Page 37 of The Second Chance in the Mediterranean
“Cocky.”
“Mm-hmm. So this istemporary?”
I thought for a moment. “We’re seeing this through. Obviously there’s tension here”—Seb wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I grinned—“and we need to get it out of our system.”
Seb nodded, looking thoughtful. “Your contract only goes to the end of the season, right?”
“Yeah. Yours?”
“Yup.”
“Are you going to stay if they’ll have you?” I asked.
He took a deep breath. “I’m hoping a promotion will come up. But I might have to look elsewhere.”
“Ah,” I said. It was a harsh reminder of another reason why we couldn’t be in a real relationship: within a few months, we might be watching each other sail away again.
Seventeen
It was nearing dusk,and we would be in Corfu when I woke up, so I took one last chance in daylight to wander the boat. I had camped out in my room all day, naked, alternating between napping and Seb’s visits. He had snuck in a few times, first for a quickie, but then using his hands and his mouth to make me pliant and satiated before he slipped out the door for his shift. Then he’d returned with hot food, woken me up to eat, and repeated the whole thing all over.
When I finally did get up, I roamed the bottom deck ofThemis,checking in with the crew who was awake, and then went into the galley. It was fairly clean, a few stray dishes here and there. Opening the fridge, I found about half the meals gone, so the staff had been well-fed.
Climbing up the stairs, I emerged onto the main deck. The sky had grayed with low clouds, and the wind had picked up a bit more. Our sails were still flying, andThemisclipped along at a good pace, occasionally taking a wave over the bow. It was past sunset, and on a clear day we would have all been out on deck enjoying the start of the night.
The deck was bare, and I cut across and pulled the doors open to slip inside. On the couch in the lounge, a handful of the crew was watching a movie.
“Hey, Marcella, howzit going?” Roy called out.
“Good. How are things up here?”
“Easy, easy.”
“Is everyone feeling okay?”
“As far as I know. I checked on Will a few minutes ago and he’s a bit green but he’s held it down all day, so that’s good.”
“Who’s on watch right now?”
“Dom’s up at the helm.”
“All right, I might go up and check on him.”
“Oh yeah. If you haven’t been up there while we’re underway, you should see it.”
I left them to their movie and climbed up the atrium stairs to the bridge deck. The wide windows provided a 180-degree view of the clouds and grayness surrounding us. Dom sat in a black leather chair in front of the instruments, doing something on his phone.
“Evening, Dom.”
Dom looked over his shoulder. “Hey, Marcella. How’s your day been? Haven’t seen you much.”
“I kept to my room, mostly.” I stood in front of the electronics and took it all in. “Wow, this is an intense amount of information here.”
Dom stood up, tucking his phone into his pocket. “Want the grand tour?”
“Sure.”
Dom walked me through most of the panels. Some things I recognized from previous boats; others were foreign to me. OnOdyssey,I rarely ever ventured onto the bridge deck. But the helm ofEikhad often been the center of activity. I had held my own watches while everyone else slept, learned how to use the gear on board, even helped out when there was trouble.
