Lunch sets the group on a trajectory towards a siesta. We only have one more dive today and it’s not for another three hours. Natalie and Derek have camped out in the sun of the platform. The wind has picked up and is ripping through the captain’s room, making it hard to find any peace and quiet on the benches. I retreat downstairs to take a nap on my bunk bed. My skin needs to be out of the sun, at least for a little while.

Before I head downstairs, I see Natalie and Hugh talking, and when Hugh glances at me during their conversation I feel my gut clench. Natalie has no reason to dig up the first-class debacle now, I remind myself, but I still end up lying on my twin mattress staring at the paint-peeled ceiling, unable to sleep.

I dug myself in too deep by expecting Hugh to be perfectly honest with me and getting angry with him when he wasn’t. And then he doubled down on ‘having integrity’ and actually tried to help me find the wrasse. I could never let him find out I wasn’t Millie. He would never forgive me. And I would rather live with never seeing him again, but knowing that he liked me, than having to tell him the truth.

I must drift off at some point because I wake up groggily to creaking on the bunk bed below me.

‘Hugh?’ I call out softly.

‘Ugh,’ Hugh grunts. ‘These beds are so tiny.’

I grunt in affirmation.

‘Since Derek and Natalie took our usual spot, I figured I would come see if this worked.’

‘It’s not the same.’

‘Not at all,’ he agrees.

I stare at the ceiling. ‘How was your chat with Natalie?’ I finally get up the nerve to ask.

He doesn’t respond.

‘Hugh?’ I prompt. My heart rate starts to pick up. I feel sweat dampening my inner elbows. Oh no.

Hugh coughs.

I want to peer over and look down at him, but I’m frozen with fear.

Finally, he speaks. ‘Yeah, about that . . .’ His voice sounds off. I can’t put my finger on it.

‘What is it?’

After he doesn’t respond right away, I gather my courage and peer over the bed. Hugh is hunched over his mattress, his knees pulled up towards his belly.

‘I think I’m feeling kinda seasick.’ He looks up at me, his face noticeably paler. His eyes have gone a light icy blue.

‘Oh God,’ I reply, first feeling relief and then worry. ‘Is there anything I can do?’ I ask, but Hugh’s already halfway out the door.

‘I gotta-—’ He takes a gulp of air ‘—go upstairs.’

I follow Hugh upstairs right away, clambering out of my top bunk and scampering up the ladders behind him, but I reach the deck only to find him already reaching for a mask and snorkel.