Page 40 of Head First
‘You’re not boring us!’ I say quickly, shooting Pippa a ‘be nice’ look. But Andrew laughs it off and says he probably should go get a glass of water. Hugh goes with him.
‘I love him to pieces,’ Pippa says once they’re out of earshot, ‘but he can really carry on about that job.’
I shrug my shoulders. ‘It would be nice to have a job you love.’
‘You don’t love yours?’ she asks.
‘Not even a little.’ I realise my mistake as I watch the surprise bloom on Pippa’s face. She opens her mouth like she’s about to ask who in their right mind wouldn’t love being a marine biologist.
‘I mean,’ I backtrack furiously, ‘it’s an expression. I don’t love it a little, I love it a lot!’
She looks at me quizzically, but an errant strand of her hair whips in the wind and snags her lip, distracting her enough that the moment passes.
‘Wait,’ I say, redirecting us to the beginning of our conversation. ‘Did you say you’re not diving again until tomorrow?’
Pippa nods vigorously. ‘Oh, I can’t be bothered with night diving, are you kidding me!’ She shudders as if she’s already imagining things touching her in the pitch-black ocean.
‘So, Andrew will be without a partner . . .’ I say, casting a glance over at Hugh, who’s chatting with Natalie and Derek.
‘Yeah,’ Pippa says. ‘He really wants to see that bloody octopus.’
Before I can overthink it, I lean back away from the railing and motion to Hugh. ‘Buddies for the night dive?’ I mouth. I already had one shark encounter. I can’t take my chances on having someone else as a buddy, I need someone I can trust. Someone who I’m already comfortable with.
Hugh winks at me.
Pippa interrupts her musings on why jellyfish are scarier than sharks to give me a meaningful look.
‘What?’ I ask, feigning innocence.
‘Oh, you know what I’m talking about, Millie,’ she replies sweetly. ‘Oh, Hugh?’ She whispers under her breath in a fake American accent. ‘He’s the worst. We’re just friends . . . not even friends really.’ She carries on, mimicking what I had said to her before.
I swat at her, rolling my eyes, but her American accent is atrocious and I can’t help but laugh. I wait until I regain my composure before saying, ‘There is nothing going on. I am working.’
Pippa rolls her eyes. ‘Working?’ she asks. ‘Seriously? That is such codswallop.’
‘Codswallop?’
‘You know what I mean. Nonsense!’
‘No, it’s not!’ I argue. ‘I have stuff riding on this trip. It’s important to me and I promised myself I would make the most of it. I only asked Hugh because he’s the best diver here.’
‘If you say so,’ Pippa replies, but I can tell by her face she doesn’t believe a word coming out of my mouth.
Vanessa lugs an air tank by us, Miguel following close behind with another. Miguel and I make eye contact as he passes, and he stares at me a beat longer than usual. ‘You’re going to be great,’ he says encouragingly. This does not escape Pippa, who elbows me as we scoot to the captain’s room to get out of their way.
Thankfully, everyone’s already seated, so I’m spared Pippa’s commentary on Miguel. Hugh and I are next to each other in our usual spots. We’re not touching but we’re close. I can feel the heat coming off his skin – like he absorbed the sun and now he’s radiating the heat back out. At some point during my conversation with Pippa, he’s wet his hair and ran a hand through it, because now it looks nicely mussed and doesn’t resemble a haystack as much as it did before. Natalie and Derek are seated to the left of us with his camera equipment between them. I fight the urge to groan when I see it. I’m already jittery enough about the idea of a night dive, the last thing I want is to be waiting for Derek while a shark sniffs around. I hope Vanessa tells him he can’t bring it.
Andrew and Pippa are nestled together opposite Hugh and me, looking every bit the lovebirds they were when the trip started. I’ll miss them when this is over, and I wonder if they’ll want to stay in touch. Then I remember that Andi hasn’t met Andrew and Pippa, Millie has.
‘I can’t wait to bring this bad boy back out there,’ Derek says to no one in particular, patting the camera that sits in between him and Natalie. ‘I hope we see a shark tonight.’ He grins. ‘The guys at work will love it.’
No one responds to Derek – I chalk this up to the fact that he sounds like the Texan frat boy he is.
‘I didn’t know you were supposed to bring your camera on night dives,’ I say finally. It’s a lie, but I’m hoping someone (Vanessa) jumps on it and tells Derek that he has to leave his camera behind. I also hate awkward silences. I am, to a fault, reliably polite.
‘Oh yeah,’ Derek says with a grin. ‘I mean, in Texas you can do anything you want.’
‘Hmm.’
