Sebastian’s motorcycle purred at the end of the driveway while he pretended not to watch me knocking on Wayne’s door. Meanwhile, my best friend must have been fast asleep because he didn’t answer my quiet knocking. I pounded harder until I finally heard the creak of old wood from his foyer.
Wayne had a taste for historic architecture, and living in a 1950s home that he could update had been a dream he’d talked about since I’d known him. Six months before, he’d accomplished the first step of that dream. He bought his house, thanks to him busting ass working dance jobs, as well as a successful side job. Wayne was an artist who had the creative know-how to turn junk into art. I loved his appreciation for things most people wouldn’t think twice about tossing.
Wayne and I hadn’t even met at Gravity, as most believed. That would have been the obvious story, but we met at a trunk sale in his old neighborhood, where he was selling hand-me-down purses and some recycled decor that sold out in the first hour. The pieces were beautiful, made mostly from polished silver. We ended up hitting it off long before we realized we went to the same dance studio. The rest was history.
My shirtless friend stood there, his wavy reddish-blond hair tossed atop his head like I’d woken him from a restless sleep, but his eyes were alert and concerned.
I looked like I’d been hit by a bus. My hair was in tangles from the bike ride, and my eyes were burning from exhaustion. My clothes were dirty from climbing onto the concrete platform at the bridge. Suddenly, my chest was burning, and for the first time, I felt… defeated.
He pulled me in, hugging me close as I sighed into his neck. An engine revved behind me, and my entire body reacted as I stiffened in Wayne’s arms. I’d forgotten Sebastian was still there, and I never had explained who the man was whose house I’d asked him to bring me to. He was peeling away from the curb like a pissed-off boyfriend, and I wondered how things had gotten so complicated so quickly.
“Was that who I think it was?” Wayne asked, still staring at the smoke in Sebastian’s wake. Then his eyes went wide. “Oh my stars, did you say yes?”
I groaned. “Not officially, but it’s looking more like a yes every minute.”
He peered at me, squinting. “Okay, then tell me what’s wrong. You look—” His eyes darted around my face as he looked for a clue.
“Lost? Homeless? That’s because I am. I’m getting evicted.”
He twisted his face, confusion breaking through his features. “But it’s only the tenth. You have until the end of the month, right?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I forgot to reduce my student-loan payments, and I overdrafted before my landlord deposited my rent check. So it bounced. And now I’m screwed.”
“She can’t just lock you out of your apartment without some notice.”
“Yeah, well, she did. I have three days to vacate.”
“How does she expect you to vacate if you can’t even get into your apartment?”
I’d been asking myself that same question all night. “I’ll just have to go talk to her tomorrow.”
“Ugh. Weren’t you moving out of that shithole anyway?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but it still feels shitty to be thrown out like that. What if I hadn’t gotten this opportunity? Then what?” I couldn’t even bring myself to answer that. “I just feel like I’m the catcher in a batting cage and balls are coming at me faster than I know how to dodge them.”
Wayne tilted his head and smiled in a way that told me I was overdramatizing again. “Kai,” he started. “You’re looking at all this the wrong way. You did get a job. A great one, at that. And it’s just the next stop in your long and successful journey as a dancer. Take the opportunity. Soak it up. Why are you playing so hard to get?”
“It’s on a cruise ship, Wayne.” I flipped my eyelashes up with a defeated frown. “I swore to myself I would never step foot on a boat again. Now I have to dance on one?”
He let out a laugh, his eyes wide, and he sat next to me. “Just another challenge you’ll crush.”
I couldn’t believe he was being so nonchalant about this.
“At least you’ll have that sexy piece of Aussie meat to distract you.” Wayne winked.
I pulled back, crossing my arms over my chest. Why did an equal measure of rage and excitement come over me every time I thought about Sebastian? “Oh, you mean Sebastian, the Class-A prick who taunts me and tests me? Now, he’ll own me.”
“Nobody owns you, Kai.”
I blew out a breath. He was right. Sebastian Chase could never own me. I took too much pride in my independence to think that way. “I know that. But if I accept the job, he’ll be my boss.”
“Not directly, right? It’s not like you have to answer to him. He’ll just… be there.”
I’d read over the contract dozens of times since Sebastian sent over the revision, and it stated clearly that my direct supervisor onboard the Royal Athena would be the show’s director, Jimmy.
“You’re right, I guess.”
He pulled me inside, led me to his giant leather couch, and sat beside me. “It won’t be as bad as you’re making it.”
I hoped he was right, but my doubts were still strong and loud. “There’s still the issue of my fear. Of having to relive that night with my father. What if my nightmares come back, Wayne? If anything would trigger them, it would be living on open water.” Just the thought of it all was throwing my anxiety into tropical-force winds.
“So then don’t even look at the water. Cruise ships are so big you’ll barely feel the thing moving, if at all.”
“But I’ll know it’s still surrounding me. What if history repeats itself? What if the ship sinks?”
“Oh my God, Kai. The ship will not sink.”
“It happened in Titanic.”
“Yeah, it was also 1912, and Jack did not have to drown. He could have crawled up on that plank with Rose, and they could have both made it safely to shore and lived happily ever after.”
I shook my head, my lips pursed at the argument we’d had a hundred times before. “Negative. Their weight would have sunk that door the moment he hopped on. Then what, huh? Then you’d have a dead Jack and a dead Rose, and a real shitty end to that movie.”
“But, but—”
My jaw dropped as I took in the emotion shaking his tone. “Oh my God, Wayne. Are you about to cry?”
He shot me a glare, but a coat of water was brimming around his eyes. “It was a sad movie!”
“Okay, okay. I shouldn’t have brought up Titanic. I don’t have a fear of icebergs. I do have a fear of those crazy-looking sea creatures no one talks about. Did you know the largest recorded jellyfish in the world is bigger than a blue whale? No amount of piss could save you from that thing stinging you.”
“Someone watches way too much Discovery Channel. Did you know it’s not even the big ones that can hurt you? It’s the small ones you need to watch out for.”
Fear gripped my heart as I pictured a glowing bulbous body and tentacles as long as a giant cruise ship. “Crap. I cannot get on that boat.”
“You can. And you will. You don’t have any other options.”