She hurried behind them, warding off on-lookers with the push of her hand. Luckily, Max seemed to know exactly where to go.
“She fainted,” he said to the staff, as they ushered him into another room. “And she is pregnant.”
Before Tzipi could even wrap her head around this intel, a commanding woman in a blue mermaid dress touched her on the arm. “Sorry to bother you, Ms. Koff. But does this walking barf bag belong to you?”
Tzipi turned.
“Ham?”
True to his word, the security guy who’d said goodbye to her on the dock looked positively green. He tried to get up from the cot he was on, but thought better of it, clasping one hand to his mouth and the other against the wall.
“When I heard…” he rasped, “Max didn’t show, I jumped…” A wave of nausea wrinkled his features. “…I jumped on board to find you…and then the boat did this.” He made a violent teeter-totter motion with his arm, before smacking it back to the wall again, as if it were the only thing keeping him from rolling out of the medical bay, across the dock and right under the railing into the sea. “I’m sorry, Miss K. I shouldn’t’ve jumped. I shoulda crawled.”
“The boat left the dock,” the woman in blue informed him. “It was a very smooth cast-off.”
“Max didn’t show…?” Tzipi echoed in a whisper.
Ham slowly shook his head, then groaned, regretting it. “His wife…went into premature labor, and…our dispatcher didn’t log the absence.”
How silly the human brain is. Because the first thought that crossed Tzipi’s mind was a disappointing one: Max is married? Followed by the realization that the guy she was thinking this entire time was Max, the guy that led her to believe he was Max, was…who the hell was he?
“Jonah!” A frantic man in a tux burst into the waiting area.
“Was a woman just brought in?” He peppered the staff. “Nora Ruben? She’s my girlfriend.” His wild gaze landed on the woman in blue, who rushed toward him. “Rebecca, is she okay? Where is she?”
“With Jonah. This way.” She guided him out without a glance back.
Max is not Max. I’ve been relying on a stranger to keep me safe…and letting him get close.
Max returned. No…not Max. His name is Jonah. Just some guy. Some rando. Probably a creepy Kara-fan.
“Alright, everything’s okay…”
“No, not okay!” Tzipi brandished her metal clutch, like a weapon. “I should have someone call security. Real security…not you, you fake rent-a-cop! Better yet…I’ll call myself.” She swiped at his radio. “If that earpiece even real!”
He dodged her flailing arm, covering his ear. “Yes, it’s real! Let me explain…”
“What? That you’ve been posing as my bodyguard, pretending this whole time –”
“I accidentally pretended. What’s your excuse?”
“Excuse me?” Outrage dueled with a prick of panic.
“You! This.” The guy gestured vaguely from head to toe. “Convincing, but…where’s Kara?”
Oh, he had some nerve! “Stay the hell away from me.”
She stormed out, blindly stumbling in the direction of fresh air. She needed air, she needed space. She needed to not be on this stupid boat with a stupid guy who had lied to her stupid face for hours.
A stranger. He knows.
The thought kept circling, a hamster wheel of humiliation.
And he’d just…kept playing along. Kept flirting.
Her heels clanged on the metal stairs toward the top deck. She climbed higher, away from the party, away from the music, away from his stupidly sincere face trying to explain itself. On the top, she tried to catch her breath. A buzzing emanated from her clutch. She pulled it out with shaking hands, needing that lifeline to her sister more than anything.
But it wasn’t Kara. Max.
