Dauphine slathered a huge dollop of strawberry jam on her baguette. Apart from a small tantrum last night when she’d found out her father was going to be off the boat for another business dinner, she was actually such a delightful little girl. We’d spent the evening making up K-Pop dance routines, styling each other’s hair, and generally doing everything to get her over her father not coming back for the night. I hadn’t slept well. I’d snuck up to the top deck, being sure to check I was alone first, to get some air. The sense of claustrophobia when I woke in the middle of the night was not getting better. Lying back on the lounger Xavier had been on that one night, and watching the stars, I realized I also missed the energy that permeated the boat when Xavier was around. I found it, I found him, addictive. The little bit of him I knew, made me want to know much, much more.

“I’m giving a list to Evan later. Is there anything you need?” Andrea asked from across the breakfast table, bringing me out of my reverie.

“Actually,” I glanced at Dauphine who wasn’t paying attention, but I dropped my voice lower anyway, “I’ve been meaning to ask how you deal with … periods?”

Of course Dauphine reacted to my lowered voice and zeroed her gaze in on us. I had to hope her English hadn’t improved that much yet.

“Just tell me what you need, and I’ll make sure it’s on the boat.”

My expression must have remained unconvinced or uncomfortable looking because Andrea laughed.

“I live for asking Evan to pick up the most obscure and/or embarrassing things to see if I can shake that unflappable demeanor. Lay it on me. Special-order-sized tampons?”

“La la la,” said Rod, loudly walking into the galley with his fingers stuck in his ears. Over the last few days, I’d pegged the deckhand as the class clown of the group. And he’d been ridiculously courteous to me since his comment about me going topless. He loved to make lame jokes, but even he had his limits apparently. And tampons were his limit.

I chuckled at his expression and turned back to Andrea.

“Having your period on board is a real pain,” she said. “I started getting three-month shots last year. Works great for me. Expensive though.”

“Okay, I’m out,” grumbled Rod and left the room, coffee in hand.

“Isn’t all birth control?” I asked

“Luckily in France, despite being a traditionally Catholic country, they’d rather provide contraception than abortions, and they understand gender equality and access to healthcare when it comes to things like that. Actually, in a lot of things.”

“God, in America they don’t want people having abortions or cheap access to birth control. Makes zero sense.”