‘As long as you’re not startled by my night terrors, we should be fine.’ Sofia was pleased that her retort got a better reception. Jack laughed along half-heartedly and Sofia slipped out of the room.
In her cabin she got undressed and into her pyjamas quickly, anticipating an imminent intrusion. She decided to move to the top bunk. Something about Jack clambering up the narrow ladder over her made the whole situation seem even more undignified.
She lay staring at the ceiling, replaying the day, as she had made a habit of doing. Only three nights, and then they would dock at Gaeta and Jack would move back to his old room. She reasoned that it wasn’t so bad; she’d had the flu for longer than that.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sofia woke up with a start. She checked her phone: 5.16a.m. She tried to go back to sleep, but it was hopeless. She tiptoed down the ladder and out the door. If she couldn’t be alone in her cabin, she would have to go and find solitude elsewhere.
Up on the deck the expanse of mauve sky was streaked with peach, the water liquid silver. The moment she saw the figure at the bow of the boat, she knew it was Jack. They seemed doomed to play each other’s shadows.
She didn’t want to spook him, but she also wanted to watch the sunrise.
‘Room for one more?’ she called softly. He turned, surprised by the crack in serenity.Shewas surprised to be met by a smile.
‘Harlow, are you following me?’ His tone was light-hearted.
‘Yes, that tracker I slipped into your pocket is mighty accurate.’ In the soft mist, with the waves lapping in her ears, she couldn’t quite convince herself this wasn’t a dream.
‘We must stop meeting like this.’
‘I was actually looking for some solitude.’
‘Ah, yes well, me too. I was trying to get away from this pain in the ass that I’m having to roomie with.’ She knew he was teasing but after what she had heard yesterday, she thought of the old saying about grains of truth in every joke.
She must have looked visibly dismayed. He quickly added, ‘I’m kidding, Harlow. I come out here every morning, and let me tell you it’s a relief not to have to put up with Stuart’s snoring.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Poor Stuart, valiantly falling on his sword so you could have a bed, and here you are disparaging his good name!’ Sofia quipped. Humour could be a decent armour as well.
Jack scoffed. ‘You expect me to believe that Stuart did that for me?’
The question hung in the air a moment and then they both said, ‘Petra,’ as if on cue.
‘He should know better.’ Jack shook his head. ‘He saw what happened with me and her last charter. Captain Mary won’t stand for it.’
‘To be honest, Stuart’s not the one who Petra is after on this boat anyway.’ Sofia bit her tongue, immediately feeling guilty for betraying her friend’s confidence.
‘It’s OK, Sofia, I already know about the Brian catastrophe.’ Jack chuckled. ‘It’s crazy really that she would risk her job like that, for some random guy. You only get so many warning shots.’
‘Yeah, I will not be making that mistake again, letting someone come between me and my career. It’s so completely not worth it.’ Sofia was forgetting herself; Jack didn’t want to hear all this.
‘I can’t imagine there will ever be room in my life for another love.’ Jack was looking out at sea, his voice steady but dreamlike. ‘You’re going to say that this sounds corny, but the ocean, she has my heart.’
‘You’re right, that does sound corny.’ Sofia couldn’t help herself. Granted, she had been the one who had pulled the conversation into earnestness, but she could never bear to stay too long. Jack rolled his eyes.
‘No but I get you. I guess for me it’s food, or rather flavour, the kind of buzz I get when I discover some fantastic new combination – there’s nothing like it, puts an orgasm to shame.’ She blushed, remembering in an intrusive flash Jack’s tongue lapping at her, his eyes looking up from between her legs.
‘I don’t know about that.’ He smiled wickedly. ‘Maybe you’re not doing it right?’
She blushed harder, thankful to the low light of dawn for masking her unease.
‘Oh you would say that. Don’t tell me that you’ve ever even looked at a woman with the same longing in your eyes that I’ve seen when you’re racing through the waves on that tender of yours,’ she retorted.
He cracked a grin. ‘So you’ve been watching as well as following huh?’
‘Well what would be the point otherwise?’ Sofia was blagging her way through, hoping that he couldn’t tell she was swimming out of her depth.
There was silence for a moment. Just as Sofia was thinking of something to say, Jack piped up. ‘This time of day always makes me think of my mother.’
