘They’re white with yellow at the centre.
And they’re kind of fluffy.
They look like when popcorn pops, you know? ’
My radio buzzes into life, the captain giving more instructions for securing the boat.
‘Go,’ Berry says, turning her face up to look at me.
‘I’ll be okay.’
‘I can’t leave you like this. ’
I want to kiss her, but I know I can’t, not yet, not until I’ve explained what Adam said, what she saw.
She gently pushes me away.
‘You can. You helped. It’s okay.
I’ll be fine.’
‘I’ll come back and check on you,’ I tell her.
‘Stay here.’
She nods.
‘I’m not going anywhere. ’