Page 22 of Adrift

Calvin’s smells of motor oil or grease and I kind of like it. “How are you doing?”

“I’m—”

Shayla cuts me off. And smiles from Calvin to me. “We’re fantastic.”

Calvin scowls and pours himself a cup of coffee. “Where’s what’s-her-name?”

“Brianna.” Shayla’s eye roll might cause permanent damage to her vision. “She’s sleeping in. Has a migraine is what she told me. Screamed at me loud enough when the light from the bathroom hit her bunk. But I’m not going to not take a shower.”

“Gotcha.” Calvin leans his butt on the counter, his ankles crossed. Thank goodness he doesn’t ask if I’ve mentioned it to the captain yet. Because I haven’t. But I will when I get a second.

“Calvin, Haley has a question for you.” Shayla’s eyes widen like if I don’t ask him, she’s going to whine about it for the rest of the day.

“I do. I do. We’re getting ready to move a bunch of extra boxes out of the rooms into the dining room.”

“I’d love to help.” Calvin downs his coffee and washes the mug, setting it in the drying rack.

Shayla races up the stairs, and we follow her. She’s not wrong in her assessment that something more pressing would have come up if she’d asked Calvin. She told me what happened between the two of them. It’s one of the reasons she doesn’t drink on crew nights off anymore. Not that we’re likely to have any nights off.

I want to gather the extra things together in the dining room, even though it will make the salon look like a community sale on Nantucket. But we don’t have the room for all this stuff anywhere else.

Calvin stares at the boxes in the junior suite,Candy Cane. “There’s ten if not fifteen boxes in here.”

“Yup.” Shayla picks up one and tries to hand it to him.

He puts up his hand. “Hold up.” He pulls out his radio. “All crew. If you’re not doing something urgent, come meet us at the bow junior suites.”

A chorus of “copy”s comes over the radio.

I bite my lip and nod. “You’re right.”

“Everything the room needs has been unpacked?”

“Yes, and spares are stowed. It’s enough for two yachts.”

“Three,” Shayla adds.

“You mind if I go talk to the captain? I’ll be right back,” I say.

“Should we wait?” Shayla asks.

“No, we have to do something with all of it, anyway.” I hustle up the stairs and catch the captain as he’s coming out of the bridge. “Hey Captain, can I talk to you?” He looks as handsome as ever. If he smelled like Calvin and sounded like Zane, I wouldn’t be able to form a sentence in front of him.

“I was just on my way to help Calvin.”

“Yeah, it’s about that—Calvin is helping me.”

“I see, and what’s the problem?”

“No problem with Calvin, he’s great. It’s all the stuff on the yacht. Shayla and I finished outfitting all the cabins and guest spaces late last night. But you wouldn’t be able to tell it from all the boxes of decorations that are left.”

“How many?”

I point to the salon, where at least twenty boxes sit stacked in the corner.

“Those are all extra?”

“Yeah, let me show you.” I open the first box. There are nine golden horses, and the next four hold throw pillows, but there are so many pillows on the sofa as it is you would have to throw half of them on the floor to sit.

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