“Have a great day, Miss Onassis, and keep up the good work!” Her professional smile never faltered. “I’ll see you back on board.”

“Sure, see you there.”

With that, Melanie hustled away, the invisible walls of class and service once again separating them.

What a mess. Alex had spent so many years working on the reflexes of anxiety, the impulse to over-explain or justify herself that only served to make a situation more complicated. And she knew through her work that feeling guilty about privilege or wealth was ultimately an exercise in self-indulgence. If you want to change things, you take action, and if you’re that concerned with your advantages, there are plenty of ways to offset them. She herself had written many such lines into videos and mailers for Congressman Stephens, things like, “I don’t care if a billionaire is a good person or not. I just care that we are taxing him.”

But there she was, desperate to prove that despite her presence on the yacht, she was not of the yacht—not like the others were. She still needed to be perceived a certain way, even if it served no purpose other than to reassure herself. At the thought of the group back on board, she swiped open her phone to turn off airplane mode, forfeiting a day’s worth of roaming charges to see what was happening in the group chat. To her surprise, there was only one new message, in a separate WhatsApp conversation from the rest of the boat.

Dev: Are you okay?

She sighed at the sight of the question, typing out a few answers before settling on:

Alex: I’m fine, thanks

As soon as she sent her answer, his status changed to “online.”

Dev: Are you coming back to the boat?

Alex: Of course lol

Dev: Well, I don’t know, I didn’t want to assume. There are waffles!

She always liked the way Dev texted—so formal, almost professional. Just like Danial, now that she thought of it.

Alex: I’m more of a savory breakfast gal

Anyway, if everyone is worried about me you can tell them I’m fine. I just went for a run

Dev: Okay.

His status changed from “typing” to “online” three separate times before his next messages appeared.

Dev: I also just wanted to say that if you’re feeling weird about last night, please don’t. Everything is fine.

Alex: I mean, I feel a little weird. We did get kicked out of a karaoke bar

Dev: Well, it’s not your fault. And it’s really not the end of the world.