“So? I—” He was cut off by the buzzing of his phone on the table.
I sucked my teeth. “If that’s Bryce, you’d better tell him to—”
“It’s Jay,” he said, tapping his phone to return the text. “Just checking to make sure we got in okay and wishing us a good time.” He gave me his arrogant grin.
“How is everything?” Our waitress appeared at our table.
“Everything’s great,” I smiled through the partial lie. The food wasn’t bad, but I was truthful that it wasn’t as good asGrant’s.
“Great.” She beamed. “Just in case you were wondering, there are a ton of activities on the boat in between docking and excursions.” She pulled out a pamphlet, handing it to Xavier. “In fact, every night we’ll be hosting karaoke right here. Either one of you likes to sing? You should come out.”
“No, we—”
“I may know someone who can sing a little bit.” Xavier turned those mischievous coffee eyes to me, and I narrowed my gaze at him.
“Oh, good. You’d enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun. I’ll be hosting the night after tomorrow,” she continued, oblivious to the fact I was shooting both her and Xavier daggers.
“Thank you…Karen, was it?” he asked, remembering her name from when she first took our orders.
“Yes. I’ll just take these out of your way. Would you like any dessert or coffee?”
We both turned down that invitation, causing Xavier to give me a sideways glance. I was never one to turn down dessert.
“My stomach’s feeling a little off. Might be a little sea sickness.”
“I brought some medicine for that, but it’s back in the room. You want me to run up and get it?”
“No. I’m okay. I want to explore the rest of the ship and do some shopping.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. I had Bryce sign us up for the excursions already so we didn’t have to do it once we were here.”
We spent the next couple of hours walking around and exploring the ship. We found the adult-only pool and made a plan to spend a portion of the following day there. The next day was one of our out-at-sea days where we’d spend the entire day on the boat, which was preferable for us, since it’d been a hectic few months building up to Xavier’s opening, my moving in with him, starting at my father’s firm, and his starting therapy. We both were looking forward to sleeping in, lying out by the pool and sipping on lots of drinks with little umbrellas in them.
By the time we got back to our room, I was feeling exhausted. I hardly felt up to changing into one of the cute little negligees I’d brought on the trip to wear. Between my exhaustion and nausea I’d felt earlier, I hoped I wasn’t coming down with something. I opted to hit the bed pretty early that evening, around nine. I figured some good rest was all I needed to be up and ready the next morning for our sea adventure.
****
Xavier
I heard the music before I even opened the door. Feeling energized, I’d awakened early for a workout in the gym one level down. Spent from lifting weights and a five-mile treadmill run, the sound of music on the other side of the door reinvigorated me.
Grinning, I twisted the doorknob to our room and opened up to a much-welcome sight. Across the room, out on the balcony, Chanel had her back to me as she faced the ocean. Dressed in a pair of colorful bikini bottoms with a pink top that tied up around her neck, she danced to DJ Khaled’sShining,featuring her favorite, Beyoncé, and my favorite, Jay-Z.
I quietly closed the door behind me, not wanting the show to end. She belted out the words while shimmying her shoulders and wriggling her hips to the beat. When she raised her hands over her head, allowing her hips to sway from left to right, I had to grab the front of my workout shorts to adjust myself.
I took a step inside the room and heel-toed out of my gym sneakers and socks, never taking my eyes off the vision before me. Chanel dancing and singing freely with the backdrop of the ocean was an image I needed to save. I grabbed my phone from out of the holder that was wrapped around my arm for use during my runs. Holding it up, I snapped a couple of pictures of her from behind before placing the phone down on the dresser.
“Are you going to keep snapping photos or come join me?”
I looked up to see her glancing at me over her shoulder.
“Such a fucking tease.”
“Yup. What’s taking you so long to get your ass over here?” Another shimmy of her shoulders and hip dip.
“I’m still deciding.”
“On what?”
