Page 62 of Falling Overboard

I looked up and saw Georgia sitting on a lounge chair with a flute of champagne. I went over and joined her.

“You do know it’s too early to be drinking champagne, right?” I said.

“Technically, this is a mimosa. I put a drop of orange juice in it. And I hate that we have these restrictions about when we can drink things. I feel like half my life is wondering if it’s too late to drink coffee and the other fifty percent is figuring out if it’s too early for alcohol.”

She was going to be hungover and unhappy tomorrow when the guests arrived.

We were expecting a bachelorette party and I hoped things would stay on this side of utter chaos.

“Sorry I didn’t show up this morning,” she added before taking another sip of her “mimosa.”

“I know you’re not outdoorsy.”

“What do you mean? I’m outdoors right now drinking champagne on the deck!” she said with a grin, toasting me with her flute. “I’m sure you didn’t miss me, though. You must have enjoyed having Hunter all to yourself.”

I had. But I knew better than to say that to her.

“Are you two official yet?” she asked. “And you can lie to me all you want, but I know you think he’s cute and you might shank someone if it meant he’d be your boyfriend.”

Also true, which made me feel anxious. “I can’t think of him that way.”

“You can and you should.”

I shook my head. “You have no idea how much I ...”

Despite me not finishing my sentence, since I realized I was saying too much, Georgia got it. “I’m guessing you think about him all the time.”

Now that I had opened the door just a crack, I found that I wanted to unburden myself. I had no one else to talk these things through with. “I’ve told myself I’m never dating again but he makes me want to change my mind. I am so tired of having the same internal conversation. That we’re just friends and to stop wanting inappropriate things and misreading everything he’s saying.”

“Well, I’m not going to be any help because I would tell you to read way into it and be totally inappropriate.”

“There are rules.”

“You should be tired of saying that, too. Captain Carl is an unreasonable person. You shouldn’t have to keep rules unreasonable people make. If you lived in a country run by a dictator, nobody would blame you for rising up in rebellion.”

“This is not a dictatorship,” I told her. “We’re free to leave anytime we like.”

She shrugged. “Whatever. To give you the heads-up—you should probably make a move on Hunter soon. I think you’ll regret it if you don’t. And he might get tired of waiting.”

My life was full of regrets. I was too afraid to try to add Hunter to the list.

If he got tired of waiting, he was free to date anyone he wanted.

Just not me.

There was always something to do on a superyacht, some chore that needed to be completed, some porthole that needed to be detailed. It was easy enough to keep myself busy and away from the cabin.

I even skipped dinner, which wasn’t a hardship because Andre was making it in honor of Pieter and it involved pizza with grilled bananas, bacon, and garlic.

I knew I was running away from my problems and felt like a coward. It wasn’t the first time I’d done it. I’d always found it easier to leave than to face romance-related issues head-on.

Why couldn’t I just get over this infatuation? Relegate Hunter to the friend zone in my mind and keep him there? All the exterior crew were attractive men. I didn’t feel this pull toward any of them. I hadn’t had even a smidgen of a crush where they were concerned.

But Hunter was unlike all the other men on board.

When I was certain the crew had finished eating and gone up to the sundeck to have a few drinks, I snuck into my cabin. I breathed a sigh of relief that it was empty. I would just live my life like normal and hope that my stupid and inappropriate feelings would catch up to reality sooner rather than later.

After I got ready for bed, I grabbed my laptop and headphones and crawled into my bunk, intending to block everything out with a good movie.

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