“You Americans are such prudes,” Kassidy said, and I could tell that she was joking, or that she at least found the situation amusing.
“So you’ll put some clothes on?” I asked her hopefully.
“I haven’t decided yet. I don’t understand why I have to be the one to give in. I’m not the one who’s upset,” Kassidy said teasingly.
“Please?” I tried one more time. “I’m trying to be a gentleman here.”
“Like I said earlier, you aren’t a gentleman. If you were one, you’d care about my comfort more than your own. I usually sleep naked, you know.”
She laughed, so I wasn’t sure how serious she was, but I was done with the conversation, and I wasn’t amused. If anything, I was in pain, and I needed to get away from her. I opened my eyes, just enough to not run into anything as I walked to the bathroom, and I quickly made my way past her, locking the door behind me.
“You’re a couple sandwiches shy of a picnic, you know!” I yelled to her through the door, and to my annoyance, I heard her laugh even harder. I decided I’d need to stay in the bathroom until I calmed down, and pray that she didn’t really sleep naked. Otherwise, I didn’t know how I’d keep my sanity.
16
KASSIDY
The next morning, wearing a baggy t-shirt and a pair of leggings— I didn’t actually sleep naked, even though I’d teased Evan by claiming I did—I woke up eager to eat something and then do some more investigating. When I sat up and looked around, though, I was the only one in the room. I threw a robe on over my clothes, so that I could protect the Americans’ virtue, and crossed the hall to knock on Knox and Ally’s door. As soon as my knuckles made contact with the steel, the door was flung open, and Ally was smiling at me, ushering me inside and shutting the door behind me.
“Good morning!” She greeted me cheerfully, and when I glanced around, I saw that Evan and Knox were on the other side of the small room, focused on something I couldn’t see. “We were just about to wake you up. We’re headed to the fitness center.”
“Fitness center?” I repeated.
“Yep! We need to stay in shape, especially since we’re on a cruise with food everywhere. We still need to be able to chase the bad guys,” Ally said.
“Oh, okay.” I started backing away slowly and reaching for the door handle. Like most Finnish people, I enjoyed exercise, but I preferred to get mine in the fresh air, in a less structured way. Treadmills and dumbbells were not my idea of a good time. “You all have a good time. I’m going to get breakfast and start talking to crew members.”
I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy, though. As soon as the words left my mouth, Evan stood, walking closer to me with a scowl on his face.
“You’re going with us,” Evan said, and if I didn’t know better, I would say he was ordering me around.
“No, I’m not,” I answered, crossing my arms over my chest defiantly. I noticed his eyes dip down for a moment before he met my eyes again, and the scowl had deepened.
“This isn’t up for discussion, Kassidy. It isn’t safe for you to wander around the ship by yourself.”
“I’m not going to the fitness center,” I repeated.
“You don’t have to exercise, Kassidy. You can just hang out with us while we’re in there, as long as one of us can see you,” Knox said, trying to end the stalemate.
“So I’m supposed to just follow you around like a puppy?”
“If that’s how you want to think about it,” Evan answered sharply.
“It’s a waste of time for me to go with you when I could be getting information. You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fine,” I said firmly, and I turned away, twisting the doorknob. Before I could get the door open, though, I was lifted off the floor, and Evan had thrown me over his shoulder. “Put me down!” I yelled, struggling against him.
“No,” Evan said heatedly. He was still holding me over his shoulder, and had taken a couple of steps further into Knox and Ally’s room, away from the door. “My job is to keep you safe, and if that includes manhandling you, then so be it.”
“This is ridiculous!” I said. I struggled a bit more, but soon enough, all my blood was draining into my head, causing a sickening sensation. I also knew that I wasn’t escaping from Evan’s grasp or talking him into my way of thinking, so I didn’t really have any way out of the situation. I was still going to pout, though. “Fine. But I know there’s ways to exercise on this ship that don’t involve machines. Can’t we do one of those?”
“I think we can compromise with you on that,” Knox said.
After we played basketball—it was boys versus girls, with plenty of trash talk between us, and the girls won— we showered, ate, and then they went with me to the ship’s coffee bar. I wanted to try as many different kinds as I could while we were on the ship.
Once I had my coffee, we made our way to a quieter area of the ship’s deck where a light breeze was blowing. I could tell that the others were enjoying some downtime, but after a few minutes, I was impatient to get going.
“The Q&A session with the crew starts in ten minutes,” I reminded the others, standing up and gesturing for them to follow me. “I want to get there early enough to get good seats.”
“Alright, Miss Marple, let’s go,” Evan said, and I glanced at him, noticing his smile.
“Who is that?” I’d never heard the name before.
“You really don’t know?” Evan asked, and when I shook my head, he answered. “She’s the detective from Agatha Christie’s books, and she had her own TV show in the 80’s.”
“Was she a good detective?”
“Definitely.”
“Well then, I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said with a smile, gesturing again for the others to follow me. We took our seats right before the session began.
“Welcome to the Caribbean Paradise!” A woman’s voice said jovially as she walked onto the stage. “My name is Marcy, and I’m your Cruise Director. Thank you for coming to our Crew Q&A this morning!”
Once everyone stopped clapping, she introduced several crewmembers, including the head of housekeeping, the doctor, the head of entertainment, and the head chef, but they didn’t speak or stick around for questions, they just waved as they walked across the stage.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, who has a question?” Marcy asked. Several people raised their hands, but the Cruise Director pointed to an older woman, and a crewmember approached her with a microphone.
“Hello. I was wanting to know how many people work on the ship?” The woman asked.
“We have almost 1,000 crew members on each cruise,” Marcy answered, smiling brightly. More hands shot up when Marcy asked for another question, and the microphone was passed to the man Marcy chose.
“What kinds of jobs does the crew do?” The man asked.
“That’s a great question!” Marcy answered. “We have many different jobs on the ship. Of course, we need crew who keep the ship running and going in the right direction. We also have crew who are our entertainment, such as singers and musicians. We have crew who work in customer service, housekeeping, and in event planning. Some are in charge of making and serving the food, and we have childcare professionals, massage therapists, gift shop workers, bartenders, and many others. There’s so many different jobs, it would take all day to name them all!”