Page 25 of Bumping into You

What the heck has come over me?

After a nod from Bradley and a wave from Tammy, we are alone again. I step back from Niall, taking a proper breath for the first time since seeing Bradley and Tammy.

“Well, that was somecraic,” says Niall.

“What do you mean ‘crack’? Like, ‘on crack’? Not exactly how I would have described it, but thank you. I owe you one, or I guess two now.” I huff out a feeble laugh, then take a sip of what’s left of my smoothie. That’s twice now Niall has helped me out of a pickle. I’m going to owe him forever if it keeps up at this rate.

“Not a problem,” says Niall. “Andcraicmeans fun in Irish. Anyway, I’m going to wash the rest of this off,” he gestures to his chest. “I guess I’ll see you at lunch.” Niall waves and heads to the elevators.

This ship is getting smaller and smaller by the minute. And now that I know I’ll keep bumping into Bradley and Tammy with Niall around, what am I going to do? Of course, they’re inevitably all going to show up to some of the same wedding activities.How are you going to pull off this fake boyfriend thing, Gwen?

This is going to be the absolute worst.

I can’t keep asking Niall to pretend to be my boyfriend, right?

Or can I? Maybe he wouldn’t mind helping me out for the rest of the cruise. A crazy idea begins to form, but I’m interrupted by a chirp from my phone.

Dad

Hi, honey, I don’t mean to bother you again but did you have something for Dad. He hasn’t left the bathroom and is looking a little green.

I had completely forgotten about my mom’s text.

Gwen

Sorry, yes. On my way. Got caught up with something, but I’m heading back to my room now and will bring over the Dramamine asap!

Dad

Thank you so much, oh dear, Dad needs me. Just knock when you get here and I’ll let you in.

Thankfully, I have a plethora of Dramamine in my emergency bag. I’ll deal with this first, and then I think I will go chat with Niall.

After all, I know which room is his.

Chapter 14

Niall

A sharp rapping on the door catches my attention. I turn the shower off and grab my towel from the hook. Who’d be coming to my door?

After rushing to somewhat dry my hair with the towel, I wrap the towel around my waist and step out of the bathroom. The rapping starts up again, but it’s not coming from the hallway door. It’s coming from the connecting room. Having met with Gwen on the balcony yesterday, I know for a fact that door leads to her room. She did say she had a situation earlier; I hope nothing’s gone wrong. My concern that something might actually be wrong has me going against my good sense and heading to open the door in just my towel.

I quickly unlock the door and pull it open in front of me, hoping to somewhat block me from view. At the same time, Gwen’s hand reaches forward to knock again. She fumbles at the lack of door, but then pushes her way into the room, eyes down on the floor. Immediately, I can tell something is wrong. From the short time I’ve known her, I’ve learned she’s not one to avoid eye contact.

“Oh good, you’re here,” she says, looking out my balcony door. “I wasn’t sure since you didn’t answer right away.”

I’m momentarily stunned at her sudden entrance into my room while I’m still in my toweland nothing else. Then, I close the door connecting our rooms while reaching my other hand down to hold where the towel barely comes together. The towelshere are much smaller than the bath towels I have at home. Gwen paces back and forth in the sitting room area, still not having looked at me.

“Want to share what you’re on about over there?” I ask. “Is the situation from earlier going okay?”

She stops pacing and turns around to face me. “Yes, everything is—” Her piercing eyes take me in, roaming over my body. Finally, her eyes meet mine and she audibly gulps. “You’re naked.”

I chuckle softly, raising my eyebrow at her. “You don’t say? Actually, I wouldn’t call it naked. I do have this lovely towel.” I motion with my free hand.

Her eyes briefly jump down to the barely-there towel and back up to my face. “Umm . . . the towels aren’t that big.”

“No, no, they’re not.” Her heated gaze causes things in me to stir. Trying to think about anything other than being practically naked in her presence, I adjust how I’m standing so she can hopefully not tell that I’m clearly attracted to her.

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