I follow his eyes, and see Andrew, who is floating two feet above where he should be, not exactly cause for laughter. I look back at Hugh, who’s still locked in on Andrew, so focused that he doesn’t even see me looking at him. Then, I see it. There are bubbles, big bubbles, escaping from the bottom of Andrew’s suit. He’s farting. And he’s not letting a little one slip out, he’s really passing gas. I know it’s childish, but I can’t help it, I fall into giggles too. Both of us use way more of our air than we should laughing about farts.
We’re still giggling when Vanessa darts forward in excitement. She points to a fish hovering a few inches above the sandy bottom. It has a skirt-like flap that encircles its body, and it’s pushing away the water beneath it to move. It’s almost translucent and is moving very slowly. When I focus, I spot its eyes, and suddenly I can’t look away. They are huge, with giant black pupils that seem to see straight through me. I breathe in and out of my regulator, transfixed.
Vanessa looks back to make sure Hugh and I are paying attention and then pokes her finger at the fish. Instantly, it flushes a darker colour, more the colour of grey stone than the bright white sand, and begins to flutter its skirt and swim towards the reef. It looks like a cross between a squid and an octopus. It’s large, about the size of a pizza, and a bit oval-shaped. I’m transfixed by its movements, we all are, and we watch as it swims towards the safety of the reef, soon blending in completely with its surroundings.
Chapter 14
Six dives to go
Before I know it, we’re back on the boat, Miguel strapping in the air tanks to prepare for Aaron to rev up the engine. We’re headed to Wonder Reef next. We’ll dive there twice. Millie wrote in her notes that the last butterfly wrasse sighting there was in 2016, so I don’t have high hopes. Wonder Reef sits on the outer edge of the reef structures, and a major current brings in plankton and organic debris in from the ocean, making it the most biodiverse of all the reefs on our schedule.
Everyone’s content but tired, all of us wrapped in towels. We are huddled together in the captain’s room, all wanting to be outside, but also wanting some protection from the wind coming off the waves.
We’re moving to another entry point to drop anchor before going on our afternoon dive and eating lunch. Tonight is our night dive, which is scheduled for seven thirty, right when the sun goes down. Pippa wheedles Aaron until he promises he’ll point out some constellations tonight if it’s clear enough.
As soon as the boat picks up speed, fragments of music start to blare over the ship’s speakers. The volume picks up until it’s blasting and when the chorus blares through the speakers everyone starts to sing along to ‘Island in the Sun’. Vanessa pops her head out of the cabin and cheers.
‘Let’s dance!’ she cries, swaying her hips in time with the music. Pippa squeals and joins in immediately, tugging Andrew behind her. Before I know it, we’re all crowded on the ship’s deck, shouting the lyrics, limbs flailing wildly in the air. Even Natalie seems to be letting loose, she’s doing a hula move with her hands and rocking her hips back and forth.
‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song)’ comes on next, and everyone yells out the words. Vanessa puts on hit after hit, and every time the song switches Hugh’s face lights up in recognition. Between the sound of the waves and the wind, at some points we can hardly hear the music over our own off-key singing. I raise my face up to the sun during a chorus of ‘More Than a Feeling’ and sing it so loud my voice cracks.
Pippa attempts a viral TikTok dance and whacks Derek in the face accidentally, making me cackle with laughter. He takes the hit in his stride and playfully starts to dance alongside her. Vanessa teaches Miguel the steps to the start of a swing dance. Hugh is sillier when he dances than I imagined. He moves his feet like he’s doing an agility drill and punches the air with his fists. I’m having so much fun that I don’t want to stop, but singing at the top of my lungs in salty air is drying out my throat by the second. I’m about to sit down when Miguel grabs my hand and pulls me in close before spinning me out towards the railing. Laughing, I let him pull me back in, and when our torsos meet, he lowers mine into a dip. Pippa hoots.
When the next song comes on, I sit down on the bench, exhausted.
Hugh plops down next to me and runs a hand through his damp hair, causing it to stick out in all directions. When it’s wet it’s noticeably darker, and he looks more brooding than normal. But his eyes are playful when he turns to me and says, ‘That was fun.’
I nod. ‘I didn’t know how much I needed that.’
Both of us turn to look at the rest of the group: Vanessa, Miguel, Derek, Natalie, Andrew, and Pippa, who are all still rocking out to ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth.
‘We must have eaten a lotta beans last night, don’t you think?’
It takes me a minute to process what he’s saying. His eyes are glinting with mischief, and he nods his head ever so slightly in Andrew’s direction. He’s still dancing with Pippa, and we catch him in a moment where he’s wiggling his butt. Then I remember the stream of air escaping his stinger suit on our dive earlier. I burst out laughing, so hard that I snort and then immediately clap my hand over my mouth.
‘What’s so funny?’ Pippa asks, she and Andrew losing steam and collapsing down next to us. I blush harder.
Hugh claps his hand over my knee and gently squeezes, a warning for me to be quiet, which makes trying not to laugh even harder
‘Nothing,’ Hugh says, his face impassive. Tears are springing into my eyes from holding giggles back.
‘OK,’ says Pippa, but she gives me a questioning look. Her eyes dart to where Hugh’s large hand is resting on my thigh and suddenly it feels like my leg is aflame.
I tense up and Hugh takes his hand off my knee and stretches it across the top of the seats. I can feel the heat coming off his skin, but we aren’t touching. I wonder what it would feel like if he relaxed his arm over my shoulders and pulled me in close, but he doesn’t. He remains stretched and comfortable. My thoughts flit to my dream world, just Hugh and I in our miniscule room, doing whatever it is we want to do.
We jostle over a big wave and his arms falls. I place a hand on his thigh to steady myself. I feel as if I’ve been electrocuted in the best way. I glance at him through the tumble of movement and he’s staring at me, eyes blazing. For a moment, it feels like we’re the only two people in the world. As the boat rights itself, we stop touching each other. I fold my hands in my lap and Hugh does the same. We scoot a centimetre apart. I feel like neither of us are breathing. Hugh clears his throat.
‘About twenty minutes until we drop anchor for the afternoon dive,’ Aaron announces, startling me so badly that I jump an inch off my seat, Hugh stifling a chuckle from the seat next to me.
I drag myself downstairs to review Millie’s notes one more time. I try to think of ways to change up my strategy, maybe I need to spend longer monitoring under the coral instead of hovering over it, or maybe I need to expand where I’m searching to more than just staghorn . . . I reread her notes for the third time. She’s meticulous and clear, but I can hardly concentrate. I’m not sure what game Hugh is playing anymore, whether he’s purposefully trying to distract me from the reason I’m here, but whatever he’s doing, it’s working.
I am in the middle of strategising how to stop Hugh from getting in my head, or at least how to get him out of my head while we’re diving, when Miguel steps directly into my line of sight to ask if I want to do the night dive. I had been staring at Natalie and Hugh, who are talking at the far end of the boat. Natalie has on such a skimpy bikini that I wonder how she manages to keep it covering the right bits when she pulls her stinger suit on. She’s laughing at Hugh and places a hand gently on his bicep. Something stirs in my belly. I can’t tell if it’s anxiety or jealousy, but whatever it is, I don’t like it.
‘Millie?’ Miguel asks again, following my gaze towards Hugh. Both of us watch Natalie toss her head back and laugh. ‘Night dive?’ he prompts, mercifully not addressing the conversation we are both watching. ‘You really should go, you won’t want to miss it.’ He’s holding a clipboard with our names on it, marking who is signing up for the dive so he can enter it into the dive logs.
I hesitate.
‘I’ll protect you!’ Miguel says, flashing the papers at me one more time.
