“Babe, I love you, but you absolutely do not.” He smiled, sunlight glinting in his eyes. “And look at you now! Telling Danny to kick rocks while serving body!”

“It’s not hard,” she replied, shaking her head to rid her ears of moisture. “He’s honestly pathetic.”

“There you go.”

In her charged anger, she let the truth slip: “We’re actually working on a big video right now with Carter, about his firm.”

“Who is?”

“We are… at my job.”

“Oh, of course, duh.”

“Yeah. About the factories in Pennsylvania—all those layoffs? That’s Danial’s firm.”

“Ugh, don’t even worry about him,” Paul reassured, putting his hands on her shoulders and returning the conversation to the apolitical, here-to-have-fun energy he always preferred. “Tomorrow night, we dock in Positano. And it is my personal mission to find the hottest man in Italy to take you out.”

“I don’t need anyone to take me out, but thank you.” she laughed.

“No offense, but yes you do. You at least need someone to make out with. I don’t think you even remember what sex is, at this point.”

Her eyes moved over to the boat, where Dev had already jumped in, beckoning Bee to follow him. Danial had made his way to the swim platform, down to his black swim trunks, the muscles along the sides of his torso moving under his skin as he extended his body for an elegant dive into the water. Instinctively, she kicked her legs beneath her, moving even further away from their side of the boat.

“You’re right,” she feigned, turning back to Paul, “I haven’t thought about sex in forever.”

He started talking about one of the men he wanted to invite to dinner, running down his resume like he was selling Alex a car. But she was no longer fully listening, her mind already in her cabin where her notebook waited on her bedside table. She set a mental reminder to learn everything she could about Horace Capital’s work with Santander bank. A wave of impatience rippled through her body, wanting to confirm what time it was and how much work she could fit in around the day’s schedule. His hostile words, his derision about her cab driver father, knocked around in her mind like the aftershock of a bell. If he couldn’t see the morally bankrupt person he had become, she would ensure that everyone else saw it for him.

And if she could email Clara before close of business Philadelphia time, she could still make a few last-minute edits to their next video.

8. Morningside Heights, USA

8

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, USA

Before

“Can you try running it again?” Alex asked, shifting uncomfortably at the register of the liquor store.

“I already ran it twice, honey,” the cashier said, her warm eyes crinkling behind her reading glasses. “It says declined. Do you have another card?”