My worry dissipates as a smug expression crosses his face. ‘Wow, talking about forgiveness already? I didn’t expect that from you, Millie. You seem too stubborn to forgive.’
‘I think I may have spoken too soon,’ I say quickly. ‘Once I find the wrasse, and you apologise, then I’ll forgive you. Until then, don’t distract me. I have important work to do.’
‘OK then,’ Hugh says, but his voice is light. ‘I’ll leave you to yourimportant work.’ He gestures at the book in my hand,Beach Readby Emily Henry. I want to punch myself in the face. Even if I tried, I couldn’t have found anything that looked less like work. I make a mental note to drag my copy ofTheMarinistmagazine upstairs next time.
‘Can you just leave me alone? I’m trying to get some rest.’
‘Sure thing,’ Hugh says, sitting up and lazily stretching his arms out towards the sun. ‘I’ll leave you to your dreams – which is the only place you’ll ever see a butterfly wrasse.’
Before I can think of a retort, he’s gone.
We’re about to start preparing for our second dive when I reach up to touch my head and realise I made a huge mistake by not braiding my hair. My messy bun is now an actual mess. I try to run a comb through it and feel my comb start to bend with the tension, which is a bad start. I bump my elbow into the wooden frame of the bed and let out a yelp. Reluctantly, I drag myself upstairs onto the open air of the deck. Working on knots in public is embarrassing but better than having broken elbows. Painstakingly, I tease my hair into sections and comb them out one by one before pulling them into two tight French braids that run straight down the back of my head.
Hugh pops his head around just as I’m finished.
‘Vane—’ he starts to say, before realising that it’s me he’s talking to. He pauses for a beat and opens his mouth. ‘Nice braids,’ he finally says, in a tone that makes it very unclear whether he was complimenting me or making fun of my braids.
‘Thanks?’ I ask.
He cocks his head to one side and retracts his head from my vantage point. Then, seconds later, he appears again. ‘Also, looks like you missed a spot.’ He says, pointedly glancing at my shoulder. Then he goes back to his book.
I look at where his gaze had lingered, and sure enough, right on the top of my left shoulder is a bright pink sunburn. Somehow, I managed to adequately apply sunscreen everywhere but there.
Thinking about Hugh looking at me so closely, my face flushes red, even brighter than my burned patch of skin. Since our conversation earlier we had barely spoken, and he’s managed to get under my skin more than once.
About an hour ago, I had been chatting with Pippa, who was eager to pick up where our conversation left off. We were sitting in the shade sharing a bench, both of us taking a break from the sun but neither of us wanting to sit in our teeny rooms.
She jumped in right away, asking what the lab was like, and what the career trajectory was for a marine biologist. She was shocked to hear that there were more women than men in the field and lamented the sexism in her own workplace (sales) and how she sometimes was the only woman in meetings.
‘When Andrew wakes up, he’ll want to talk to you about the octopus population here,’ she told me, ‘he’s completely obsessed.’
Andrew popped his head upstairs just as Pippa stopped talking.
‘Andrew,’ she called him over excitedly, ‘I was just telling Millie how much you want to see an octopus.’
‘Oh yeah.’ Andrew grinned. ‘I just love them. I really hope we’ll get to see one, it’s one of the main reasons we decided on this place for our holiday. I read there are loads of them here.’
‘Maybe on the night dive?’ I suggested. Octopuses are notoriously shy, and I didn’t want to get Andrew’s hopes up but if there was ever a chance to see one, this would be the place to do it.
‘Millie is a marine biologist, just like Hugh,’ Pippa explained excitedly.
Andrew tilted his head. ‘You are?’ he asked. ‘But Hugh said . . .’ He trailed off.
‘Hugh said what?’ I asked. My stomach flipped.Does he know?
‘Well, I thought you both were, but then I was talking to him about it, and he said you two didn’t exactly have the same job . . .’
‘Oh,’ I said, trying to stay chipper while I panicked internally. ‘I don’t know what he meant but we are both marine biologists.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ Andrew blushed. ‘He said something about the lab and the field, and I got completely confused. We don’t get a lot of marine biologists in Clapham.’
‘He’s just overexcited,’ Pippa teased affectionately, laying her hand on Andrew’s arm. ‘Honestly, he’s been so thrilled he’s been half-witted ever since we got here.’
‘Well, what do you expect? It’s probably raining cats and dogs at home right now,’ Andrew said jovially. ‘Anyway, I would love to hear anything you know, Millie.’
I was so relieved that Hugh was making a snide comment about where Millie worked, and not that he thought my marine biology skills were lacking, that I let the awkwardness slide. I told Andrew everything I knew about the blanket octopus, a rare species where the females are thousands of times the size of the males and the blue-ringed octopus, which is small, spotted and extremely poisonous.
Andrew and Pippa loved it, soaking in every detail. Millie will be thrilled to know how much quizzing me paid off. Andrew’s curiosity endeared me to him quickly, even after the comment he made about his conversation with Hugh.
