Page 43 of Adrift

He lets my arm go, and I swallow hard. Why is it when you’re not looking for a guy, they’re all around?

“Thanks for helping with the door. It’s like a child safety lock—easy to open from the outside, but a bitch from the inside.”

“I’ll get an engineer to come fix it.”

“No, don’t worry. It’s late. Tomorrow is fine.”

“Are you sure? I can call?—”

“I’m good.”

“Do you want anything? Something to drink or more to eat?”

“Nope. I was going to take a stroll around the deck, but I’m good now.”

“Okay, pleasant dreams.” I wave.

“You too.” He leaves his door open a crack, and I head down to my cabin.

My alarm goes off. Six a.m. Shayla has already brought breakfast to the five passengers in their rooms. Which isn’t normal. Even Candy’s up, but then time-zone changes do weird things to guests. Kerri, the chief stew from last year, said that sometimes Candy would sleep all day and want drinks prepared for her all night. But today she’s up and dressed and reading a thick fashion magazine like a kid at Christmas time making a list. Every once in a while, she holds the magazine out for Emily to look. Emily rolls her eyes, but Brick responds, “How pretty,” every time. I watch from the corner of the butler’s pantry. Easton is in his cabin, but the four of them in the main salon look like they all need some serious therapy.

Shayla pops up from doing laundry.

“Do you want to do service or housekeeping?” I ask her.

“Do I want to hang out with the Addams family? Are you kidding? I’ll take scrubbing toilets any day over them.” Shayla’s whispering in my ear, but Emily looks up from her book, scrunches her forehead, and smiles at us. We both smile back.

I follow Shayla down the stairs. I can help her for a little bit and then pop back up and check on them. Plus, I should check on Easton too. Make sure he’s not stuck.

“Emily totally heard you,” I whisper to Shayla when we hit the landing.

“I don’t care. She’s the only normal one of the lot.”

We decide to do Emily’s room first. It isn’t too bad. I’m finishing up the bathroom when Shayla moves on to Candy’s cabin.

“Haley, Haley, Shayla. Can you come to the owner’s suite?” She doesn’t wait for me to respond. This won’t be good.

“Be right up.” I race up the stairs and into the room. “Holy...”

“It’s like a hurricane came through here.”

“We can do this.” I nod. I know my eyes are wide. But we can do this. I pick up clothes. Shayla is right there with me.

“But every day?” Shay is mad.

I don’t blame her; I am too.

“She did this on purpose. She didn’t like us defending Emily.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll talk to the captain later.”

“You do that. Because this is bullshit. I’m not cleaning up after a child. I pressed every damn one of these yesterday.” Shayla holds up a pile of clothes in her fist.

The rest of the day isn’t much better. The waves are enormous. We’re moving to some place where there’s a ledge or something that Rocky wants to fish on. Candy is getting worse, not better. She sends back three drinks. By the fourth one, she’s so out of it she doesn’t remember what she ordered.

Emily is sulking. Not that I know her at all, but you can just tell that some people are peppy and kind, and she just feels off. She hardly talks to her boyfriend, although she talks to her brother twice between breakfast and lunch.

It’s early afternoon when I set out a charcuterie board for them. I mean, who doesn’t love a board of meat and cheese? Most guests go nuts over my boards. It’s something I do as a stew, but never too close to dinner or the guests won’t eat andthe chef will be all furious at me. But maybe not Dante. He’s the happiest chef I’ve ever met. Even if he keeps giving me weird side glances.

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