Chapters (41)
“Um, he was about six feet tall with broad shoulders and thick dark hair.”
“Oh, yes, you're referring to Henry Asher. He is probably downstairs in the crew quarters.”
“Thank you very much,” I say, going straight to the staircase.
Appalled, Mr. Madsen rushes over to me and blocks my way.
“I will, of course, get him to come upstairs to see you, Miss Tate,” he says quickly. “If you don't mind waiting in the living room.”
I don't really want to wait, but I decide to go along with it. The guests are not supposed to go down to the crew quarters. It has been that way since the beginning of time. Besides, I don't really want my friends to see me going down there anyway.
Before I have the chance to glance at my watch for the second time in five minutes, he appears in the doorway. He looks just as tall, dark, and handsome as he did earlier today, only this time the angles in his face and his muscles look even more defined as a result of the tan settling deeper into his skin.
“Hi,” he says, hanging his head just a little, before turning his eyes up to mine.
“Hi,” I say quietly.
“You wanted to see me?” His hair falls slightly into his face as he leans on the side of the wall like some sort of modern day James Dean.
What the hell do I say now? This is the first time I have ever even made an inkling of a first move on a guy. It feels foreign and unnatural and yet exciting at the same time.
“I was just wondering,” I say slowly, “if you wanted to join me ashore tonight?”
He raises his eyebrows before smiling out of the corner of his mouth.
“Of course,” he says confidently. “What did you have in mind?”
“Well, I was going to go out with my girlfriends. We’ll probably go dancing or something like that. Nothing is set in stone.”
Henry takes a few steps closer and sits down on the couch right next to me. I turn my body toward his so that our knees are nearly touching.
"Well, if it's not set in stone,” he says, “what do you think about doing something else instead?”
“Like what?”
“How about dinner at one of my favorite taco stands? Followed by a few drinks at a shitty but incredibly fun dive bar?”
Anyone else in his position would try to impress me by taking me to some fancy five-star restaurant and fumble through the wine list. Anyone else would try to pretend that they were a lot more worldly than he is, even though we both know that he works crew on my father’s boat.
But he doesn’t.
I am intrigued and surprised by his audacity. He is a breath of fresh air that’s so intoxicating, it leaves me disoriented.
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