“You never say thank you in emails. That would make your messages three words long instead of one. Practically a novel for you.”

Graeme forks a bite of vegetables into his mouth. “I’m too busy to write long emails,” he says thickly.

“How much longer would it take to write something halfway thoughtful?”

“Too long.”

“Okay, sure.”

“Do you know how many emails I get a day? Hundreds, no joke. From outside groups wanting to collaborate. Notifications from our social media platforms. Marketing managers hounding me to post their content.” He shoots me a meaningful look. “If I answered every email like you do, with full sentences and flowery explanations, I’d never sleep.”

I take a bite of fresh mahimahi to cover my bemusement, and its delicate orange and ginger flavors fill my mouth. I’d never considered there might be a legitimate reason for the curt emails. Is this more proof that I’ve been wrong about Graeme? My insides twist and my foot bounces under the table.

“So what brought you to Seaquest in the first place?” I ask, ignoring a new twinge of guilt.

“I was tired of working in a regular office. And I wanted a job with flexible hours.”

“What were you doing before?”

“I was a marketing manager at Ford.”

My eyebrows fly up. “You were a marketing manager?”

He makes a clicking sound with his tongue as he winks. “On their digital team.”

My stomach clenches. Graeme was a marketing manager, and on a team dedicated solely to digital marketing. He has way more experience than I thought.

“So why take a job in social media? It was a step backward for your career.”

“Not if it got my foot in the door at a great company in a city I want to live in.”

He wants to move to Seattle?

“So working for Seaquest Adventures is your dream job?”

“Digital marketing director at Seaquest is my dream job.”

We’re entering dangerous territory now. My thighs tense against the upholstered chair. “What if it’s my dream job too?” I challenge, curling my hand into a fist under the table.

He cocks his head to the side. “What exactly do you love about digital marketing?”

“I…” I shake my head and sit up straighter. “I’m inspired by working on the forefront of technology. Finding new ways to reach and engage with people. I like working in a growing field, and—”

“You sound like a Google result for ‘What’s great about digital marketing.’ ”

“No, I don’t.” Uh, yes, I do. Because I totally googled that exact phrase two weeks ago when I prepared talking points for James.

“But why do you love it? What is it about it that makes you want to wake up and devote your professional energy to it every single day?”