Page 86 of Beyond The Break

I stand, leaving her tangled in the sheets, as I throw my sweatpants on and head upstairs. The cool morning air causing goose bumps to appear across my skin. I open the fridge and grab the breakfast burritos from their container, tossing them into the microwave before I run up to the bridge to check that everything is still okay with the ship.

Up here, I notice a few nearby boats. There usually aren’t this many in one spot and it sets off alarm bells in my head, especially when I spot someone pointing a camera in my direction.

Fucking paparazzi.

I take the stairs two at a time, snatching our breakfast burritos from the microwave just as the timer goes off, along with two bottles of water from the fridge, and I retreat to the lower level.

“We’ve got a few media boats surrounding us,” I mutter as I crawl into bed beside her.

She sits up abruptly, pushing her hair out of her face so that she can stare at me with wide eyes, stretched to their limits.

“You’re joking.”

“I wish I was, sunshine,” I say, handing her the burrito, “eat up while I think of a way to get us out of here.”

For the next fifteen minutes we eat in silence while I runthrough the scenarios. All of them involve me getting to the bridge, which means they’ll be able to snap pictures of me. It’s my boat, so it wouldn’t be weird for me to be on board, certainly nothing special to write about. But if they spot Eliana, we’ll be on the first page in tomorrow’s paper.

“I don’t think there’s a way around this,” I finally admit, “I’ll go back out and turn the boat around so that we can get to my car and drive back to the house.”

She nods. “I’ll come up with you.”

“No,” I shake my head, “we’ll end up in The Coastal Times if they see you.”

She shrugs. “I’m bound to make it in there at some point, might as well face the music sooner rather than later.”

My brave girl.

“They can get brutal, are you sure?” She gives me a small nod, her eyes lingering on her water bottle.

“We should get out of town later this week and buy ourselves disguises so that we can actually go out and have fun without worrying about them,” she says.

I snort, taking a sip of my water. “What, like baseball caps and fake moustaches?”

“Yes, to the baseball caps but we can probably leave the fake moustaches out of this one.”

I throw my head back and laugh, her eyes lighting up in response. “Okay, let’s do it.”

Before we head upstairs, we jump into the shower together and I sink myself inside of her warm tight walls once more.

TWENTY-FIVE

ELIANA

“Romance in the Shredder House– Honestly, who gave this girl a job?” Maliah exclaims, her mouth full of avocado toast as she leans over the kitchen island peering down at Meghan’s latest work. A picture of Griffin and I coming out of the lower level of his boat is printed on to the front page.

“Griffin Jones finds love amidst his return to The Saltwater Shredders with the team’s new Social Media Manager, Eliana Ward.” I read out loud, looking over her shoulder at the article. “How did she even find out my last name?”

“That’s actually a really good question because I didn’t even know your last name until now.” She stuffs the rest of her toast into her mouth, standing upright as she flips through the paper. “She must have really looked into you.”

“This girl needs a hobby. She’s literally obsessed with Griffin, it’s getting scary.”

“Who’s obsessed with me?” Griffin’s voice floats down from the staircase as he makes his way down the stairs.

“Your psycho ex-girlfriend.” Maliah tosses the newspaper article to him before picking up her tea and walking up to her room.

Griffin walks over to me, kissing my forehead, before he places the newspaper on the island and begins to read the stupid article. I watch as his jaw tenses and his brows furrow.

“I’m sorry.” His nostrils flare as he stares down at the photo of us on the front page. “It’s because of me that she dragged you into this.”

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