What the hell is she talking about? She’s wearing the same twitchy look she had at Mitch’s right before telling me she was quitting. “What sort of opportunities are you referring to?”
“Adventure? Friendship? Love?” Her eyes dart in my direction.
“Friendship? Do youwantme to replace you as my best friend?”
“Of course not.”
“And love? Are you trying to set me up with RJ? Because it’s never going to happen.”
Jo laughs, but there’s something off about it. Before I can say anything, she turns up the volume on the radio as the theme song to theWhacked Out News!segment of our favorite morning talk show begins. I watch her, not singing along like I usually do.
“So many people on meth!” Jo sings, tapping out the end of the jingle on the steering wheel.
I’m suspicious. Not about the meth song. Typical Florida. What’s stranger than today’sWhacked Out News!is Jo’s behavior. She isn’t the sort to toss platitudes around all willy-nilly.Live, laugh, love! Carpe diem! Dare to dream!But she sounds like a goddamnHappy Plannersticker today. Has she truly taken to a soccer mom identity? Is this how far she’d go to prove she loves me?
“What are you hiding?”
“I’m not hiding anything.” Jo stares straight ahead as she pulls into the marina. She’s lying to me. I know it. But we’ve parked before I can grill her properly, and I’m running late, so I let it go.
“This is it, Jo.” I clap her on the shoulder once we’ve stepped out of the van and she’s helped me lug my suitcase from the back. “If I die at sea, know I was very angry with you when it happened. My ghost will haunt you for all eternity.”
“I look forward to it. The haunting part. Not theyou dyingpart.”
I roll my eyes, and Jo squeezes the breath out of me with a tight hug. “I’m going to miss you, Nina.”
I try to lift her off the ground when I hug her back, but I’m too short and don’t quite manage it.
“Don’t be mad if Britt and I emerge from charter season as best friends,” I say.
“It’s more likely you’ll toss her overboard. Take it easy on her. She’s a baby.”
“Not as much of a baby as one of my new junior stews. She’s so green Xav hired an extra stew to make up for it. I don’t care how experienced she is, it sounds like just one more person’s drama to manage, if you ask me. Britt and I will get along just fine so long as she keeps her mess contained to her bunk. I pride myself on running a tight ship, you know.”
“I know,” Jo says.
A voice calls my name from the dock, and we turn to face the water. Sunshine bounces off theSerendipity’s blindingly white exterior. I worked a day charter for a retirement party a few days ago, but it’s different knowing I won’t be back home for four months. I’m sailing away from so many things I love, like Jo, and a predictable schedule of nightly phone calls with Ollie, and World Thrift, all so I can foldmyself into a tiny shared bunk and serve wealthy strangers. But I also love charter season, and it’s a perfect sailing day. For the first time since Jo quit the yacht, the old excitement washes over me. Maybe it won’t be so bad.
The voice calls my name again, and I spot theSerendipity’s captain, Xav, staring us down with his arms crossed over his chest.
“You better get going,” Jo says.
I sigh and take one last look at her. “I’ll be refreshing your blog every ten minutes. Alex was totally right about how entertaining it would be reading about your doomed attempts at cooking.” Jo sticks out her tongue, and I pinch her cheek before turning away to wheel my suitcase through the parking lot and toward the dock.
“Be good!” Jo calls after me. “Play nice and make new friends! And remember what I said about opportunities!”
When I step onto the dock, my thoughts turn to Ollie. Last night he called me on his way home from work and asked if I remembered the day we met.I’ll never forget the look on your face when you knew I’d caught you doing handstands out in the marina parking lot, he said. I asked him how I’d looked.Fecking scary, but beautiful, he said.Half-asleep, I asked him what had been so scary about me.I knew right then if I spent too much time around you, I’d fall in love, he said.I tried to laugh it off, but Ollie said only,You still scare me, Neen. I’m terrified all the time.I didn’t know what to say to that, though I was suddenly wide awake. I hardly slept at all.
My phone weighs heavily in the back pocket of my shorts as I make my way down the dock. Service can be spotty on board, and my hours will be unpredictable. I’ll hardly have a moment to breathe, let alone manage nightly phone calls with Ollie. I stop in the middle of the dock and pull out my phone, thumb hovering over the call button beside his name on my favorites list.What would I even say?Nothing has happenedsince last night, and even if something had, he and I have nothing new to say to each other. We are old news, a tabloid cycling through the same stories about Bat Boy each year.
Instead of hearing his voice and risking whatever feelings it might set off, I hit the message icon and tap out a text.
Getting underway. Don’t miss me too much. xx.
I stare at the screen, delete the doublex, and press send before shoving my phone back into my pocket.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” Xav says once I haul my suitcase on board.
“Leave me alone, old man,” I say. “Where’s a deckhand when you need one?” I don’t like the way Xav’s looking at me, like I’m a child. That’s the problem with working for someone for so long, they get to know you too well.
