Page 27 of The Version You Hide

“Right.” Jade scoffs. “You work with Mackenzie nearly every day. She’s bound to find out eventually. I don’t get why this is such a big deal. Unless…” she pauses, her finger on her chin, her eyes wide in astonishment.

“Unless what?” I ask with my hands splayed out awaiting her response.

“You’re harbouring an even bigger secret.”

My posture stiffens as I contemplate the possibility that Jade knows more about me than she’s let on. We haven’t known each other long, but if she wanted to find information on me, it wouldn’t be hard to find it.

“There’s no secret,” I say quickly.

“Oh my god!” she exclaims, her bright green eyes narrowing as they pierce mine. I hold my breath, awaiting her next words. “That’s it. You have superpowers. Are you Clarke Kent? Wait…no. Aquaman!”

My shoulders slump, releasing the tension as I let out an irritated sigh. I stare back at her with dead eyes. “You are the literal worst.”

She chuckles as she shoves a case of bottled water into my chest. “Come on. Help me load up the fridge.” She leads the way, moving in front of me, but turns back when she senses my persistent apprehension. “You’re not mad at me for this, are you?”

I relax my glare. “Of course not.”

I realise I seem like the world’s biggest overreactor right now. Jade and I have grown close since we started working together and she’s way too sweet for me to ever be mad at. It’s not like it really matters if Harper and Mackenzie know the reason I cut my shifts at the tavern.

It’s the rest of the world I worry about.

And none of that is Jade’s fault. In hindsight it wasn’t fair of me to ask her not to tell the staff at the tavern that I also work on the dive boat. She has no idea the extent of the impact it could have if the wrong people discovered my whereabouts, the media storm it would unleash on my family. I know it’s only a matter of time before I have to deal with it all though, because this is the life I chose.

“I guess I’ve just liked having this extra side job as mine. I have goals to accomplish, and I don’t want anything getting in the way of that.” It’s technically not a lie.

“Well,” Jade says, looking towards the pier. “You’ve got about ten seconds to jump overboard if you don’t want them to know.”

I roll my eyes at Jade and then follow her line of sight to where Mackenzie strolls casually down the dock, flipping her long, blonde curls behind her. A beach bag with rope handles is slung over her shoulder, the cropped, white, crochet top she wears revealing her midriff. I search the line of awaiting passengers for Harper, but there’s no sign of her.

Cameron greets the first few passengers as they file onto the boat. “Morning guys,” he says, his tone chipper as he rakes a hand through his sun-bleached hair. “You’ve picked a great day to come out. Weather’s going to be crazy towards the end of the week.”

He begins escorting them down the aisles, directing them to where they can sit. When Mackenzie steps aboard, the first thing she notices is Jade. She blinks in surprise as she recognises my co-worker. “Jade? Are you doing the tour too?”

“Sort of,” Jade says, her hands finding their way to her hips. “I work here.”

“Oh, wow. You should have said,” Mackenzie replies, tucking an unruly blonde wave behind her ear. “That’s really cool.”

Jade shrugs and steps aside, unblocking her view of me. I’m still hovering near the fridge behind the bar area, the case of water suddenly heavy in my arms. I release it and it drops loudly on the countertop.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t affected by those grey-blue

irises and the way that crochet crop top she wears fits so perfectly around each curve. The tavern is mutual territory for us and it’s weird to see her outside of it. Here, she isn’t my employee. She’s… different. Her eyebrows furrow in confusion as she takes another step toward me.

“Hey,” I offer with an awkward wave of my hand.

“Um, h-hi,” she stutters. Her gaze drops to the bottled water in front of me that I slowly start to unpack. “Is this your boat or something?”

“Ha! He wishes!” Cameron half shouts as he appears from nowhere, slapping a hand on my back. “It’s my boat. Well, mine and my brother’s, but he’s off diving in the Galapagos.”

“Uh, Cameron,” I say, nervously scratching the back of my neck. “This is Mackenzie. We work together at the tavern.”

“Oh, I see. So you know all about how much of a pain in the neck this one can be,” he says slyly, throwing a thumb in my direction.

I try to hide my discomfort behind an awkward laugh, half expecting Mackenzie to come back with a smart-ass comment in agreeance with my boss here. But she just watches our interaction with curious eyes.

“I’m just kidding,” Cameron continues. “This guy is one of the hardest workers I know. Nice to meet you, Mackenzie. Welcome aboard Two Tanked. If you need anything at all, I’m sure Dylan will be able to help you out.”

Mackenzie nods, a small smile tugging at the edges of her mouth before her bottom lip disappears between her teeth. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t affected by that too. “So, this is what you get up to when you’re not busting my ass at the tavern.”

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