“Should we head out, then eat, or would you like to eat first?”
She looks out the small window. All we can see right now is the boat next to mine.
“Let’s go out first. Eating on the water will be amazing.”
I don’t point out that we’re already on the water because I know what she means.
“Come on then,” I tell her. I pull off the ties holding us to the dock on the way up. And as we make our way to the Captain’s quarters, she takes in the rest of what thisboathas to offer.
“Do you want to drive it?” I ask.
“Me? No way.” She shakes her head.
“Suit yourself.”
I start it up and off we go.
The bay isn’t big. Not enough where we won’t see buildings, but it’s still nice to be surrounded by nothing but water with no distractions. I anchor the boat once I hit an area we can relax in.
“Let’s go eat,” I say.
We go below deck and I get the food sorted. Before heading back up top, I grab a blanket, thinking Seraphine may end up wanting it. I toss it over my shoulder to have my hands free, to carry my plate of food and the bottle of wine. We get comfortable in our seats, resting our plates on the table.
“Hopefully it’s still warm enough,” I say.
Seraphine twirls her fork into the pasta that’s steaming and takes the bite. She nods, and after swallowing says, “It’s perfect.”
We eat in silence. She stares around in awe at our surroundings. I can’t pull my gaze from her.
“I could stay out here all day,” she says, pushing her plate away.
“Then we will.”
“Don’t you have things to do?” she asks me.
I lean back, shaking my head. “No.”
“Oh, come on. Your weekends are always busy. I see your schedule. Did you forget who I am?”
How could I ever?
“I cleared the day for you.”
The happiness falls from her face, but it doesn’t turn into sadness. Something more like shock. Maybe concern? I can’t be sure.
“What should we do?” I ask, reaching for my glass of wine.
“I’m content to lay on the front of the boat over there and stare at the sky.”
I get to my feet. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
After cleaning up the mess from lunch, I gather as many blankets as I can and carry them to the front lounging deck, where I told Seraphine to wait for me. She argued, of course, demanded to help, but I wouldn’t see any part of that. Eventually she agreed.
She does help me lay the blankets out though, since it’s windy and they keep flying all over the place. The last thing I want is one to fly overboard. Fishing a wet blanket out of the water won’t be an easy task.
“Lie down on it,” I tell her, when the blankets swoop up again.
Giggling, she pounces onto the blankets and turns onto her back. I’ve got three on top of each other, hopefully making it soft enough that she won’t be uncomfortable. Once I get the other side of them flattened, I get on and lie beside her. Wrangling the last blanket, I pull it over us to contain our body heat.
