‘What is it?’
After he doesn’t respond right away, I gather my courage and peer over the bed. Hugh is hunched over his mattress, his knees pulled up towards his belly.
‘I think I’m feeling kinda seasick.’ He looks up at me, his face noticeably paler. His eyes have gone a light icy blue.
‘Oh God,’ I reply, first feeling relief and then worry. ‘Is there anything I can do?’ I ask, but Hugh’s already halfway out the door.
‘I gotta-—’ He takes a gulp of air ‘—go upstairs.’
I follow Hugh upstairs right away, clambering out of my top bunk and scampering up the ladders behind him, but I reach the deck only to find him already reaching for a mask and snorkel.
‘Care to join?’ he asks, all but sprinting off the boat.
‘What—’ I begin to ask but he interrupts me.
‘I gotta go swim for a bit,’ he says, as he takes a running start and dives into the water.
Vanessa is standing next to the bucket of snorkels and shrugs. ‘Being in the water helps seasickness.’
I scan the boat to see if anyone else is swimming, and see Miguel pointedly looking the other way, clearly trying to stay as far from potential seasickness as possible.
I stand awkwardly by the railing, watching Hugh surface and duck under waves, steadily kicking further from the boat and closer to the reef. The top of the reef is barely visible, a foot or two under the surface about thirty yards from the boat. After a minute, Vanessa nudges me with her shoulder.
‘Do you want to go?’ she asks impatiently. ‘If you go, then I don’t have to. But I don’t want him out there alone – it’s getting a little choppy.’
It’s the least I can do after Hugh recharted our dives. ‘I guess.’ I shrug.
I grab a snorkel from the bucket, spit in the lens, and swish it out with water. Then, I follow Hugh. I try to take a running start like he did, but I chicken out and slip in feet first, nice and slow. The ocean is cool, especially without our stinger suits, and I take a few strokes towards Hugh to warm up. He’s already diving down with his snorkel to check out the reef and surfacing back up like a seal.
‘Are you feeling better?’ I ask, when I reach him and we’re both above water.
He nods happily. ‘Much.’
‘You’re a good swimmer,’ I observe. Even though we’ve been scuba-diving together for days, it’s hard to tell how comfortable people are in the water without a life jacket strapped to their chest keeping them afloat.
‘You’re not so bad yourself,’ Hugh replies. Although his gaze is directed at my body, and we’re treading water so close to each other that I think he’s talking about something else entirely.
I blush. ‘I’m pretty sure there’s more interesting things than me to look at around here.’
‘I’ll be the judge of that.’ Hugh grins, and dives down again.
Access to the reef from a snorkeller’s vantage point is totally different. Some parts of the reef are so close to the surface that there isn’t even room for us to swim over them. We are awestruck at the view, the late-afternoon sunlight streaming over the rocks and the coral.
There’s kelp-like grass reaching for the surface and slimy rocks covered in barnacled algae. Sunlight catches on the slime left from snails that move slowly across the rocks. Curlicues of coral send their fluffy spikes towards the ocean’s surface; they remind me of layers of feather boas.
I’m just as fascinated with the coral as I am with the fish, and there seem to be more fish up here, closer to the sun. They’re smaller, and a lot of them have a silvery sheen, which glints in the sunlight as they dart around our bodies. For a moment I wish I’d brought my camera, but then Hugh grabs my hand and directs my pointer finger towards a crevice. He’s spotted something.
Together we take turns diving down to gaze at a reclusive lionfish. Lionfish are not native to the Great Barrier Reef, they’re invasive and detrimental to the native fish species, but there is no denying they’re beautiful – every single one of their spines is perfectly striped reddish brown and white. The lionfish we’re looking at is mesmerising, but we keep our distance – both of us know they’re poisonous. After a while we tire and flip on our backs to rest, snorkels in hand.
Hugh’s free hand grabs mine. I feel my entire body jolt with energy. My thoughts race.What am I doing? How have I forgiven him so quickly?But we have to keep holding hands so we don’t drift apart on the waves. I don’t have a choice but to enjoy our bodies knocking together gently, both of us staring up at the sky. We float over a crest that is so big it flips both of us onto our backs, and suddenly our limbs are intertwined. The saltwater makes us both float easily. Our faces are inches from each other.
I can see each individual drop of water flecking his face. One catches on his impossibly long eyelashes. His eyes are bright aqua, the same colour as the water, and I’m close enough to count the gold flecks around his irises. His face is mesmerising. I bite my bottom lip, suddenly self-conscious that he’s looking at me as closely as I’m looking at him.
As if we’re in slow motion, he brings a thumb to my bottom lip and frees it from my teeth.
‘Are you cold?’ he asks.
I realise I’m shaking, but I’m not cold. ‘No,’ I breathe.
